‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ Somehow Outdid ‘Stranger Things” Dark Phoenix Moment

It doesn’t take a lot to make me stomp my feet and cackle with excitement when it comes to the X-Men. The X-Men cartoon changed how my elementary school brain viewed television over 25 years ago. I love the X-Men, which is why–and I really didn’t see this connection coming–I also love Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Admittedly, CAOS was up my alley from the start because of my love of other pop culture staples, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the retro Halloween spookiness of the Universal monster movies and The Addams Family. I like Sabrina because it mixes supernatural horror with teen soapiness and retrofits all of it with a mod aesthetic. And then, halfway through the recently released Part 2, the show went all X-Men on me–and I freaked out.

The X-moment happens at the very end of “Chapter Seventeen: The Missionaries,” a thrilling, standout episode that’s the turning point of the entire first season. When we get to the climax, a squad of merciless angels are holding a handful of Sabrina’s witchy classmates hostage in a consecrated church, forcing them to submit before God or die. Sabrina, half-mortal, is able to enter the church and stage a one-girl rescue mission–which she does, and it doesn’t go well. She gets a crown of thorns dropped on her head, preventing her to cast spells, and she gets shot full of arrows. She never yields in her quest but she ultimately pays the price. She falls down and bleeds out. She dies.

And then she rises in a most fiery fashion.

The missionaries don’t know what to do. They immediately cower before the resurrected Sabrina’s might, recognizing that the arrows didn’t kill her and the crown ain’t stopping her spells. Sabrina, eyes fully white and hands in a furious blaze, smites all of her adversaries while proclaiming herself in an unholy voice “the Dark Lord’s sword.”

Watching all of this play out, it hit me: this is totally a Dark Phoenix moment, the kind of thing that X-Men fans know is a major sign of trouble. It’s the point of no return moment, a very deliberate development that no show can take back. It heralds big, bad things to come. For the uninitiated, you may be wondering what “Dark Phoenix” even means. Fortunately for viewers, and completely surprising to me, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina actually got all textual and cited its source in the opening of the next episode! When Sabrina, now back to her version of normal, asks Harvey what he saw in the church, he says:

Are you kidding me?! The “Dark Phoenix Saga” imagery wasn’t only blatant, it was intentional. Harvey doesn’t stop there. “Jean Grey was this really powerful mutant and when she was on the verge of death, something saved her. This, like, cosmic entity made up of pure energy called the Phoenix Force.” I never once thought that Sabrina would use the term “Phoenix Force” before an actual X-Men movie, but here we are–and I’m not complaining!

Chris Claremont and John Byrne crafted “The Dark Phoenix Saga” in 1980, stretching from X-Men #129 to #137 (or #138, depending on which collection you buy). The storyline was itself a sequel to an earlier story, 1977’s “The Phoenix Saga” (X-Men #101-108). The initial storyline detailed Jean Grey’s sacrifice to save her teammates and rebirth as a cosmically-charged hero. The 1980 sequel saw Phoenix manipulated by dark influences that pushed her to succumb to her power, unleashing Dark Phoenix. These sagas, specifically “Dark Phoenix,” are widely considered not only the greatest X-Men stories of all time but some of the greatest superhero stories ever, period.

Harvey, himself an illustrator and comic book fan, is right to make the comparison. Just like Jean Grey’s sudden evolution into Phoenix (35-ish years of retcons aside), Sabrina suddenly finds herself possessing godlike abilities that threaten to corrupt her absolutely. She even proclaims herself “the Dark Lord’s sword,” which is frighteningly similar to Phoenix’s proclamation that she is “fire and life incarnate.” And just like in the comics, this Dark Phoenix moment changes everything for CAOS.

This isn’t the first time a TV show has paid direct homage to the classic X-Men story, either. Buffy took its resident witch Willow down a similar path in Season 6, with characters comparing her vein-y, black-hair makeover to Dark Phoenix. More recently, Stranger Things–yeah, another Netflix sci-fi show–ventured into “Dark Phoenix Saga” territory.

In fact, there’s a lot Stranger Things has in common with X-Men, and it’s established in the very first episode when the kids namecheck X-Men #134–the first full appearance of Dark Phoenix. You can see some of Jean’s arc in Eleven’s journey, specifically her mental powers and struggle to contain them. Both “Dark Phoenix Saga” and Stranger Things Season 1 end with the powerful character’s apparent demise, something Sabrina didn’t have to deal with at the end of Part 2 (Sabrina only died the once, whereas Jean died twice… sorta, y’know, it’s a whole other thing). Still, I gotta give the edge to Sabrina for actually calling out its Dark Phoenix connection by name. What a thrill!

What makes all this so delicious is that Netflix has somehow released two stories inspired by “The Dark Phoenix Saga” that feel way more spiritually aligned with the source material than anything any actual X-Men movies have delivered. The X-Men cartoon handled it well in a four-parter back in 1994, but the 2006 movie X-Men: The Last Stand did not. This is the “Dark Phoenix Saga” adaptation that never once says the phrase “Phoenix Force.” Adding insult to injury, they made Famke Janssen wear this:

Because of a whole lot of time travel, the X-Men movie franchise is actually getting a do-over on the storyline with the release of Dark Phoenix this June. But, just going off what we’ve seen of the heavily delayed film, it looks like a lot of the same mistakes are going to be repeated again. Just look at this glimpse of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) wielding her godlike powers while dressed for brunch with the gals:

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina not only out-X-Men’d Stranger Things, it looks like it’s also going to out-X-Men Dark Phoenix. Why aren’t either of these images of actual Dark Phoenix as powerful and haunting as Sabrina’s Dark Phoenix moment? Kiernan Shipka got a crown of thorns, a torso full of arrows, and flaming hands. Famke Janssen got a Party City-caliber corset and Sophie Turner got a lavender cardigan and boring jeans. Sigh.

Maybe Dark Phoenix will surprise me and deliver something up there with Dark Sabrina setting a bunch of angels on fire with her mind. I don’t have high hopes at this point and, honestly, I don’t know if it really matters. The X-Men movies may never get “The Dark Phoenix Saga” right, but I’ll always have Sabrina.

Stream Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix