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Ambrose Spellman, however, has become a captivating favorite among fans and skeptics alike.
There is something about him, this warlock confined to the Spellman home.
But nothing so trite as mysterious distinguishes Ambrose from the slate of delightful personalities that romp across Greendale.
Ambrose doesnt conjure so much as emit from every sly movement, every lolling turn of phrase.
Whats the matter, love?
Nothing, Ambrose replies.
Ambrose is in bondage.
(Ambroses cautious plea, I like him, Auntie, would have done me in, personally.)
(Their courtship resumes when Hilda steps in, again.)
In his popular 1917 essay, Mourning and Melancholia, Freud develops an account of two forms of grieving.
Mourning, though painful, is healthy; melancholia is pathological.
But a melancholic person,writesPrinceton professor Anne Anlin Cheng, is psychically stuck.
They consume and are consumed by their loss, which becomes formative to their sense of self.
We either overcome loss or are overcome by it.
The irregular circumstances surrounding Edward and Diana Spellmans deaths keep their loss open, unresolved.
Youre a witch, hes a mortal.
Worlds that are, and will always be, diametrically opposed, says Dream Zelda.
But Mom and Dad, Sabrina tries.
Flouted convention, Dream Zelda finishes from behind a lit cigarette, and where are they now?
Theyre both D-E-A-D. Dead.
Ambrose, by contrast, must wallow in his loss.
He cannot read or steep or sex it away, much as he tries.
Like Sabrina, Ambrose has a crucial parental loss in his past along with an impressive resume.
And then, I found one … And his mission became my mission.
Ambrose hopes and knows hope can be deadly.
It is little wonder why, apart from his overall dishyness, viewers have latched onto his mood.
I am continuously missing everything, he tells Sabrina in the first episode.
He smiles that beautiful half-smile no teeth this time looks down and walks away.
Upstairs, Dream Father Blackwood has news: The binding spell instituted under his uncles leadership delusion or real?
He laughs and first ventures emancipation in the form of a question.
Then in a sacred whisper, Im finally free.
He is frozen but conscious, blank-faced yet screaming.
Trapped in existential solitude, forever and ever, Batibat tsks.
In real life, post-Batibats nightmare, Father Blackwood does have a proposition for Ambrose.
What results is indentured servitude, orat bestan unpaid internship.
Come work for me, says Father Blackwood a devilish invitation from any source.
It will be community service.
The irony of Blackwoods offer is one of the many contradictions spidering across the Church of Nights doctrine.
By the end of the season, Ambrose is mobile but unfree.
Ive bound you to the academy, says Luke.
You have to stay.
As the episode concludes, Ambrose glances uneasily at the men Luke insists are his brothers.
they chant in unison.
Ambrose, loner in a crowd, does not join in.
He shifts back and forth.
His eyes are afraid.
