“It’s the losses that wear me down.” – Sleepy Hollow Recap – Delaware

Sleepy Hollow Season 3, Episode 17
“Delaware” 
Posted by Kim

(Note: I wrote a GOOD portion of this before that disaster of a series season finale. I’m letting what I previously wrote stand and I’m going to TRY and not let my rage color the rest of this, but I make no promises.)

I am not okay.

I may have been REALLY good about avoiding spoilers for this season of Sleepy Hollow but I am also not dumb. The minute Zach Appelman became the point person for all the press concerning “Delaware”, I knew my beloved Joey Corbin was doomed. I tried to convince myself otherwise. He brought too much to the show, I argued. He was an essential part of the gang. He was a tie to Abbie and Jenny’s roots. He brought a totally different type of masculine energy to Team Witness and served as a perfect counterpoint to Ichabod. He PROMISED Jenny he would be the one for her to tell all her crazy stories to when they were old and gray. He was CAPTAIN of the SS Ichabbie. JOEY CORBIN WAS ESSENTIAL. Of course, even as I argued with myself for all the reasons NOT to kill Joe, I realized they were actually all the reasons that OF COURSE they were going to kill Joe. Nobody likes Danny, so no one would bat an eyelash if he died. You CAN’T kill Sophie because she’s Ichabbie’s daughter from the future and time travel is REALLY hard to write about. So that left two options: Joe or Jenny. Considering the revelations about the Family Mills in this episode, it makes zero sense to off Jenny from a storytelling perspective. (Jenny may not be a Witness, but it’s clear to me that she has a bigger role in this story than even she realizes right now.) (Plus, I think Sleepy knows better than to fridge a woman of color at this point in time.) (AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AND THEN THE FINALE HAPPENED, I WEEP FOR MY INNOCENCE AND FAITH IN THE SHOW.) Thus Joey Corbin, perfect cinnamon roll, too good and too pure for this world, had to meet his end and Sleepy Hollow wrenched my still beating heart out of my chest and did a tap dance on it.

I told you I wasn’t okay.

Look, I get that Sleepy Hollow is a show about the battle against the apocalypse and Gods and monsters and that sacrifices HAVE to be made along the way or the show would make less sense than it already does. (That’s a compliment. I LOVE your batshit nonsense, show.) And at least Joe’s death was treated with respect unlike other shows currently airing (*cough* THE 100 *cough* JUSTICE FOR LINCOLN *cough*) have done recently. But like Sage raged in her post on Beth Greene’s death on The Walking Dead , the problem that I have with the offing of Joey Corbin is not that it was done but that it was principally done to cause Jenny Mills pain. We’ve seen Jenny BLOSSOM over the course of this season as she’s opened herself up to trusting and loving Joe. It’s been fantastic watching her find solidarity in their relationship and seeing her loosen up on the tightly held grip of her personal life. I’ve seen comments from showrunner Clifton Collins that Joe’s death opens up an “interesting” storyline for Jenny. HA. JENNIFER MILLS IS PLENTY INTERESTING ON HER OWN WITHOUT KILLING OFF HER BOYFRIEND.

Also, I can tell you EXACTLY how this story is going to go. Jenny Mills is not going to be a person who looks at Joe’s death with a perspective of someone who is all “Well I found great love but he died but I FOUND it and I’m totally open to finding it again.” Jenny is going to be “I opened up to this man who promised he was never going to leave me and I allowed myself to love him and guess what? He fucking DIED. So thanks but no thanks but I don’t care for that yucky love stuff and I’m going to be even more closed off than I was before.” If I can predict EXACTLY how a character is going to react, that’s not interesting. It’s cheap. Killing Joe off was CHEAP, even if the WAY it happened was not. The very act of it was cheap. So I weep for the wasted potential of Joe Corbin. There was so much more to explore with him, both as an individual and in his relationship with Jenny and Team Witness. I weep for the interesting stories he still had to tell. (Sage: They had a REAL MONSTER ON THEIR TEAM. Their Angel, their Oz.) I get that the wasted potential is tragic, but it’s a tragedy we didn’t need to push this story forward. Selfishly, I weep that I don’t get to see Zach Appelman’s face every week. It didn’t have to be this way.

