Sleepy Hollow Episode 2.14: Proud Sleepy Hollow Fans Keep On Burnin'!

Team Stop-the-Apocalypse: The Album Cover.
Not shown: astonishing Abbie Mills on vocals

With "Kali Yuga," Heather V. Regnier, Sam Chalsen, Nelson Greaves sent Sleepy Hollow fans our second gorgeous love letter of the season. I don't know if the “old” Sleepy Hollow is back, but this version of the new Sleepy Hollow is definitely on the right track. Strong consistently throughout, with the relationship between Abbie and Crane front and center, “Kali Yuga” delivered where it was most necessary: our beloved supernatural detectives working together and, with tension and believability, showing us how much they really need and desperately love each other.

And you gave us Nicole Beharie and Tom Mison singing. Really, what more could a fan girl want?

Well, more of Jenny for starters, which we got, being not only badass, but also tender and caring about Hawley (in a way that felt real and believable), whilst playing Relationship Counselor Par Excellence for Abbie and Crane.

More of Irving, which we also got, getting to play husband to a still-creeped-out Cynthia, and continuing with his awesome journey of What the Hell Kind of Undead Am I?

Less, but better, of Katrina, which we got, in two scenes where she managed in her short time on-screen to prove powerful and mildly interesting, with a brief, long-awaited return to her days of proto-feminism, and in a terrifyingly portentous scene with Irving.

Hawley having a point and a likeable character, which we got in spades. 

Did I mention Abbie and Crane sing a duet of “Proud Mary” near the end? And that Nicole Beharie sings spell-bindingly beautifully, and Tom Mison has a voice deeper than God's?

So, yeah, I'm kinda fan-girling all over the place for this one. Thank you so much, Sleepy writers, directors, actors, crew, and Fox!!

Entirety of "Proud Mary" on the DVD, please!?!?!

The episode starts off swinging with Nicole “how-has-Broadway-not-swallowed-this-woman-whole-yet?” Beharie singing Gnarls Barkley's “Crazy.” In character as Abbie, she sings so magnificently it took me a while to get the joke of a woman who has feared mental illness her whole life singing “maybe I'm crazy...probably.” The utterly enchanted look on Ichabod's face as he listens to her croon gives us good reason to believe Things Are Getting Better in Sleepyville. We then get Jenny playing relationship counselor, with Ichabod unconvincingly trying to reassure Jenny that everything's fine between him and her sister, whilst absolutely adorably asking, “did she say something?”

A brief discussion of Crane's karaoke choices introduces us to “the Beatles of the 1760s,” the Catch Club. “Women swooned at the sound of their warbling.” Yeah, there's a lot of that going around, Crane. When Hawley takes his leave to go “see a guy about a thing,” this time we learn who the guy and the thing are, so we know something is afoot. Unfortunately, we leave our beloved trio at the bar to follow Hawley, but the scene is necessary to our A-story, and very well-written and played. In a variation of the junkyard where Walter White made some of his early deals, we learn that Hawley has been set up, and is instead having an uncomfortable family reunion with the woman who took him in after his parents were killed in a car accident. We're given some well-done Hawley backstory and introduced to our villain: a beautiful, frightening force of nature who wants Hawley to help her with a (clearly illegal and dangerous) “job.” Hawley's not remotely interested until his former foster mom transforms into a terrifying creature who makes it very clear this is an offer he can't refuse.

Back at the bar, Jenny's relationship counseling for Abbie and Crane believably continues as Mison's Ichabod sings an old sea shanty about a young sailor who dies of syphillus. I have to admit, I could never have imagined the Ichabod Crane we met last season, a nobleman's son and proud Revolutionary War hero, getting up in front of a room of strangers and singing anything, let alone a song about venereal disease that has him pronouncing the word “day” like he's Cockney.  But given that Ich has had a few drinks, given that Abbie went first and he is a chivalrous lad who would never hang his partner out to dry, alone in karaoke-land, and given that it's really not that hard to imagine a drunken Ichabod singing pub songs with his fellow officers in their rare off moments, the scene works. As does Mison's hilarious articulation of the title of Britney Spears' hit “Oops, I Did It Again” whilst reading the karaoke catalogue. And did I mention we get to hear Tom Mison sing? Thud.

Abbie's tender concern for and support of Ichabod are spot-on and wonderful--“cheer loudly for him, he's been through the wringer lately.” It also lays a comforting bed for Nicole Beharie's perfectly-delivered “we're fine” later in the scene, which tells us our heroes are anything but.

