Sabrina’s attentions are dragged back to her mortal friends after Harvey, Roz and Susie share their strange experiences with her regarding Susie’s Uncle Jessie – could there really be a demon possessing him, and if so, can she do anything about it?

As last episode was dedicated to our main leads living in their heads (quite literally) it makes sense that this time out Sabrina would be taking more of an active concern in the lives of her human friends. Doubly so when they are the ones mentioning words like ‘possession’ and ‘demon’.

Since their encounter with Uncle Jessie, Harvey, Susie and Roz have all been experiencing visions of the man, tormenting each of them with their own private fears. Having shared this with one another, they mention it to Sabrina once she’s back, which puts her in rather an awkward position, doubly so with her memories of her own nightmare still fresh in her mind.

Meanwhile, there’s the small matter of Ms Wardwell and who exactly she is for Sabrina to unravel. Of course, Madam Satan lies about her true identity (why wouldn’t she?) but as much as she is a sinister character in aspect and intent, she does seem genuinely set on helping Sabrina if last episode’s events are anything to go by, though to what end remains unclear.

At Spellman Mortuary meanwhile, the effects of the nightmares are lingering for others too, Ambrose feeling even more restless and trapped than usual and Zelda feeling more than the odd twinge of guilt. Oddly, it seems that Hilda is the only one not really dwelling, preferring to carry on with her ambitions towards getting a life outside the household and pursuing the job at the spooky bookstore.

Of course, Sabrina wants to help her friends, but it turns out that there are rules in place stopping her from doing so. Sabrina being Sabrina, that doesn’t mean that she won’t try anyway, and she ends up getting some assistance from surprising quarters.

While the narrative here is all well and good, the show plays with some themes that it’s going to want to tread very carefully with going forward. The allusions to Jessie’s ‘proclivities’ and the reference by the demon to Susie as an ‘abomination’ are (it seems) directed by the writers at illustrating ignorance and evil respectively, but it feels like the show doesn’t do a great deal to counterweight these and especially towards the end it takes some potentially troubling decisions with it. Hopefully it will balance out, but as the credits roll here, it’s balanced on a fine edge.

I’m also getting a little confused by what the show is doing with Harvey, who seems to veer sharply between dedicated boyfriend to pissy teenager who’s angry at Sabrina for no real reason more than once in the course of the episode. Partially you can put this down to the character’s own trauma, but that feels like a fairly weak justification for the extremes of behaviour here, and the consistency with which they occur.

Overall though, it’s still keeping things interesting, albeit treading some fine lines to get there.

Verdict: There’s rarely a dull moment and it’s nice to see the show addressing the duality of Sabrina’s nature and the challenges that presents her on both sides in interesting ways. It just needs to be careful about how it addresses certain issues. 8/10

Greg D. Smith