So let’s talk about the episode, shall we?

#CreepyHollow and #WHATTHEDAMNHELLHollow

After an Ichabbie scene that damn near killed me on the spot, we find Team Witness + Pandora in the archives hashing out their plan to take down The Hidden One. Joe and Jenny are both SUPER Anti-Pandora, pointing out that there is absolutely no way that Pandy isn’t going to screw them in the end. “She’s going to work really hard to gain our confidence and then screw us over again for her megalomaniac boyfriend.” (Agreed that she’s going to screw them over, but I think it’s going to be for her OWN gain because she’s sick of THO stealing her wind. She is her own windkeeper, after all.) I love that Pandora is SO BORED with this shit. “It matters very little if you trust me or not,” she deadpans. (True. Also, I just love Shannyn Sossamon’s performance SO MUCH. ) Just when the party couldn’t GET more lit, it does, because heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s Danny, ready to join the mission because he thinks it will get him into Abbie’s pants. I LIVE for how Joe, Jenny, and Sophie all rolled their eyes at his arrival. Ain’t nobody got time for this. Danny and Abbie have a quick heart to heart about him joining the team where they spew cliches like “This is where I want to be” and “If anything happened to you, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.” I’d believe it if Abbie hadn’t shown more delight at Crane’s cappuccino than she did at Danny’s promise to take them back to the Nicholas Sparks Cabin of Feelings. If you’re going to shove this pairing down my throat, the least you could do is have Abbie show a little enthusiasm. JUST SAYING.

Back to the mission. Apparently, Team Witness has a grand total of eight hours before the sands run out of the hourglass and THO possesses the total power of the pantheon of the Gods. The strategy is as follows: Abbie and Ichabod will go to the catacombs to restore Pandora’s box, whilst the others do everything they can to slow THO down. Danny’s been on the team for all of 5 minutes before he starts questioning everything. He questions the fact that they have so little intel on THO and he questions why BOTH Abbie and Ichabod need to go to the catacombs because his deposit on the Nicholas Sparks cabin is non-refundable, and let’s face it, he’s hoping Ichabod will end up trapped there anyway. Pandora insists that the job can only be done by the two witnesses (and because she ships them and knows they need some time together because she’s watched the past few episodes).  While I side with Jenny in her annoyance that Pandora is keeping herself out of harm’s way by not going WITH Ichabbie, I ALSO see her reasoning in staying behind. She does know THO the best, after all, and she’s the only one who has some sort of semblance of power that can stop him.  So it’s settled.  The Witnesses will cross the river to the catacombs while the rest of the team zeroes in on containing The Hidden One. According to Pandora, THO is on Bear Mountain, which sits on a focal point of ancient energy. According to good old Washington’s journal, the mountain is covered in a bunch of intersecting ley lines whose power can be channeled to fight the powers of the hourglass. “Into the woods, it’s time and so I must begin my journey…”

In the car on the way to the river, Ichabod reflects on his relationship with Betsy Ross. Betsy returned from the catacombs irrevocably changed. Abbie points out that she herself was changed when she returned but Ichabod insists this was different. She returned and completely cut off all communication with him despite their previous closeness. This, kids, is what we call foreshadowing. The Witnesses get their boat on the river and strive to recreate the mural of Washington crossing the Delaware, down to Crane wrapping himself in a blanket. He hands Abbie the flag with a grin. “Would you do the honors?” he smirks and I CAN’T EVEN EXPRESS how important it is to me that he cedes all power to Abbie in this moment. Every little thing that he’s done since it became clear they would have to go back to the catacombs has been done with respect to her agency. He KNOWS what the catacombs did to her and he knows how utterly brave and selfless it is of her to be willing to go back. He leaves it to ABBIE to hold the flag because it allows her the power to say no. What’s even more important is the fact that Abbie DOESN’T say no. She simply cracks a joke about how foolish they will look if this doesn’t work. (“If this doesn’t work, you DO realize that we’re just two people on a boat singing the anthem?”) Abbie unfurls the flag and starts to sing, tentatively at first, but she gains strength as she continues. The flag illuminates on the phrase “Bright Stars” and we’re not in Sleepy Hollow anymore, Toto. Welcome to the River Styx. I had no idea it was located in upstate New York.

After a heart to heart on the boat that I’ll definitely be discussing in the shippy section because MY GOD, Abbie and Ichabod reach the shore only to find that Washington’s original mission clearly went to shit. There are fragments of the boat and bodies ERRYWHERE. Ichabod finds a missive from Betsy on one of the bodies (HOW CONVENIENT) that details just exactly what went down. There was a traitor on the boat (courtesy of our buddy General Howe, REMEMBER HIM?) and he blew the boat up. Washington and Betsy were the sole survivors (because of course). Once again the witnesses discuss that Betsy came back from this mission a completely different person…going as far as to say that she was LITERALLY a different person, just in case we didn’t think we were being hit over the head with the fact that they are most definitely going to find her in the catacombs by the end of the episode.

Meanwhile, the remainder of Team Witness is following Pandora’s magical compass so they can drive stakes into all the ley lines of Bear Mountain. They’ve split up into the combos of Joenny and Danny, Sophie, and Pandora so they can cover ground faster and Danny’s barking out orders as if he’s in charge even though he LITERALLY joined this team ten minutes ago. (PANDORA joined this team before you, Danny, GTFO thinking you are in charge.) Suddenly we get a shot of a flock of birds converging over the mountain and Pandora says “He knows we’re here” and I had to make sure I was watching Sleepy Hollow and not Fellowship of the Ring.  THO conjures a storm and now Team Witness knows they have to go through the Mines of Moria instead of over the Mountain realizes they have GOT to get a move on. One problem though. The storm manages to damage Pandora’s compass and now they have no way of marking the ley lines. Their only hope is a map Jenny has back at her trailer but it will take too much time to retrieve it and bring it back to the mountain. Joey volunteers to go back and then text Jenny the correct coordinates. “Watch your back, babe.” This is me:

Back in the underworld, Abbie and Crane realize they are equally fucked. They have no map or ANYTHING to direct them on how to get to the catacombs. To make it worse, one of the soldiers springs back to life and attacks Crane because the one thing this episode was missing was zombies. Crane and Abbie take out the zombie together (kudos on the blood and guts, show) and Crane discovers a dark magic charm that Howe used to give its wearer eternal life. Really this has no significance to the overall plot except that it makes Crane look closer at Betsy’s missive. It’s encoded with directions to the gateway to the catacombs because Betsy Ross is the smartest person who ever existed, didn’t you know? Abbie and Ichabod stand outside the gateway and Ichabod STILL gives her the ultimate choice. He’s not going anywhere until she says it is okay. “I’m really going back there,” she breathes, steadying herself. “Only this time you’re not alone,” he gently reminds her. “And we have a way out.” In a BEAUTIFUL parallel to the Season One finale, Abbie and Ichabod link their hands (HER HAND IS SO SMALL IN HIS I CAN’T). “Shall we?” MY HEART.

Danny is all “I don’t like being blindsided” to Pandora, who just responds with a withering glare because she has no idea how this guy ended up in charge. He sends Jenny out on Hidden One recon with strict orders that she’s not to engage with him (Ha, that’s going to go over well) while he, Sophie, and Pandora distribute the rest of the ley line spikes. Jenny gets in position and finds that she has a clear shot at THO and she wants to take it. Danny ORDERS her not to engage and Jenny’s all “Sorry I can’t hear you. You’re breaking up. AND WHO PUT YOU IN CHARGE?” because NO ONE tells Jenny Mills what to do. She moves into position to take her shot (she’s not throwing it away, y’all) when Joey comes through with the coordinates. GOOD JOB BOO.

