Sabrina: 10 Facts About Familiars We Learned In The Latest Season

There are so many things to love about The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, but one of the most fun elements of the show is its many creatures, including the familiars of the witches and wizards. Each familiar is not only uniquely named but also smartly matched to its witch or wizard, bonding with them until the demise of either the creature itself or its master.

Some contradictory information about familiars does exist not only between the multiple incarnations of Sabrina in TV and comic form, but also on The Chilling Adventures itself. No matter what, it’s clear that familiars are powerful beings who are able to protect their witches and warlocks, often despite great odds.

10 Shapeshifters Can Be Familiars

In the show Aunt Zelda tells Sabrina that there’s nothing human about familiars, and that they are actually goblins. While this might be Riverdale Cinematic Universe canon, it could also be a fib, as it would not be the first time Zelda has lied to her niece. There’s also a possibility that Amalia wasn’t really Nick’s familiar, since she seemed kind toward Sabrina yet hostile toward Nick. Nick’s willingness to just take out his beloved companion is also as below-the-belt as he’s been, although he also wasn’t the first person on the show to do so. In the end, he lied about it anyway, so who knows when he’s being honest?

9 They Can Be Banished

If Nick is telling the truth, not only was he able to banish his familiar at this point in time but he also did so when she became excessively clingy to him, teleporting her far from himself in the past. These seem to be sketchy details about what a familiar is supposed to be, but if we can believe Nick, they add to the creatures’ lore.

8 They Can Be Resurrected

This makes it really strange for her to so callously take out her longtime companion, and the fact that the Dark Lord is able to instruct her familiar to work against Miss Wardwell order to thwart her relationship with her boyfriend Adam, an obvious nod to the biblical story, reveals more details about the nature of familiars.

7 They Aren’t As Loyal As They Seem

It makes sense that the Dark Lord would have this sort of power, but it’s chilling to see that someone like Blackwood could also utilize a familiar in order to control a witch or warlock. It sets the precedent that any familiar could be untrustworthy.

6 They Can Be More Powerful Than Their Masters

Of course, we can also argue that Father Blackwood was the familiar’s true master all along, which might give us a bit more comfort in believing that familiars wouldn’t do such a thing to the people who trust them… but this is Chilling Adventures and none if it is supposed to be comforting.

5 They Can Be Just As Famous As Witches And Warlocks

It’s a fun part of the witch mythology that we continue to learn on the show, building a rich and often disturbing world, but it also points to the fact that a familiar might be just as important as a witch, or at least as important as her sidekick, in the most important tales of witch and warlock lore. Of course, he may also simply be a demon, which could make him both more important and yet another negation of Auntie Zelda’s familiar rule.

4 Multiple Animals Are Sometimes Needed To Play Familiars

Kiernan Shipka, who plays Sabrina Spellman, is also allergic to cats. She unfortunately broke out into hives after picking up one of the many Salems during filming. She said, “The cat is the one cast member I don’t get along with,” which is why she doesn’t have a lot of scenes touching Salem.

3 They Can Be Human-Sized

In part two, however, Amalia proves that familiars can definitely be human-sized in their natural form, which only leaves us with more questions. As a werewolf, Amalia was presumably once human; was she still at least part human when Sabrina took her out? Who else can become a familiar? It’s really easy for most familiars to follow and assist their masters discreetly, but if they take a human form it seems like that would complicate things, not to make them noisier.

2 Witches Don’t Rely On Their Familiars Much

Sure, there are more interesting familiars to see, and poor Kiernan Shipka has that awful allergy, but it seems like he was just dropped. Perhaps it means that Sabrina is coming into her own, but it also seems like he could have gotten her out of some scrapes. The absence of familiars with most of the other witches and warlocks also seems to prove this fact, although they aren’t supposed to have them at the Academy anyway. We don’t even know what the familiars of many witches are.

1 They Can Be Taken Out By Mundane Means

While part one already alluded to this when Lilith took out her own familiar, knowing who she is and the enormity of her ancient power makes it less impressive. We think that maybe she used some kind of magic in the process that we didn’t catch. Nope; familiars are apparently not made of stronger stuff.

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