Sleepy Hollow Review: Evil teams up with Good. Temporarily.

I sense that there is a mix of the magic of the first season in this third installment of the show that is Sleepy Hollow. Team Witness is about to form reluctant alliances with the Hidden One and Pandora as each attempt to rescue their significant partners in this week’s episode.

The hour began with a group of middle-aged men are jamming in a garage when everything went dead silent. Then suddenly, a mysterious creature appeared and screamed an ear-piercing scream (quite literally) until the men died from ruptured eardrums. Ouch times double infinity. It was later revealed that the creature is none other than the infamous Banshee from Irish folklore. For the record, I totally called the whole Banshee thing the second she started screaming.

I rolled my eyes when Abbie came into the Archives with a pastry for Ichabod, only to have the latter tell her that she got the wrong order. He used the symbol and tablet combo and saw Abbie at the doughnut shop purchasing a summertime squash muffin. I’m sure that Ichabod wouldn’t have to resort to such invasive measures if Abbie had gotten him a bear claw and an almond beignet. Then again, too much sugar is not good for you Ichabod!

When the Hidden One appeared in the Archives and used his powers to choke Ichabod after Ichabod refused to tell the underworld god Abbie’s whereabouts, I didn’t expect the symbol, that magically flew out of Ichabod’s pocket when the Hidden One was about to obliterate the man out of time, to become some sort of evil god stopping talisman that draws energy from the divine being that it imprisons.

I also didn’t foresee the fact that Pandora was the one who told her fellow humans about the symbol, or the Emblem of Thura, which the humans used to imprison the Hidden One for millennia. The sorceress knows of a way to stop her undead husband from using his powers to break the magical barrier, but she needs her box and a living creature from another world. Okay, gang, let’s go catch ourselves a Banshee! (Did I just channel my inner Fred Jones from Scooby-Doo?)

Jenny, Joe and Agent Foster go to an Irish pub and asked the bartender, Connor, what he knows about dealing with a Banshee. The “ex-Belfast gunman and smuggler turned bon vivant, brewmaster, and whiskey blogger.” Told Jenny that in order to weaken the Banshee, they would need some pure iron, the older, the better and to make a whole lot of noise to make it appear. It almost worked when the Banshee was lured to an amphitheater with Beethoven’s Fifth (so awesome!) and was hogtied with iron cables and an industrial sound blanket. Shame she broke through the blanket and started screeching that high pitch screech of hers, making Jenny almost lose her grip on her cable. Joe then shot the Banshee dead before Jenny became the Banshee’s next victim. I sided with Agent Foster when she said that she’s not going to be the one to tell Pandora that they killed the Banshee.

Meanwhile, back at the Archives, Ichabod shows off his knowledge of pop culture by playing a Duke Ellington record on the gramophone and name-dropped several other artists like Beethoven, Mozart, the artist formerly known as Prince, famous painters like Picasso, Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Nina Simone, authors like Jane Austen and Yeats. He even gave a modern-day shout out to Charles M. Schultz, the man who brought the Peanuts gang to life. The Hidden One was unimpressed by Ichabod’s vast knowledge of everything pop culture and proceeded to use his powers to search all the books in the Archives that would help them bring down the barrier. Now that’s what I call speed reading. Mike Ross and Dr. Spencer Reid, take notes!

The biggest shock of all, aside from the Hidden One using a pen and a notebook to help Ichabod transcribe the correct alphabet for the cuneiform on the stone tablet, was that according to said tablet stated that both Ichabod and Abbie’s ancestors were also Witnesses. Mind equals blown! What is this?! The family business?! Does that mean that Henry/Jeremy would’ve been a Witness too if he hadn’t gone to the Dark Side along with his mother given that he’s also Ichabod’s son?

There was one part in this episode that was a bit predictable. When Jenny, Joe and Agent Foster got back to the tunnels, Jenny informed Pandora that the Banshee is no longer living. That meant that they would need a new creature to help stop the barrier and Joe Corbin steps in to be the substitute monster. Jenny wasn’t too happy with Joe’s decision, but Joe said that this could be his chance to finally be rid of the Wendigo.

After a nerve-wracking moment of Joe/Wendigo almost dying to Abbie caving in about giving Pandora a piece of her box back, everything went back to normal. The barrier was destroyed, Joe got the Wendigo out of his system (I hope) and earned himself a key to Jenny’s trailer and her undying love, even Ichabod and Abbie are going to celebrate with some delicious doughnuts. As for Pandora, she’s about to get an earful from her husband when he found out through the Emblem of Thura vision that Pandora knew the Witnesses had the emblem but didn’t tell him about it. Pandora looks like you got some ‘splaining to do!

Photo via FOX