Back at the trailer, Joey is locking up so he can rejoin the gang when out of NOWHERE Ezra Mills shows up and immediately things get shady as FUCK. Joey is immediately on edge and Ezra is all “Is this a bad time?” and unease permeates the ENTIRE scene because Ezra is just oozing faux-innocence. I am pretty sure Sage and I broke bones in each other’s hands in this moment because we were SO afraid that Ezra was a baddie in this moment. On the mountain, an unfortunate snapped twig gives away Jenny’s presence and THO knocks her over and drags her to him using his magic. “It almost impresses me,” THO sneers. “The insatiable mortal desire to fight what you cannot possibly conquer.” Jenny, precious and brave sunflower, refuses to be cowed. “I don’t know what I hate about you most: the way you talk or the way you treat women.” TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR. It’s a glorious retort but it’s also a reckless one because it turns THO’s eyes on how best to torture Jenny. “I know well the value mortals place on love. Let me take yours and turn it into pain.” (This line also strengthens my point that what happens to Joe was done EXCLUSIVELY to cause Jenny pain over anything else.)

At the trailer, Joey grimaces as a mystical light surrounds him. “You need to run,” he croaks at Ezra, his face contorted with pain. He turns into the Wendigo right in front of Ezra’s eyes. “It seems like you’re having a really bad day, son.” Ezra is AFRAID but he’s strangely NOT freaking out. HMMMMM. Ezra runs, because he’s no fool, but it is almost like he was expecting this to happen to Joe. Curiouser and curiouser.

Meanwhile, Danny, Sophie, and Pandora know something is up, given that they can’t reach Joe or Jenny. “We panic now, we’re playing into his hands,” Danny says, and for once I agree with him. Pandora realizes it’s time for her to face her “husband” and she’s the only one who can buy them enough time to finish mapping out the ley lines. Danny and Sophie actually try to convince Pandora to stay with them, that they can offer her protection, but she just chuckles sardonically. “No one can be protected from a God. Especially an angry one.” Pandora sets off while Danny and Sophie use their shiny new Ford Explorer that has fancy blind spot and reverse cameras (THIS IS THE MOST PAINFUL KIND OF PRODUCT PLACEMENT.) to finish planting the spikes. Sophie comments that Danny is handling all of this pretty well (I mean if steamrolling everyone so he can be in charge is “handling it well” I GUESS he is ACES). She also says that keeping Danny in the dark was really hard for Abbie and I just feel betrayed because I thought Sophie was FIRMLY #TeamIchabbie so why the fuck is she encouraging this? Danny decides to spill his guts to Sophie, saying Abbie is not the only one who has had secrets. He confesses to her about his shady FBI dealings and keeping tabs on Abbie for an unknown reason. (Seriously Danny…did you not even QUESTION this? I hate you.) He tells Sophie that Abbie was referred to as an “asset”. (All of this makes sense in light of the end of the finale, which just pisses me off more.) Just when was Danny planning on telling Abbie this? At the Cabin of Feelings? I’m sure that would go over well. Sophie’s face is the definition of shade and Danny actually admits that he messed up. “I can’t change that…but I can do my best to protect her.” LIKE YOU’VE BEEN PROTECTING HER THE WHOLE TIME? Okay. Sure, Jan.

