SLEEPY HOLLOW Prepares for War

Season 4, Episode 11 “The Way of the Gun”
Written by Bryan Q. Miller
Directed by Russell Fine

Now we are approaching the end of the season and Dreyfuss’s (Jeremy Davies) evil plans move front and center. Some things about this work and some things don’t.

We open with Molly (Oona Yaffe) in an adorably cute kid’s play, which Crane (Tom Mison) is very enthusiastic about. He bemoans the fact that modern day audiences are quiet and reserved. Molly goes off with her friends for a sleepover, but it’s not the last we see of her in this ep. (That is a little foreshadowing.)

The gang sees someone in the tunnels stealing a tome. It’s a young woman we haven’t seen before. She has a tattoo like the symbol on Dreyfuss’s flag, so they assume she is one of his and acting on his behalf. Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) confronts her and they fight but she gets away.

Jake (Jerry MacKinnon) remembers what’s in the book she stole: a story of two couriers who turn out to be Crane and Benjamin Banneker. Diana asks if there’s any part of the war he wasn’t in. “The Paris Treaty,” he replys.  There’s a flashback to Crane and Banneker (Edwin Hodge) that’s notable for two things; one is that Banneker’s things weren’t actually burned until his funeral, and the other is that he admired Crane’s impromptu speech that he gave while they were hiding in the barn. I did, too. In fact, if Crane weren’t so handsome and didn’t talk so pretty, I would have quit watching the show ages ago.

They conclude that Banneker could have had the talisman of the horseman of war, so they go to the barn, which has been completely rebuilt and is now a pretentious restaurant. They find the box, but it’s already been grabbed by the new young lady. Jobe (Kamar de los Reyes) shows up to take it away, but she’s uses a chronos crystal on him, which also knocks her out. Diana (Janina Gavankar) and Crane have the totem of war, which is a gun from Crane’s time period. Why isn’t it something more primitive? Hasn’t war been around longer than that?

Diana and Crane interrogate the girl, who gives her name as Lara (Seychelle Gabriel). The minute she says she’s manipulated time to get rid of Jobe for a while, I knew she was Molly. Wasn’t that obvious? She looks a lot like her mom.

Malcolm captures Jake and Alex (Rachel Melvin) and Jobe gives him a vision of Alex’s death. Jake folds like a house of cards. Jake and Alex start to have a heart to heart talk but are unfortunately interrupted by Jenny coming through the ceiling and taking out the guard.

“Lara” gives Crane and Diana the slip, but Diana has put a tracking device on the girl and they find her. She’s trying to destroy the weapon in an eternal flame. Unfortunately, Dreyfuss and Jobe find her, too. She admits to being from the future and Diana and Crane realize that she’s Molly. Dreyfuss knew all along. Molly is there to prevent her mother from becoming the horseman of war. Diana shoots Dreyfuss but it does nothing. He is immortal and now they know it. Dreyfuss shoots at Diana but Crane jumps in front of her and takes the bullet. He becomes the horseman instead.

It wasn’t that bad an episode. There’s a bit of humor surrounding the play and the “communal table”, as they called it. I liked seeing Alex and Jake stumble all over their feelings for each other. Molly coming back from the future is interesting, although I’m not sure she brought much in the way of knowledge with her or was necessary for the plot. Crane turning into a horseman is suitably horrifying.

But Dreyfuss is such a dweeb. It’s hard to see him as a villain or a threat. Jobe is more powerful and frightening, but is easily dismissed in this episode. Of course, they could be setting up Crane as the big villain of the piece.

Way too much time was spent in the flashback with Banneker this time. It was neither interesting or necessary. This should have been tense, filled with suspense and fear. The timing was off somehow. Still I suppose it’s an improvement from last season, where everyone died.

One does have to wonder how Dreyfuss knows it’s Molly. Did he see her coming back in one of his visions? What does it mean that he says she is early? He was surprised that Crane turned into the horseman, so he doesn’t know everything.

Sleepy Hollow airs on FOX on Friday nights, 9pm/8c.