Sleepy Hollow Review: Episode 2×10 – “Magnum Opus”

Sleepy Hollow Starts To Get Back On Track With Witness-Heavy Episode

On this latest episode of Sleepy Hollow, the Witnesses Abbie and Ichabod must decipher a coded message that will lead them to a weapon that can kill Moloch himself, the sword of Methuselah. Time is running out, as Moloch is gaining more and more strength after Katrina’s failure to take him out while attempting to play super-sleuth. Henry’s still somewhat butting heads with Abraham, but will that matter once the apocalypse begins? Jenny is still on the run with Irving, but what will they do when they find themselves nearing a checkpoint? With the Witnesses back in their finest form all season and the apocalypse drawing nearer, what’s the final verdict on this penultimate episode before the mid-season finale? Let’s discuss.

Bit Of Interaction For Irving And Jenny

Jenny is driving the newly escaped Irving towards the Canadian border so he can live safely in hiding. Abbie learns from Sheriff Reyes that checkpoints are being set up and texts Jenny to let her know. Before they figure out how to proceed, there was some touching dialogue from Irving about needing to do what was best for him family that Orlando Jones performed beautifully. Jenny tells him to hide in the back of her truck under a tarp but Irving insists on jumping out of the truck before Jenny can reach the checkpoint and she first gives him a burner phone and sets up a meet for them on a bridge after which she will continue on driving him to Canada.

“Sorry, Jenny. Thank you for trying but I can’t run and hide. Not who I am. I’m gonna fight, stay underground. When I see you again, I hope it’s in a better world.” ~ Frank Irving

Lyndie Greenwood and Orlando Jones played incredibly well off of each other, and it’s certainly not easy to make an impact in regards to chemistry when compared to the likes of Nicole Beharie and Tom Mison, but these two did enough to make us so wish to see more of them together. But what upset us about the way this plot was written was that it made it seem as if Irving’s going to disappear again for some time even though he’s already spent the vast majority of the season (which is already past its halfway point) being sidelined. We only hope that we’re wrong in this theory and that this is just the beginning of his triumphant comeback. We want the leaping-through-the-air, shooting-at-Headless, Frank Irving back. Orlando Jones is skilled at both action and dramatic content and it doesn’t make sense to not utilise him. However, we were quite moved with the way Irving told Jenny how he wasn’t about to have anyone else hurt (meaning her). It seems as if she/Team Witness is part of his extended family and we would love to see this dynamic further explored.

Is Redemption In Headless Abraham’s Future?

Abraham butts heads (so to speak) with Henry again and we can’t help but wonder if this will carry on until it escalates into full-fledged conflict between the two. Abraham is also upset to learn about Katrina’s spying and communication with Ichabod through the mirror phone (which she didn’t even bother to hang up properly, thus allowing Henry to use it to spy on Ichabod and Abbie – remind me again what Katrina’s supposed to be so good at? Spying? Witch-ing?). This whole bit irked us because it’s either a matter of Katrina being a terrible witch (though that’s nothing new) so she couldn’t hang up the phone properly but Henry’s apparently not able to do the spell to spy on Ichabod and Katrina himself? It’s either an issue of poor character development or a gaping plot hole. But once Headless rides off to try to get the sword of Methuselah, he gets into a conflict with Abbie and Ichabod and he’s forced to retreat due to the rising sun, at least until nightfall when he will fight them once again.

“Ichabod!” ~ Abraham
“Abraham? I can see you.” ~ Ichabod
“So the prophecy of the sword is as Henry says.” ~ Abraham
“Everyone within these chambers must wear their truest face. Know thyself completely.” ~ Ichabod

Ichabod and Abraham face off with one another in the cave and Ichabod is able to see Abraham with a head due to an enchantment in the cave. There’s a great use of flashbacks in this and earlier on in the episode to show more of the history between these two characters before everything fell apart. We also get the sense that Katrina had been manipulating Ichabod right when she first met him, further proving just how little she can be trusted. There was some truly excellent fight choreography that Tom Mison and Neil Jackson executed quite well. But though Headless’ apparent “truest face” is that of Abraham, we can’t help but feel it cheapens his value as a villain to try to insist on trying to redeem him. Much of what he was saying to Abraham was likening Katrina to a possession instead of her own person and her agency has been completely removed from the equation. Neil Jackson gives a strong performance but his material just isn’t as good as what he’s capable of.