Ezra is cowering in his car as WendiJoe is trying to kill him when Jenny suddenly shows up. (How did she get away from The Hidden One? Did he let her go? Did she knock him out? HOW DID WE GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B?) Jenny tries to talk WendiJoe down but Joey’s humanity is just too far gone at this point. She shoots him in the side with a tracking bullet and flees to safety with her father. They make it to a secret hideaway (because Sleepy Hollow is littered with those) and Jenny tries to explain to her father what just went down but Ezra ain’t got time for that. “Your boyfriend is a wendigo,” he says bluntly. EXCUSE ME? Oh..so it turns out Ezra Mills knows EVERYTHING. He knows about the supernatural, he knows about Abbie’s role as a Witness, he knows EVERYTHING. Jenny looks like she’s been punched in the stomach. (Same, girl.) The worst part is that Ezra has ALWAYS known what Abbie was destined for. Then why in the HELL did he leave his daughters to their own devices? Not that the Sisters Mills couldn’t handle themselves just fine, because they obviously could. It’s the principle of the thing.  Ezra is all “Sorry I had my reasons for abandoning you but we only have 15 minutes left in this episode so maybe we’ll explore those reasons next season, mmmmkay?” He hands her a half skull and an obsidian blade and asks her if she knows a certain incantation that can help free Joe from the curse. “DUH-DOY I AM A BAMF, DAD,” she replies. (Well, that’s what I heard anyway.) Ezra then pulls out a gun that is engineered to take down any species…just in cases. Once again, Jenny asks Ezra just how much he knows and because he hasn’t made our brains explode enough, he pulls the picture of August Corbin and Nevins in the army and confesses that he took that picture. (SERIOUSLY AUGUST HOW DID THIS NEVER COME UP?) He promises he’ll answer all of Jenny’s questions next season but in the meantime, they have to save Joe. “I owe August Corbin that much.” Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay?

You’ll notice I haven’t talked about Abbie and Crane in the catacombs because their scenes were shippy as all get out, so I’ll go into detail on them later. The Witnesses find themselves in the bowels of the catacombs and everything about it is SO reminiscent of Mulder and Scully wandering through the labyrinth of files in “Paper Clip”, down to the use of flashlights. They find the innermost chamber of the catacombs and whoops there’s Betsy Ross, who appears to be dead. “She deserved a better end than this,” Crane sighs. “At least now I know the truth.”

Thus we come to the confrontation I have been waiting for ever since The Hidden One revealed himself to be a misogynist asshole. Pandora is all “Hey Boo” and it’s way too overly casual for the amount of rage I know that is simmering just beneath the surface. THO has no time for this nonsense. He has a world to end, so let’s get this done. They never loved each other, really. “All I’ve ever loved is power,” he sneers and the look on Pandora’s face says the exact same thing. THO says he can’t wait to take her life while Pandora stares at the hourglass with an unreadable expression. We see Danny and Sophie FINALLY plant the last ley line spike as the final grain of sand hangs in the balance (is Pandora keeping the grain suspended? That’s what I saw). Suddenly all the spikes electrify and a magical dome forms over Sleepy Hollow. (Who else got flashes of Minerva McGonagall raising a protection spell over Hogwarts?) The dome of protection doesn’t last long as THO somehow manages to melt the spikes and break the dome and Pandora’s hold on the grain of sand. He glows red. “The man you call husband no longer exists. All that remains is his final wish…that this world shall burn.” I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON HERE. WHY ISN’T PANDORA KICKING HIS ASS? Ugh.

