Part 3 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is stuffed with easter eggs, hidden references
and monstrous secrets buried in each episode.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!
I'm Jan and in this video I'm revealing 28 devilish details you might have missed in
Chilling Adventures Season 3, including the Riverdale easter eggs that reveal a very weirdly
connected universe.
There will, of course, be spoilers so take care if you haven't caught up.
Part 3 opens with Sabrina's terrifying nightmare of wandering into Hell and discovering Nick
encased in stone.
It's a clever bit of foreshadowing for Sabrina's own fate later in the season when she gets
trapped in the Ninth Circle of Hell by Caliban.
It's not until the seventh episode that Robin reveals he's a hobgoblin to Theo.
But there was a clue to his true identity all the way back in the fourth episode when
Carcosa called Robin by his full name: "Thank you for warning us Robin Goodfellow."
The name "Robin Goodfellow" is often used in English folklore for a mischievous sprite
or hobgoblin, and in English mythology and literature such as Shakespeare's A Midsummer
Night's Dream, Robin Goodfellow also goes by the name of "Puck".
Chilling Adventures begins to introduce new Lovecraftian monsters into its universe when
Blackwood calls upon an amphibian-like beast to rise out of the waters of Loch Ness.
Blackwood calls the creature the "Deep One", the same name as a species of water-dwelling
monsters from H.P.
Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
And another of Lovecraft's sci-fi horrors is referenced when Zelda weighs up the covens'
options to avoid getting killed by the pagans.
"We could flee perhaps to the Mountains of Madness."
"At the Mountains of Madness" is a novella by Lovecraft that features a dangerous alien
civilisation in Antarctica that lies beyond a mountain range even higher than the Himalayas.
And the word Carcosa, the name of the malevolent carnival leader who arrives in Greendale,
first appeared in several 19th-century short stories as an ancient mysterious city before
being used as the name of an alien city within the Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos.
In that universe, Carcosa is home to Hastur, a monstrous deity who's also known as "The
Unspeakable One", something which ties in to how Blackwood describes the Eldritch Terrors
he plans to bring into the world.
"Return to me the egg, and we'll bear witness to the birth of the unspeakable."
Carcosa and the pagans plan to resurrect their Old Gods in an event they call The Great Flowering.
For the ceremony, they place a sacrificial virgin inside a giant green plant statue,
much like the virgin sacrifice that a group of pagans carry out inside a giant wicker
man statue in the 1973 horror movie The Wicker Man.
And the pagans in Greendale also wear animal masks at the coven's Hare Moon celebration,
just like the pagans do in The Wicker Man.
At the carnival, the Ferris wheel that Theo and Robin ride is called "The Berlanti Wheel",
an easter egg to prolific TV producer Greg Berlanti, whose shows include Chilling Adventures,
Riverdale, Arrow, Supergirl, and You.
This season also includes several references to the modern horror movie "Midsommar" about
a pagan cult.
In Chilling Adventures, when Sabrina returns to find the pagans have created an apocalypse
on Earth, she's startled by a couple of plant-like human zombies, who appear to have a pair of
yellow flowers growing in their eyes.
This is a creepy nod to one of the pagan human sacrifices in the movie.
In fact, Sabrina showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has specifically said that films like that
and The Wicker Man were 'always the kind of horror that [he] wanted to get to play with
and infuse into Part 3.'
And the flower crowns the Greendale coven wear for The Hare Moon festival, which are
an ancient tradition used in many pagan ceremonies, also recently appeared in Midsommar.
After arriving in Hell, Sabrina asks Caliban how they can get to Pandemonium, and he answers:
"Follow the blood-red road where it flows, and there you'll find the throne of Hell."
That advice is a bloody reference to The Wizard of Oz and the Good Witch of the North's instructions
to Dorothy on how to reach the Emerald City.
"All you do is follow the yellow brick road."
And like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, Sabrina and the gang also come across their own Tin
Man in the form of Tommy, Harvey's brother who died in the first season of Chilling Adventures.
Like the classic movie's Tin Man, Tommy also has problems with his heart.
But while the original Tin Man believed he lacked a heart, Tommy's heart is on the outside
of his tin costume.
Another classic tale is referenced in Hell's Forest of Torment.
When Sabrina and Roz go to pick the Fleur du Mal that Dorian Gray has asked them to
collect, Sabrina warns her friend that if they prick themselves on the flower's thorns,
they'll go to sleep and never wake up.
That was also the fate of the princess in Sleeping Beauty when she pricked her finger
on a cursed spinning wheel.
