Is anyone else tired of formulaic love triangles? Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina returns to Netflix on April 5, with our fearless teen witch dealing with double the trouble of part one, which premiered last fall. Unfortunately, that might mean double the focus on the love triangle that’s brewing between Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka), Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch) and Nicholas Scratch (Gavin Leatherwood). On Monday, the CAOS team debuted a new part two poster featuring all three characters and a quippy tagline.
In the poster, Harvey and Nicholas stand behind Sabrina and seemingly stare at the back of her neck (the Photoshop skills are real) while she clutches her grimoire and smirks for the camera. The composition is reminiscent of cartoon characters who have angelic and devilish versions of themselves standing on either shoulder when a difficult decision has to be made. That makes sense; on a deeper level, Harvey represents Sabrina’s mortal life and Nicholas represents her witch one. However, there are plenty of ways to emphasize Sabrina’s struggle to reconcile the two parts of her other than to throw her into a love triangle.
Then again, this one looks like it could be kind of… fun.
“High school is such a witch,” the poster reads. In an accompanying tweet, the CAOS social media team wrote, “Double, double, boys and trouble.”
double, double, boys and trouble. #CAOS returns. April 5. pic.twitter.com/jQRIyYUesq
— Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (@sabrinanetflix) March 13, 2019
On one hand, it’s a tale as old as time. Good boy. Bad boy. Girl who falls somewhere in the middle, trying to choose a path.
On the other, there’s so much more at stake. If Sabrina chooses to be with Harvey, it means prioritizing her mortal life — which she did throughout part one. If she chooses to be with Nicholas, it means prioritizing her witch life — which she kind of did by signing the Book of the Beast (to protect her mortal friends, so make of that what you will). However, Sabrina is a rebel down to her bones. Just because she’s a full-blooded witch now, it doesn’t mean she won’t continue to put her mortal friends above everything else. It’s not just about Harvey, or just about Nicholas. This paradox is part of Sabrina and likely will be until the day she dies.
Meanwhile, Harvey’s role in this story has yet to be fully realized. In the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic, he’s eaten by Sabrina’s coven when he sees her signing the Book of the Beast. When she tries to resurrect him, her father returns in Harvey’s body instead.
In the Netflix show, Harvey comes from a long and active line of witch hunters. This discovery made him a target in part one, before he knew Sabrina’s true nature. Now that he knows Sabrina has magic and has clearly expressed his dislike for it… What will happen to these star-crossed lovers?
The first teaser trailer for CAOS part two teased this love triangle, as well as one other. We won’t know more until the show returns on April 5, but here’s hoping Aguirre-Sacasa won’t fall on tired tropes.