Jenny and Ezra track WendiJoe in the woods. Jenny still tries to get some answers as to what exactly her father would owe August Corbin, but Ezra remains obtuse because he really wants to be in Season Four. “That was the deal,” he says. “It killed me to leave but it was for your own protection.” Jenny and I both say WHAT DOES THIS MEAN in utter frustration. Seriously. There’s a difference between story progression and being deliberately vague because you’re so focused on shock value. GUESS WHAT THIS WAS? The latter, considering that not a word of Ezra’s past was mentioned in the finale. Anyway, Jenny corners WendiJoe and with a “I’m sorry about this babe,” she stabs him with the dagger and attempts the incantation that will free him. Whatever kind of whammy THO put on Joey (“Please explain to me the scientific nature of the whammy.”) is too strong and the spell fails. WendiJoe goes after Ezra and Jenny is faced with a terrible choice: her father or her great love. Jenny shoots WendiJoe, he collapses to the ground, and then he transforms back into the Joey Corbin we all know and love…with a gaping hole in his chest. THIS IS WHY JOE CORBIN IS IMPORTANT: in his last moments he didn’t focus on himself or on the fact that he was about to die. All he did was focus on Jenny. (Lyndie’s sobbed “What did I do?” BROKE ME.) “It’s okay.” “I love you.” “You had to.” “Don’t you fret, Monsieur Marius, I don’t feel any pain.” As Zach told our pal Kelly when she interviewed him for EW, he knew that this would likely haunt Jenny for the rest of her life and he did all he could to let her know that he didn’t blame her. He knows that it may not lessen her guilt but it’s so so so so important that she knows that he loved her up until his last breath. It’s beautiful and it’s brutal and we could have had SO MUCH MORE. Ugh.

In the catacombs, Abbie realizes that Betsy is actually still alive, thanks to the magic of the catacombs. (They found the ONE loophole that would allow Betsy to interact with the witnesses in modern times, GOOD JOB. *eye roll*) The first thing Betsy does is comment on his hair…which why not? It takes several minutes for the writers Betsy to notice that Abbie is in this scene too, which prompts some GLORIOUS bitch “Who Dis?” faces from the both of them (but really from Abbie). How is Betsy still alive? “Bad luck really,” she confesses. Turns out she got a little greedy in the catacombs a la the Nazis in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (“He chose…poorly.”) and ended up trapped in the chamber when the alarm system triggered and shut down all the emergency doors. Washington ended up on the other side and promised to come back for her, so she’s just been chilling here all this time. “How fares the war?” she asks. Ummmmm. Abbie and Ichabod share a look. HOW TO BREAK IT TO BETSY THAT SHE’S BEEN TRAPPED FOR ALMOST 250 YEARS?

RIP Joey Corbin. I have no idea what else is going on. This is a mess and not a fun one. 3/10 Sandmen cause the random zombie DID scare me. 10/10 Golems to anyone who can explain the logic of all of this to me. 

#ShippyHollow

“You and I both know your strong desire.” 

“We cannot hide who we truly are.” 

“We should embrace the fruits of life with a full heart.” 

LISTEN.

It took Sage and I a good twenty minutes to watch this opening scene because we were screaming so much. This scene bordered on pornographic, with all its UST and sexual innuendos and HEART EYES. Crane effing DREW HIMSELF on Abbie’s cappuccino. Abbie brought Crane a GOURMET BACON BOURBON DONUT. They both moaned in delight whilst making eye contact. I sincerely thought I had stumbled into some alternate universe where Abbie and Crane were newlyweds. This was FAN FICTION…except it was a fan fiction that forgot to write the smutty chapter where they did it right there on the kitchen table. (I mean if you are embracing the “fruits of life” then you should embrace sex on the kitchen table, I’m JUST SAYING.) Then there was THIS nonsense that caused me physical pain…

In the midst of all the coffee and pastry foreplay, these two still manage to declare their deep and abiding love for each other in every way except the words “I love you”. “I’m scared out of my mind of seeing that place again,” Abbie confesses as they discuss their impending trip to the catacombs. I love how these two have conversations with their eyes because you actually SEE Crane telling her that she can still back out of this and she isn’t having it. “And no, I’m not letting you go without me. Whatever you do, I do. That’s the deal.” aka “You jump, I jump, right?” aka WEDDING VOWS. What I love the most about the Ichabbie relationship is how quickly they bounce between poetry-spouting Biblical Life Partners and absolutely twitterpaited kids in love. “Truth bomb if I ever heard one,” Crane says solemnly after Abbie’s declaration of devotion. They burst into giggles because that will ALWAYS sound ridiculous coming out of Crane’s mouth. HOW CAN YOU TAKE THIS RELATIONSHIP AND THIS CHEMISTRY FOR GRANTED? Explain it to me. Please.

