The new version of Sabrina in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a determined and confident young woman. Unfortunately, she’s sometimes overconfident, as some fans have noticed. Her aunts are very supportive of her take-charge attitude and desire for power. But even they get annoyed with her and her teenage bravado at times.
Most of the occasions where she loses her aunts’ support have to do with magic and their church. Considering what some of those decisions were, it’s not surprising that they’d be upset. Here are some of the worst times Sabrina’s arrogance has put her and her loved ones in a bind.
Joining Feast of Feasts at the Last Minute
Playing chicken is never a good idea. Playing chicken with your aunt when the consequences are potentially being cannibalized is about the worst game of chicken imaginable. Sabrina doesn’t participate in her coven’s cannibalistic ritual out of personal morals, but to make a point to her aunt.
She doesn’t believe in it at all and just wants to make her aunt Zelda see things her way. While she has a point about ritual cannibalism being barbaric and stupid, this was the worst possible way for her to show it. Instead of calling her aunt’s bluff, she actually has to take her place on the stand because her aunt steps down for her.
Performing An Exorcism
This particular occasion falls on an awkward borderline between determination and arrogance. Sabrina wants to help her friend by exorcising the demon from her uncle before it kills him. That’s a noble enough cause. However, Sabrina’s explicitly told why witches don’t do exorcisms, and she decides to do it herself anyway.
She doesn’t consider seeking out a Catholic priest, which would be understandable if she weren’t so determined. That’s where the arrogance comes in; she tries to do it herself. This allows Lilith to manipulate her into completing one of her tasks as the Herald of Hell and freeing Lucifer.
Summoning Kings of Hell in Her Top Boy Challenge
Sabrina was supposed to summon a demon for her challenge. But she and Nick were meant to compete with each other, and instead, they openly accused Father Blackwood and others of trying to kill her and summoned the Kings of Hell to prove it.
Granted, she had a point about needing to find out who sent them after her. Blackwood probably should’ve let them get the truth out about her “ascension.” But she chose a very showy way to do it, only to be proven wrong and lose her challenge.
Playing With Her New Powers
Sabrina comes back from the dead after a scene involving angels massacring her coven. But when she comes back, she has newfound powers that seem beyond those of other witches. Instead of taking a pause and waiting to see what the catch is, Sabrina starts playing with the brand new power as if it’s all fine and dandy.
She toys with the weather and resurrects a familiar, and makes flower petals fall from the ceiling while she proselytizes her fellow students. She later learns that the catch is her eventual release of Lucifer from hell.
Trying to Trap Satan in an Acheron
Sabrina’s theory about the acheron was sound. It was, in fact, possible to trap Satan in a vessel. Unfortunately for her, the one she picked was too weak. It’s understandable that she was a little desperate at the time for a way out, and didn’t stop to consider whether a stronger acheron could be found or was necessary.
The one her father built was strong enough to hold a demon and was already handy. Still, she seemed a little too confident when she told Satan to remember who defeated him, only to have her boyfriend possessed in the next five minutes.
Taking Her Friends to Hell
Sabrina’s friends all want to help her free her boyfriend from hell. He made such a noble sacrifice, after all. That doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to take them all with her on her venture into hell. It would’ve made more sense to take other witches or warlocks and to at least tell her aunts.
She just didn’t want her aunts to find out because they might try to stop her. They almost get trapped in a hell version of Baxter High and only escape because Lilith sends for them. She wasn’t really able to handle it, and they all could’ve been trapped.
Locking Her Father in the School’s Dungeon
Wanting to free her boyfriend from hell and possession by Satan was a noble desire. However, Sabrina wasn’t very careful with the last part of the process. Yes, she lit candles and put him in a circle of salt. But she didn’t do her due diligence and tell her aunts or anyone in the school that he was there.
She was also careless about checking the circle of salt when she left, which allowed Lucifer to start cursing the unsuspecting members of the academy and draining their powers while he was at it.
Assuming the Throne of Hell
On the one hand, Sabrina sort of did Lilith a favor at the time. She technically installed Lilith as a regent. But she didn’t really think this through in terms of the responsibilities she’d still have to handle, which becomes obvious when she’s told to bring souls to hell.
She probably thought that the regent would have to handle all those things because she’s surprised when she’s told that there’s job training. It also quickly becomes clear that she’s not really letting Lilith rule; she starts talking about reforms of hell’s practices without regard to how they’ll be received.
Resurrecting Tommy Kinkle
It’s not hard to see where Sabrina would get the terrible idea to resurrect Tommy. It’s not just that he was killed by witchcraft; it’s that Zelda has repeatedly killed Hilda and brought her back in the Cain Pit. That’s exactly what gives Sabrina the idea to kill another witch (Agatha) and bring her back using the Cain Pit.
Problem is, she didn’t just put Tommy in the Cain Pit, so she’s really cheating death. That goes about as well as cheating death always does. It’s disturbing to watch when she actually feels entitled to kill someone and resurrect two people.
Creating a Time Loop
Undoubtedly one of her stupidest moves yet, Sabrina decided in season 3 that she could solve her teenager-Queen of Hell problem by simply not fixing the time loop she created by going back in time and freeing herself. So a younger Sabrina who didn’t witness the consequences of her loss of her throne and being tricked by Caliban becomes Queen of Hell— and will have to rule without any further guidance from Zelda, Hilda, Ambrose, or her human friends.
But the older Sabrina who experienced the alternate timeline and learned to value her people more responded to the time loop with “Cool!” It doesn’t take a genius to see that it was a terrible plan. It’s just yet to be seen how terrible.
