After twenty-nine years, the Sanderson sisters have made a comeback! This time around, the
witches found themselves summoned after two young girls mistakenly lit the Black Flame,
leading to a night of chaos as Becca and Izzy fight to find a way to stop them. However,
with what we learn in this feature, will our ranking come out so clear
cut? Who will rise as the most good? And who will be deemed the most evil?
I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this is Hocus Pocus 2 : Good to Evil.
As usual, we'll be starting with the most pure and
noble character and working our way down. These characters are The Good.
Taking the gold medal of most good is a tied ranking with Becca and Izzy. The main heroes
this time around, Becca and Izzy showed an interest in things typically considered witchy.
They were stated to have performed a small ritual for their birthdays and were frequent customer’s
in Gilbert’s shop. Thankfully, they were able to use their years of picking up tips and tricks to
outsmart the Sanderson Sisters several times. When they found out the Sandersons needed the blood
of the Traske family, Becca and Izzy attempted to get Mr Traske and Cassie out of sight, even at the
risk of Cassie resenting them when they exposed her house party. When Becca was showing an ability
to use magic, Izzy and Cassie stepped up to be her supporting coven. Whenever Becca began to
doubt her abilities, Izzy was the one to piece all of the information together and keep them going.
Following with the silver medal of most good we have Billy Butcherson. It should be no surprise
that Billy wasn’t interested in being involved with anything to do with the Sandersons after
all that he had to deal with. Whether in life or death, Billy has shown to be absolutely
over them. When Billy found out Gilbert was working for the sisters due to being cursed,
Billy quickly declared that it wouldn’t matter if Gilbert followed their orders and warned that
Gilbert would be killed regardless. Due to being stuck as a head for much of the film,
Billy wasn’t able to take on the sisters as he had in the first film, and was forced to watch as they
performed their power spell. Thankfully, Billy was finally able to get the rest he long deserved when
Winnifred was destroyed. And he was given an added sense of peace when Gilbert promised to
correct everyone on what really happened between Billy and Winnifred all of those centuries ago.
In a surprising turn, the bronze medal of most good goes to Book. In the first movie, Book was
dragged around and treated as a simple prop for most of the feature. This time it was easy to
see the loyalty and care Book held for Winnifred. Upon seeing how the sisters wound up with Book in
the first place, its easy to see the connection between them. Book clearly didn’t want the girls
to perish and so attempted to keep the power spell away from them. When Winnifred lost Sarah and Mary
and begged to be reunited with them, Book gave a solution to help them be together again. Seeing
Book shed a tear at losing the sisters for good was far more heartbreaking than anticipated.
With that said, we've arrived at the neutral territory. These characters fall in The Grey Area.
The first ranking in this section goes to Cassie.For the majority of the film,
Cassie was little more than an obstacle. In her defense, being a teenager is rough no
matter what decade you grow up in. Seeing her struggle to balance her love life,
school life and past friendships was an understandable enough dilemma. And Cassie
was finally able to step up and help Becca and Izzy upon seeing the Sandersons flying past her
house. Though Cassie didn’t quite understand eveything that was happening, she managed to
roll with the punches and follow Izzy’s lead when it came to offering Becca the support she needed.
Following after Cassie is her boyfriend Mike. If you were to look up a list of all of the
characters that fit the clueless jock trope, Mike would most certainly be able to hold his own
among them. He was easily tricked into believing that Becca and Izzy were up to some dark spells,
even going as far as to have a panicked moment in class when he heard Izzy muttering under her
breath to unsettle him. Thankfully, Mike was able to be called out on how he spoke
to Izzy and Becca when they confronted Cassie. During this conflict it was easy
to see that Mike was a nice enough guy, but hadn’t been on the ball. And he had
enough self-awareness to be visibly upset when he realized how he had been acting.
Hearing him voice that he had a lot of people to apologize to was heart-warming.
Taking the next spot is The Witch Mother. Upon encountering the sisters in her woods,
she was quick to try and use them to keep herself young, showing an impressive among of power as she
attacked them. When she realized that they were also witches, the Witch Mother changed her tune,
and instead offered them Book and a chance to increase their own abilities. When she granted
the condition that they not use the power spell, it led to two theories quickly being made. One,
that she was doing what many Disney villains love to do and purposely tempting them to cast
the spell. Or two- the favored choice- that she knew very well what would be sacrified and was
offering a genuine warning. Seeing as she stated her own coven was long gone, it would be easy to
draw the conclusion that she sacrificed her own coven to gain her powers. After all, we hadn’t
ever seen any other witches in these films turn into birds to disguise themselves in plain sight.
