“Sleepy Hollow”; starring Tom Mison, Nicole Beharie, and Orlando Jones; returns Fall 2014 on FOX.
Warning: This review contains full spoilers!
“Sleepy Hollow” capped off its season last night with a two-hour season finale, and what a finale it was! Washington’s hidden burial spot! A map to Purgatory! The second Horseman of the Apocalypse, War! And a huge reveal very few saw coming! This two-hour finale was comprised of two episodes, the first being “Indispensable Man”, the second being “Bad Blood” – so let’s break down all that happened last night!
I want to commend this show for consistently grounding this show with a sense of realism. Yes, there is a Headless Horseman on the loose, demons constantly popping up everywhere, historical and religious legends constantly being shoe-horned in to build the plot of the show; but I appreciate that the writers still give us a sense that all of these fantastical events are happening in the “real world”.
Case in point, Frank Irving and his family being interrogated for the murders that happened at the safe house at the hands of a demon possessing his daughter last week. Several officers and a priest fell at the hand of this demon, but of course, if Irving uses that as his explanation it’s not going to go over well. Irving does the best he can to try to let this investigation just hit a dead end and hopefully have the investigators just file this away in a cold-case file, but there were several murders, only a limited number of people at this cabin, and people want answers. When Irving’s daughter is brought in for DNA testing in an attempt to match-up someone to the murders, Irving does the only thing he can do to protect his daughter: confess to the murders himself. Irving is cuffed and escorted away to jail.
In other parts of Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod, Abbie, and Henry Parish discover that a map to purgatory was buried with George Washington. The only problem is that none of the known suspected burial spots are legitimate, so the trio must follow the clues to find his real final resting place. With a little help from the dead Warlock/Priest we saw in the pilot and Parish’s ability to read the sin in his prayer beads, the three soon find themselves at one of many islands along the Hudson River. Ichabod’s knowledge of the Freemasons makes identifying Washington’s secret burial place a short journey and it isn’t long before he is prying the map from the skeletal remains of George Washington that is clutching it.
Nothing is every that easy in Sleepy Hollow, though, and Undead Officer Andy (John Cho) shows up just in time to add some peril to this otherwise easy journey. Andy has been appearing off and on from the beginning, and is always playing both sides to some degree as he has a desire to help out the woman he loves, Abbie, and the demon he must serve, Moloch. Tired of being a zombie messenger, Moloch transforms Andy – at his request – into a more powerful demon to prevent our heroes from obtaining the map to Purgatory. While Andy nearly succeeds, a touch from the Sin Eater allows a non-evil Andy to wake up and warn Abbie that the map must be destroyed to prevent Moloch from using it for evil. This clarity is only brief however, and Andy quickly snaps back to his evil demon self and Abbie is left with no choice but to bring down the entirety of Washington’s tomb on his head.
Map to Purgatory in hand, Abbie insists that Ichabod burn the map to prevent it from ever falling into Moloch’s hands. Despite the fact that he would be burning his only way to get his witch-wife back, Ichabod obliges to prove to Abbie where his loyalties lie and that, when push comes to shove, he will put saving the world before saving his witch-wife from Purgatory.
This first hour of the season finale would have been a great episode on its own, the episode that follows immediately after certainly helps keep the momentum to the final moments of the season, but this hour went a long way in being a strong hour of adventure television. Irving exited the season in handcuffs, Abbie has doubts about Ichabod’s loyalty due to a prophecy that states Ichabod will betray her, and Ichabod is “forced” to destroy the key to getting his witch-wife back. Of course, always present in every episode is “Sleepy Hollow’s” fantastic brand of humor at the hands of Ichabod being a fish out of water. His voicemail greeting was gold and his desire to have a smart phone like Abbie’s as opposed to his “antiquated” Razr flip-phone was a great moment as well. He’s becoming more familiar with this new world he inhabits and as he does so he has a natural desire to utilize all the advantages that are available. The writers have really done a great job with Ichabod’s assimilation into the 21st Century by making it a slow burn with plenty of laughs along the way as opposed to just having him adjust within three episodes to make things easier.
Moving into the second hour of the finale with the episode “Bad Blood”, Ichabod is finally provided with a humorous opportunity to get some new clothes. Last week, he tried on some skinny jeans and a modern dress shirt, but was unimpressed. Abbie pointed out though what the audience has been thinking all season: his clothes must be really gross by now. He was buried in them and has been running around fighting evil in them without even a hint that he may have sent them to the cleaners. Stumbling upon a Revolutionary War reenactment provided the perfect vehicle for Ichabod to purchase some “period appropriate” clothing, but still maintain his look.
The task for this episode was pretty straight forward. The second horseman of the apocalypse, War, is due to rise and Ichabod has come up with a plan to stop this from happening: Save his witch-wife Katrina from Purgatory so she can cast a spell over the spot War is supposed to rise from to seal the ground. I know, “Didn’t Ichabod burn the map to Purgatory though?!” Yes! But as was established earlier in the season, our hero has a photographic memory, so recreating the map was short work for him. Abbit is of course wary of this plan and none-to-happy that Ichabod has recreated the map that was destroyed for a very specific reason.
The plan is set in motion with Ichabod and Abbie walking headlong into Purgatory with Henry Parish awaiting their return at the site of the entrance, and Jenny Mills is off to uncover more information about Sheriff Corbin’s relationship with Warlock/Priest Knapp. “Sleepy Hollow” is ridiculously good at mixing humor with legitimate creepiness and Ichabod and Abbie’s journey into Purgatory to save Katrina hits notes of a latter in spades. Upon entering Purgatory they are both met with ideal realities in which they no longer have the burden of fighting evil, but upon warding off these false realities they are presented with the real Purgatory, crawling with lost souls. Faceless crying girls, slimy human forms crawling from the ground, stumbling and lost wailing souls all occupy this space and create a mood that even some modern “horror” films struggle to establish.
After wading through a crowd of lost souls, Abbie and Ichabod find Katrina in her safe church. She’s not exactly thrilled to see them noting that she can’t just simply leave – but there’s always a way, and that way always has a catch. Katrina can leave if someone stays in her place. Abbie’s look of “Of-Fucking-Course” was priceless in this scene as she realizes the prophecy she was concerning herself with was about to come true. Abbie bravely insists that she stays in Katrina’s place and Ichabod and his witch-wife leave to go prevent War from rising.
Once Ichabod and Katrina arrive back in the land of the living, “Sleepy Hollow” slams the gas pedal to the ground and doesn’t let up. In Purgatory, Abbie is able to evade Moloch and stumbles upon a doll house which contains the human forms of her and Jenny that represent their memories of their first encounter with Moloch thirteen years prior. She will discover many a truth at the same time Ichabod and Katrina find out these same revelations back in the real world. Jenny has discovered something major and is racing back to warn Ichabod and Abbie – only to come face to face with the Headless Horseman who demolishes her SUV.
Ichabod and Katrina encounter a problem while attempting to seal the ground: War is not underneath this spot. Oh Henry Parish how you have fooled us! The Sin Eater’s attitude immediately changes as he binds Ichabod and Katrina to two nearby trees. Henry Parish is revealed to be none other than Jeremy Crane! Ichabod and Katrina’s son has been revealed to be the second horseman and he is carrying around a lot of ill feelings towards mommy and daddy! I did not see this coming at all. I loved Henry Parish and was at many times very concerned for his well-being, this reveal was tremendous and is going to significantly impact this show moving forward. Jeremy is working for Moloch because he is the one who saved him from two centuries of essentially being buried alive and feels abandoned by his parents; there wasn’t even a hint that there may be some good in him still as he waxed on about all his ill intent.
Abbie Mills stuck in Purgatory, Jenny Mills lying gravely injured in the middle of the road, Frank Irving in custody for multiple murders, Ichabod Crane buried in Jeremy’s grave, Katrina Crane whisked away by the Headless Horseman. This is how season one of “Sleepy Hollow” ends – and what a hell of a season it has been.
I don’t think anyone expected “Sleepy Hollow” to be the quality show that it has turned out to be – I sure as hell didn’t. Its unique mix of adventure, historical and religious lore, humor, and horror have all come together to create and hour of television that is must-watch for a lot of people out there. The cast all has fantastic chemistry and the writers have consistently worked to build a world that is perilous and intriguing. Just by the very nature of what “Sleepy Hollow” was looking to tackle as an hour-long show on FOX it was going to have to fight an uphill battle to get people to tune in, but when you have a quality show such as this, the viewers will come, word of mouth will spread, and the show will find its following it deserves.
“Sleepy Hollow” will return this Fall and we will find out the fates of our various heroes and continue to watch the two Witnesses fight to save the world from the apocalypse.
What did you think of the first season of “Sleepy Hollow”? Are you hooked? Sound off in the comments below!