As Netflix's The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comes to a close on December 31 with its fourth season, fans can look back and marvel at its heroine's growth. Sabrina has gone from a half-mortal struggling to stay with her human friends to the Queen of Hell, and now both sides of her life have come together in one battle to prevent the end of all things.
Thankfully, she has her friends by her side - even when they seem to be headed in opposite directions. As much as the series has focused on Sabrina's own exploits and adventures, showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has also made room for the stories of her friends. Roz (Jaz Sinclair) develops powers of her own that need to be explored, Theo's (Lachlan Watson) journey of self-identity spoke to countless teens at home, and both get to experience romances of their own.
At a recent press event, Sinclair and Watson spoke to Screen Rant and several other outlets about what to expect for Roz and Theo in the final season, about how it felt to say farewell to the series, and about what made this season even more fun than before.
In season 4, Sabrina finally moved into monster of the week territory. What was it like diving into the Eldritch Terrors?
Lachlan Watson: I think it was particularly fun having it be sort of this cosmic, existential horror realm to deal with, because our monsters have always been kind of overarching; more of a moral ambiguity problem than a physical, "it'll eat your soul out" type deal. I think it was a really fun thing to play with, these kids really getting to just suit up and figure things out, and then deal with the psychological elements of existential dread.
Jaz Sinclair: I think my favorite was "The Uninvited." We just really enjoyed that episode. I don't remember who the director was, but he was so great. Working with him was such a pleasure, and he really cared. He wouldn't let you get past the scene unless you really nailed the scene, and it made for this feeling of being a part of something and being in an acting troupe and really wanting to do a great job. And the Fright Club got to perform in that episode, too. For me, that was probably my favorite Eldritch terror.
Lachlan Watson: I think the Darkness was really fun. I don't know if we really got to do a lot with the Darkness, but I think visually that one's gonna be really, really cool. And Kiernan killed it. So, I like that one a lot.
Now that everything's coming to an end, what has been your favorite part about playing your characters?
Jaz Sinclair: I love that Roberto is such a wickedly smart, brave creative. Because it has been such a pleasure not knowing what the heck my character is going to get into until she's all the way into it. He's like, "Oh, you're a cheerleader now." I'm like, "Great!" "Oh, you play the bass now." I'm like, "Great!" "Oh, you're a witch now." "Great!"
Being able to roll with the punches - and he throws so many - was really fun. Because when you're doing something for so long, it would be easy to get bored or complacent or whatever. Always knowing that something new was coming, or something fun was coming, was really a pleasure.
Lachlan Watson: For Theo, it was really cool that Theo's arc kind of echoes a little bit of my early teenhood, of figuring out who I was. It was really cool to dip back into that and to be able to hold Theo's hand, and watch them really also come full circle into a fully realized person and find that happiness. Because I think everyone was a little worried that Theo's life would just be really sad for a while.
Jaz Sinclair: It was sad at the beginning.
Lachlan Watson: It was so sad! To be able to come full circle and show some queer joy really meant a lot to my queer little self.
Jaz Sinclair: It meant a lot to a lot of people.
Lachlan Watson: And apparently it meant a lot to a lot of other people too. And that's just a plus.
After the last apocalyptic time loop was resolved, you're both are getting to spend a little bit more time with your significant others. Can you talk a little bit about your different dynamics with Robin and Harvey?
Jaz Sinclair: Well, we hated all of it. We hated going to work and getting paid to make out with beautiful, sweet men. It was just terrible. It was torture.
Lachlan Watson: We had to cuddle for 16 hours straight, and I just hated it.
Jaz Sinclair: Giggling and laughing? Ugh.
Lachlan Watson: Building a beautiful relationship? Terrible. 1 out of 10 experience.
Jaz Sinclair: Honestly, though, it was really, really special. I love that Theo and Roz get such juicy romance. It's such an easy thing with characters who are the friends of the main person to make their love subpar or not interesting or not developed.
But that you really feel for both of these relationships on different days in different ways, I just think is so special. We explore tension and vulnerability and sexuality and fear and love and joy in both relationships, I think is just such a treat that I think the fans are gonna love in part four especially.