As the gang realizes Man-of-His-Word-Hawley is MIA and there's been a break-in at the archives, the detective work begins. But not before they encounter Hawley's very scary foster mom tricked out in full-on monster mode, down in the tunnels. Hawley, meanwhile, begins a beautiful, episode-long arc of becoming a truly decent human being by trying to take a bullet for the team.

In a somewhat confusing courtroom scene, we are treated to Cynthia classily standing up for herself to a pissy (woman) judge, Frank defending her with total respect, and Orlando Jones playing perfectly straight “I tried going with an outside firm. It didn't go so well.” The judge is so focused on Irving's lawyer, the actual dropping of the charges is never explained (as it was never intended to be, in this episode), which, although I understand why necessary, felt confusing and held me back a bit from running with the Irvings' joy at Frank finally being, ahem, free.

As the A-Team tries to figure out who the scary creature in the tunnels was and why on earth Hawley is with her, more of Ichabod and Abbie's relationship travails are believably interwoven with the A-Story. Abbie, the Smartest Gal in the Room, has already gotten back the lab results on the goo that oozed from the monster's fingernails, allowing Ichabod, the Smartest Guy in the Room, to figure out this means she's a vetala, a form of undead in service to Kali, goddess of destruction. When Jenny asks, “how did Hawley get involved with a vetala?” Abbie's, “this is a guy who went home with a succubus, remember?” is perfect.

Disagreements between the Witnesses on how to proceed continue to underscore the tensions between them. When Crane suggests they “divide and conquer” in order to a) find Hawley, b) figure out what he and the vetala are up to, it's quite obvious that Abbie isn't happy with this idea, but only Jenny, on behalf of the audience, keeps reminding Abbie and Crane that they need to get their relationship shit together. Interestingly, this is the second time this season this phrase, “divide and conquer,” has been used in such a context and I cannot think that's unintentional. The first time was in Raven Metzner's gorgeous “The Weeping Lady,” episode 2.5. I wrongly accused Mr. Metzner of misusing the phrase—sorry, Mr. Metzner, my bad—thinking our characters were applying it to themselves rather than the list of library sources to check. In that episode, we saw quite clearly that when our Witnesses separate, one of them could easily end up dead.

The fact that this phrase comes up again, and in Latin no less; the fact that Jenny makes a point of asking whether the Witnesses really are better without each other; the conversation between our leads all episode rightly concerning the sturdiness of their bond; the fact that all season Ichabod keeps insisting their bond is unbreakable whilst behaving somewhat otherwise; and the fact that the finale is coming up, all combine to scare the heck out of me--in a good way.

All these scenes in which the lack of teamwork/communication between Abbie and Crane is highlighted are just so damned well-written, well-directed, and well-acted. The pacing is good, the evolution of the tensions—verbal and especially non-verbal--and attempts at resolving them are restrained, yet spot-on. And ultimately, the tenderness between the Witnesses is a delicious drink of fresh water after a nearly season-long drought. Thank you so much for this. It made the episode meaty and meaningful and real.

On the beat together, Jenny and Abbie confront fence McKenna at his pawnshop. Jenny's bad cop to Abbie's good shows us why these two are an awesome team. They also get McKenna, believably, to tell us into whose hands he betrayed Hawley—a scary killer, named Carmilla.

In the archives, with Ichabod, we get to see some of the old spunky proto-feminist Katrina calling out Mary Poppins for not being progressive. Aside from the absolute delight of hearing Ichabod describe “Miss Poppins” as a modern witch, it's great to hear Katrina make it very clear to her husband that her idea of being a modern witch does not include using her powers for housekeeping, thank you very much. Mind you, Katrina, you'd be a lot more convincing if you weren't still wearing a corset.

When Crane finds the sigil Orion left for Abbie, his heartbreaking awareness that she's been keeping it from him is played with powerful restraint by Mison. In between all these feels, Crane also figures out that Hawley stole the plans to Theodore Knox's estate from the archives (they must have one hell of an inventory system in that place).  Rewardingly, when Jenny and Abbie return, all of Team Stop-the-Apocalypse represents in this scene, as Crane tells us that back in the day, Knox's ancestor and the Sons of Liberty kept a hoard of weapons cached at the estate for the Revolutionaries, Katrina tells us those weapons were extremely dangerous, and Jenny complements this intel with the fact that in the present day Mr. Knox collects and keeps an impressive array of supernatural weapons.

In a well-handled exposition scene between Hawley and Carmilla, Camilla uses the oldest and most powerful weapon in a mother's war chest—guilt--to convince her foster son to help her. Telling him that she was turned into a vetala by a death cult in India whilst looking for him, and that an artifact in Knox's possession can turn her back into a human, she persuades Hawley to assist her with the heist.

