Courtesy of FOX
The winter premiere of Sleepy Hollow asks the age old question: when you’ve fulfilled your destiny, what happens then?
Let’s bitch it out…
When we last visited Sleepy Hollow, Henry (an unseen John Noble) killed Moloch and stopped (err…postponed) the apocalypse. It is now six weeks later with no hint of demonic goings on and our witnesses are struggling for a purpose in this world. Needless to say, Crane (Tom Mison) will probably not be opening up a farm-to-table restaurant anytime soon.
As our heroes aimlessly wander a Farmer’s Market, Crane gets giddy when he sees a rotten apple, convinced it’s a sign of demons. Of course, he’s right, because Sleepy Hollow isn’t going to turn into Friends (but oh, how I would pay to see Crane hanging at a coffee shop complaining about data processing). But I digress…
Our duo heads to the farm and discovers three demons that escaped from Purgatory when the seal was broken. While fighting the demons, an unexpected ally shows up…AN ANGEL! That’s right, complete with wings and some killer gold contacts. Orion (Max Brown) has been in Purgatory for 200 years and – just like the demons – he also escaped when Moloch was killed. Now that Moloch is gone, Orion lets us know that HH (Neil Jackson) is the new Big Bad and all of the released demons are traveling to him to resume minion duty. Luckily, our team still has HH locked up in tunnel jail and Orion is ready to put an end to this mess.
‘Paradise Lost’ finds Crane in a unique position: he realizes that the problem with no daily battles against evil is that there is more time to analyze what is wrong in your relationship. Hence, Crane and Katrina (Katia Winter) have been in a trial separation for the past six weeks (271 years is a lot of time for issues to arise). And, because Katrina is the worst, she has been spending a bit too much time with HH and has decided to do an enchantment to separate his soul from the Horseman so that he can be human again.
When Katrina discovers Orion’s intent to kill HH, she frees him even though she hasn’t had time to do the enchantment (Also: I don’t know if a demonic promise not to kill anyone really counts as exercising due diligence). It’s hard to show your husband that you are ready to get back together when you let your homicidal (ex)boyfriend out of tunnel jail. Just sayin’…
In the end, though I hate to encourage Katrina’s existence on this show, it turns out to be a good move. Crane discovers that Orion isn’t as cuddly as he’d like us to believe. Throughout history, he’s had a habit of “cleansing” humanity so that only the righteous survive. He not only intended to kill HH, but to absorb his power and start weeding out the sinners on earth.
So where does that leave us? One freed Horseman of the Apocalypse. One pissed off, vengeful angel flying about town (seriously, has no one called the Sherriff’s office about this?), and one very strained marriage. But wait, there’s more! Right before curtain call, Zombie Irving (Orlando Jones) shows up at a gas station – very much not dead and gone (“Is this heaven or hell?” he asks the disturbed attendant. “Neither man, it’s Sleepy Hollow.” Sure is!)
Courtesy of FOX
Other Observations:
- Thank you Abbie (Nicole Beharie) for asking an angel all of the right questions (“Have you seen dinosaurs?”)
- Hawley (Matt Barr) and Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) show up to help find the demons. Is anyone else confused about the all-of-the-sudden sexual tension between the two? Besides one earlier kiss, I saw no chemistry. It’s like the writers originally wrote him for Abbie and then did a 180 during the hiatus.
- Hawley’s nickname for the cute bartender: “Mixology in muscles”
What did you think of the winter premiere? Are you glad to have Irving back? Did you laugh or get excited when you saw those wings for the first time? Sound off below!
Sleepy Hollow takes a week off and returns Monday, Jan 19 at 9pm EST on FOX. It also ended up on our first ever ‘Rising/Falling List‘, if you missed it over the holidays. And here’s a preview for the next new episode: