WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 3, streaming now on Netflix.
After spending much of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina as one side of a love triangle, with Harvey Kinkle and Nicholas Scratch, Sabrina Spellman makes her romantic entanglements even more complicated in Part 3 with the addition of a new rival and potential suitor in Caliban, a self-proclaimed prince of Hell and a rival for its throne. But who is this handsome hunk of ... clay?
Portrayed by Australian newcomer Sam Corlett, he greets Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) and her friends in Episode 1, "The Hellbound Heart," on the Shores of Sorrow as they enter Hell to rescue Nicholas (Nicholas Scratch). Lazily building a sandcastle, Caliban doesn't introduce himself, but he does provide directions to Pandemonium, capital of the infernal underworld: Follow the Blood-Red Road, but don't stray from it.
Yes, the Hell of Sabrina is a lot like Oz, complete with a tin woodsman, scarecrows (souls hanging on crosses) and a haunted forest. But for Caliban, we need to look to another literary source: William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Believed to be one of the Bard's last plays, The Tempest is set on a remote island, where the shew shipwrecked sorcerer Prospero enslaves the monstrous Caliban, described as a "moon-calf" (that is, the abortive fetus of a cow). But of course the Caliban of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina bears no resemblance to his literary namesake.
Although in play the abusive Prospero refers to Caliban as "earth" and "filth," the Netflix series goes further. When he's formally introduced at court in "The Hellbound Heart" by the Plague Kings, who debuted in "The Epiphany," Caliban is described as "molded from the clay of the Pit itself" (although by whom isn't clear). He's a native son of Hell, formed from its very soil to lay claim to the throne and lead the kingdom's conquest of Earth. He's a young upstart, for sure, punching well above his weight; Lucifer doesn't even know who this so-called "Prince of Hell" is. But, in some ways, he is Hell, and not simply because he was created from its substance: Caliban is alluring, powerful and dangerous. What's more, his claim to its throne has the support of at least "666 of the highest-born" of the underworld, who have little desire to see Sabrina wear the crown.
Of course, Caliban doesn't look as if he's molded from clay; chisseled from marble, maybe, but not clay. That nevertheless comes in handy. In competition with Sabrina to locate the three artifacts known as the Unholy Regalia, with the winner ascending to the throne of Hell, Caliban becomes trapped at the time of the Crucifixion, and written off for dead. However, killing off a being of clay is no simple feat; he simply waited for 2,000 years "beneath the dust of the ages," and reemerged in time to shake up the court with his grand entrance.
That's not to say Caliban is immortal, or without flaws, mind you. Despite his penchant for treachery, his powerful allies at court, and his attempts to woo Sabrina (a political marriage, he offers, followed by joint rule), he's little match for the teenage witch -- or the pagans, for that matter.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina stars Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina Spellman, Ross Lynch as Harvey Kinkle, Michelle Gomez as Mary Wardwell/Madam Satan, Jaz Sinclair as Rosalind Walker, Lachlan Watson as Theo Putnam, Gavin Leatherwood as Nicholas Scratch, Tati Gabrielle as Prudence Blackwood, Chance Perdomo as Ambrose Spellman, Lucy Davis as Hilda Spellman, Richard Coyle as Faustus Blackwood and Miranda Otto as Zelda Spellman. Part 3 is streaming now on Netflix.