FOX Broadcasting Co.
George Washington, Ever The Indispensable Man
If you watched last night’s season finale of Sleepy Hollow, chances are you’re still in recovery. The Mommy issues! The Daddy issues! And almost as frightening — the beginning of the apocalypse! Suffice to say, we were not ready.
The episode started off innocently enough, and we all looked on proudly as Ichabod attempted to send his first text message to Abbie. It was adorable. Our favorite duo of witnesses dug further into the George Washington bible conundrum. They unveiled more hidden messages from Washington and found that he wrote directly to Ichabod … as a zombie of sorts. He warned of the apocalypse and explained that he’d drawn a map from Earth to Purgatory, whch Ichabod immediately realized he could use to save his wife Katrina.
But what was most compelling about last night’s episode was this question of prophecy. It was prophecied that Ichabod would betray Abbie and turn her over to Moloch, and even though Abbie did not want to believe it — and Ichabod agreed that the very idea was ridiculous — both of them (especially Abbie) had their doubts, but went about their work anyway.
They teamed up with the Sin Eater AKA Henry Parrish, and it was great to see this trio working together again, although things got pretty creepy pretty fast. They had to track down the body of the priest who used to consult with Corbin, because he had been buried with beads that would guide them to Washington’s grave. The Sin Eater risked his life having a vision through the beads which had been hexed. The vision was ultimately helpful and they were able to find the tomb containing Washington’s corpse and the map to Purgatory. This proved to be quite the adventure, with a new, terrifying version of Brooks chasing after them all the way (sidenote: Brooks totally confessed his love to Abbie at the beginning of the episode … craziness!), and they ended up destroying the whole tomb once they got the map. We’re assuming this means that Brooks is dead, although he was already dead and possessed by Moloch. We’ll have to wait ’til season two to see if he’s now, really, really dead.
While all this was going on, Frank Irving was going through hella drama after questions were raised about all of the dead bodies left behind at his safe house. Unable to explain the whole my-daughter-was-possessed-and-so-she-killed-people-but-it-totally-wasn’t-her-fault thing, he chose to turn himself in before they could accuse his daughter. You know things are going badly in Sleepy Hollow when the Chief of Police catches a double homicide case.
At the end of the episode, we watched Ichabod do the unthinkable as he burned Washington’s map to Purgatory. Abbie had warned him that keeping the map around would only invite more harm, as the Moloch was desperately after it. But burning it would mean losing Katrina forever, since he would be unable to rescue her from Purgatory. As Ichabod set Washington’s map on fire he swore to Abbie that their relationship as witnesses and the fate of the world took precendence over his own selfish desires to be reunited with Katrina; he wouldn’t risk all for the chance to save her. This was such a great scene because we got to see a real love between the witnesses and Abbie was clearly relieved, assuming that they were no longer in danger of fulfilling that troubling prophecy. Unfortunately, none of this could stop the coming of the second horseman, and the episode ended with the Sin Eater declaring that the apocolypse was nigh.
Bad Blood, Indeed
Oh, drama! It’s a good thing this season finale was a two-parter because we definitely needed the opening episode to help mentally prepare us for what came next. Remember how Ichabod burned the map and promised Abbie to let the whole rescuing-Katrina-from-Purgatory thing go? Well, as you watched him burn that map, you may have been secretly thinking about how Ichabod has an eidetic memory, and how burning the map didn’t technically mean anything at all. Yeah, so were we. And voila! Next thing we know, Ichabod’s all drawing the map from memory, tears rolling down his face because he knows this might be the worst idea ever.
By this time Abbie’s sister Jenny had gotten involved with some research and the group discovered that, actually, they shouldn’t have burned the map to Purgatory. One way to defeat the second horseman and to save the world from the apocolypse involved some light-to-heavy witchery. But the only living witch who could perform the spell was Katrina. Good thing for that eidetic memory, eh Crane?
So the new game plan involved Abbie and Ichabod going to Purgatory and rescuing Katrina so she could stop the world from ending because, well, nobody wants the world to end (other than the horsemen and Moloch, obviously). But Jenny pointed out that this was essentially a suicide mission for Abbie, who was putting herself one step closer to the fulfillment of the prophecy. Naturally, Abbie was determined to go, in hopes of finally putting an end to their life-long nightmare that was the Moloch.
Now. Can we talk about how awful Purgatory looked? Seriously! If that was Purgatory, what the heck is hell like? First Abbie and Ichabod had to pass these sort of psychological tests where their big, emotional desires appeared to have come true. In Abbie’s vision she was getting ready to enjoy some apple pie à la mode with Corbin and Brooks, and Ichabod’s vision introduced us to his father (played by Victor Garber), who heaped praises on him and offered him a celebratory drink. Just as the two witnesses were about to fall victim to their own desires, they remembered the warning of the Sin Eater (that food and drink would be offered as a trick) and barely escaped their dangerous visions. Surrounded by creepy, faceless beings stuck between heaven and hell (because Purgatory is the worst), Crane and Mills were only able to distinguish themselves from the bodies around them with a very contemporary fist bump. Boom! And then they found Katrina, who had good news and bad news.
The good news was that, technically, she could leave Purgatory and perform the spell to stop the second horseman. The bad news? Someone would have to play tradesies with her. AKA the prophecy had come true and Abbie would switch with Katrina and stay behind to face the Moloch. Nooo!
But Abbie was ready to play sacrificial lamb, because Abbie is everything. Between the eyeliner, her amazing body, and her willingness to face her real, live demons, Nicole Beharie’s character is pretty much perfection. Watching her in that super-creepy dollhouse with her younger self and young Jenny? Such an amazing scene! And so terrifying, as she had to relive that day in the forest, 13 years ago when they first saw Moloch. Oh, and they also saw the Sin Eater. How is that possible? Exactly.
Well. Once Ichabod and Katrina (who, BTW, had zero romantic chemistry after all this time of being separated) made it back to Earth and Katrina began to perform her spell, the Sin Eater — our beloved Henry — turned on them! Wait. Whaaat?! Not only was he the bad guy, the one working for Moloch, the second horseman himself, he was … wait for it … wait for it … you’re still not ready … wait for it … JEREMY?! As in, Jeremy Crane?! As in, son of Ichabod and Katrina? Buried alive by the Coven? And really, really pissed about it? And then “rescued” and brought out of his dirty, dirty grave by the Moloch? Ugh. Jay Z addressed these kinds of issues in Meet The Parents. It’s important to raise your kids, or they might try to kill you one day:
Now, back to the show. Henry/Jeremy/WTF brings the Headless Horseman into this, who then rides off with Katrina, and the very angry little boy turned grown man throws his Dad into the same box he’d been buried alive in. He was basically all like, “You’re not even my real Dad! The Moloch is totally my Dad!” and it was pretty awful. So the season ended with Crane in a coffin, Abbie in Purgatory, Frank in prison, and oh yeah — Jenny flipped over in her car because just as she realized who Henry really was, the horseman showed up and shot her off the road. She better be alive. That’s all I’m sayin.’
And now, we all suffer through the rest of winter, spring, and summer as we impatiently await the return of this amazing show next fall. Let’s all take this time to resolve our own Mommy/Daddy/abandonment issues, so that we don’t accidentally become responsible for the next apocalypse. That would be bad.
