The 'Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina' Holiday Special Will Include A Very Important Character

Fans may have to wait until April to see the second season of Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, but thanks to a little yuletide miracle (and maybe a touch of witchcraft), the series is releasing a one-off holiday special, aptly titled A Midwinter's Tale. Details about what this episode will involve are somewhat scarce, but thanks to a recent interview showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa had with Entertainment Weekly, we now have a few ideas about what to expect. Like the fact that the CAOS holiday special will resurrect Sabrina's mom in a rather unexpected way.

One of the biggest plot lines left unresolved at the end of Season 1 of CAOS involved the tragic fate of Sabrina's parents. Her mortal mother and warlock father died when Sabrina was just a baby, but the circumstances surrounding their death remain vague and mysterious. And, though Aguirre-Sacasa assured first-time viewers that they would be able to watch the holiday episode even if they are unfamiliar with the show, he also hinted that some plots would be picking up in the holiday special, including the mystery of Sabrina's mother.

"When we decided that we were going to try to do a special episode to drop around Christmas, we wanted it to be a standalone insofar that everything you need to enjoy the episode is in the episode," Aguirre-Sacasa explained to EW. "But there are elements that we serialized through the first part of the season that we did have to carry through and help us set up the second part of the season."

"We see a little bit more of the aftermath of Harvey and Sabrina, their breakup at the end of part one," Aguirre-Sacasa added, before noting that the end of the season twist about Sabrina's mother being trapped in purgatory will also come into play. "We see how Sabrina’s relating to her mortal friends. We pick up a couple of threads about Sabrina and her mom, who’s trapped in limbo, so there’s definitely tendrils of narrative that we continued, but if you’re coming in cold, you should be able to understand everything pretty clearly."

As for how Sabrina's mom will fit into this particular narrative, Aguirre-Sacasa indicated that a little yuletide seance may be in order so that Sabrina can get some much-needed answers about how her mother ended up in such an unfortunate predicament. "For the Spellmans, because they’re witches, they celebrate Winter Solstice, which is a pagan holiday, which is similar to Christmas in some ways," Aguirre-Sacasa recalled. However, this time of year is also big on ghost stories à la A Christmas Carol, which, according to Aguirre-Sacasa, is something the CAOS special will look to explore. "Sabrina gets it into her head that she’s going to have a seance to contact her mother."

There's a lot we still don't know about Sabrina's parents and the circumstances surrounding their untimely deaths. The fact that her mother is in purgatory adds yet another level to the mystery, so hopefully this seance will finally provide Sabrina (and by extension, the viewers) with some answers to those questions. Though given the dark nature of this series, this little reunion may not be quite as merry as one would hope.

Either way, whatever her mother has to say could very well impact the projection of Season 2, which makes A Midwinter's Tale a must-see episode. It may not be a holly, jolly Christmas for the people of Greendale, but it'll definitely be a memorable one.