“Those we love must be sacrificed.” – Sleepy Hollow Recap

Posted by Kim

Sleepy Hollow 1 x 13

“Bad Blood”

Where were we?  Oh yes.  Abbie and Ichabod discovered the secret in Washington’s Bible, which was a map to his secret tomb which contained ANOTHER map to purgatory that Zombie George Washington himself drew.  Ichabod, Abbie, and Henry went on an adventure worthy of National Treasure to retrieve said map.  In order to solidify Abbie’s trust, Ichabod burned the map (and therefore his way to save his wife) in front of her, “forging his fate” with hers…but not before memorizing it and subsequently recreating it.  Irving is in SERIOUS trouble as the police are going after his daughter in the investigation of the events that occurred in “The Vessel”.  Jenny remains the sassiest and most bad ass former mental patient.  And, to paraphrase Game of Thrones…War is coming.

I will go into this more later, but this finale freaking BLEW MY MIND.  Let’s get right to it!

#SassyHollow

Because this episode was feels heavy and very urgent story-wise, there was less snark than normal.  But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some gems…

I can’t believe that it took them until the season finale to have Ichabod stumble upon a Revolutionary War reenactment.  However, it was worth the wait, from his initial confusion (It was very “Am I dreaming?”) to his derision and fact-checking once he realized what exactly was going on.  Ichabod + snobbishness about our modern interpretation of history = giggles forever.

One thing stumbling upon the reenactment accomplishes?  Ichabod raids the costume department.  Having made his distaste for modern clothing known (“One sign of the impending apocalypse is surely skinny jeans.”), Ichabod has now cleverly found a way to keep his Revolutionary Era Wardrobe and FINALLY send the coat he’s been wearing all season to the dry cleaners.  Because, as he puts it to Jenny, he’d basically rather die than allow his coat to fall in the hands of a hipster.

For Ichabod’s continued hatred of Hipsters, I hereby give the Sass in this episode 3 out 10 Donut Holes

#CreepyHollow

When it was announced that Jack Bristow Thomas Andrews Victor Garber would be playing Ichabod’s father, a collective scream of joy burst across my Twitter timeline.  It felt like perfect casting.  Little did we know just HOW our favorite Spy Daddy would be used…

But let’s back up for a second.  How fucked up was essentially ALL THE imagery in Purgatory?  From faceless people playing the piano to slimy, rubbery looking people (that made American Horror Story‘s Rubberman look like a mere Halloween costume) crawling out of the ground, Purgatory was the stuff of nightmares.  But nothing was scarier than how purgatory chose to mess with Abbie and Ichabod’s heads.

After they crossed into Purgatory, Abbie and Ichabod each found themselves in separate situations that tapped into their deepest hopes and insecurities.  Situations that were designed to make them forget why they were there in the first place.  Situations that could possibly trap them in Purgatory forever.  Abbie woke up at Corbin’s cabin, where Corbin and Andy (whose presence was a LITTLE bit of a stretch, because, correct me if I am wrong, but Abbie didn’t know about his feelings till after he was gone, right?) were both alive and trying to convince her that she had just bumped her head Dorothy Gale style.  She wasn’t a Witness.  She hadn’t spent the past months fighting the forces of darkness.  She was just a normal cop, hanging with her mentor and co-worker, sitting down for some pie a la mode.

Ichabod, on the other hand, found himself being welcomed back with open arms by his father, having never shamed him by joining the American Revolution.  He was being celebrated as a gentleman and a scholar and a man who brought HONOR to the Crane name.  And what better way to celebrate that than with a toast?

But much like Harry Potter and the Imperius Curse, Abbie and Ichabod began to fight against these scenarios because they KNEW they weren’t real…and that’s where things got hairy.  Blood poured from Abbie’s pie.  Andy was shown with his head snapped back and Corbin’s beheaded corpse held his own head in his hands as they pleaded with Abbie for mercy.  And Papa Crane’s eyes went black, his teeth went pointy, and HE BIT INTO THE GLASS AND LET THE BLOOD FLOW ALL DOWN HIS FACE AS HE YELLED IN RAGE.

I worry about what goes on in the brains of the Sleepy writers sometimes.

