Sleepy Hollow S2E1 - "This Is War" Recap

When last we saw the Sleepy Hollow gang, everything that could go wrong did just that and then some. Henry was revealed to be Ichabod and Katrina's thought-to-be-dead son Jeremy. He was also the first Horseman of the apocalypse, War. While Katrina was brought out of purgatory, Abbie had to stay behind in her place. Ichabod promised to return for her but Henry quickly bound Ichabod with evil tree branches and buried him in the coffin that Henry had long been trapped in. Headless rode off with his lady-love, Katrina, Jenny got into a car crash right when she was on her way to warn Abbie and Ichabod about the truth of Henry's identity, and Irving was behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. Questions?

"Crane, down!"

Crane is briefly shown underground before a fast-forward to a year after Henry's ascension. Jenny and Katrina are dead and Abbie brings Ichabod a birthday cupcake to their cabin. Abbie and Ichabod need to stop Headless from getting some papers about the key Benjamin Franklin used in his experiments on electricity. Conveniently, Ichabod used to be Franklin's apprentice and reveals that the experiment was actually done in an attempt to destroy the key. The reason for this is because the key is to Gehenna, otherwise known as Purgatory. The key can also let beings freely out of Purgatory, so Moloch wants the key to unleash his army on the world. Abbie reveals that Jenny read Franklin's notebook, right in front of a captured Henry. Unfortunately, this entire universe was a rouse projected to bring Ichabod and Abbie together to tell Henry how to find the key: Jenny.

"Madam, care for a lift?"

So Ichabod's still in the ground, which he quickly blows himself out of after realising there's sulfur in the dirt, and Abbie's still in Purgatory. He gets a call from Jenny, who has just broken out of her captured state. Henry had forcibly read her mind to retrieve some information he needed before leaving her to take out one of the henchmen and call up Crane. He arrives in a stolen ambulance which Jenny has to take over driving, and they head back to Corbin's archives. Ichabod deciphers the message that leads them to statue of Franklin in town where the Hessians are already there and looking. But Ichabod realises from his interactions with Franklin that the key is actually in the clock tower.

"Leftenant!"

So as Ichabod and Jenny head off with the key in hand, Abbie is making her way through Purgatory. She meets Andy earlier on, who helps her to learn how to relay a message to Ichabod, much in the manner that Katrina had been able to communicate with both Ichabod and Abbie while she was the one in Pugatory. (Katrina is still in the custody of Headless, who puts the necklace on her that Abraham had bestowed as gift while they were in a relationship and allows her to see him as Abraham. She also stabs him in the hand with a knife after he had cut her restraints and presented her with a roll of bread).

When Ichabod makes it into Purgatory, he finds Abbie about to drink from the canteen of a faux-Ichabod. The two Cranes fight after Abbie has been knocked down but then she makes off with Crane, who tells her that they need to go home. All she needs to do is recite the incantation and she'll be reunited with her sister. But when he calls her "lieutenant" and pronounces it "loo-tenant," Abbie knows he's an impostor and beheads him with a sword. When the real Ichabod comes running up asks how she knew, she tells him this one hadn't said "leftenant," and they greet one another with a fist bump. They make their way back into the real world and the key disintegrates, apparently operating under a one-time-only rule.

But it's not all smiles and happy endings yet…
Moloch presents Henry with a gift: a Horseman or War puppet with a flaming sword.

Sleepy Discussion

- Finally, one of my favourite shows has made its return! It was delightful to see the return of Ichabod and Abbie, as Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie have phenomenal chemistry and are able to deliver so much in their performances with just a facial expression, an eyebrow quip, and these looks can be used for both dramatic and comedic purposes.
- It was nice to see John Cho return as Deputy Andy, and despite his now being a lead on the new ABC show Selfie, I am hopeful that they will have him return now and again. After all, Selfie is only a half hour show. Surely, there's some time to spare for the Sleepyheads that love you!
- Jenny is ever the badass and puts all the generic action stars in big blockbusters to shame. Although Lyndie Greenwood is more than capable of holding her own where dramatic, emotional performances are concerned, I hope they continue to give her plenty of opportunity to get physical.
- Where is Irving? Free Irving!
- Katrina was a largely uninteresting character for all of season 1. Where are these powers of hers? If she's meant to be this powerful witch, surely your juice would've started to charge up by now, but instead she tries to attack Headless with a little steak knife. Something tells me that won't cut it. But now with this necklace that allows her to see Headless as Abraham (and allow Neil Jackson to return in the present storyline), there is potential! This isn't a suggestion to do a tired Stockholm Syndrome story, but these two have history. If we see Katrina join the dark side, I dare say she could start to become fun to watch!

Sleepy Hollow airs on Mondays on FOX at 9PM.