Sabrina tries to create Magical Jumping Beans using substituted ingredients and, when she throws them out, they end up creating a beanstalk in the backyard. Of course Harvey ends up at the top of it, and there's a Wicked Witch (referred to as THE Wicked Witch) living there. She feasts on mortals, so you do the math.
Shelley Long guest stars.
Tropes:
- Absurdly Long Wait: While waiting in line at the YMCA, Hilda and Zelda talk to the elderly woman in front of them.Zelda: Excuse me, how long have you been waiting?Elderly Woman: My oldest boy Tom is fifty two.Hilda: That's very nice but how long have you been waiting.Elderly Woman: *annoyed* He was born in this line.
- All Just a Dream: The Spellmans make Harvey think the Witch was just part of a virtual reality game.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Sabrina is surprised that someone as attractive as the Wicked Witch could be evil. According to Hilda, she's had "a lot of work done".
- Brick Joke: Sabrina suggests a tree trimmer to get rid of the beanstalk, and her aunts laugh at this. Turns out that's what the YMCA recommends too.
- Brought Down to Normal: Because of the high altitude, Sabrina's powers are shorted out.
- Call-Back: As in "The Crucible", Harvey thinks that throwing water on a witch will melt her.
- Cat Up a Tree: The aunts force Salem to stand guard from the beanstalk re: a potential giant.
- Cats Have Nine Lives: Salem jumps from the top of the beanstalk and lands on his feet. Note that it's high up enough for Sabrina to allude to a pilot flying nearby.
- Chekhov's Gag: The Wicked Witch's 'Fatten Up' sprinkles somehow fell from the beanstalk, and Salem eats them offscreen, and balloons up.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Subverted. Sabrina tries to escape the Witch's cottage by eating the gingerbread wall she created earlier, but the Witch catches them before they can get very far.
- Played straight with Zelda's x-ray helmet. Harvey assumes it's a virtual reality videogame when he first sees it, and they then use it to make him think the run-in with the Witch was just VR.
- Damsel out of Distress: Although Sabrina is captured when the Witch realises she's half-mortal and her powers are shorted out, she waits until the Witch is asleep and uses her magic to set them free.
- Distressed Dude: The episode's plot is about rescuing Harvey from the Wicked Witch.
- Equippable Ally: Sabrina uses the fattened up Harvey to knock the Witch out of the way.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: Sabrina inflicts this on the Witch; not only is she locked in her house for good, she's turned into a vegetarian!
- Fractured Fairy Tale: Magic beans create a beanstalk, at the top of which lives a Wicked Witch who eats mortals. Sabrina also conjures a gingerbread wall.
- Forgot I Could Fly: The Witch chases the fleeing Sabrina for a while, before remembering she can teleport.
- Fun with Acronyms: Yikes Magic Crisis Agency. Sabrina naturally thinks her aunts mean the song first.
- Genre Savvy: The Witch magically traps Harvey and Sabrina in the cooking pot to stop them escaping while she takes a nap.
- The Ghost: Valerie doesn't physically appear in this episode, but Sabrina does talk to her over the phone.
- Hot Witch: When you've got a witch played by Shelley Long, it's natural that Sabrina would go on about her beauty.
- I Am a Humanitarian: The Wicked Witch eats mortals, and is interested in Sabrina once she realises she's half-mortal too.
- Insistent Terminology: When Sabrina notices that the aunts came back from the Other Realm with a tree trimmer (the very suggestion they had laughed at her for making), Zelda grumpily says he's "an arborist".
- Power Perversion Potential: Hilda uses Zelda's x-ray helmet to see what the mailman looks like in his underwear.
- Pungeon Master: The Wicked Witch dishes out a few.
- "We dress for dinner here. But in your case, that means oyster dressing."
- When Sabrina and Harvey run away - "I don't like fast food!"
- After they've escaped, she angrily calls them "lean cuisines".
- Remember the New Guy?: There's always been a periscope in the kitchen, and Sabrina has just never noticed it.
- Running Gag: Salem spends the episode asking repeatedly for a sandwich.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Salem decides he'll climb the beanstalk to help Sabrina. By the time he arrives, she's already saved Harvey.
- Skewed Priorities: Upon seeing the beanstalk for the first time, Hilda goes "now where are we gonna plant our bulbs?"
- Space Whale Aesop: Don't slam doors, or you'll wake the witch you're trying to escape from.
- Spoof Aesop: "Don't procrastinate" is the episode's Aesop, with the aunts and Salem lecturing Sabrina whenever she procrastinates. But when they tell her to wait until they come back with help, she doesn't listen, and actually saves Harvey. While annoyed with her for going up the beanstalk too, they have to give it to her that she didn't procrastinate. Sabrina seems like she's learned her lesson too, but then immediately procrastinates working on their schoolwork once Harvey suggests something else. What's more is that Harvey and Sabrina were only saved because the Witch procrastinated eating them!
- Temporary Bulk Change: Harvey is very quickly bloated by the Wicked Witch with food spiked with magical sprinkles called Fatten Up. Descending with Sabrina down the beanstalk sees him shedding those pounds just as quickly.
- This Is Reality: Quoth Sabrina - "This isn't fantasy. Now let's get off this cloud and down that beanstalk!"
- Visual Pun: At the YMCA, there's a man seen running around covered in literal red tape.
- Wrong Genre Savvy:
- Zelda assumes there will be a giant at the top of the beanstalk. It's actually the Wicked Witch.
- Harvey thinks throwing water on the Witch will make her melt.
