What Happened, Sleepy Hollow?

[retsuko]

I used to be so excited for the Monday night block of shows. But Gotham has been... somewhat uneven (another entry for another time) and Sleepy Hollow has become even uneven-er. This used to be a show that I would unreservedly recommend to all and sundry because it was so much fun. Somewhere along the line this season, though, that fun just

Comments

[ladybird97]

This is one of those many times when I wish we lived closer so that we could rant about this in person to each other. Because WHAT THE HECK, Sleepy Hollow??

The more I think about Frank's death, the more it pisses me off. His death was TOTALLY WORTHLESS. He didn't kill Henry or Moloch; he just held them off for a little while.

He was a fabulous character, but this season he was consistently pushed aside and ignored. Just when it looked like he was going to join the Scooby Gang, he decides to run off by himself...and just when they get him back, he dies. Not only that, but we didn't get to see what his soullessness really meant. It didn't affect his love for his family or friends; it didn't prevent him from feeling emotion or wanting to do the right thing. So what did it mean?

(Is it too much to hope that his death while soulless will mean that we'll have Zombie Orlando Jones, like we had Zombie John Cho? If so, that would rock.)

It was awesome to see him charging in with a sword and being super badass, but it was too little too late.

And then there was the whole excess of Katrina, mopy Abraham, and excess of Henry. sigh. I totally agree with you about the uselessness of Katrina and the writers' failure to actually deal with her.

This episode would have worked if the season had been about Henry's internal struggle - if we'd seen any indication that Henry wanted to go back to his parents, that he believed them when they said they loved him and was starting to waver in his commitment to Moloch. If we'd had that kind of buildup, then his last-minute turn would have been meaningful and interesting! The rest of the season would have been more interesting too, because we'd have gotten to see Henry do something more than chew scenery and hatch villainous plots. But, no.

And I absolutely agree with you that the best thing about this show has always been the Ichabod-Abbie friendship, and the way that foregrounds so many women and POC characters. I wish that they had just either let that friendship be the center of the show, or done something to disrupt it to create meaningful emotional tension - keeping them separated, turning them against each other - rather than introducing all kinds of other plots that most people didn't care about.

[retsuko]

OMG, if I could teleported to you, or had you teleported over to me, I totally would have done it! *sighs* Dammit, geography, still our mortal enemy, after all this time!

Yup, basically, Frank Irving died for nothing. It's cool that he went out in a blaze of glory, but even that meant very little in the grand scheme of the story. I wonder what he'd got up to for the few days he was missing? Snuck back and saw his family one last time? Hung out in that crypt? Badass action montage? The world will never know.

I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him. Since death hasn't really been a deterrent for anyone else, I don't see why it would hinder him from coming back, either. After all, he was pretty close to getting named as a Horseman of ... something, and I'm sure (as Moloch told Henry) that Horsemen come and Horsemen go, so there's probably another job opening somewhere. Perhaps as a villain? I think Orlando Jones would love that.

And, yeah, we had no inkling what the hell was going on with Henry, other than Sith-esque HATE MY PARENTS HATE HATE. I would have been more on board with him if he'd wavered earlier, or Moloch had been a bastard earlier, causing Henry to think, "oh yeah, maybe I chose the wrong side... OR DID I."

(Also, during that scene where Moloch finally betrays him, I tweeted that his facial expression reminded me of an employee who's resolved not to take any more of his crazy boss's bullshit and is gonna sic HR on him. What, me, do the comic or Tumblr blog about the universal HR department that all evil beings and corporations share? NEVER.)

I have a lot of hopes for the show when it returns... so, so many hopes... >_>

[apintrix]

Didn't Irving banish the "War" demon from Henry's body, thus making Henry more human, causing Moloch to betray him, which in turn made Henry make the choice to destroy Moloch?

I did appreciate the badassery, too. Orlando Jones rules and should get All The Work. (Also, the fact that it was he and Abbie who wound up the main sword-wielders here, not Ichabod, I thought was a nice surprise.)

So here's the thing, which Mark pointed out as I was going "no, don't kill Orlando! I *like* Orlando!" : his soul still belongs to Moloch. And the devil needs new horsemen. So, we suspect we may see him again, in more demonic guise. And if we don't, well... big raspberries at the show runners!

I also liked how anti-God the climactic moment was. Henry basically destroyed Moloch because Moloch was too similar to the biblical god. That made me somewhat gleeful.

[lady_of_mists]

I kind of thought that might be what they were going for with the swordfight -- Irving taking down part of one of the Horsemen so that Henry could be reasoned with.

I will miss Irving and we will have to wonder if maybe his soul was returned at the end -- depending on whether the contract was with Henry or Moloch.

I also thought that it was interesting that Moloch (who had children sacrificed to him -- i.e. passed through the fire by their parents) was now asking a child to sacrifice his parents... and subsequently was sacrificed by his "son" Henry.