Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Sleepy Hollow 2.10: "Magnum Opus"

“How do I know myself when at every turn my life has been determined by others?”
- Ichabod

It’s the beginning of the end…of the two-part midseason finale. And it begins with a game of “name that famous person”. Abbie explains that it helps as a profiling technique to distract the conscious mind in order to solve problems. And since they’ve been over Grace Dixon’s journal about a million times with no luck, they need it. Ichabod gets huffy when she says that George Washington tells no lies but the game is quickly interrupted by Katrina contacting them through a mirror. She warns that Moloch is growing stronger quickly. They let her know that they are looking for a weapon to defeat Moloch but footsteps on Katrina’s end prematurely end the conversation. But it does jump start the discovery process for Abbie and Ichabod about the weapon. Unfortunately, Henry planned to allow Katrina to contact them through the mirror so he could spy on them as they deduce that the weapon they need is the Sword of Methuselah from the Book of Enoch. They have to be careful though since if they don’t know themselves completely, the sword will kill them. Henry sends Headless after them and Katrina fears for their safety as Abraham spills probably more than he should about where he’s going and what he’s doing.

Our Witnesses aren’t the only ones racing against a clock. Jenny is trying to get Irving across the border to Canada but they happen upon a road block that Abbie didn’t warn them about and Irving jumps out of the car to ensure Jenny doesn’t get arrested. He is still upset that he can’t see his family but he’s trying not to put anyone else in danger either. I’m just concerned about what happens when Henry finally uses him as a weapon. Jenny had told Irving she would meet him across the border on a bridge but she’s waiting there and he leaves her a voicemail saying he’s going it alone. Yeah, I’m really concerned about him.

Back at Frederick’s Manor, Henry is gloating (he’s so annoying when he does that) about being able to blow the horn that signaled the fall of Jericho and so many other wars. He argues a bit with Katrina, taunting her that her humanity is her biggest weakness. She points out that it was her humanity and love for her husband that gave him life but he denies his humanity. And in an effort to further mess with her mind, he lifts the enchantment on the house so it’s all falling to pieces and she can see Moloch for what he really is (instead of a surly teenage boy…yes at the end of last week’s episode he was maybe 8 or 9…he grows fast).

Abbie and Ichabod are following the trail set out by Ben Franklin (in some conspicuously drafted propaganda material) when Headless happens upon them. They’re concerned that he showed up and knew where they were but they manage to fend him off with sunrise. Although, Abbie is impatient and goes after him and nearly gets killed. Ichabod has to distract him and lead him right into the morning light to send him off. We also see our Witnesses struggling with knowing themselves completely as we learn that it was Abraham that convinced Ichabod to go to the New World and obviously we know that Katrina convinced him to turn to Washington’s cause. Before Headless left, he took a plaque that was supposed to be a clue to finding the sword. But Abbie caught a glimpse and thanks to Ichabod’s encyclopedic knowledge of historical stuff, he points out that it was the Ouroboros (the snake eating its own tail) and they unearth (quite literally) a cavern with a bunch of stone statues, including one of Abbie’s ancestors. Ichabod realizes that they are actually people who were turned to stone and they race out of the cellar before the Gorgon can turn them to stone, too. Abbie is kind of freaking out since so many of her ancestors died early in their lives (Grace, Abbie’s mom). She was so sure before going down there that her destiny was on this path and that it had a purpose and Ichabod reminds her of that. They need to stay strong. And then she floats the idea that if they can’t get close to the Gorgon without dying, they let Abraham kill it for them since he doesn’t have that pesky meeting its gaze problem. Clever. In fact it looks like it might even work. He’s fashioned his socks into torches (ever the resourceful chap) as they run through the plan to hope that Headless keeps the Gorgon distracted and maybe even kills it while they get the sword. Things go fairly well until they actually get to where the sword is kept. It’s right out of an Indiana Jones movie with lots of swords that they have to choose from. Yeah, they totally ripped that off from Indy.

I have to say I really liked the way they did Ichabod and Abraham’s confrontation (after Headless finally defeats the Gorgon). The cave they’re in shows each person as their true self so Ichabod can see Abraham as he was in life. And they end up dueling. We intercut between this fight and their play fighting in London and the duel which led to Abraham’s death). I really liked the way it told the story of their relationship and you got see that Abraham didn’t see himself as the villain. He saw himself as the hero and that Ichabod just latched on to him and took everything he held dear. Unfortunately, Abbie’s not having much luck with the swords. She grabs one and they all turn into snakes and go slithering off. Ichabod races in followed closely by Abraham and we get a little more verbal sparring before Abraham makes the declaration that he is embracing himself as the Horseman of Death and goes off to be with Moloch (the horn has sounded once already). Ichabod is understandably thrown but Abbie gets his head back on straight and together, they figure out where the sword is and claim it just in time. Henry and Abraham are with Moloch so they don’t have a lot of time to stop this whole apocalypse rising thing. I am very excited to see how the writers leave us at the end of next week’s winter finale.

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