Monday, March 20, 2017

Sleepy Hollow, Season 4, Episode 11: The Way of the Gun



Once we dredge through some more tiresome ra-ra colonial wankery which is getting beyond boring at this point, we’re reminded of the current stakes: there’s a race on to find a totem to create the horsemen of war. To confirm this, Alex has also successfully managed to hack into Malcolm’s secret location to spy on him also looking for the totem

It’s also floated that the Apocalypse brought on by the four horseman isn’t all about the end of the world but is actually about recreating the world.

Well duh. I mean, really, you had to do research to discover this? You didn’t think maybe that Malcolm doesn’t have a complete death wish, maybe?

This research leads to lots of convenient memories from Jake and Ichabod about how there was a split off branch of the Masons called the Amata Mutata or something who wanted to use the four horsemen to change the world. Eidetic memory Ichabod has just remembered this point which should have been super obvious

It turns out that the super powerful totem of war was actually in Revolutionary America (I am shocked, SHOCKED by this revelation. Clearly it was kept next to Excalibur – complete with rock, under a stack of the weapons of Durga but just before the Arc of the Covenant all of which will no doubt also have been part of George Washington’s conversational dinner pieces). And once Ichabod and Banneker were transporting it. We also get another bit of nauseating rhetoric of Ichabod convincing a very suspicious Banneker to trust to the new America where all men will be equal because he has a total vision of how equal and democratic America will be if he’s just patient enough.

Banneker, you better work on that patience because it’s going to be sorely tried. This is beyond annoying because Banneker was actually an excellent opportunity to offer a counter narrative to Ichabod’s endless flag waving and the whole general impression Sleepy Hollow has that the Founding Fathers were giants of nobility and power and were battling harpies and colossus and lamasu and who knows what else in righteous fury all in the name of freedom. His narrative helped to peel back a lot of the glossing over that comes with this ra-ra-Ichabod speech. But to have his every concern be hand waved by Ichabod’s “be patient” speech – especially without even modern Ichabod saying “well looks like I was just talking bullshit, sorry Banneker” is an issue

Diana also snarks that Ichabod seems to have been everywhere during the Revolutionary war. Show you don’t get points for lamp shading how utterly ridiculous your own concept is.

So they now have a rough idea where said item is.

But they’ve also got competition – a mysterious woman steals one of their books; when Jenny chases her down and they fight – and Jenny loses. As Jenny puts it, she seems to know her moves before she used them: they make it clear that Jenny has some major skills.

For now Diana and Ichabod go to fetch where they think the totem of war was hidden – and it’s now a very trendy restaurant and Ichabod and Diana are most put out that the owner doesn’t just let them search and ransack the place for funsies


So they break in later and find the box – and the thief from earlier. And Jobe. Demons kind of change things but it turns out the thief is not Team Malcolm and she has a happy crystal of weird time magic which does bad things to demons for a while: Jobe is put out of action. But so is she, allowing Ichabod and Diana to take her and the War Totem (which is a gun forged out of lots of mythological swords which ended up in America for REASONS)

When she comes to she introduces herself as Lara and how she utterly has to destroy the gun to stop Malcolm (oh and Ichabod comments on the very dangerous time magic she has) from creating a new Horseman of War. She also speaks of Malcolm as someone she’s known for a long time and how she’s very not in favour of the terrible world he will create

Sounds like they have a common cause – yet she still decides to lock them up so she can go destroy the gun all by herself because of course she does.

But let’s interlude to the rest of the gang: Alex and Jake continue to play the sexual tension game over and over and honestly this is dull, get on with it or drop the storyline because this is a distraction we do not need. Using Alex’s hacking skills they go with Jenny to where Malcolm is hiding

Jenny has also accepted her job from last week – so she’s going to be disappearing soon (and I’m still conflicted about this). This means she wants to make sure Alex and Jake are able to handle things on their own. So they go spying on Malcolm’s compound and promptly get captured. Before they’re rescued by Jenny, their relationship issues and demon torture means Jake spills out what Ichabod and Diana are doing and about Lara

So when Lara arrives at the spot (a mystical fire of Hephaestus/Vulcan. In America.) for destroying the Totem of War (a gun) the demon and Malcolm are there as well. Diana and Ichabod show up and there’s a fight. Of course the fact that Malcolm is all immortal means the fight doesn’t go that well but it does confirm that Malcolm is immortal in case they hadn’t guessed

But pause the fight – we need an info-dump! Lara appears to Malcolm since she knows the future he’s created, because she’s from the future! (Did you catch that not-subtle hint about time magic!) and she’s come back in time with the help of Future Ichabod to stop Malcolm creating the Horseman of War and creating all this mess. Especially since the Horseman of War is her mother – and after her mother disappears she is raised by Malcolm

Yes, this is future Molly! I wondered how long they were going to go with the child witness: this is a definite twist around it though I do think there were multiple excellent stories of Jenny and Molly and growing up around witness-ness that they’ve missed

With these revelations it’s back to the action – bad guys are taken off pause – and Malcolm tries to shoot Diana with the gun of war despite Molly begging

And he hits Ichabod. Who flames up and starts babbling about war… this is a twist I did not expect!