So, while Katrina mysteriously evaporates from the group (no mystery, really; we're trying to keep Sleepy Hollow on the air, after all), Crane somehow steals Hawley's Mustang and our beloved trio is soon speeding towards a weird party/supernatural-stuff-swap-meet happening at the Knox estate that evening (why they didn't just take Abbie's SUV I have no idea. Nor do I care). Jenny's exposition about the party and why it would make a great cover for a heist is gorgeously buried in a very entertaining scene of horsepower-enraptured-Crane trying to impress the Mills sisters.

At the estate, Abbie fabulously grabs a drink the second she's out of the car, and our team divides to follow the divided Hawley and Carmilla. Jenny, Hawley's loyal buddy-with-benefits, follows him to a safe in which we are treated to one of the coolest things the Sleepy writers/set designers/director have come up with yet in this show: a Revolutionary-era-built safe, comprised of the entire house, and the mechanical processes needed to open its vault. It is visually stunning, intellectually fascinating, and I can't even begin to imagine how the whole thing was conceived. In fact, I'm so impressed, I'm not even going to ask how in the hell Hawley knew what the combination was (even if it was on the architectural drawings, seriously, it hasn't changed in 200 years?).

Abbie and Crane have another of their miscues when Crane's crossbow catches the attention of Theodore Knox himself, and our hero is waylaid by a conversation about old-timey-stuff he would normally relish, but not right now, thanks. Without backup, Abbie confronts Carmilla down near the safe (you have to love a villain who won't even put down her champagne glass to search for the Kali statue she plans to steal). Naturally the vetala gets the better of her. Enter Crane, crossbow armed, demanding Abbie's release.

"'Swounds, villainess!  Why must you take such cruel
advantage of my honorable warning to
threaten my most cherished Leftenant?!!"

Alas, Carmilla's deadly-venom-saturated-fingernails are at Abbie's throat as soon as Crane makes his polite demand. Twice in this episode, Crane-the-gentleman overtakes the brain of Crane-the-soldier as he insists on warning the vetala before shooting her. As a result, the vetala has plenty of time to create situations, both times, which make it impossible for him to actually do so. 'Splain, Sleepy writers. I appreciate his chivalry, but not his idiocy.

Fortunately, Hawley arrives in time to save our heroes. Throughout this episode, Matt Barr is very moving as a man who, despite himself, has grown to care deeply about his crazy adopted Sleepy Hollow family, so much so that he's willing not only to sacrifice himself to protect them, but to sacrifice their respect for him. It's heartbreaking that Crane doesn't get what Hawley is doing by negotiating Crane's and Abbie's imprisoning in the safe (as opposed to Carmilla killing them), and that it requires Hawley in turn denying that Crane's assumption of his decency was accurate.

I said it before, and I'll say it again: when you're a man
instead of a dude, Hawley, you're not half bad.

The most important scene of the episode takes place in Knox's safe. Continuing with Sleepy Hollow's adorable tradition of characters saving their most challenging relationship conversations for moments when their lives are at stake, Crane and Abbie make good use of their time sharing a confined space to discuss the fissures in their communication, and, potentially, their relationship. The entire scene is beautifully written and very well-executed. When our heroes get to the pained place of questioning whether their relationship is and can be as strong as it once was, I sighed with perfect contentment. YES! This is what we've needed all season! Use of camera-movement, while not my favorite technique, keeps the scene from feeling static, and keeps the tension high even while our characters discuss their issues with the utmost maturity.

The walls of the safe closing in works precisely because Abbie makes a delightful Star Wars reference (mega-props to mega-geek-Mison for believably playing a man who has never seen the film). The slightly meta “are you having a moment?,” when Crane begins to realize how they might be saved, is a wonderful reflection of the short-hand that has developed between these two, as well as a tender and welcome wink to us fans. I love that once Ichabod deduces how to save them, he picks the wrong knob first time through by relying solely on rational deduction; it takes Abbie reminding him to think in terms of Knox's heart, not mind, to find the correct answer. Their complementarity and necessity to one another is gorgeously underscored, such that the glance-as-fist-bump between the two, once he succeeds, lands perfectly.

Jenny, of course, has already freed herself from the closet in which Hawley locked her by the time Crane and Abbie re-surface at the party. Because, unlike our rogue privateer, Crane and Abbie actually know what Carmilla intends with the Kali statue she stole—namely, to turn Hawley and anyone else she can into vetalas—the Scooby Gang wastes no time tracking Hawley through Jenny's cell phone, which he thoughtfully stole whilst imprisoning her.