Like I said…the biggest beauty of Ichabbie is how open and emotional they have become with each other. Ichabod has worn his heart on his sleeve from day one but Abbie was always much more guarded with her heart and with opening up to him. The scene on the boat as they crossed the River Styx shows just how far they’ve come. Would the Abbie of Season One have so easily said to Crane “You ever think of how many times you and I have technically died”? I don’t think so. Abbie’s always trusted Crane, that much is clear. But ever since she came back from the catacombs, ever since she opened up to him about her time there and admitted she needed help, it seems they’ve taken it to a new level. She’s so open. “I can endure anything. It’s the losses that wear me down.” Ichabod Crane somehow exists on a different plane from the rest of the writing on this show because he has NEVER minimized what Abbie has been through. He has never seen her as anything less than a pillar of strength that should be admired. “You have endured MUCH, Lieutenant,” he says softly, after he rattles off the times he’s nearly lost her. I love that he doesn’t say WE…because Abbie had just rattled off the list of times she had lost HIM. It would have been easy for him to say “WE have endured much” but he doesn’t. He says “YOU”. Ugh. My heart hurts.

Then Crane takes it to the next level by saying he prefers to focus on what he has in front of him.  He doesn’t dwell on losing his wife or his son. “I have a partner of the highest caliber,” he says, his gaze never wavering from hers. Abbie has the nerve to get all bashful at that because Nicole Beharie clearly wants me to set myself on fire. She tries to make a joke out of everything by bringing up the legends that Crane has worked with previously. George Washington. Betsy Ross. Crane may joke about their fatal flaws but it’s SO CLEAR that they pale in comparison to Grace Abigail Mills. His “Oh, handily” is so achingly sincere I want to sue Tom Mison for emotional distress.

   THERE. IS. NO. GREATER. CERTAINTY.

Also thank you/I hate you Tom Mison for pulling a Harry Styles (trademark pending) scrunchy face at the very end of that scene (LOOK AT THE LAST GIF) because you just couldn’t contain your fond. Crane totally had “I love you” on the tip of his tongue, didn’t he?

Lastly, we have the scene where Crane is PHYSICALLY in the space that contained Abbie for all that time. You see his heart break for what she endured there as he takes it all in. THEN he tries to lighten the mood by commenting on Abbie’s makeshift chess set because he refuses to allow her to sink into despair. He feels that she is on edge and he uses the chess set to try and ground her. It’s a way for him to open up a dialogue about her time there without pushing her to fully re-live it…and it’s also a way for him to remind her that it’s differnt this time and that she is there on her own terms. But this is what’s so AMAZING about Abbie: she stands right there on the edge of despair and she looks at it and she doesn’t allow it to pull her in. She openly talks about how her imaginary arguments with him and how she can’t believe they weren’t real because they were so real to her.

Of course Crane has to go and pull an Albus Dumbledore. “Of course it’s happening inside your head, Harry. But why would that mean it is not real?” I love how he doesn’t minimize what those conversations meant and I love how he confesses he did the same thing. They are so deeply and firmly in each other’s hearts. And he just gazes at her with wonder and admiration and LOVE the entire time. He affirms her victory. His Abbie is a SURVIVOR and he never lets her forget it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be weeping over these two for the rest of my life.

My HEART wants to say 10/10 but then I remember they didn’t ACTUALLY shag on the kitchen table. 8.5/10 Fistbumps and may God have mercy on the souls that squandered this chemistry. 

#SassyHollow

*looks at empty paper bag* I have no donut holes to give. I’m dead inside. 0/10 Donut Holes

Thus ends my final recap for Sleepy Hollow. I’ve had a blast recapping this maddening show for you guys for the past three seasons and I’m so so so grateful that you guys have come on this ride with us. We should have had so many more. Sage’s thoughts on the finale are forthcoming and she elaborates quite eloquently on why Team Head Over Feels stops here. Kim out.