Thanksgiving sees Sabrina and Harvey both enduring their own respective rites of passage, as each faces participating in the traditions of their families. Neither is keen but sinister machinations and ties lying in their ancestries may present further problems to both than their own simple distastes.

Something that this version of Sabrina was always going to struggle with was the dividing line between Sabrina the likeable teenage protagonist and Sabrina the witch, member of a group that worships Satan and does generally bad things. It’s a balance that could see the show descend into farce or the overly macabre if it goes just a little bit too far in either direction. Fortunately, here it delivers well.

Sabrina is shocked to discover the tradition of Feast of Feasts, after her family is one of those ‘selected’. Essentially a tradition based on sacrifice and cannibalism, a nominated member of each family draws lots, with the lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view) individual being made Queen of the Feast that she may be worshipped and doted upon for three days and then killed and eaten by the rest of the coven. Understandably, Sabrina takes issue with this, especially when Zelda volunteers herself, but when Sabrina substitutes herself for her aunt in the draw, she’s a little taken aback by Zelda’s apparent response.

But then when the Queen is picked, things get more complicated, because Sabrina is forced to adopt a role in relation to someone she really doesn’t at all like. This is where we get to see the nobility of the character, as she attempts to save someone from a cruel fate even though that same someone is an individual she not only dislikes, but who has been part of active attempts to kill her.

It also – surprisingly – gives the show opportunity to deal with questions of faith, and why one person’s should be treated with any greater reverence than another’s. It asks some genuinely tough questions of its protagonist, and it doesn’t give her any easy ways out either – at least until the conclusion but that’s another matter. What’s important is that in the oddest of places, a narrative discussion is being played out about the importance of faith and the relative positions of people with different faiths from one another.

Meanwhile, Harvey’s grandfather is visiting for Thanksgiving, which means Harvey is to be inducted into the Kinkle family man’s tradition of hunting in the woods and drinking beer. Neither of these are pastimes which appeal to Harvey but he’s willing to give it a go. Unfortunately Madam Satan (in the guise of Ms Wardwell) sets everyone a homework assignment about finding out more about their family roots, and that leads to some uncomfortable revelations for Harvey, the significance of which he doesn’t even fully understand.

The assignment also sees Roz and Susie making some interesting discoveries about their own family pasts. In Roz’s case, it seems that there may be more to her family’s inherited blindness on the female side than first appeared, with her Nana providing some spooky food for thought. Meanwhile, Susie’s distant ancestor turns out to have been a pioneer who dressed like a man in a slight bum note of crashing obviousness. Still, at least this gives the character the opportunity to feel a little more comfortable in her own skin again, which is a plus.

The denouement of the Feast of Feasts plot comes a little out of left field and does have the unfortunate side effect of rather stomping a pair of size tens through the episode’s earlier nuanced debate on faith, but it does also present another side of several characters, and leaves us in no doubt there is more intrigue on the way.

Verdict: Fascinating nuance with a slightly fumbled landing adds up to a fairly decent instalment that displays a rare amount of delicacy in the handling of its material for the most part. 7/10

Greg D. Smith