A Few Words From Mr. Harvey On SLEEPY HOLLOW
Season 2, Episode 1 “This is War”
With Abbie trapped in Purgatory, and Ichabod buried alive by the son he never knew, all seems lost. Lost!
There was a moment in this second season premiere, just a moment, where I was severely tempted to give up on Sleepy Hollow.
It passed, of course, because while the groan that crossed my lips when we got the “One Year Later” bit was quite real, it was quickly pretty obvious that the whole thing was an illusion, and by the time we got to Ichabod’s “I’ve been ready for 200 years” line, I knew that the bat@#$% insanity of Fox’s Sleepy Hollow wasn’t gone after all. And so, much to my and many viewer’s glee, the second season of the battle between Good and EEEEEEvil returns!
And of course everyone is back, with Tom Mison’s Ichabod and Nicole Beharie’s Abbie doing the buddy/flirty thing, Lyndie Greenwood’s Jenny doing the Linda Hamilton thing, and John Noble’s Henry/Jeremy doing the evil son, Servant of Darkness thing, We even get John Cho back to make a cameo as Andy, the love-lorn dead-but-hasn’t-stopped-moving former friend of Abbie, popping into Purgatory to give some unsolicited advice as Abbie tries to stay ahead of Moloch, our Big Bad, and it’s always good to see him. Katia Winter is also back as Katrina, Ichabod’s witch of a wife – in the most literal sense – newly freed from Purgatory, but snatched up into the clutches of the Headless Horseman.
With Orlando Jones’ Captain Irving locked up for confessing to the murders his daughter committed while possessed, we’re starting with the odds stacked against our heroes, but we do have that jump into the future, and one could hear the collected gasp of joy of thousands of Ichabod/Abbie shippers when we hear that Katrina is dead. Alas for them, and happily for those of us who are Jenny fans, the reported demise of both is but an illusion, cast by Henry/Jeremy to get information from our Dynamic Duo. The Hannibal Lecter bit and the aforementioned Ichabod-as-Action-Hero scenes were fun, ’tis true, but best that we return to the formula that makes the show so much fun, yes? Even so, there is plenty here for those who yearn for meaningful looks between Ichabod and Abbie, as naturally Ichabod must save her from Purgatory, and their reunion is all but assured.
Getting there is the meat of the episode of course, although it’s meat with some odd seasoning. OK, that was a weird line, but weirder still is just how porous Purgatory seems to be. Yes, we need Benjamin Franklin’s Key to get in and out without the whole one-for-one thing – and Timothy Busfield is delightful as the far-from-saintly Franklin – but between the apparent ease of communication and ease of the ritual incantation to get in and out, it’s kind of a wonder that Katrina, as powerful as she is supposed to be, was stuck in there so long. But no matter, as it’s the reunion of our heroes that everyone is here to see, and of course we get it, at the cost of Franklin’s Key, and the head of one of Moloch’s servants.
Speaking of our Big Bad’s servants, the Horseman has Katrina, but more critically, Henry/Jeremy has Jenny. He gets to do the Sin Eater thing on her and find information on the Key, then goes in search of it leaving Jenny with a Horrible Hessian Henchman, who gets kinda rapey at Jenny before she takes a page from Black Widow and beats the crap out of him with a chair. Of course Henry/Jeremy has her stashed right down the street from where he buried his dad, so off Ichabod and Jenny go to beat the bad guys to the key, with Franklin-bashing from Ichabod as they go.
Fun, crazy stuff. Just what we want from this show, in fact. Welcome back Sleepy Hollow.