"It's like something out of a fairy tale."
And remember that princess Aurora was also known by the prickly, flowery name of Briar
Rose.
Also in Chilling Adventures, the flower even sings and calls to Sabrina and Roz luring
them into a potential trap, similar to how Maleficent entranced and tricked Aurora into
pricking herself.
And later, after they bring Nick back from Hell to the mortal world, Sabrina wakes him
with a kiss, akin to how Sleeping Beauty was woken from her curse.
The evil flower that Dorian Gray asks Sabrina to get for him is also a reference to a set
of poems by Charles Baudelaire called "Les Fleurs du Mal".
Appropriately for Chilling Adventures, Baudelaire's collection of poems includes one called "The
Litanies of Satan" which fiercely criticised the 19th-century Church and also inverted
several prayers from the Catholic Mass and substituted Mary's name with Satan's.
Likewise, Chilling Adventures also likes to flip common religious expressions:
"In other words..
Back the heaven off."
And in Part 3, Zelda's prayer "Hail Lilith" is an inversion of the traditional Catholic
prayer "Hail Mary".
"Hail Lilith, full of disgrace.
Cursed are you amongst women, and cursed is the fruit of thy womb, demons."
Sabrina manages to reverse the pagan apocalypse, but in the process she also decides to allow
a double of herself to exist at the same time.
This twin Sabrina situation is something that already occurred in the 90s sitcom Sabrina
The Teenage Witch.
At the end of the third season of the old-school show, Sabrina met her identical twin Katrina
and they had to undergo a test to find out which sibling was the evil one.
When the test revealed that Sabrina's sister Katrina was the evil sibling, Katrina was
sent to live in the Twin Cities in a place known as the "Other Realm".
While one Sabrina returns to Greendale in Chilling Adventures, the other goes to Hell
where Lilith prepares her for her full-time role as Queen of Hell.
Sabrina's style, including her coronation dress and white makeup, evoke the look of
English Tudor monarch Elizabeth I, who was known as "the Virgin Queen" and whose reign
included the attempted invasion of England by the Spanish Armada.
On top of that, Sabrina's coronation seems to pay specific homage to the final scene
of the late-90s movie Elizabeth, with each queen's people bowing down to her and touching
her dress, and the queen signalling her ascent to the throne with a little hand gesture.
The parallels between Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Sabrina of Hell become even more striking
when Lilith speaks to Sabrina about what's in store for the new young queen.
"Every queen must be made battle-ready.
Every girl must prepare for war.
Let nothing touch you.
Let no man hold power over you."
And emphasising that at least Hell-bound Sabrina will be uninterested in love, Sabrina tells
Lucifer.
"I am ready, Father, to be married to Hell."
Much as Elizabeth I was considered as being wed to her kingdom.
In Part 3, Ambrose plays a key part in events when he and Prudence track down Father Blackwood
who's gone into hiding in Loch Ness, Scotland.
When they arrive, Ambrose explains that he already has some knowledge of the location:
"Loch Ness lies atop a powerful rift along the Earth's ley lines.
Aleister Crowley himself once harnessed its energies for his own higher magicks."
Ambrose's familiarity with Crowley's life stems from a time when Crowley acted as a
kind of mentor to Ambrose.
"My boy, how did you ever end up as part of a plot to blow up the Vatican?"
"A young Crowley.
He was brilliant, charismatic, and devoted to the Dark Lord."
In real life, Aleister Crowley was an English occultist who gained notoriety for many things,
including establishing the religion of Thelema, aspects of which have inspired Wicca and Satanism.
And like in the show, Crowley did actually live in Loch Ness for a period of his life.
The show's nine circles of hell are inspired by Dante's Inferno, a drawing of which appears
in the background on a school blackboard in the first episode, another clue that by the
end of Part 3, Sabrina will travel all the way to the Ninth Circle of Hell.
In Dante's epic poem, the Ninth Circle is reserved for people who've committed treachery,
including Judas Iscariot.
So, it's fitting that that's where Caliban tricks Sabrina and betrays her trust.
On top of that, the Ninth Circle is also where Sabrina breaks the promise she made to future
Sabrina to complete the time loop by taking her place in the stone prison.
By the way, the fact that Chilling Adventures encases its traitors in stone is another hat
tip to Dante's Inferno where most of those condemned to Hell's Ninth Circle are trapped
in ice.
Also in Ms Wardwell's classroom is another blackboard where you can spot a mention of
"Paradise Lost", an epic poem by John Milton.
It was in "Paradise Lost" that Milton coined the term "Pandemonium" for the capital of
Hell.
