The Flashback Essays
"Sabrina the Teenage Witch" the series that ran from 1996 to 2003 , actually has two finales. ABC ran the series from 1996 to 2000 and they ended it with that episode where spoiler? Harvey finds out that she is a witch. The WB network decided that Sabrina was right thing for their channel and picked up the show and there it aired for 3 more seasons. What I am going to talk about is the finale from the final season.
The finale is chosen because I am a fan of the series personally and it's an example of a finale that has a big two part story and ties up something that was arc in the series.
"Sabrina The Teenage" finale aired on the WB network on April 24th, 2003 as a two part episode called "What a Witch Wants" and "Soul Mates".
Spoilers ahead. (Warning)
Background first: In this season , Sabrina and her college friends have moved into the house together , the aunts have left. To a point there's been an arc where Sabrina was dating a man named Aaron and they plan to get married which leads us to the episode "What a Witch Wants".
What a Witch wants is Sabrina going out for her bachelorette party and that episode focuses on her and friends proving they they have a strong friendship. So the episode I am more going to focus on is the last last episode "Soul Mates" It's now Sabrina's wedding day and she has little cold feet, and since this show's humor sometimes goes into the literal humor , she has ice blocks on her feet. (get it?) Salem tells her that there's a reason this happened. (need to turn the AC down a bit there)
Also for a series finale they brought back some of the show's past stars like her cousin Amanda (played by Melissa Joan Hart's real life sister) , her mom , which is big because of the show's lore of she not being able to see her mom. Her Aunt Hilda returns (Caroline Rhea). Her father, also makes another appearance. Sadly, Aunt Zelda doesn't make a reappearance. (in human form) Amanda ,who is also a witch finds Harvey to get him to come to the wedding. Doubt appears yes in literal form and tells her that there's doubt around and gives her Aaron's soul stone and tells her that she doubts that they are soul mates.
Sabrina searches for her soul stone at the North Star and wants to see if her stone matches with Aaron. Do they match? Well no. The Wedding eventually starts after some snags ,but she's having some doubt still so it gets stalled again. Her aunt and mother tells here that everything is not against the wedding , she is so she tries again to get married. At the vows she stops again and tells Aaron that she doesn't want to get married to him after all. (Not getting that deposit back) She leaves the church were she sees Harvey with a soul stone of his own. They kiss and ride off on his motorcycle. The two stones fall on the ground and they match. Guess what they did something for those who've been watching the show since the start, the 12:36 time where she and Harvey first met.
One thing about the show is that Harvey and Sabrina seem to be a big thing of the series. This finale kind of finishes where these characters who seemed to made for each other end up together. Much of the series showed us how much they cared for each other even when they broke up so, it doesn't feel as some sort of weird they did that because they were a couple once and so stick them together. In fact , it felt more that way with Sabrina and Aaron in the last few episodes of the season that he kind of just shows up in the series and then they announce to get married.
Is it a good finale? Yes, it gives us a good wrap up of the series with most of the characters that were big on the show a chance to return. (-3 pts for no Aunt Zelda) It gives its fans a satisfaction that yeah it's over but it ended in away that would make him feel it ended on a good note. It gives us a little drama too, where we honestly don't know how it ends until it ends.
Next time, a series finale that takes a whole show and makes you go WHAT?
Tune in next time when we find soul stones and start a dating service.
