Ambrose Spellman

Ambrose Spellman is a main character on Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. He is portrayed by Chance Perdomo.

He is a witch that resides in the town of Greendale, located on the opposite side of the Sweetwater River from Riverdale. Due to a binding spell, he's been trapped in Spellman Mortuary for 75 years.

Character Description
''Ambrose is Sabrina's "cousin" and a necromancer. He is witty, puckish, pan-sexual—and loves being a witch. Trapped in the funeral home due to a binding spell, Ambrose lives in the mortuary's attic and acts as one of Sabrina's partners in crime''

Early Life
Ambrose is an old witch who moved from university to university seeking comfort in a father figure after the witch hunters killed his father. At the age of seventeen, Ambrose published his first poetry collection. In the 40s, Ambrose met a young Aleister Crowley and became one of his followers. Fascinated by revolutionary and controversial ideas, Ambrose and unknown accomplices attempted to blow up the Vatican. Ambrose was the only witch to be arrested among all the culprits. Although he was offered incolumity in exchange for the names of his accomplices, Ambrose did not betray the cause and for that reason was confined to the Spellman Mortuary with a binding spell. Since then, he began working as a mortician there, coping his depression and loneliness with sarcasm, jokes and family affection.

Season 1
NOTE:SUMMARIES ARE A WORK IN PROGRESS

On the morning of October 28th at the breakfast table, Ambrose is reading a book while Zelda reads the newspaper and Hilda is cooking. The family is soon joined by Sabrina who reveals that she didn't sleep well due to excitement for her upcoming 16th birthday and that a bat broke her window last night. Ambrose is immediately interested, and asks if Sabrina wants him to bring him back. But Zelda immediately says that they will not need his necromancy. Sabrina, then, asks if she can bury it in the garden and Hilda replies that she can bury it in the Pet Cemetery, near the sundial, before giving her niece a herbal concoction in a jar. To purify her body before the Dark Baptism, the aunts say. Ambrose suggests Sabrina not to drink it while pretending to cough, but Zelda silences him and asks Sabrina to pick up a familiar from the register sent by the Council. Sabrina, however, has already decided on summoning her own familiar in an unusual way by using a spell from the Demonomicon.

At the cemetery, Ambrose asks Sabrina for a penny dreadful for her thoughts. Ambrose, in fact, has noticed that something is wrong with his cousin. Ambrose asks if she is having doubts about her upcoming Dark Baptism. Sabrina replies that she is not sure, but Ambrose reassures her by telling her that he too was tense at the time of his initiation. Therefore, he wants to know what she said to her mortal friends; if she is still determined to use the "studying at a posh boarding school in Connecticut" lie. But Sabrina hasn't told her friends that she is leaving yet. She's waiting for the right time. Ambrose says that there will never be a right time and that after the Dark Baptism, Sabrina will finally feel that she belongs and will no longer feel uncomfortable with her dual nature. Sabrina is sad and asks her cousin if you can miss something before you even lose it. Ambrose nods, saying that he has been trapped in the Spellman Mortuary ground for the last 75 years. He constantly misses everything. Ambrose then enters the house, leaving Sabrina to her thoughts.

On the porch of Spellman Mortuary, Ambrose is surfing the net when Sabrina returns from school. The girl is visibly sad and Ambrose tries to comfort her. Sabrina reveals that she told Harvey that she is a witch, but forced him to forget with a spell because it was too horrible to bear. Ambrose is worried about her cousin, but he does not know how to help her. Sabrina says that she will find a way. However, she asks Ambrose to help her with a spells later, midnight-ish. Ambrose is happy to help her, appreciating the spooky witching hour chosen for spell casting.

In the attic, Sabrina and Ambrose decide how to hex Principal Hawthorne. Ambrose suggests to kill him, but she just wants to give him a good scare and adds that the principal is terrified of spiders. Ambrose replies that it will be easy, since Hilda's familiars are spiders. The two witches gather the glass cages with the spiders and Ambrose puts Hawthorne's photo that Sabrina ripped from a yearbook in one of the cages, among the spiders. Ambrose and Sabrina begin chanting the spell, conjuring a disturbing vision of spiders crawling all over the body and the room of Principal Hawthorne, causing him to have a shock.

