Sabrina tries to write a good story for English class, and chooses Spy Fiction and bases all of her characters on real people (e.g. Harvey playing the protagonist and Mr. Kraft playing the villain), but unknowingly uses Hilda's old magical typewriter. As a result, the characters from her story come to life and run around the school. Meanwhile, the aunts have to deal with an Other Realm chain letter and the resulting curses from not mailing it on.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Harvey's sidekick is the kickass Vivian.
- Affectionate Parody: Of the spy genre, most notably James Bond. There are also elements of The Avengers (1960s) and the Matt Helm films such as The Wrecking Crew (itself a parody).
- Ass Pull: An in-universe example. Characters that come to life with the Magical Typewriter cannot do anything they haven't been described to be able to do in the story, or does not match their personalities (as was discussed between Zelda and Hilda). Evil Cripple Dr. Bad rejects Zelda's ending because he does not care about the legal ramifications of killing Derek, while Derek initially has no idea how to disarm the bomb until Sabrina writes a backstory on how he knows how to do so.
- The B Grade: The entire cast is shocked when Sabrina gets a C- on her homework.
- Bald of Evil: Dr. Bad to a T.
- Bullying a Dragon: Libby attempts to mock who she believes to be Valerie - but is actually Vivian. The latter then demonstrates the martial arts skills she bragged about before.
- The Cameo: Figure skater Michelle Kwan cameos as a student Dr Bad nearly kills.
- Chekhov's Skill: Early into the episode, Sabrina's teacher tells her that creating realistic characters involves knowing their strengths and weaknesses, and what drives them. Sabrina ends up in a situation where Derek has to disarm a bomb, but does not know how. She ends up giving him a backstory of having previously worked at the bomb disposal unit of the FBI.
- Cruel Cheerleader: Taken to new extremes with Lydia, Libby's alter ego in the spy story. She's an assassin in a cheerleading uniform that has explosives hidden in her pom poms.
- Cursed with Awesome: The aunts muse that being magically taller was quite fun.
- Dance Party Ending: Both Hilda and Salem's suggestions for the ending involve all the characters square dancing.
- Dark Action Girl: Dr Bad is helped by the evil Lydia Kissnkill, who has a dangerous laser and a bomb hidden in a pompom.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Sabrina's attempts at writing a romance scene?"Robert looked at Claire. Claire looked at Robert. Robert and Claire were looking at each other."
- Everyone Has Standards: Mr Kraft usually lets Libby get away with everything, but even he wouldn't turn a blind eye to her attacking him and not having a hall pass. Of course it would just have to be Lydia in this case.
- Evil Cripple: Dr. Bad is confined to a wheelchair. It is never explained how it happened.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Occurs twice when Sabrina tells her aunts what's going on and how she was too tired to write the ending, to which they tell her that the characters cannot die, because when that happens, their real-world counterparts die, as well:Sabrina: The people in my spy story, they came to life and are running around my school!
Zelda: The only way that could possibly happen is if you accidentally used Hilda’s magic typewriter, but she got rid of that years ago, didn’t you, Hilda?
Hilda: By "get rid of", you don’t mean "kept", do you?
Zelda: Hilda!
Hilda: I’m sorry, I know I was supposed to give it away, but I just... I love writing romance stories with myself as the heroine, and then watching them come to life. It isn’t pathetic, is it?
Sabrina: Can we come up with a solution? There’s a group of international spies running around my school! And my neck is killing me.
Zelda: Oh, dear, what kind of an ending did you write for your story?
Sabrina: Well, it was late and I was really tired, so I just had Doctor Bad...
[at the school, Dr. Bad prepares his bomb]
Dr. Bad: When this bomb goes off, all the teenagers will be annihilated, and everyone will think they were killed in a science lab experiment gone terribly awry.
Lydia: Doctor Bad, you are a genius, an evil genius.
[as Dr. Bad lets out an Evil Laugh, the scene switches back to the Spellman residence, where Sabrina tells her aunts the Wham Line]
Sabrina: I had him blow up the school!
[the aunts gasp in shock] - Eyepatch of Power: Dr Bad wouldn't be a spy supervillain without an eyepatch.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Mrs. Doohickey. However, she can only make items blow up rather than stop them from blowing up.
- Gag Echo: Sabrina and her teacher share a moment talking about how awful climbing the rope in gym class is. After the conversation is over, an excited Harvey runs by her and says "we get to climb the rope" in gym.
