Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a show that you can’t take everything at face value. This show is all about magic and witchcraft. It’s a show that involves double-crossing, deceit, and treachery. One character has been particularly popular. Nick Scratch, a warlock, studies at the Academy of Unseen Arts with Sabrina.
They first met in season four, when Sabrina was introduced to students during choir practice. Instantly, Nick is captured on camera. The young wizard clearly seems interested in the school’s new addition.
He confirms his interest when he asks Sabrina to join him for lunch. After waiting a moment, he mentions her father Edward Spellman. Nick gives Edward high praises and enthusiastically discusses Edward’s journals which are kept secret because they are considered “dangerous” text.
Sabrina is also told by Edward that Edward was “brilliant, ahead of his times, and the greatest conjurer The Church of Night ever produced”.
You’re so welcome, Nick. We’ve just met.
Sabrina is a distant student who refuses to interact with the rest of her students. There are also the Weird Sisters who show their disgust by Sabrina’s looks and even attempt to kill her. Nick is not in either of these categories, which is something that is quite suspicious.
Is this his ultimate goal? Nick, why are you so sweet?
It could be entirely innocent, Nick being drawn to Sabrina because he genuinely likes her, not to mention the fact that she is a fascinating young woman, a half-witch-half-mortal who defies the academy traditions that everyone else accepts without question.
We said it all, Sabrina, and everything is never as it seems.
Many fan theories suggest Nick may be hiding a dark secret. There are many hints and winks that this could be true.
He is intensely interested in Sabrina, and in particular her father and his journals. He also expressed a desire for Sabrina’s to follow a darker path and allow her to embrace her witch heritage. This could be something as simple as a fun pastime or something more sinister.
Nick seems to have more freedom than the other students of the academy. How did he manage to access those journals so effortlessly?
There’s also his name.
Reddit user pointed to the scene in which Sabrina’s Aunt Zelda directs choir practice. The group is performing a rendition “Do-Re-Mi” Nick sings “Me, an name I call myself”, which may be a reference of a non-covert sign that Nick has another persona.
The names of the devil are ‘Old Nick’ and ‘Mr Scratch’.
Washington Irving wrote a short story called “The Devil and Tom Walker” in which Old Scratch is the devil.
Then there is ‘The Devil & Daniel Webster’ by Stephen Vincent Benet, a short story that takes inspiration from Washington’s works and disguises the devil in a Mr Nick Scratch.
Just as Jabez Stone, a farmer, is defended by Daniel Webster against the devil in Benet’s story, Sabrina is also defended. The young witch is represented in court by Daniel Webster, a mortal lawyer who specializes in witch-law.
Another theory is that Edward Spellman may actually be the Dark Lord. This theory was detailed by Reddit user Winterfoxes. The devil is another person entirely, that being Nick.
Satan was defeated by the Dark Lord, and Nick, the devil’s son, keeps Sabrina close to him so that he can find her father’s weaknesses, and regain his throne.
The show’s creators have not confirmed or disproved either theory, so speculation is the only way to go.
If Old Scratch is any indication, the best is yet ahead.
