Hey, kids! You like cliffhangers? Sleepy Hollow‘s got cliffhangers. In fact, it ends on a quintuple cliffhanger. Let’s break it all out, shall we? Heavy spoilers beyond this point.
Man, where to start? Let’s break it out with where the show leaves us at the end of the season:
- Abby is stuck in purgatory, having switched places with Katrina.
- Ichabod is buried alive.
- Irving is going to jail to cover for his daughter’s demonic possession.
- Jenny is supposedly dead, but with this show, things are probably worse than that.
- Oh, and the Sin-Eater, played by John Noble, happens to have been not just Ichabod’s son Jeremy brought back to life by Moloch, but also the personification of War, as in the Horseman, for the entire freaking season.
Along the way, there’s everything we love about Sleepy Hollow, crammed into two hours. The episodes are really more two separate entities than a two-parter, which is problematic because the first one, The Indispensible Man, is all setup, really, and the last one, Bad Blood, is all follow-through. And one does have to question making Katrina, Ichabod’s wife, part of the finale because, well, we barely know anything about the woman. She’s mostly been there to deliver exposition and give Ichabod adorably sad and wistful looks, so the fact that Death, who used to be her fiance, has her in his clutches is more abstract plot point that visceral television.
But that’s a minor complaint, really; it’s not like the entire episode hinges on how we feel about Katrina. And it’s chock-full of great touches. John Cho, the reluctant servitor of demonkind, returns, gets a promotion… and true to form, screws up royally. John Noble’s switch from good minor character to evil sneering villain is perfect for this show, and Noble, of course, can give anything gravitas. And Orlando Jones, even if his plotline feels a bit disconnected from the rest of the goings-on, is superb as a father desperately looking for a way out for his daughter. In most shows, the idea that he’d confess to what was happening would feel forced and dumb, but really… who’d believe the truth?
Also, in terms of comedy, the writing staff is firing on all cylinders. Whether it’s Ichabod’s frustration with smartphones (and the hilarious results), his opinions of historical reenactors, or Abby and Jenny both getting in on the mockery, it’s actually pretty sweet. Still, Ichabod’s refusal to put his coat where “sellers of artisanal marmalade” might find it is probably the best line they’ve given Tom Mison about the modern day.
This was a truly great finale to a surprisingly strong first season for a TV show that simply shouldn’t have worked. So long until the fall, Sleepy Hollow. We’re going to miss you a lot.
