Warning: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season one spoilers below.

It’s been quite some time since Sabrina’s dark baptism, yet her story is far from over.

With her dark powers stronger than ever since her dark baptism, Sabrina dives deeper into the Witch World and begins to embrace her darker side; however, the battle for her soul is far from over.

From the first scene, it seemed obvious that the second season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina would live up to the incredibly high standards set by season one. And although the season took a slight dip in the middle, it still certainly lived up to these expectations.

The season took a break from the sole development of Sabrina and worked to enrich and deepen other characters. Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) and Prudence (Tati Gabrielle) have an interconnected development of sorts which plays into the story’s many side plots, weaving together seamlessly to make up the bigger story.

The ability to seamlessly mix so many lives together is imperative in telling the story of Sabrina due to her split life as both mortal and a witch. This is something I believe the creators and actors of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina have done very well. In this second season, the Mortal World was initially less present and Sabrina was participating more heavily in the Witch World; however, with her mortal friends now knowing her true identity, the worlds are slowly being sewn together.

The overall high quality of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is due to a beautiful combination of unique and creative shots and some outstanding acting. Not only do those things add to the quality of the show, but they also prevent the show from falling prey to the tricky monster that is being cliche. It would be so easy for a show with a cartoon background and a previously younger audience to fall into a cliche rut, but The Chilling Adventure of Sabrina utilizes a high level of creativity and acting talent to avoid such an issue.

The true hook for me, though, is the relationships between characters. Although I spent the first season rooting for Harvey (Ross Lynch), I found that it was Nick (Gavin Leatherwood) who better fit the person Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) is becoming; he also is better able to support both sides of Sabrina. This shift in the story leads to shifts between other characters and also adds a feeling of rejuvenation to the show, which helped to keep me enthralled and clicking ‘Next Episode.’ However, it wasn’t just the romantic relationships I enjoyed. The relational dynamics between Sabrina and her mortal friends, the unique dynamic of the weird sisters, and the new relationships between mortals and witches were so unique and intricately developed.

Relationships, however, aren’t the only thing that developed more in season two. As with season one, the theology within the Church of Night, which only continues to evolve, is truly chilling. Their perversions of the Bible are hauntingly accurate, and their version of the story, while told from a very different point of view, hardly strays from the Bible’s stories. Looking for the little things throughout the story, such as the Weird Sisters parallel to the Holy Trinity, was admittedly kind of fun and helped to strengthen my engagement with the story.

Something I appreciate about the making of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is the boldness in dealing with real-life situations. The creators use one of the many side stories to pull in a struggle faced by many who make up the stories heavily teenage audience. The way this platform is used to promote self-care and understanding incorporates a sense of purpose and underlying warmth into the story. The little bit of light added to the dark story not only warms the heart but creates a level of variety which only increases the overall interest in the show.

And then, like every good TV show, the last episode’s twist had me crying, laughing, and deeply annoyed with the producers for ending it the way they did. Just as with the first season, I now eagerly await the next installment of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.