'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' Part 3: Sabrina and Harvey's relationship deserves a second chance despite it ending on a sour note, here's why
When the Sabrina spin-off from Riverdale EP Roberto Aguirre-Sacaso was announced, fans of the 90s' show featuring Melissa Joan Hart rejoiced at getting new stories about the teenage witch. The 2018 reboot, 'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' on Netflix was a completely different story altogether. For one, the show was much darker, Sabrina and Harvey were already dating, Sabrina already knew she was half-witch, she has a different set of friends and don't even get us started about Salem.
But what differed the most was the viewers' reaction to Harvey Kinkle and his relationship with Sabrina. Then along came Nick Scratch who charmed Sabrina and viewers alike. The main reason for this was Harvey's treatment of Sabrina throughout part 1 and partly in part 2. In part 1, Harvey is already in a relationship with Sabrina. When Sabrina starts using her powers, she gets ahead of herself in some situations which soon hampers their relationship. Take the Tommy-debacle for instance. Tommy - Harvey's brother - was killed in the mines in part 1 and Sabrina used her magic to bring him back to life. He ended up turning into a zombie, however, forcing Harvey to kill his own brother. This incident left Harvey very angry with Sabrina, for using magic on his family without his consent. It also made him extremely wary of her growing powers and the witch she was becoming. He did not understand this new side of Sabrina and this led to his poor treatment of their relationship. In addition to many viewers finding Harvey bland, his constant distrust of Sabrina (despite her good intentions), irked those of us watching. When their relationship ended, many thought, good riddance.
But Nick was a completely different thing, for one, we see their relationship blooming from strangers to friends to becoming a couple. His bad-boy vibes certainly helped make him more popular than Harvey as well. Nick seemed to accept both her witch and mortal sides, was always in support for her (except when he lied about his werewolf familiar, Amalia). Then came the revelation that he initially got close to her to spy on her for the Dark Lord. But, he still sacrificed himself to protect Sabrina and her town.
Meanwhile, Harvey almost immediately started dating Roz, one of Sabrina's best friends. By now it would seem that anything Harvey does would anger viewers. After all, how can he immediately go for his ex's best friend? When Madam Satan accelerated Roz's blindness, both of them immediately suspected Sabrina (after all, they weren't sure she was okay with them dating when she saw them kissing). It took Theo (Sabrina's other best friend) to remind them that no, Sabrina would never do something like that. Viewers were also exasperated at how quickly Roz and Harvey were antagonistic to Sabrina.
But despite the odds beings against Harvey, we still think he deserves a chance. Harvey's reaction to Sabrina's magic is quite understandable - he did have to shoot his brother when the latter became a zombie wreaking havoc. It would be difficult for him to see that what Sabrina did was because she truly cared about him, even though she did not keep in mind the consequences of her using her powers. Habrina is the OG OTP, but Ross Lynch's Harvey has barely gotten any character development. We also have not seen what it was about Harvey that drew Sabrina to him (we do see this for Nick and this could be why Nabrina is more popular). But in part 3, we will see Harvey and Sabrina working together while not being in a relationship. True, they will work together to save her boyfriend, but now Harvey is more receptive to magic and her witch side. With distance, both characters could be getting different perspectives about each other. Kiernan Shipka who plays Sabrina even shared a photo on Instagram that might mean we get to see this happening soon.
Harvey may seem boring to many viewers, but we do not see male characters like him content to play second fiddle to Sabrina. In the 90s series as well, Sabrina's and Harvey's relationship never overtook Sabrina's development on the show. Lynch's Harvey is a genuinely nice guy and we see his faults and flaws because he is not afraid to show it. Harvey could be what really ties Sabrina to her mortal side even. We would definitely like to see Harvey develop without his storylines revolving around either Sabrina or Roz. In fact, the character's best development came from outside his girlfriends (for example, the Tommy-debacle) and perhaps part 3 could give Harvey the space to develop on his own without dating anyone.