- Gainax Ending: Hilda justifies her idea of a Dance Party Ending by saying it's unexpected.
- Guilty Pleasure: Hilda admits to her old habit of typing self-insert romance novels with the magic typewriter, and then watching them come to life.
- I Know Karate: Vivian brags about her martial arts credentials.Vivian: I have a black belt in twenty-four disciplines of Oriental martial arts.
Sabrina: Then clearly I'm coming with you. - Identical Twin ID Tag: All the characters are distinguished from Sabrina's friends and foes from the following:
- The villain, Dr. Bad, is based on Mr. Kraft. He is bald, in a wheelchair, with no glasses and an eyepatch.
- Dr. Bad's lackey, Lydia Kissandkill, is based on Libby. She has a Sci-Fi Bob Haircut and black cheerleading uniform.
- The hero, Derek Kink, is based on Harvey. He wears a suit and has his hair in a short-back-and-sides.
- Derek's partner, Vivian Soontodie, is based on Valerie. She has waist-length hair and wears a catsuit.
- Derek's Gadgeteer Genius, Mrs. Doohickey, is based on Mrs. Quick. She wears her hair up and has glasses and wears a lab coat.
- Inelegant Blubbering: After being attacked by Lydia, Mr Kraft is left a whimpering mess. His Madness Mantra is even "don't start sobbing until you get to your office."
- Lame Pun Reaction:
- Sabrina gets fed up of Derek's puns when she's trying to provide exposition.
- Reaching its zenith is when Dr Bad has Derek tied to a buzzsaw.Derek: There's always been an unpleasant edge to you, Dr Bad.
Dr Bad: I am killing you just to stop the puns!
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Sabrina saves everyone's lives by ending the story, and is rewarded with detention from Mr Kraft.
- One Dose Fits All: Mrs Doohicky's poisoned erasers knock anyone out instantly. Vivian appears to recover before Mr Kraft however.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Defied by the Magical Typewriter. The characters will outright refuse to go on with the story if they think their actions make no sense, as demonstrated when Zelda tried to make Dr. Bad not kill Derek due to all the legal consequences that would entrail.
- Pungeon Master: Derek Kink drops puns in every other line of dialogue.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Derek Kink wouldn't be the hero of a spy story without an immaculate suit. When Valerie sees him, she first wonders if he's attending a prom.
- Shout-Out: Besides the obvious, The Stinger has Hilda and Zelda gaining wings as punishment for the chain letters.Sabrina: I loved you in The Wizard of Oz - fly, fly!note
- Spy Catsuit: Vivian wears a tight black one. Libby mocks it for being out of fashion. As for mobility, we can assume A Wizard Did It, since Sabrina's magic created her.
- Taking You with Me: Discussed twice:
- When Sabrina tells her aunts she was too tired to write the ending to her story, with the ending being she had Dr. Bad blow up the school, she didn't know it in the first place, but because she is working with a magic typewriter, she cannot let her characters die, because when that happens, their real-life counterparts die, too, and the only way the characters will vanish and leave their real-life counterparts unharmed is after Sabrina has written a proper ending to the story.
- Lampshaded by Dr. Bad when Sabrina and the spies finally find the bomb in the cafeteria and attempt to disarm it, at which point not only have all the characters been brought together, but so have their real-life counterparts out in the hall:Dr. Bad: [fires a laser at Derek, knocking the wire cutters out of his hand] I believe you are all my prisoners.
Sabrina: You don’t understand. There’s only a few seconds left. If-if Derek doesn’t disarm the bomb, we’re all gonna die!
Dr. Bad: Then we will all die together! [Evil Laugh]
- This Banana is Armed: As per usual in the spy genre, there are items that look mundane, but are actually secret weapons.
- Lydia's pom-bomb, looks like an ordinary cheerleader's pom-pom (aside from the black color scheme, but explodes when thrown at someone.
- Lydia also has a lipstick that doubles as a laser. She fires it at Mr Kraft when he demands her hall pass.
- Mrs Doohickey's erasers emit a poisonous chalk dust when clapped. She knocks out Vivian as a demonstration, then Mr Kraft when he bothers her.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Zelda suggests Sabrina use a typewriter in the attic to do her story, not realizing it's actually Hilda's magic one.
- Write Who You Know: In-Universe. Sabrina, in an attempt to create realistic character, makes all the characters in her Spy Fiction story based on people she knows.
