Sleepy Hollow 2×01 “This is War” Review

Sleepy Hollow revives itself in second season premiere

Sleepy Hollow is finally back for its second season with its premiere episode ‘This is War’. After last season’s finale, which ended with most of the characters rather trapped in unfortunate circumstances, things change quickly for the leads throughout the episode. Ichabod (Tom Mison) quickly escapes being buried alive after somehow exploding the casket open with gunpowder that was over his grave, Abbie (Nicole Beharie) is trapped in Purgatory, attempting to navigate through the tricks and trap doors there with the help of an old friend, while Jenny is alive(!) and quickly busts her way out of captivity to help Ichabod free Abbie. With the help of Ichabod’s knowledge of old pal, Benjamin Franklin, Ichabod and Jenny retrieve a key that aids anyone in escaping purgatory without consequences, which also happens to be something Moloch is after (aren’t they always after the same things?). Ichabod’s wife, Katrina, remains a hostage of Headless/Abraham, who is still bitter that Ichabod ‘stole’ Katrina from him, so that’s not going so well. This episode was jam-packed with action and adventure, so let’s get started chatting about it!

Hanging in the balance between life or Purgatory

So let’s start at the beginning…or…one year from where the show left off? Going into the episode, it was uncertain as to whether what was going on was a Purgatory trick or an actual time jump. Either way it was interesting that they kept mentioning ‘training,’ a year had passed, and Jenny was dead, because those could all play into things in the future for all we know. Once the scenes moved on out of one location to another and Ichabod and Abbie were equipped with new artillery including a crossbow for Ichabod, the question of this being a Purgatory trick started to vanish. Abbie pulled of two machine guns brilliantly like this was always what she’s been toting around and them fighting evil side by side again was a great way to start off the season. Who cares about what happened at the end of last season when there are new weapons and cupcakes?

“Anything can be tricked into believing a lie.” ~Henry

This was the longest running Purgatory rouse we’ve seen any of the characters go through, so the fact that it went on for so long just added to the assumption that it was a time jump forward. All the other tricky Purgatory scenarios have been one conversation in one location but was kept us going for so long was Ichabod and Abbie going about fighting evil like they always do, so we just assumed we be caught up with how they escaped later.  The trick was so intricate and detailed that the reveal of their being stuck in Purgatory through Henry was incredible tone-wise. The jail they were keeping Henry in completely broke apart, transforming the room with the effects, cinematography, and sound around them, Henry’s eyes went black and the whole place darkened to a spooky ‘this doesn’t feel right’ vibe. We could sense that sinking in the pit of our stomachs, because Ichabod and Abbie are still trapped and all that fun teamwork we just saw was false. They got us big time and it was incredibly well done in all aspects.

Jenny is nobody’s sidekick

Mirroring of season one’s premiere with Ichabod breaking out of a grave and wandering down past the same ‘Welcome to Sleepy Hollow’ sign, except this season he has a cell phone! This is a nice reminder to how far Ichabod has come as well as how much he has adapted to this new world around him, while still implementing his knowledge of the past. Watching Ichabod interact with the modern world will never get old, so it’s always fun to see those lighter scenes thrown in there between Ichabod exploding himself out of a grave. Tom Mison’s comedic He also managed to hijack an ambulance into drive and park modes but not reverse, showing that he isn’t always the one with the solutions like he thinks he is. Ichabod and Jenny are a team again, and although it’s short-lived, Tom Mison and Lyndie Greenwood bring such a fun, different chemistry to their scenes that is always exciting to watch.

“I’ve done a lot of sinning. I hope you choke on every one of them.” ~ Jenny

During Abbie’s attempts to contact Crane in Purgatory, we get to learn a little about what Katrina was doing there all that time and how she managed to cheat the system. To find out that she regularly snuck into Moloch’s lair to speak to her husband and Abbie definitely added to her credibility as a character. Though we gain a quick insight into Katrina’s character, it seems to reflect poorly on her. Ichabod spent all of last season trying to get his wife out of Purgatory, and yet to get Abbie out of the same predicament, it only takes a day. Either this is a reflection of Ichabod’s priorities, or Katrina didn’t know how to use her visits to the living world to her advantage as Abbie did, but both of these give us a bad feeling about the relationship between Ichabod and Katrina that hangs in the balance.

Ichabod has an evil twin!

One would think they couldn’t pull another Purgatory trick like that again in the same episode, surely not twice more, but they pull it off brilliantly. The first trick is easy to spot, since Jenny had just warned Ichabod about the rules of ‘no food or drink’ and the first thing we see is ‘Ichabod’ offering water to Abbie, so we know that’s fake. But, this easily spotted trick lowered our guards, thinking we had gotten past those sneaky demons. Even in rewinding and listening, though, it’s hard to spot ‘Ichabod’ pronouncing lieutenant the American way, but the music and Abbie’s sudden halt to stop gave away that something was wrong. Props to both the cinematography department for framing as well as Nicole Beharie for subtlety in reacting to the fake Ichabod only to turn around and chop his head off. More points to Miss Beharie for her badassery once again in this episode, because it never gets old seeing her kick some ass. Ichabod’s outrage at her quick ability to chop his head off was a hilarious addition to ease the tension of their situation, one of Tom Mison’s many talents this episode.

FINAL VERDICT

After the rather disastrous finale that left a lot of fans upset with Abbie replacing Katrina in Purgatory, I was pleasantly surprised at how well-balanced and entertaining this episode was. Though it’s a bit sketchy how quickly Ichabod frees Abbie from Purgatory while he doesn’t mention or seem to worry about his wife until the end of the episode, it still balanced in the favor of what’s important to the story. Abbie and Ichabod being reunited as a team with Jenny was and is far more important than Katrina’s captivity in the hands of Headless Abraham. It’s likely no coincidence that Jenny was able to kick and fight her way out of her prison but Katrina failed quite quickly, maybe because Headless is not human, or maybe it’s because Ichabod has more chemistry with the Mills sisters than his own wife. The cinematography was really magnificent this episode in revealing the Purgatory tricks and holding suspense for viewers. Nicole Beharie and Lyndie Greenwood continue to shine two of the most badass women on television, and they certainly didn’t disappoint in this season opener. Mark Goffman’s writing for Ichabod provides Tom Mison with such brilliant comedic moments, they should create a spinoff of just Ichabod interacting with modern technology. It’s incredible how Ken Olin managed to direct so many moving parts in this episode with so many tricks and traps while maintaining the element of surprise throughout the episode that he must be commended for his work on this great start to a new season.

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• Any excuse for John Cho to come back, no matter how many times he’s died, do it
• How many seconds long was that Ichabbie hug, huh?
• Where’s Irving?!
• Sorta feel bad for Katrina being trapped with someone who’s had a crush on her for 250 years…that’s one intense crush, man
• No one needed to see Ben Franklin naked
• Somehow Nicole Beharie got even prettier this season HOW?!
• Ichabod may have a fancy crossbow but his son has a sword of fire
• Okay but how did Ichabod not get injured when he blew up his coffin?