Not only is Pandemonium a crucial location in Part 3, but Caliban himself is also sculpted
from the city's clay.
The backstory for Herod's Crown also notably connects to the history of one of Riverdale's
most significant families, the Blossoms.
In Part 3, Ambrose discovers this first item of the Unholy Regalia was passed between numerous
people, the last known one being: "Private Benjamin Blossom who recovered the
crown from Hitler's bunker in 1945."
Interestingly, Ambrose goes on to explain that when Benjamin Blossom brought Herod's
Crown back to Riverdale, he was murdered by a group of occultists who wanted possession
of the magical unholy relic.
When Sabrina and Ambrose visit Riverdale to locate the crown, they discover it's hidden
in a maple syrup tree, which is especially fitting because maple syrup has been part
of the Blossom family business.
In fact, the connection between the Blossoms and King Herod seems particularly appropriate
as history and myth remembers Herod for having executed numerous male children including
several of his own sons.
And, of course, season 1 spoilers for Riverdale, that show kicks off with the murder of Jason
Blossom, who it's later revealed was killed by his own father who was using the family
syrup business as a front for selling drugs.
It's interesting that actor Jonathan Whitesell who plays Robin the Hobgoblin in Sabrina also
played the part of Kurtz on Riverdale.
Kurtz was a member of the Gargoyle Gang.
But how can the same actor play two different characters in two shows that are supposedly
connected?
Well, perhaps it could be another example of the recurring theme of twins in both shows?
In Chilling Adventures, there's the Blackwood twins, Principal Hawthorne's twin who was
absorbed in the womb, the image of Hilda and Zelda as conjoined twins, and now, after much
hinting in previous seasons, Sabrina has a double too!
Or perhaps it's all part of the shape-shifting ability of Puck or Robin Goodfellow characters
in English folklore?
When Sabrina approaches Jimmy Platt's ice cream truck, you can see it reads "A Chilling
Adventure".
That isn't just a play on the title of the show though; it's also a hint at the chilly
fate that awaits Sabrina later in the episode when she ends up trapped in the evil ice cream
seller's freezer.
Curiously the same actor who plays Jimmy Platt, is also going to appear on an episode of Riverdale
as a quiz show host.
This again raises the question of how the same actor can play different characters in
a shared universe.
Previously, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Chilling Adventures and Riverdale
showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa explained how Ben, a character who's already dead in
Riverdale, later showed up as a pizza delivery guy in Greendale.
According to Aguirre-Sacasa, Ben's cameo "suggests a very deep mythology where time and space
bend."
And even though Ben was dead in Riverdale, "in Greendale, everyone pops up - the dead
don't stay dead long [there]".
There's an amusing reference to the crazy events that go on in Greendale's neighbouring
town when we see the "Welcome to Riverdale" sign.
On the back you can spot some Jughead graffiti which dubs the town "Murder capital of the
world".
And in the Riverdale spin-off show Katy Keene, Josie also refers to her hometown in the same
way.
"I am from Riverdale.
It is the murder capital of the world."
After Hilda turns into Spider-Hilda, she asks Dr Cee to get her a hamburger and a milkshake
from a diner in Riverdale, undoubtedly referencing everyone's favourite meeting place in Riverdale,
Pop's Chock'Lit Shoppe.
Spider-Hilda also ends up eating a Riverdale Southside Serpent gang member who wanders
into Dr Cee's bookstore looking for something to eat.
Another Riverdale actor who makes an appearance on Chilling Adventures is Nathalie Boltt,
aka Penelope Blossom, spoilers for Riverdale, the nefarious mastermind behind the Black
Hood and the Gargoyle King.
In Chilling Adventures, she pops up in New Orleans.
However, it turns out it's not the real Penelope Blossom, but rather Prudence who's using Penelope's
form for a glamour trick while she and Ambrose are on the hunt for Blackwood.
The title of the final episode, "Sabrina Is Legend", is an intriguing reference to the
2007 movie "I Am Legend", based on the book of the same name.
The movie is known for its alternate ending in which, spoilers for the film, Will Smith
gets a happier ending than the original one shown in cinemas.
Likewise in Chilling Adventures, Sabrina creates an alternate and happier timeline for herself
when she decides not to complete the time loop as future Sabrina advised.
And if you want to know much more about the consequences Sabrina will face in Part 4 as
a result of altering the timeline, watch my Ending Explained video.
You can tap the link here or click the link in the video description.
So, did you spot any other cool details or references in Part 3?
And what were your favourite moments this season?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!