Sleepy Hollow‘s shift to get itself back on track in terms of the storyline has one positive effect and that is that we’ve spent more time with just Abbie and Ichabod working together to solve a case. I applaud the chemistry that Nicole Beharie and Tom Mison have had together on this show, but that’s because it’s a constant. Even when a particular episode isn’t the best that the series has to offer, the genuine feeling of friendship between the two of them easily moves the show along.
This week’s episode of Sleepy Hollow is a great one; it revolved around a very familiar-looking bell in the center of the town square (yes, it’s cast from the same mold as the infamous ringer in Philadelphia, and yes, Ichabod recognizes this immediately since he was the one who cracked the one in Philly way back when) that had a very sinister purpose: to awaken all of the potential witches and warlocks in the greater Sleepy Hollow area, giving them powers so they could join a new coven led by Henry and Katrina. The beginning attempts by Henry to bring out the witches and warlocks were very well done. The most disturbing part was the goth girl at her father’s funeral, but you can give anyone white eyes, and it’s always going to be very unnerving. This led to Ichabod and Abbie going off to solve the case and foil the crime, but that would mean a potential standoff with Henry and a newly-evil Katrina.
Sleepy Hollow has always done right by its characters, laying the groundwork for any issues or jealousies that pop up so that it will feel convincing to them and the viewers when it happens. It’s done so well that when we get something like Katrina suddenly throwing all consideration for innocent lives to the wind, it stands out more than usual given that Katrina was usually shown experimenting with her growing powers and forming a possible interest in the dark side of things in the past few episodes.
Her 180 degree change against Ichabod, when she gave him the fancier version of the “It’s not me, it’s you” speech, was shocking to say the least, because these two love each other very much and would do anything for one another. Katrina saved her husband from dying because he was an important part in stopping the Apocalypse, and Ichabod even pulled his wife out of Purgatory at the end of last season so that she wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. To see her throw all that away just to start a modern-day coven with Henry just doesn’t sit right with me.
I get that it might be Katrina’s motherly love for Henry, and maybe some sort of evil seed planted in her by Solomon Kent, that gets her on Henry’s side initially, but it’s her own belief in witch supremacy that keeps her on the dark side. It turns out that George Washington had promised Katrina and her kind that if they helped to win the Revolutionary War, then “witches would finally be allowed to reintegrate into society.” Washington, of course, did not abide by his pledge to reintegrate the witches and warlocks back into society, and that has been a thorn in Katrina’s side for the past 200 years. That’s quite a long time to hold a grudge. I will give her credit though when she tried to include Ichabod in the whole awakening of witches plan, but Henry pretty much said, “Mom, you can’t be serious! Dad’s not one of us and he never will be!”
The scene where the evil Irving, who decided to channel his inner ninja (without the mask and fancy escape smoke), was attacking Jenny in the Mason’s Cell was somewhat intense. The bullets that Jenny fired didn’t do any good before Irving started chasing her again with his samurai sword drawn. She managed to get into the storage room where the Gorgon’s head was kept and locked the door behind her so Irving couldn’t get in. What I couldn’t understand was how the Gorgon’s head was still alive after being kept in a jar for so long, but it is a creature of mythology so I’ll let this one slide. I only hope that Jenny remembered to put said Gorgon’s head back into the bag and into the glass jar.
It was rather amusing and a bit ironic to see Ichabod reading a book on time travel, even if said book was a work of fiction. In case you were wondering, it was The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells. It’s also nice to hear other time-travelers being mentioned like Doctor Who and Marty McFly from Back to the Future. My eyes went as wide as saucers, and I facepalmed when Ichabod asked the hardware store staff where he could find some flint and steel. It’s 2015, Mr. Crane; we don’t use flint and steel anymore unless we’re out camping in the woods. I also agreed with the lady who ran the bookstore that Ichabod and Abbie visited when she said that now that people are downloading books from the Internet, they don’t go to bookstores anymore, which is a bit saddening but that’s another story for another time.
When Abbie fired the Greek fire bullet at Henry, killing him, Katrina went into a blind rage when Ichabod tried to tell her that it wasn’t her fault that Henry was dead. She said to her husband that she shouldn’t have kept him alive all this time and that she should’ve just let him die, that Ichabod was the reason that she wasn’t there to raise her son and he was the reason that she had lost him again. News flash, Mrs. Crane: Henry was both your son and Ichabods’. You didn’t even tell him that he had a son till later in the first season, so why is it Ichabod’s fault that you weren’t able to raise your son properly?
When Katrina sent herself, along with Abbie, back to 1781, she was beyond ecstatic that she would be able to see her son again. Abbie, on the other hand, had to experience what Ichabod had experienced when he awoke in modern times, being almost flattened by an incoming carriage and being questioned by local authorities before getting thrown in jail. When Abbie told one of the guards that she won’t speak to anyone other than Captain Ichabod Crane with regards to winning the Revolutionary War, I thought “good luck with that.” I guess we’ll see what happens in next week’s season finale.
I also was intrigued when Henry started to recite a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet to his mother as he laid there on the floor dying, “He was a man. Take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again.” Guess Henry truly loved and respected his father after all. John Noble, you are awesome.
What did you think of this week’s episode, Sleepy Hollow fans? Will it return for a third season? Can Katrina get her son back and perhaps return to the light side? Will Abbie ever be able return to the present? Only time will tell. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
[Photo via FOX]
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