Once they make it to the warehouse Carmilla is using as a ceremonial staging ground (still more warehouses; obviously she's working with Henry), Jenny volunteers to do a sweep of the perimeter while Crane and Abbie figure out how to defeat Carmilla. This scene would be ludicrous if it weren't so delightful. Actually, it's probably ludicrous anyway.  Making use of Crane's eidetic memory and Mison's long, lovely fingers (many “hand-porn” GIFs to follow from this, I fear), and Abbie's Hindu knowledge gleaned from yoga class (nice to see at least some folks ground their practice in knowledge of its spiritual components), they deduce with magnificent ease and followable (kinda justa barely) logic that iron and fire will defeat their opponent. And we get treated to a call back to Episode 2.6 with Ichabod assuring us that we will (sigh) never again see him in yoga wear. Bummer.

Goodbye for now, Mr. Barr.  We'll miss you.
And your magnificent abs.  

The climactic fight scene in Carmilla's lair was edited and directed very creatively. What might have been a rather static scene is instead made terrifying, if somewhat confusing, with the use of cuts, camera foci, and movement of shots. I really thought for a while there Carmilla might succeed in making Hawley into a vetala before our heroes rescued him (since they spent FOREVER fighting off the newly minted vetalas while Carmilla continued working on changing Hawley). Fortunately, Carmilla escapes before she can be destroyed, so we have another potential finale guest star to add to our list (are you keeping track? So far that's the Kindred, Orion, and the vetala who could reappear, and that's just the folks we know have corporeal form).

Back at the bar for our Witness wrap-up, Ichabod finally acknowledges that his and Abbie's relationship needs tending, care, attention, and date nights. Honestly, it's enough to make a fangirl weep. Abbie's way ahead of him, has already signed them up to karaoke a duet, and Crane gamely follows her to the stage to sing a song he's never sung before in his life.

"Ichabod is completely in love with Abbie," Tom Mison
tells us.  Och, truer words were never spoken, lad.

Somehow the actors and the director managed to make it totally believable that with just a little initial help from Abbie, Crane could pick up the tune and sing it perfectly. As a result, the duet between our leads is nothing short of gorgeous. It's a sweet, sweet lovesong to the fans, and we thank you for it. Despite her phenomenal voice, Beharie very graciously yields much of “Proud Mary”'s “floor” to Mison, whose Ichabod hams it up a bit, as he introduces us to a voice that clearly wants to be Paul Robeson's when it grows up.

I was having so much fun with Abbie and Crane hanging out in Mabie's together, it wasn't until after I'd seen the episode that it occurred to me to wonder, where is Katrina when these after-work bonding sessions are playing out? Don't get me wrong; I'm quite grateful the wife doesn't get invited, but I am curious as to how she and Crane have worked that out. It's not like Katrina's never been to a bar before (in Episode 2.10 we saw that, even back in the day, she was quite willing to step inside a tavern), and I can't imagine she's excited about her husband's work dates with his partner, given that his partner is a stunningly gorgeous, single woman.

After an entire episode spent making us grow to both respect and actually like Hawley, our charming rogue privateer takes his leave of Sleepy Hollow in a tender, but appropriately restrained, farewell scene between him and Jenny. Thank you so much Sleepy writers for making us really like Hawley before sending him off to go hunt his undead foster mother. Now if you decide to bring him back we might actually be glad to see him!

Yea!!  Katrina is powerful!  And scary! And (boo!)
still in that goddamned corset!!  

As for Mrs Crane, maybe it's just that Katrina has too many witch-gigs lined up to have time for pub-crawling. Katia Winter delightfully plays Katrina as both a powerful and rather scary witch, as she supposedly “helps” Irving learn whether he is, in fact, still tied to the Horseman of War (whom she, with charming obsessiveness, still insists on calling her son). When Irving hugs Cynthia with grateful relief that he is both alive (despite having died in Episode 2.11) and his soul is supposedly no longer tied to the Horseman of War, he sees in the cabin's window a reflection of his and Cynthia's embrace-- that doesn't include him! Eeek!!! What kind of Undead is Irving?!? This is a cool ending, but frankly, it's rather anti-climactic after Katrina's deliciously creepy work with the bedeviled police captain. The real meat of this scene is the fact that, played with marvelous non-verbals by Katia Winter, we see that something is going on with Katrina which will gravely affect events as the season progresses. I can't wait!

Fabulous job, Sleepy peeps, all-around! I feel very hopeful about the rest of the season!