Sabrina must stand trial before Blackwood and the judges of the Witches Court for breach of promise after refusing her Dark Baptism. Joining her on trial are her aunts, all three stripped of their powers until the trial’s conclusion. Ambrose seeks to learn more about the death of the warlock he is sure was killed by witch hunters.

A young witch’s work is never done. Having been terrified out of her wits by the manifestation of the Dark Lord in her principal’s body last time out, Sabrina now finds herself having to stand trial for having broken her promise to sign the Book of the Beast and pledge herself to the Dark Lord’s service. Making matters worse, her aunts must also answer for her ‘crime’ and all three have their powers stripped until the trial is concluded. This means that her aunts must face the prospect of their real ages rapidly catching up with them.

Turns out though, that this trial will reveal a few secrets that lurk in the family history of the Spellmans – each one of them with considerable power to reshape both the internal dynamics of the family as well as deeply affect the fate of Sabrina herself.

But that’s to get ahead of ourselves; first Sabrina must find a lawyer, and Ambrose – rapidly turning into the show’s exposition device when Sabrina needs to know something about the witching world – has just the recommendation. A mortal man who ‘beat the devil himself’. But Daniel Webster is just an old man now, living alone and no longer interested in the world at large, witching or otherwise. However, there may just be enough of a link to persuade him to take up this one last case.

At the school, the Lady Satan keeps tabs on Sabrina and her friends, seeking to manipulate the young witch with guile rather than the brute force approach applied by Blackwood. It’s fantastic to watch these two creatures of darkness sparring with one another, Gomez and Coyle clearly relishing the opportunity to play off one another, although it’s never in doubt which of them holds the upper hand. Sabrina’s friend Roz has a stunning revelation for her friends as to why the school’s banning of certain books is so devastating to her, and as with WICCA, Lady Satan sees a way to further her own ends.

And there’s Harvey, who as it turns out might not be quite as isolated from the more esoteric elements of Greendale as Sabrina (and we) first imagined. Coupled to that we get to see more of his home life, involving the world’s best big brother and an abusive father. Clearly in this incarnation, Harvey is not going to be relegated to the role of mere comedic relief.

Ambrose, meanwhile, continues his quest to find out exactly what happened to that poor young warlock he and his aunts are burying. His quest leads him to an encounter of his own, and not a little fun on his part.

What’s amazing is how much gets packed in here without the episode feeling overdone or anything getting missed. By the time the credits rolled, I genuinely had to go back and start again to make sure I wasn’t mistaken in exactly where the episode had begun. So much going on, so many balls in the air and not once does one get dropped. There’s even an absolutely adorable moment between Sabrina and Harvey that lets us know unequivocally that he is a complete good guy, without having to get corny or break the pace at all.

Verdict: Packed, dark and intense. The way this spools out revelation after revelation means that the hour it runs for flies past, and if you’re like me you’ll have to double check you didn’t imagine quite how much they skilfully got in there. 10/10

Greg D. Smith