Sleepy Hollow: Tempus Fugit
February 23, 2015 7:55 PM - Season 2, Episode 18 - Subscribe

Abbie does some Marty McFly-ing in old Sleepy Hollow.
posted by oh yeah! (19 comments total)
 
"One of these characters will die!!"

Hmm, will it be one of the two most popular characters or the one who just suddenly turned evil for no reason and didn't get any good stories before anyway??
posted by Small Dollar at 9:33 PM on February 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


I disagree with this part of the AV Club recap "And then we top it off with a quick ghost visit from Henry, as if the relationship between Henry and Katrina was something viewers were so invested in that they really needed closure." I don't think that scene was for the viewers' benefit, it was for the writers - so they can have ghost Henry & ghost Katrina in the wings for season 3.

I'm glad they wrapped everything up. I'm not sure whether I'm hoping for cancellation or renewal. It's a shame that the show hasn't gotten around to the genre staples of doing a Groundhog Day episode, or a body-swap. And I've kind of changed my mind about not wanting to see Abbie & Ichabod hook up, after a season of Ichabod+Katrina. It would be nice if they could put together a good short season 3, but if they're just going to flail around without purpose it might as well end with this S2 finale.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:31 AM on February 24, 2015


I was wondering how they would write this episode, seeing as how no word has come down yet on renewal (or not). I did read a piece that quoted one of the writers as saying their plan for next season is to adopt a more episodic approach to the show.

I sort of wish Abbie had stayed in the past, though. I could do with a few more episodes of her working with 1700's Crane.

In any case, it was s good wrap-up to the season. It tied-up the loose ends and established a cohesive team, should the show be renewed. Hope it does.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:50 AM on February 24, 2015


I'm sure there were plenty of budget, story, and... cultural reasons why Abbie couldn't stay in the past. But I would have loved to have seen a season of her adapting to that time period the same way we saw Crane adapting to modern America.
posted by 2ht at 6:16 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I think this is what some might call a 'soft reboot.' In a quick stroke of the pen over an approximately three episode arc, the writers removed one character no one really liked and they didn't know what to do with and another that they had simply regretted pushing down one direction and again, did not know what to do with. They also removed Hawsley and generally returned Irving to the guy we liked so much. Also, they decapitated Ben Franklin, so there's that.

How they concluded their work in the final episode was entertaining, even if the actor hired to play Colonel whats his name seemed to make a poor show of it (and what's with the beard? I give Crane a pass, but beards weren't very fashionable in that time period, much less on an officer of such high rank!). I was happy to get one more dose of Franklin before he was cut off mid-sentence (why, o' why did he make the thing with such a long wick, his disembodied mind wandered as it rolled across the floor).

The handling of the Katrina/Crane relationship was something that left a sour taste in my mouth. That Katrina went dark so fast, desiring to kill Crane so quickly, rested on the flimsiest of circumstances and belief. Wanting to kill Abbie? Sure. She shot Henry. Wanting to kill Crane? What? For being an accomplice? Though of note, the knife that Crane used to stab Katrina appeared to be the same knife that Katrina was preparing to stab him in the back with....yes, she was literally going to stab Crane in the back.

The ghost thing. I concur, silly and unneeded, unless we were supposed to see it as Katrina's own madness overwhelming her as she died. I do think some of the shock on Katrina's face as she realized she was mortally wounded was real and belonged to the actress wondering how they had done her character so wrong. (Easier solution to handling the Katrina problem? Have her leave to go on a trip around the world to understand the state of witchcraft in the modern age...boom..she can even send an email or letter every now and then.) I really like John Noble, but he could have simply been killed off at the beginning of the episode following the strike on Moloch or killed at the time he did it.

I'm sure there were plenty of budget, story, and... cultural reasons why Abbie couldn't stay in the past. But I would have loved to have seen a season of her adapting to that time period the same way we saw Crane adapting to modern America.

Definitely cultural reasons...very much cultural reasons. I don't think the world would be happy with a season arc that involved Mills having to deal with being considered a slave, an escaped slave or a barely tolerated free person. But yes, it would have been kind of fun to see the roles reversed. The scene of Crane figuring out Abbie's phone was pure genius, be it him sliding the phone across the table to his reaction at seeing the icons appear. Some of the best Crane is Crane experiencing modern technology, customs and life. Likewise, he works wonderful as an outsider serving as a commentator on our modern world, like when he criticized credit cards, for example.

I really want them to get a third season because I think this season helped the writers understand their weaknesses and hopefully, to focus on what makes the show work best. As much as I love me Sleepy Hollow, I wouldn't mind if they pulled back on the number of episodes, either.
posted by Atreides at 7:34 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I sort of wish Abbie had stayed in the past, though. I could do with a few more episodes of her working with 1700's Crane.

I agree completely. I really liked the way they tied things up in the finale, but I think they could have eliminated a weak filler episode or two from the midseason and stretched the last arc out a bit.
posted by gimli at 8:27 AM on February 24, 2015


I haven't seen this one yet, and I've developed a tendency to fall asleep during tne show so I might have missed something, but did Kindred ever come back? How about Headless? Does Headless know that Kindred's out there walking around with his head?

I don't have much faith in the writers at this point. Most of this season's episodes were some kind of diabolus ex machina vs. Deus ex machina with a dash of founding father, and the well will run dry on that real quick. Especially when the writers mostly seem to use the founding father bit as more of a pastiche, without a really deep knowledge about anything displayed. How coll would it have been to have the macguffin in the Jefferson episode be a tree that actually REQUIRES the blood of patriots to do something? Like th AV Club thing someone linked to last time, the writers just seem to throw a whole bunsh of "drama!" stuff at the wall and hope things stick while not really paying much attention to what they've already done.
posted by LionIndex at 8:29 AM on February 24, 2015


The Kindred rode off and has yet to ever make an appearance again. The popular theory is that he's now a long haul truck driver, saving lives and helping others as he traverses back and forth across the country in his big rig. Not sure if Abraham knows about his head and the Kindred.
posted by Atreides at 8:35 AM on February 24, 2015


But does he have a chimpanzee assistant?
posted by LionIndex at 8:42 AM on February 24, 2015


Like th AV Club thing someone linked to last time, the writers just seem to throw a whole bunsh of "drama!" stuff at the wall and hope things stick while not really paying much attention to what they've already done.

This is one of the things that frustrates me the most about a lot of recent serial shows. I have no idea if it has something specific to do with the Abrams -> Kurzman/Orci tree, but Fringe convinced me to never again let myself get too caught up in the minutiae of a cool show, especially one they're involved with. No matter how crucial a particular subplot or character might have seemed, you never knew if it would pay off later or just disappear.
posted by gimli at 9:17 AM on February 24, 2015


No matter how crucial a particular subplot or character might have seemed, you never knew if it would pay off later or just disappear.

That's why Headless' disappearance irks me so much. You'd think that in a show called Sleepy Hollow, the whereabouts of the Headless Horseman character might be worth looking into from time to time. Making him one of the riders of the apocalypse just ups the stakes a bit.
posted by LionIndex at 10:11 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Even worse, pre-Headless/Hessian Abraham was in last night's ep and we didn't get to see his face or hear him speak AT ALL. I mean, good for the stunt guy I guess?

Can't believe how quickly this show turned to shit because a handful of writers changed between seasons.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 11:01 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best bit in the show, though, was Abbie pointing out "There's a Starbucks there" then looking across the the street, and pointing "And one over there, too".
posted by Thorzdad at 11:21 AM on February 24, 2015


I suppose I'm happy with the fact that the show ended up in a position where the characters who weren't working are gone, and where they've essentially done a soft reboot of the whole show, but man, that was a drive through some rocky terrain to get there. I guess I'm glad that Katia Winter got to have some fun being evil before she was jettisoned - that was the most animation they've permitted her for pretty much the whole run of the show till now. I don't have a really good sense of what season 3 of the show will be, if they get one, but it seems like most of the apocalypse stuff may be jettisoned for more monster-of-the-week demon fighting.

This show may have gotten me back by beheading Benjamin Franklin and by having Ichabod do that wonderfully funny "slide to open phone" bit.

It is funny to imagine poor Headless off somewhere learning how to crochet to pass the time. Maybe he's hanging out with the Kindred playing Monopoly.
posted by PussKillian at 12:33 PM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm not gonna lie, I kinda wanted at least a brief amount of time spent, Sliders-style, in the alternate future where Ben Franklin was abruptly beheaded in 1781.

Katrina's reversal was definitely too sudden for how complete it was, but she made one hell of a bad guy for a little bit there. Still hoping they get renewed, and while I'm not sure where they're planning to go next I know that if they don't get renewed I'll appreciate things not ending on a massive cliffhanger.

In fairness to the writers, they got themselves sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place as far as Abraham goes. If they want him to be genuinely unstoppable and terrifying, they have to use him sparingly, because otherwise we get the mopey whiney not-at-all scary Abraham we had for a while earlier this season. I don't mind them keeping him in reserve for the most major episodes when they need a nigh-unstoppable menace to raise the stakes (this episode was a nice return to that for him, IMO), though they should do themselves a favor and come up with some kind of explanation, however handwavey, of where he is the rest of the time and why he can only raise havoc every so often.

But does he have a chimpanzee assistant?

The Kindred has a faithful and loyal bald eagle sidekick. They met at Mount Rushmore, while foiling an evil plot to blow it up.
posted by mstokes650 at 1:48 PM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]


So, uh... Abbie's phone password is Crane's birthday?

Interesting.
posted by brundlefly at 9:48 PM on February 24, 2015


Crane was amazingly lucky to get the birthday password notation right, since Abbie didn't tell him it was two digits each month day year, including leading zeroes.

I didn't find Katrina's switch to the dark quite so jarring because I felt it was implying that this magic shit is unnatural and dangerous, which is something most real world arcana warn you about. So the reason for having a coven is partly for support so individual members can be pulled back if they slip into that dark temptation. But Katrina doesn't have her coven any more, and when her relationship with Crane falters she has nobody, and then a smart kick from Abraham is all it takes.
posted by localroger at 7:00 PM on February 26, 2015


I finally caught up on the last few episodes last night (because this season has been so off I couldn't force myself to sit down and watch the last 6 episodes)

The final episodes definitely worked as a "reboot" for me. They prioritized the characters and relationships that work and dropped the ones that didn't.

I do have to say that Evil!Katrina was way more interesting than the character has ever managed to be despite it coming out of left field. I love the scenes set in the 1700's and the mirroring of Crane's experiences coming into the present with Abbie going into the past. It seems that part of the reason they are the two Witnesses is because they compliment each other so well, inherently trust each other and both have a fascination with windows.

I am not to sure what that ghostly appearance of Henry means - was it a hallucination or was his spirit really there?

If the show doesn't get renewed, this works as a series finale, but it seems like the show has finally moved back to what made me fall in love with it last season, so I think I would love to see a season 3 continuing on in this vein.
posted by Julnyes at 11:53 AM on March 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Third season!
posted by cashman at 6:43 PM on March 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


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