The Witnesses Get Back To The Basics

From start to finish, Ichabod and Abbie were working together in this episode. From the decoding of the message to find the map that would lead to the location of the sword of Methuselah, to facing off against the gorgon, to retrieving the sword from the oil, this is the type of teamwork we’ve been missing in season two. Part of why season one was so much stronger was the fact that these two were given so much opportunity to work as Witnesses to fight against the forces of the apocalypse. This episode in many ways made us feel like we were watching season one again and we would love to see the plot continue in this manner from here on out.

“My god! She was frozen in stone! Dead before she could complete her mission. Like so many of the women in my family, cut down in their prime. Grace burned alive, Mama driven to suicide. Is it my destiny to die here too?” ~ Abbie Mills
“No, no, banish that thought, Leftenant. You are here to finish what they started. You said it yourself. That is your destiny.” ~ Ichabod Crane

When Abbie expressed her fears about ending up like her ancestors, we were so blown away by Nicole Beharie’s performance. The writers really should give her more material than they have this season because this scene combined with the work she did last week in “Mama” showed so much more of what Nicole Beharie is capable of. She and Tom Mison played so well off one another, from the more light-hearted moment of their playing Heads Up to Ichabod’s reassuring Abbie in her most vulnerable moment. We also liked the way Ichabod jumping out in front of Abbie to protect her when Headless was riding up echoed that of when Abbie did the same thing for Ichabod when Headless was riding up trying to kill him so he could get Katrina back. The Witnesses need to the be central to the plot and not the Crane family drama, something we’ve had issue with for much of this season but finally we had an episode that got back to where things should be. We’re a little confused as to why Abbie couldn’t be the one to take the sword out of the oil but overall, this was a welcome shift in direction.

FINAL VERDICT

Though not as strong as “Mama,” this episode was one of the stronger episodes of this season. Director Doug Aarniokoski did strong work interweaving the flashbacks in with the confrontation between Ichabod and Abraham as if showed how far their relationship devolved. There were some nice comedic moments courtesy of writer Donald Todd, from the game of Heads Up at the episode’s beginning to the “Good morning sunshine” line from Ichabod when the sun rose and forced Headless to retreat for the day. It was also good to hear Henry call out Katrina’s weaknesses regarding her incompetent spying abilities (how can someone be “powerful” enough to conjure up a mirror phone and not be bothered to hang it up?) and inability to follow through, which very much reflected much of the thoughts we’ve had about her characterization. There were some nice echoes in the story-telling, such as Abbie’s recognizing the ruins from her dream with Mama which lead her to realize that her mother had been guiding her there all along, and Ichabod’s jumping in front of Abbie to save her from Headless just as she had previously done for him. Again, the special effects held strong, this time for the gorgon. It was also a wise choice to utilize the “less is more” technique in just how much the creature was shown as it was more effective in maintaining the horror tone. We also want to once again give props to the fight choreographers/stunt team for the work they did for Ichabod and Abraham and to Tom Mison and Neil Jackson for maintaining their focused performances in the midst of all that physical exertion. With the mid-season finale approaching fast, we hope that Sleepy Hollow will maintain the stronger work they’ve done in “Mama” and “Magnum Opus” to end this year with a bang.

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• Ichabod, stop questioning Abbie’s brilliance.
• Ichabod throwing shades at ye olden historical figures. x)
• OF COURSE Katrina failed. When does she ever do something to the contrary? -_-
• Nice work, Katrina. You left the damn mirror-phone off the hook. #Floptrina
• I see you, Mr. and Mrs. BAMF! *heart eyes*
• Loving seeing more of this Team Witness cohesion. Reminds me of (the vastly superior) season 1.
• Katrina, that’s what you get for messing with people’s lives, minds, and hearts.
• It’s about time Ichabod helped Abbie’s safety, seeing as how she saved him last time he was up against HH.
• GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE.
• This is what this season needed from the start! Ichabod and Abbie being a TEAM!
• WHY the HELL is Katrina still in a damn corset? She can put on a pair of trousers but won’t put on a more comfortable and practical top? #MaleGaze
• Hiya Medusa!
• Ichabod be like, “Now you’re just somebody that I used to know.” #PutThatBodyPaintOnAbraham
• DAMN RIGHT YOU HAVE EACH OTHER.
• I need more of this Ichabod/Abbie teamwork for the rest of the show. This is what the show is supposed to be.