I’ll talk more about this at the end of the post but OMG Abbie is trapped in a creeped out version of her childhood dollhouse with creepy younger versions of herself and Jenny who may as well be chanting “redrum”.  NOPE.

Need I remind you that Victor Garber ATE A GLASS AND DROOLED BLOOD? I give the Creepy in this episode 8 out 10 Sandmen.

#ShippyHollow

Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin with the shippy feels this episode brought.  And every ship, from Ichabod x Abbie to Ichabod x Katrina to the sisterly bond of Abbie x Jenny got a moment in the sun.  But really…this one belonged entirely to the S.S. Ichabbie.

(Side Note: Really?  That’s the best ship name we could come up with?  I curse the day the combining of names was invented.  I blame YOU Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.)

After weeks of only giving us breadcrumbs of Abbie/Ichabod…breadcrumbs that had me convinced that I was totally fine with them being bros for life…the writers essentially did THIS to us this week.

It started out innocently enough, with Ichabod flirting his way out of Abbie being mad at him for recreating the map to Purgatory.  “Admit it…you appreciate me a little,” he said with earnest smirk (yes there IS such a thing).  How could you stay mad at that awful face?  Abbie’s half-smile and “Microscopically” response said it all.  And at LEAST Ichabod told her about the map before using it.  That is what has been so wonderful about their relationship: the fact that they don’t keep secrets from each other.  Yes, Ichabod told a “half truth/whole lie” about the map…but he owned up to it because he knows that they have to be honest with each other.  They’ve had that trust from day one.

Sage wrote wonderful things about the Abbie/Jennie relationship in her last recap.  Seeing the relationship between the sisters grow and heal over the course of the season has been wonderful, so of COURSE this scene where they said goodbye absolutely wrecked me.  It wasn’t without the trademark Jenny Mills snark (“I’m a mental patient with a gun.”) but the snark was just a cover-up for the genuine concern Jenny had for her sister as she set off on her journey to Purgatory.

I KNOW I am obsessed with Frozen, but I can’t be the only one who thought of this throughout the sister scene, can I?

I love how Abbie is taking this quest not just as her destiny as a Witness but as something she OWES her sister.  She says she is going after Moloch “for us” and that she is tired of being weighed down by his burden, which makes Jenny regard her sister with such awe.  Remember Abbie the skeptic in the pilot?  The woman who refused to talk about her childhood trauma?  LOOK HOW FAR SHE HAS COME YOU GUYS.

Also I completely believe that Jenny is going to do ANYTHING to get to her sister.  I pity the demon that stands between this two bad asses.

As Abbie and Ichabod prepare to enter Purgatory, Henry urges them to “Cling to that hope, remember that link with each other.  Hold on to each other in your hearts.”

I initially wrote in my notes “Even Parrish ships it,” which is more than a little disturbing, given the revelations at the end of the episode.  Yes, Parrish’s motivations were untoward…but you can’t help but think that he DOES love them together…right?  And look at the way Ichabod reaches to hold Abbie’s hand as the doors to Purgatory open.  He doesn’t even LOOK at her, he just reaches out and finds her hand automatically…and she is there to take it..without looking at him either.  They inherently want to seek comfort in each other and it’s magical.

Also, I CANNOT with how tiny her hand is in his.

The finale was full of callback to previous moments from the season but no moment made me flail as much as the freaking fist bump did.  In a moment seemingly taken directly from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (“What do you like me to call you when we’re alone together?” “Mollywobbles.”), Abbie asked Ichabod something only he would know.  And it HAD to be the fist bump, a moment of pure humor and bewilderment on Ichabod’s part, that now becomes a moment so feels heavy that Sage and I both knew we were going to have to change our ranking mechanism for this category.  It does serve a purpose after all indeed.

Then we got to the moment that we all knew would come…the moment where we would learn that one of the witnesses would have to stay behind in order for Katrina, who still needed forgiveness (FOR WHAT?), to be freed.  Abbie immediately volunteered, much to Ichabod’s (“That is NOT an option!”) dismay.  He had brought her there with him, wasn’t this fulfilling the prophecy that he would deliver her soul to Moloch?  But what Abbie makes him see that the difference is that she is staying BY CHOICE…and (again as we learn in Harry Potter) THAT makes all the difference.  Abbie is tired of running.  This is what she was CALLED UPON TO DO when she was made a witness and she is ready to stand up and fight…willingly.

