Same Geek Channel Review ‘Sleepy Hollow’ Episode 217 “Awakening”

Corrina: Welcome to Same Geek Channel on Sleepy Hollow. I’m going to keep my snark in my pocket today because it’s hard to snark when a story is so good.

Mordechai: Holy hell. Sure, the second half of this season of Sleepy Hollow took a while to pick up, but it absolutely has, and after last week’s solid episode, we have an absolutely great one.

Corrina: It reminds me of how, about episode 17, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. upped its game big-time. And, like that show, Sleepy Hollow is uncertain for renewal. I hope some of the viewers that have drifted away come back for these ending episodes.

Mordechai: Henry has decided that his plan is to reboot all the people who have “witch blood” like him.

Corrina: I love this plan. It’s far better than “unleash hell” or “serve evil master.” Poor Henry/Jeremy has been a lonely soul his entire life. Now he sees a way to change that. And John Noble sells this motivation in a way that made me feel sad for Henry. Think about that. I felt bad for Henry.

Mordechai: To do that, he needs his mummy. Katrina makes the heel-turn they’ve been building on for some time. Katia Winter gives what may be her strongest performance of the season, if not the show so far. She’s still the weakest actor on the set, but the angry chemistry with her and Tom Mison worked so much better than the lovey-dovey sort.

Corrina: Katrina’s been moping all season about not being able to help Henry. She lost him as a baby, yes? I bet the show would read better if we view Katrina possibly through a postpartum depression lens. She’s lost her husband, she’s being attacked, she lost her child…and then she was in Purgatory. How could she possibly connect back to the real world again? Through her son, of course.

And Ichabod doesn’t understand. How could he? He had Abbie to help him through everything. She basically has no one, given how much of an outsider she’s been to his new life.

Mordechai: Damn. That’s brilliant. It is interesting how Ichabod has been spending all his time with Abbie and all.

Oh,  and speaking of chemistry, Jenny is in this episode and is once again just great. She lets Abbie and Ichabod know the score with Irving, and then gets the job of keeping Evil Irving busy while our two Witnesses deal with Henry’s master plan. “Keeping Irving busy” means turning him into stone via a handy Gorgon’s head.

Corrina: Jenny and Irving trying to kill each other had my heart in my throat, especially when Jenny did shoot him. Three times. Her dilemma about whether to actually use the Gorgon’s head absolutely worked.

Mordechai: Ichabod and Abbie plan to distract Henry long enough to crack the bell causing the witchbreed to come back. In a nice change of pace, Henry and Katrina are holed up not at the old manor, but the original Sleepy Hollow town hall. Instead of being a museum or something, this is just abandoned. Oh, and it used to be where Katrina’s coven met. Finally, it turns out Ichabod actually cracked the first Liberty Bell. Not the one in the history books, but the one before that. Because of course.

Corrina: I’ll point out that sometimes bells are supposed to have magical properties. I have a friend who wrote a magical realism story involving bells that Ioved. So, okay, yes, silly that Ichabod broke the Liberty Bell (sorta). But great use of the bells.

However, I kept wondering why they didn’t just steal the clapper. A bell can’t ring without it and it would be faster to remove that putting C-4 on the thing. But this is a minor niggle.

Mordechai: Ah-ah. Black powder, not C-4. But yes, there were other ways to do it. Better question: why the hell does no-one else notice Ichabod firing off his gun, yelling for Henry, and a flaming car crash? Old town hall has to be a little centrally located, no?

Henry and Katrina catch them, and bind them, forcing them to watch them complete the spell. It’s then that we learn that General Washington had promised Sleepy Hollow as a safe haven for the witchbreed, but then reneged. So you see, Katrina and Henry aren’t actually being evil, just seeking justice.

Corrina: If Washington did cheat them, their motivation is that much stronger. It doesn’t mean they’re right but villains with strong and believable motivations always work that much better.

Mordechai: Luckily for our heroes Henry stinks at frisking, because Ichabod still has two guns on him, loaded with “Greek fire charges” (really?).

Corrina: That was quite convenient. But Henry hasn’t been the same since he killed the demon. So I’ll hand-wave that away.

Mordechai: They cut themselves loose and shoot Henry. Turns out Henry is not immortal after all, and he dies. While this seems to free Captain Irving, it sends Katrina into a rage.

Corrina: Henry’s death affected me! It’s not that I was sad to see the character go but I felt for him. Sure, he picked a wrong path to redemption but he had nobility at the end.

And for extra pathos, Irving regurgitating the black cloud and collapsing and perhaps good again (?) in Jenny’s arms is a beautifully played scene. If I didn’t ‘ship Jenny/Irving before, I do now.

Mordechai: I’ve been shipping them since the first time they interacted. The glorious chemistry (hey look, a theme).

Remember the time travel spell the bad guy tried to use two episodes ago? Dark Katrina uses it to go back in time, where she plans on not saving Ichabod (and ignoring how this will alter the first season). Fortunately, she’s not alone. Abbie’s come along for the ride.

I really, really should have seen this coming, what with the show opening with Abbie and Ichabod in a bookshop, discussing what a well-worn trope time travel is. Foolish me, I thought this was just a meta-message to the viewer, not a hint to set up a larger story.

Corrina: The best stories are the ones where you think “ZOMG, I didn’t see that coming,” and then later say, “I totally should have seen that coming.” Great swerve, show.

And Ioved the chords of “Sympathy for the Devil” playing over Katrina and Abbie’s arrival in the past.

Mordechai: Our episode ends with Abbie thrown in jail (person of color in Colonial US? Kinda obvious, but in a good way) and playing her trump card – she has secrets vital to the war…and will only tell them to Captain Ichabod Crane.

Corrina: I worried that we’d be stuck with “reverse show” for a few episodes but given this development, we’re going to move fast. I’m rooting for Ichabod to somehow save pregnant Katrina and Jeremy so they get to live out their lives, while Ichabod chooses to go back to the future with Abbie. Because witnesses stick together.

And if the show doesn’t get another season, that would at least be a perfect ending.

Mordechai: There are only 18 episodes this season, so next week is the finale. They’d better move fast!

Unless, of course, the plan for season three is for it to be a reverse show. Ghaaa…next week cannot come soon enough.

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