Lachlan Watson: Yeah, we got to see the fruits of our emotional labor.
The musical aspect of the show really comes into its own in this part. How do you approach getting into those musical numbers?
Lachlan Watson: I think me and Jaz both really love music, and Ross comes from such a musical background. I think for us it was kind of second nature; it was really like a play time. We just really got to have fun.
Jaz Sinclair: The three of us have jams. We were already singing together, playing together, jamming together from the beginning just for fun. So, we already had a little bit of a musical language.
Lachlan Watson: Yeah, it was really fun. It satiates a theater part of me too, that it was the one time that we really got to rehearse something. Because most of the time you just get to read the script, and then you show up on the day. You have 10 minutes to block a scene, and then you're shooting it for a couple hours. And that's it.
But with the musical numbers, we got to learn choreography and we got to rehearse the musical aspects. We got to go into the recording booths and record the vocals, and you get to perform it.
Jaz Sinclair: And when we perform it, they have an audience. So, they have background there, and so they're just supposed to love it. Performing for people who are being paid to enjoy themselves? It's wonderful.
Lachlan Watson: It think we all had a great time with it. It was Roberto's Glee side coming out.
What have been the most challenging storylines to tackle for you both as actors this season?
Lachlan Watson: I think, ironically, with all the horror and existential terror - the hardest parts were the most human. The darkness and all of these horrible, terrible things happening, that wasn't the hard part. The hard part was kind of running into a rough patch with my boyfriend. That was the really tough part; digging into those really human emotions.
Even digging into the love is kind of hard sometimes. It's hard to be vulnerable. Whereas when you're just shotgun up, fighting a being, that's a lot easier to hide behind and get lost in; whereas the really intimate, vulnerable stuff like that, that's where the real work comes in. So, I had a lot of fun being able to dive underneath a little bit in this part.
Jaz Sinclair: I just had a lot of fun this run. When I was blind, that was hard. But getting to be a badass witch and being in love was amazing. I just loved it. I had a great time. Even the tender, vulnerable scenes, I think because I had already done so many scenes with Ross... Those scenes already had so much presence and chemistry that it always just felt like a playground for me in those moments. Yeah, I think I just mostly had fun this run.
Are you satisfied with how the story has ended, or are there places you would have liked it to go in future seasons?
Jaz Sinclair: I just think we did so much. We've done so much in so many different flavors, Every character has been up and down, and there's moments where you kind of hate them, and then moments where they're your favorite all the sudden. I just think that we've really, really, really soaked it up; took advantage of it, took risks, and did so much. While I would love to continue playing in this world, just because it's so fun, I definitely feel satisfied with where it's wrapping up and how it's wrapping up, and all of the juicy episodes that we're giving.
Lachlan Watson: Yeah, I think the characters are probably pretty exhausted. They just need a break. We just need to go to college; go to California and maybe smoke some weed or something. I don't know. Something outside of horrible, terrible, world-ending things.
But I think for the actors, I think we could have used a lot more time to explore and learn and love each other. I think as actors, we didn't get a lot of closure until now -virtual closure. But I think our characters' chapter maybe a little bit ready to be relaxed.
Were there any monsters that actually terrified you?
Lachlan Watson: Uncle Jesse wasn't technically a monster. He was a very sympathetic character, but man, he scared the heebie jeebies out of me.
Jaz Sinclair: This was early too, when we were just like, "No, we're going all in on the gory, nasty stuff." And we do that throughout, but it was when they were like, "Go!"
Lachlan Watson: You get used to it too. There's some horrible, mangled thing at crafty and you're like, "Hey, what's up, Eileen?" But I think Uncle Jesse, He just...
Jaz Sinclair: They always just mess him up the worst. With the boils and the peeling skin and the eyeball. He's the only character that I couldn't look at when he was on set. I was like, "I know you're so lovely, and I just can't be around you right now."
Lachlan Watson: Jason, who played him, was such a lovely guy. He knew my mom, and so we would always have lovely chats. And then he would just show up with half his face missing and try and ask me about my hometown, and I'd be like, "Jason, I cannot with you. I have to scream and cry about you later."
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season 4 is set to be released on December 31, 2020.