Courtesy of FOX
Naked Benjamin Franklin, Crane wrapping his head around birthday cupcakes, and several decapitations: Sleepy Hollow is back with its season two premiere!
Greetings my fellow Sleepy Hollow lovers! It was a looong eight months for all of us, but thankfully we had several Tom Mison Listicles to tide us over until the show’s return last night.
I appreciated the lengthy “previously on” recap because A) it has been forever since this show aired, and B) I had too much Bachelor in Paradise to consume to rewatch last season (no judging!). That doesn’t really help though when ‘This Means War’ opens by flash-forwarding a year after the events of the finale. and we learn that Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) and Katrina (Katia Winter) dead, and Ichabod (Tom Mison) loathes surprise birthday parties. Whaaa?
We’re less than 4 minutes into the show before we get our first decapitation, which isn’t too shabby. The Headless Horseman (or as I like to call him, HH) murdered a college professor searching for a key belonging to Benjamin Franklin (Timothy Busfield) that opens the portal to Purgatory. That’s right, Benjamin Franklin wasn’t trying to find electricity with the kite, he was trying to destroy the damn key! Necessity breeds innovation. Why do we know this? Because obviously Ichabod used to be Ben’s assistant. Also, Ben liked to run around in the buff. Who knew?
When Ichabod and Abbie (Nicole Beharie) visit Henry (John Noble), who is now their Hannibal Lector-style prisoner/advisor with a green thumb, that’s when we find out this whole thing is an illusion! During their discussion, Abbie remembers that Jenny had acquired Ben Franklin’s sketchbook for Corbin. As soon as Henry hears this, the world starts crumbling; Henry and Moloch created this illusion to find out where the key was. In fact, we’re back to where we were in last year’s finale with Ichabod buried alive, Abbie stuck in Purgatory, Jenny captured, and Katrina in her own personal Misery scenario with HH.
Luckily, Ichabod must have seen some MacGyver reruns over the hiatus and he quickly blows his way out of his coffin with some gunpowder. After stopping off to pick up Jenny (who did a pretty good job of getting herself free), they figure out how to get the key (don’t worry about the details, they just get it).
Ichabod takes the key and heads to Purgatory to free Abbie. He gets there in the nick of time, as a demon impersonating Crane is trying to get Abbie to drink (which we don’t do in Purgatory). We get a nice Tom Mison on Tom Mison fight – the stuff that dreams are made of for some of us. And Abbie gets to decapitate someone. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Meanwhile, Katrina is still stuck with HH. Thanks to the magical necklace he puts on her (one he bought her centuries ago), she can see his original form as Abraham. This works for me. As an audience, there’s only so much you can feel for a guy without a head. Kinda hard to read his emotions. I for one am looking forward to seeing HH become a more developed character. Also, maybe this plot line will give Katrina something to do that doesn’t make me so irritated all the time.
Other Observations:
- You know what never gets old? When Ichabod screams to Abbie, “I promise you, I’ll return for you.” At least one of those an episode, please.
- The action during the fake future is a little ridiculous. Between the grenades and the laser-guided weapons, it was very “Call of Duty: Apocalypse”
- Poor Andy Brooks (John Cho): always stuck in the friend zone. Nice to see Cho back before he heads over to Selfie. I think we may see him again shortly (if the reports about Selfie‘s quality are true).
- At the risk of pissing off Ichabod/Abbie shippers out there, I am loving the dynamic between Jenny and Crane. There are no romantic undertones (which I like) and I hope we get to see more of them throughout the season.
- I’m assuming Captain Irving (an unseen Orlando Jones) is still in jail? I’m ok with the fact that we didn’t find out what happened to him yet. I’m still on overload from the jam-packed episode, and I don’t think I could have handled anything else.
Best Line:
- Ichabod: “A surprise party? Why must your era celebrate terror with dessert?”
Your turn: was the return of Ichabod and Abbie everything you hoped for? Did you find the fake-out future confusing? Are you feeling the dynamic between Ichabod and Jenny? Excited for Katrina to finally get something to do? Sound off below
Sleepy Hollow airs Mondays at 9pm EST on FOX