The next morning, Ambrose is reading his book while the Spellman women have breakfast. Sabrina found her familiar the night before, a black cat named Salem. Zelda does not find the name to be appropriate, but Sabrina replies that he named himself like that. Sabrina, then, asks if her Dark Baptism can be postponed because of the club she founded at school, creating a little family drama that immediately catches Ambrose's attention, especially when Aunt Zelda asks Sabrina if the reason is that she and Harvey had sex. Sabrina is shocked by the question and denies, adding that she has reservations about remaining a virgin for the Dark Lord. After all, it's her own body, and she does not want to be part of the Church of Night because of what they did to her parents, angering Zelda even more.

Outside on the porch, Ambrose tries to comfort Sabrina after the fight with Aunt Zelda. He asks if Sabrina enjoyed the spell they have cast on Hawthorne because the euphoria and the power she tasted are nothing if she won't be baptized. Sabrina is still undecided. Ambrose suggests finding a "Malum Malus"; according to whether the translator is a man or a woman, it is the apple of evil or the fruit of knowledge, respectively. Ambrose tells Sabrina to go to an orchard and find the oldest tree to pick an apple from its branch. With a bite, she can have a glimpse of the future.

Later in the embalming room, Ambrose is working on a recently deceased young man named Connor Kemper. While fixing the corpse, he notices a sign on the corpse's right arm and immediately calls Hilda and Zelda. Ambrose suspects that the sign is a Witch's Mark because it doesn't bleed when that spot of skin is pierced by a needle. Zelda is not convinced, but both Hilda and Ambrose are pretty sure the dead man was a witch. They decide that they must report to the Council, and Hilda suggests summoning the person closest to the Dark Lord.

In the evening, Ambrose is standing by the fireplace when Sabrina returns home and her aunts present the young witch to Father Blackwood, the High Priest of the Church of Night.

Ambrose is standing by the fireplace and silently listens to Father Blackwood lecturing Sabrina on the Dark Baptism and the underlying concepts of their religion. Before the High Priest leaves, however, Ambrose asks his opinion about the corpse of Connor Kemper in the embalming room. Father Blackwood agrees that it is indeed a Witch's Mark and inquires on the decease ond's parents. Hilda and Zelda reply that he was adopted by two mortals and Father Blackwood takes the opportunity to scare Sabrina about what happens to wayward witches.

At the breakfast table, Ambrose congratulates Harvey on his drawings and the two boys exchange opinions about their love for comics and graphic novels. Ambrose is very much into Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison. Harvey invites Sabrina to the bowling for the evening after her birthday, and Ambrose silently watches Zelda giving Harvey a death stare.

At the Mortuary, Ambrose receives a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Kemper to show them Connor in his coffin. Mrs. Kemper is touched by the care with which Ambrose fixed him, and Ambrose invites them for tea. While pouring tea, Ambrose asks if there have been any news in the investigation. Mr. Kemper says the police know nothing, and they didn't even find out why Connor was in that park in the first place. Ambrose inquires if they have to wait for a large crowd during the wake, but Mrs. Kemper replies that Connor didn't have many friends other than the iguana with whom he used to have conversations. She could swear that sometimes it seemed to her as if Connor expected the iguana to answer. Ambrose jumps to the conclusion that it is Connor's familiar.

Accompanying the Kemper outside, Ambrose watches them leave while Aunt Zelda comes back from the cemetery with a shovel. Zelda reminds Ambrose that they should not meddle in mortals affairs but Ambrose replies that Connor was not a mortal. Ambrose then asks about Hilda, and Zelda replies that she annoyed her, so she killed Hilda and buried her in the yard.

At breakfast, Zelda informs Sabrina that she has called the school to say that she will be absent and Sabrina complains that she has not been able to say goodbye to her friends. Ambrose intrudes in the conversion, wondering if Sabrina will use the excuse of having to move to a "posh boarding school in Connecticut". Zelda suggests sending them a postcard. Since Zelda and Hilda are busy with the preparations of the Dark Baptism, Zelda orders Ambrose to keep an eye on Sabrina.