Look at the way Ichabod looks at her in that moment.  Awe.  Respect.  Love.  (Yes, it is love, even if it is platonic.  Which it may or may not be.)

So Ichabod reluctantly agrees to leave her, but not before swearing “For as long as I can draw breath” that he won’t stop until he is able to come back to her and free her.  “Remember our bond,” he whispers in her hair as she holds back tears.  “I’ll come back for you.”

Oh…did I mention that all this epic-stuff-of-legends-love stuff happened right in front of his WIFE?

(Okay, so Katrina’s joy at finally being freed and the way Ichabod ran to her saying “My love!” and the way he took her in his arms was romantic too.  But no where NEAR the level of Ichabod and Abbie in the chapel.)

We changed our shippy ranking mechanism because of this episode.  10 out of 10 Fist Bumps agree that this was epic shippyness.

#WHATTHEDAMNHELLHollow

I’m just gonna copy and paste from the notes I made while watching the episode for the first time:

OMGGGGGGGGGG

I’ve watched a LOT of television in my life and I don’t recall a season finale that quite rips the rug out from under the viewer’s feet like this one does.  The bad guy was under our noses the whole time in the form of Henry.  Ichabod, Abbie, and the entire Sleepy Hollow viewing audience had been PLAYED.  As I have perused the internet in preparation for writing this, it seems that some people DID suspect that Henry wasn’t everything he seemed.  But I was not one of those people.  I believed the red herring of Katrina’s motives being evil the whole time, so, as you can see from my notes, I was completely gobsmacked by this reveal.

And I actually yelled “OH HOLY FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!” at my television when it was revealed that not ONLY was Henry evil but he was Jeremy Crane and the Second Horseman.  Just ask any of my neighbors.  Well.  Freaking.  Played.

It was nothing short of delicious to see John Noble, who had been playing Henry with more than a little dash of Walter Bishop’s madness, completely shift into pure evil.  He delivered his monologues with such relish and zeal that I was surprised that there was any scenery left standing (in the best way possible of course).  In a perfect world, he’s be getting a Guest Actor Emmy nomination for this…but just ask him how the Emmys feel about genre shows after they completely ignored his work on Fringe.

Although seriously Jeremy…Ichabod didn’t have any idea you existed, so your rage at him is a TEENY bit unfounded.

Jenny, being the bad ass that she is, deduces that Henry is the Second Horseman by solving Moloch’s riddle and finding the church sign that gave him his pseudonym.  But as she races to tell Ichabod and Abbie she is confronted by our old buddy Headless, who causes her car to flip.  The last shot of Jenny we see is her lying unconscious in the wreckage…

The Redrum Versions of the Mills sisters restore Abbie’s memories from her encounter with Moloch 13 years ago.  Turns out that she and Jenny stumbled upon Moloch freeing Jeremy all those years ago…but now Abbie is trapped in the Creepy Dollhouse with no escape in sight…

Frank confesses to murders that he did not commit in order to save Macie.  Our last sighting of him shows him being taken into custody….

Jeremy fulfills his vow to Headless/Abraham, who shows up and promptly runs away with an unconscious Katrina…

Jeremy wants Ichabod to know the suffering he felt all those centuries under the earth, so he buries his (completely mortal) father alive as he breaks the second seal…

“War isn’t coming to Sleepy Hollow,” Jeremy says.  “It’s been here all along.”

And we’re so so so so fucked.

We created an entirely new ranking category for this episode.  10 out of 10 Golems and OMG IS IT SEPTEMBER YET?

That’s our finale, Sleepy Heads!  It was announced this week that John Noble and Lyndie Greenwood are joining the cast as full-time regulars next season, so that speaks well to the fate of Jenny…we hope.  But you NEVER know with this show.  After all, John Cho died in the pilot and was in just about half of the episodes for the rest of the season.

How in the HELL are our heroes going to get out of this?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments!