'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' Part 3: Could Nick Scratch be the Dark Lord? The answer lies in the name itself
When Part 2 of 'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' dropped in Netflix in April 2019, viewers were left shocked by the end that saw Sabrina's boyfriend Nick Scratch sacrificing himself to trap Lucifer in his body. Nick's unconscious body was taken into Hell by Lilith and Sabrina decides to go rescue her boyfriend with the help of her friends.
Fans have been theorizing since then to determine Nick's future in Parts 3 and 4. After all, the character did not previously exist in the comics and a normal teenage warlock could not be powerful enough to trap the Dark Lord in his body. The lack of information about Nick's past and the meaning behind his name has only fueled fans to dig deeper. Considering Gavin Leatherwood, who plays Nick Scratch, has been promoted to series regular, we can expect to see more of Nick and learn about his fate and perhaps, even where he comes from.
We look at a few of the theories surrounding Nick and what that could mean for Part 3 and Sabrina's future.
Nick Scratch is...
... the Dark Lord
The most common theory suggests that Nick has more to do with the devil than just spying on Sabrina for the latter. In addition to being a composite of old English colloquial terms for Satan, "Old Scratch" and "Old Nick", the name Mr. Scratch is also used as a moniker for the devil in Stephen Vincent Benet's short story, 'The Devil and Daniel Webster'. If the title seems familiar, it is because the character of Daniel Webster appears in 'Chapter Three: The Trial of Sabrina Spellman'. Webster is revealed to be a human lawyer who once made a deal with the devil to be the best lawyer in the world. Could the writers take further inspiration from Benet's story and reveal CAOS' Mr. Scratch is the devil himself?
Sabrina's brother
In Part 1, during a vision when Sabrina sees her parents soothe a crying baby, she sees two babies on looking closer. One of the babies has goat feet like the Baphomet version of the Dark Lord. This has not been addressed further in the show and was expected to be a metaphor for Sabrina's mortal side and what we now know to be her devil side. But what if Sabrina does have a twin? In Melissa Joan Hart's 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch', the Spellman family secret is that every Spellman has a twin. Considering we don't know much about Nick's background except that he lost his family at a young age, Nick could be Sabrina's twin. It wouldn't be the first time the concept of incest has come on the show.
Edward Spellman
This might be one of the rare theories but is slowly gaining traction. In the 'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' comic series, Edward Spellman was shown to be alive and quite an evil person. Could Nick Scratch merely be an avatar for the man who isn't Sabrina's father after all? There might be a few clues pointing towards this. In the show, Daniel Webster's mentor was Edward Spellman and in Benet's short story Webster was defending a man who sold his soul to the devil. Could Edward have sold his soul to the devil and be masquerading as Nick in service to Satan? Additionally, in Part 1, Nick thinks Edward was the best conjurer in the coven and gives Sabrina one of Edward's journals, which opportunistically holds information about the Acheron configuration they need to trap the devil. What's more, before he sacrifices himself, Nick even states "I'm the best binder and conjurer since Edward Spellman. If anyone can keep him trapped, it's me." Then there is Nick's familiar -- named Amalia, meaning "work of God" in Hebrew -- who could be named for Edward's wife Diana, which means "heavenly". Additionally, Diana is the goddess of the moon and is often associated with wild animals.
The new King of Hell
Nick could also not be any of the above and might just be a person of his own. We could, however, see Nick and Lucifer wage an internal battle for Nick's body while in Hell. Nick could even beat Lucifer and take over the role of the Dark Lord himself and fight to be the next King of Hell. If Sabrina does succeed in bringing Nick back to Earth from Hell, it could be a version of him that promises a dark future for Greendale.