“Well then, Lieutenant, let us change the course of history…again.”
- Ichabod
The writers of “Sleepy Hollow” kick things off right from the get go of the finale. We find 18th century Ichabod kicking some serious British butt on the battlefield when he receives word that Abbie wants to speak to him from lock up. He’s not happy about being pulled away from his post but he goes anyway. She tries to convince him to let her explain everything but he’s not too eager to believe her. She talks funny, is dressed oddly and he thinks she’s likely a spy. That perception of her kicks in when the go to the battlefield where Ichabod was supposed to meet the Horseman of Death. There are lots of dead people but Crane is clearly not one of them. He convinces his superior to let him escort Abbie to the nearest runaway slave camp.
Elsewhere, Katrina races into the medical tent, expecting to find her husband lying dying in a bed. Obviously he’s not there and a soldier confirms that Ichabod never showed up for the battle and he confirms Ichabod was with Abbie. Katrina is more than a little pissed and it leads her to a confrontation of sorts with Headless. I have to say I liked seeing some of the bad guys come back even for just a little bit. Somehow (probably because Abraham is still in love with Katrina and it’s so close to when he was turned by Moloch), Katrina convinces Headless to team up with her.
On the carriage ride to the slave camp, Abbie rattles off all the things she knows about Ichabod to try and convince him that she’s not a spy and she’s actually from 2015. Much of what is going on is reminiscent of the pilot and I think that’s such a great way for the writers to pull viewers back in. It also makes the episode feel like if it were the end, it could be a satisfying conclusion. Abbie hits on the fact that they had lots of books back in her time and most of the authors are alive. Washington and Jefferson are too far for a quick trip but they can call on Mr. Franklin. On the way up to Franklin’s front door, Abbie points out which buildings will one day be a Starbucks (as you probably know, that joke was one of my favorites in the pilot) and I laughed so hard. Much to Ichabod’s ire, Franklin readily believes Abbie when she says she’s from the future. In fact, he calls her the embodiment of the American dream. Ichabod still isn’t on board with the whole Witness agenda. Franklin picks up on this and Abbie’s reluctance to name the female witch who wants Ichabod dead until Ichabod isn’t in the room. Franklin isn’t too worried about Katrina or Headless. If they can reverse the spell used, then time will fix itself. To do that, they need to pay Grace Dixon a visit. Before they can head off to Fredericks Manor, Headless busts in much like he did in the pilot and ends up decapitating dear old Franklin. I wasn’t that shocked by it honestly. I knew there was a death coming and it just felt like Ichabod needed to lose a mentor in order to get invested.
Turns out I was wrong. Franklin’s death just pushes Ichabod to lock up Abbie again. As he’s walking away, she yells at him to check her phone for their failed selfie attempt. She also warns him that the witch after him is Katrina and she’s pregnant. After being relieved of duty by his commanding officer, Ichabod heads home and finds Katrina has prepared items used during the time for women who are expecting. She denies being pregnant and almost gets the drop on him with a floating knife when Ichabod is summoned by General Washington. Ichabod ends up paying Abbie another visit. No doubt his commanding officer intends to have his way with Abbie and Ichabod needs to stop it. He finally believes Abbie’s story when he gets th4e phone work and finds the video Ichabod took while trying to take a selfie. It was hilarious and sad at the same time.
Once Abbie is freed (she totally kicks the commanding officer’s butt), the Witnesses head to see Grace. It seems Grace knows about Abbie and is so thrilled to meet her. Ichabod is a little put off by the familial connection. He’s still trying to process the whole “my wife is an evil witch who wants to kill me”. Abbie tried to explain to him that Katrina was good and did love him once. But likely being stuck in Purgatory for two centuries and then losing her son first to evil and then to death messed her up. Grace can work the spell to send Abbie back to her time but she needs to draw on the magic of the protective magic around the manor. This gives Katrina an easy shot of killing the wards entirely and Ichabod and Headless end up having a fight. It looks like Ichabod is about to be decapitated when Abbie’s spell works. She gets back to the present and Katrina is not happy. She wants Abbie dead for Henry’s death but Ichabod manages to stop her. Of course that involves killing her. She dies in his arms and he breaks down a little bit. Abbie says that he had no choice but he retorts that they all had a choice. Just before the episode ends, Jenny and Irving show up and we get sort of a nice moment where they realize that the fight isn’t over and they are meant to go forward as a team, united and strong.
Overall, I thought the finale was very strong. It had some great parallels to the pilot and some of the mythology they set up over the last two seasons. I think killing both Henry and Katrina was actually a good way to move forward with a bit of a clean slate. Sure, Headless s still out there (and likely will become their biggest threat now that Katrina’s dead and can’t free him from the guise of the Horseman) but this gives the writers a chance to really change things up and start fresh. I hope we get a chance to see what happens next for our Witnesses and their allies.
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