In the living room, Ambrose is lying on a sofa reading tarot while Sabrina asks him questions about why witches and mortals can not be together. Sabrina claims that he and the aunts always talk with mortals, but Ambrose points out that although they have conversations with mortals, they have no real connection or relationship with them since the coven forbids it. Sabrina jokingly asks if the coven will cast a spell on her should she go to the mall with Harvey, but Ambrose explains that after the Baptism, it will be as if a veil falls between her and the mortal world. And little by little, she will detach from the mortal realm altogether. Otherwise, the suffering would be too much because the mortal world will become trivial. People she loves will grow old and die while she is still young. Ambrose advises her to forget about the mortals and think about what's ahead. Sabrina leaves the room in tears, saying that she will go to the party with Harvey for a last night with her friends.

Some time later, Harvey shows up at the Spellman door dressed as a miner. Ambrose teases him, saying that Harvey is dressed as his future. He then yells Sabrina's name from downstairs. Harvey seems sad about what Ambrose just said and tries to justify his costume by saying he took it from his brother Tommy, so the warlock tells him he was only joking. Harvey invites him to join them, but Ambrose refuses, saying that if he has to risk being banished to the Nether Realm, it must be for something other than a high school masquerade. Harvey does not grasp the reference, and the attention of both is caught by Sabrina on top of the stairs. She is wearing her mother's wedding dress.

In the middle of the night, Ambrose rushes out of the house when he hears Sabrina screaming his name. A horde of witches is behind her with the intention of forcing Sabrina to sign the Book of the Beast. Ambrose steps in, lying to the High Priest when he threatens to send the Weird Sisters after Sabrina. Ambrose, in fact, says that the house is surrounded by a magical protective circle that can only be surpassed by Spellman witches. All the other witches would be engulfed by fire in the attempt. The plan works and the witches leave.

In the following days, the tension at the Spellman's house is so tight that it can be cut. Zelda is extremely disappointed and angry with Sabrina for the humiliation that the family suffered from the whole Coven due to Sabrina's behavior. Ambrose witnesses another quarrel between Zelda and Sabrina, who says she saw her parents in the woods and that they told her to escape during the Baptism. Ambrose asks if it was like a spectral apparition, but Sabrina is not sure.

Physical Appearance
Ambrose is an old British witch of African descent. Despite his age, he appears as a muscular young man in his twenties. Because he is trapped in the house by a curse, Ambrose is more often than not barefoot and wearing trousers and a silk robe on a bare chest. When working in the embalming chamber, Ambrose wears goggles, rubber gloves and an apron to protect himself from blood and other fluids while working on corpses. In the rare occasions when Ambrose left the house, he wore a velvet blazer, shirt, pants and Chelsea boots.

Personality
Ambrose is a sagacious and witty man who is always ready to assist and advise Sabrina in her teenage witch dramas. Although Ambrose enjoys taking part in hexing people or indulging his own lust with other witches of both sexes, he is also a learned witch who has personally experienced the price to pay for breaking Witch-Law. Ambrose's knowledge of witchcraft spans many occult disciplines and practices, including exorcisms and necromancy. Because he is confined to the home, Ambrose has slowly developed a form of depression fueled by a sense of loneliness and isolation that has become clear during the attack of Batibat, a sleep demon, at the Spellman house.

Powers and Abilities

 * Spell Casting: The power to change and control events through the use of incantations, commands, or even gestures.
 * Necromancy: The ability to control, manipulate, and revive the dead.
 * Astral Projection: The ability to project their astral form from their body, essentially becoming a ghost.
 * Warding: The ability to place protection spells and wards on places and people, shielding them from harm.
 * Longevity: As a full warlock, Ambrose ages at a slower rate than mortals.

Trivia

 * Chilling Adventures of Sabrina showrunner, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, wrote the role of Ambrose Spellman with Chance Perdomo in mind.