Sleepy Hollow season one ended with a helluva cliffhanger: Abbie trapped in Purgatory! Katrina and Ichabod reunited, only to be separated by Henry Parrish who revealed his true colors and his true identity. Frank Irving turned himself into the police, Jenny was potentially dead in a car crash, and Katrina was taken by the Horseman of Death/Abraham while Ichabod was buried alive. With such high stakes, did the Season 2 premiere deliver?
We open on Ichabod in the darkness…of the cabin? Abbie switches on the lights to greet him with a birthday cupcake. The bickering over modern birthday traditions (or superstitions, as Crane points out) is cute, but leaves viewers confused. We have tension between Abbie and Ichabod over the unspoken past: Katrina and Jenny are both dead, and a year has passed since the events of the finale. Their mildly tense celebration is cut short by a phone call from the Sheriff’s department: a professor of the historical society claims he is in danger and specifically requests Team Ichabbie’s help. The Horseman is back and escapes, although Abbie and Ichabod at least have what he was after: historical records about Benjamin Franklin.
Ichabod and Abbie reluctantly decide to interrogate Henry (their prisoner? Say whaaaat) after exhausting all other leads in tracking down the key from Benjamin Franklin’s kite. Mr. Franklin’s famous experiment had nothing to do with electricity, and everything to do with the attempted destruction of the Gehenna Key. It’s basically a “Get-Out-Of-Purgatory-Free” card. You don’t even have to worry about replacing the soul you’re taking out. Obviously the key poses a serious risk if Moloch gets his freaky hands on it, so Abbie and Ichabod have no other choice but to speak with their prisoner in hopes of information. Admiring the latest acquisition for his garden, Henry comments how his plants have no idea that the artificial light they’re growing under isn’t proper sunlight: “A testament to the fact that anything can be tricked into believing a lie” — foreshadowing senses are going berserk.
There are little details about these several opening minutes that leave you guessing if Ichabod is imagining things. You’re half right. Upon realizing both he and Abbie can’t remember any details about the past year, Ichabod concludes they’re really in Purgatory. Henry breaks free of his chains (he looked too comfy in those!) and declares our Witnesses were “brought here for one final mission”, to help Moloch and Henry determine the location of Ben Franklin’s key. The answer lies with Jenny, and Henry once more separates Abbie and Ichabod now that his objective is achieved.
Henry retrieves Jenny and uses his abilities to see when she recovered Benjamin Franklin’s sketchbook five years ago. In Purgatory, Abbie enlists the help of Officer Andy to find a way to communicate with Ichabod. Andy directs her to Moloch’s lair, which holds a mirror that reflects a path to Earth. Meanwhile, Ichabod blasts his way out of the coffin using some rudimentary gunpowder in the dirt above him, and Jenny takes the “BAMF OF THE EPISODE” Award away from her sister when she breaks free from her chair and throws a knife in a dude’s chest. The two partner up and track down Ben Franklin’s key sketch in the archives. Ichabod decodes Franklin’s alphabet and is en route to a statue of the Founding Father when Abbie contacts him through Moloch’s mirror. She warns him that Moloch is raising an army of Purgatory residents to take with him to Earth. Despite Abbie’s suggestion that they might be playing right into Moloch’s hands by getting the key, Ichabod stands by his promise to free her.
Jenny and Ichabod find Hessians at the statue. By remembering Franklin’s arrogance and aphorisms they determine the key’s true location is in the town clock tower. Armed with the key, Ichabod delves into Purgatory to retrieve Abbie: only to find her with a doppelganger of himself courtesy of Moloch. The two Ichabods fight and Abbie runs with one that has the key – until she realizes he’s called her “Lieutenant” with modern pronunciation.
Abbie and the real Ichabod escape with the key just in time to stop Moloch’s monster army from getting out. The Mills Sisters and Ichabod barely have time to celebrate the day’s victory, as far greater trials await them. Despite Henry’s failure to retrieve the key, Moloch grants him a puppet soldier to control with his soul and says “there is new work to be done”. And, of course, Katrina is still Abraham/the Headless Horseman’s captive.
Favorite Quote: “Impact? On the scores of strumpets he crushed beneath his girth, perhaps.” -Ichabod Crane on Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin
Verdict: I’d give the episode a 3.5, maaaybe 4 out of 5 rating. It was a great jump back in the Sleepy Hollow world: there was great pacing for the action scenes, wonderful depth to the dramatic dialogue of Ichabod and Abbie’s scene in Moloch’s lair, and plenty of laughs between Ichabod’s continuing struggles with technology and breaking the historical illusions about our Founding Fathers. (Of all the things we predicted for the premiere, no one could have expected Naked Ben Franklin. NO ONE.) I do wish the Purgatory trick hadn’t taken up the first fifteen minutes of the show, it side-tracked the Sleepy Hollow I love. But I understand why it was necessary, and kudos to both the writers and the effects crew for making me vacillate as to whether this world was happening or not.
My only qualms are 1) the lack of Frank Irving, although considering the main plot of the episode he really didn’t have a place in it, and 2) the treatment of Katrina. I’m a Katrina fan, but damn this episode doesn’t do her any justice. Like, can we drop the damsel-in-distress and trophy B.S., please? It’s already SO old, and the promo for next episode having her chained up doesn’t make me feel any better about it.
P.S. what the hell was Benjamin Franklin’s accent?
Check out the promo for 2×02, “The Kindred”!
The Daily Geekette 