Sleepy Hollow’s second installment of the second season wrapped up all the other loose ends from last season’s cliffhanger and set the new status quo. It’s a building block of an episode that’s kind of like eating your vegetables from a storytelling perspective. Fortunately, this show knows how to handle their produce!
This episode started a bit like the season premiere. Last episode used a hallucination and this time we had a dream sequence. As did last week’s false start, this one revealed something essential that Ichabod would need to thwart his son and son’s companion, otherwise known as the Horsemen of Death and War, as they continue to help Moloch’s ascension from Purgatory. Got all that? You sure?
This week’s MacGuffin was the episode’s title, “The Kindred.” An undead soldier, preserved by Benjamin Franklin, whom Ichabod and Abbie needed to raise to be their champion in order to combat Moloch’s “Destroyer” that was raised for Henry and Abraham. It’s a nice touch that Abbie and Ichabod needed the skull of Headless/Abraham/Horseman of Death to complete their monster. They spent so much of last season trying to destroy him and suddenly they were tempted to control a clone of him. Abbie argued it was a dangerous line to cross and we got a sense of how far Ichabod will go in this war.
Skipping ahead a bit…What a great freakout moment when the eyes of the Horseman’s skull opened as Abbie began reciting the enchantment! This all led to a fanboy dream scene as the climax of the episode held a triple threat match between Abbie and Ichabod’s “Horseman,” Headless, and Henry/Jeremy/War/John Noble’s “Destroyer, complete with his flaming sword. Yet, as cool as that fight scene was, it really was just some candy for the viewer while the real meal was eaten elsewhere. Once the episode got where it needed to go, The Kindred just drifted off until the writers need to bring that toy out of the box again.
We got a new Chief (as subtle a transition as it gets)! Welcome to Sleepy Hollow, Leena Reyes (Sakina Jaffrey, I hope this show will treat your character better than you fared on House of Cards…although history says probably not)! She’s a straightedge cop who doesn’t believe in all this boogedy boo history consultant and decapitated body epidemic crap. “We’re going to bring some sanity back to this town.” HA! She basically replaced Captain Irving as the resident cynic, who, you know, still looks to real world logic as a way of living her life. Psh! She made an impact by arresting Jenny (I’m cool with it) and ended the episode by having Frank moved into a-wait a minute! I almost forgot!
Welcome back, Frank! We were reminded that Frank’s in prison for confessing to two murders he didn’t commit when, well, Abbie visited him in prison for said crimes. I liked Abbie’s insistence that he stay locked up, for convenience’s sake. Sure enough, Frank had a play to get out of SuperMax and get his way into a psychiatric hospital where the visiting hours would presumably be less strict for our heroes to reach him. He told the friggin’ truth on a polygraph test to Chief Reyes! She responded by threatening to have him doped up and electroshocked as punishment (penance?). Chief Reyes fulfilled got him moved and thus fulfilled her role for the episode. Plus, we got a tease about a connection to Abbie and Jenny’s past. An effective, if not inspiring, introduction. Hopefully, she’ll be used well as the story progresses.
One of my (few) annoyances of last week’s episode was how Katrina’s kidnapping felt like a distraction rather than adding anything to the “Lets get Abbie out of Purgatory!” storyline. This week proved me right. Ichabod’s realization that Abraham has, by holding Katrina hostage, not just a personal weapon against him but a witch that could be used for evil purposes was much needed. The show reminded us how potentially powerful a variable she is. Then they went another way with the plot thread altogether.
When Ichabod had his chance to rescue her, she convinced him to let her stay! What? Okay. She had a reason. She’s a really good liar. She’ll convince Abraham not to use his pesky binding spell on her and she’ll end up being a spy. Um, I know I need to keep some sense of disbelief but this is where the episode kind of let me down. What didn’t let me down was her earlier argument to Abraham that whatever plans he has to kill Ichabod and Abbie are doomed to fail because, as the prophesied Witnesses, they have a bigger part to play in what’s to come. We all knew Ichabod and Abbie weren’t going to get killed in episode two and this was the writers saying, “we know you know.”
This episode felt like it had done it’s duty and we’d gotten down all of our dramatic broccoli: Frank in a hospital where he’ll be accessible to Abbie and Ichabod but in danger of Chief Reyes. Katrina’s at Abraham’s side, playing double agent to save her son and husband. Jenny’s shafted in jail until she can be of ANY value whatsoever. Then, THEN, we got our dessert! Just when I was worried they were going to shaft Frank the way that they had Jenny, Henry walked into his room and the show birthed a litter of new possibilities. Henry and Frank’s not an obvious pairing but definitely an exciting one. Now I need to tune in next week to find out: What did Frank sign away to Henry (in his own blood!!!!)?
HONORABLE MENTION:
-More Ben Franklin, please. There will come a point where we’ve had enough but we have not reached that point yet!
-Like last week’s Gehenna Key, the Horseman’s Head once again conveniently disappeared “from whence it came” once it had fulfilled it’s MacGuffin purpose. Two weeks in a row with a disposable plot device. When do we reach the important stuff?
-This week Ichabod ranted against credit cards, chained pens, and the wedding industry. These scenes are still fun thematic reminders of our old fashioned protagonist’s aloofness to the reality he’s dealing with but this week’s didn’t have the dramatic build that last week’s smart phone had.
-Abraham’s threat to Katrina, “The man you know as Ichabod Crane is a deception,” was intriguing. Could that be a hint at some grander reveal for Ichabod?
-APPROPRIATE FACIAL REACTIONS TO BEING SWARMED BY BATS!
The Dude Recaps: "Sleepy Hollow," Season 2, Episode 2