The next ranking goes to the Mayor, Mr Traske. His odd and disturbing obsession with caramel
apples aside, Mr Traske was a nice enough guy. He did have a “no house party” rule,
but he hadn’t once given the impression that the rule had to do with his running for office. After
all, when Izzy and Becca initially said Cassie was at a party, he didn’t have any reaction.
It wasn’t until they stated it was at his own house and boys were present that he lost his
cool. Even then, he made the statement that he had to stop Cassie from ruining her life,
not his reputation. He was clueless, yes, but overall a good dad that loved to embrace the
Halloween spirit and have fun. I mean, have you ever seen someone so delighted to see a flashmob?
Finally, we've reached the dark side. These characters are The Bad and The Evil.
Next up is the tied ranking of Mary and Sarah Sanderson. Though these two always
tended to follow Winnie’s lead, in this feature they slowly began to express
frustration at being seen as lackeys. When they were given more power from the spell,
they finally stood up for themselves by demanding Winnifred treat them as the loyal sisters they
were. They still quickly submitted to Winnifred’s demands out of loyalty, but it was satisfying to
see Mary insist she wasn’t dumb and Sarah stand her ground on how useful she was to their cause.
Following her sisters and going home with the bronze medal of most evil we have Winnifred
Sanderson. Winnifred’s backstory gave her a lot of redemption points. She was, without a doubt,
power hungry and quick to anger. She often lashed out at everyone around her, even from
a young age. However, seeing how she was treated even in the beginning, it makes sense that she
would hold resentment for all of the people of Salem. Everything she did was to try and keep
her and her sisters safe. Sure, it doesn’t justify hunting down children and devouring them to keep
their youth and power, but it explained a lot. Seeing Winnifred realize what she had to give up
in order to gain the power she desired was gut wrenching. At the idea of losing her sisters as
she had always feared, Winnifred quickly begged for help from the very teenagers she just tried
to kill. When she was faced with the reality of being reunited with them only in death,
Winnifred went with grace, blessing the girls and their friendship. Though it took several
hundred years and several traumatizing deaths, Winnifred finally found peace.
The silver medal of most evil we have to give to Gilbert. Gilbert was incredibly underhanded with
how he went about bringing the Sanderson sisters back. Forgetting for a moment
why on Earth he thought it was a good idea to revive witches who were known to eat children,
he made a lot of bad calls. He forged a second candle to revive the Black Flame. He used Billy
and flat out ripped the dead man’s head off. He tricked Izzy and Becca and didn’t even bother
trying to free them, though he tried plenty to increase his time on the hourglass. The
only thing he did that really redeemed him after he finally realized that the
sisters needed to be stopped was promise to correct the legends concerning Billy.
Taking the gold medal of most evil is the Reverand Traske. The man who began the feud
between the Sanderson sisters and all of Salem, Reverend Traske was a stubborn and
spiteful creature. For as much as he accused the sisters of being inhuman and undeserving of mercy,
this man has committed horrible crimes against them. He attempted to have them separated,
likely so Mary and Sarah could be converted to the town’s way of thinking while Winnifred
remained an outcast. He tried to force a marriage on Winnifred in an attempt to
control her and get her to fit in with the rest of the town. And of course we can’t forget that
he was the one to led to their demise in the first place, leading to them cursing the town.
Before we go, we wanted to hand out some extra medals to the characters that fit them the best.
Taking the Darwin Medal is Mike. Teenagers aren’t known for being the best socially,
but Mike was downright clueless. It took Becca and Izzy calling him out on how he
spoke to them for him to understand that his behavior could be seen as bullying.
At least he was remorseful and made a note to apologize to some other people.
The Lust Medal goes to Sarah Sanderson. In this feature, Sarah was shown to be the only
one openly flirting with any young men. In fact, her whole relationship
with Billy was much of what ignited things between the sisters and the townspeople.
Leaving with the Wrath Medal is Winnifred Sanderson. It’s almost believable to see her
love language as hitting with how much she’s shown smacking her sisters throughout the movie. And she
was always quick to try and blast a spell towards anyone that dared provoke her.
The Greed Medal goes to the shop owner Gilbert. It was downright malicious how
Gilbert used Izzy and Becca to revive the sisters,
tricking them into lighting the candle. Even when he saw what the sisters were capable of doing,
Gilbert was far more concerned with saving himself than anyone else in Salem.
Next is the Pride Medal going to Winnifred. Winnifred’s refusal to be weak anymore led to her
lashing out at everyone and ignoring every warning she was giving to not use the power spell. In the
end, it was her pride that made her endure losing her sisters, the one thing she never wanted.
Finally, the Gluttony Medal goes to Mr Traske. We totally get the appeal of getting your hands
on your favorite fall treat, but this man’s obsession with getting a caramel apple was
almost unsettling. It was actually a bit of a relief to see him unable to enjoy it in the end.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree. And tell us what we should cover
next. Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist.
Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons,