Monday, March 27, 2017

Sleepy Hollow, Season 4, Episode 12: Tomorrow



Last week we learned that Lara was Molly who came back in time to save her mother from becoming War

This week we open by seeing that. And part of me thinks this is unnecessary since we know this – but it’s also kind of awesome to see it. To see Jenny leading the resistance against Malcolm’s forces – being called a terrorist for it. And seeing Malcolm use the 4 horseman and his police force. Including war – who kills Jenny in front of Lara/Molly

Except not before Jenny manages to raise a whole lot of doubt in Molly’s mind about the history that Malcolm has filled her head with – including that Molly said that Diana was dead. Before Molly died she manages to cut a hole in War’s helmet with a magic knife – and show that War is Diana.

Molly questions future Malcolm about this and lo his lies unravel, leading Molly to find Ichabod, get a pep talk and some time travel mojo

Which picks us up where we left off – with a newly Warred Ichabod who is ordered to kill Molly and Diana. They escape thanks to a woo-woo knife and make it back to the Archive

Along the way they sum up some basics of Molly’s life (how Malcolm let her wander alone and desperate for a while before swooping in and playing caring father figure) and everyone decides to call Molly Lara since that’s what she was called for so many years and it saves everyone from having to say Young Molly and Old Molly. By saving Diana, Lara has pretty much completely changed the future (at least the details) so her memories are now very uncertain and, effectively, she and Molly are different people or will be because their experiences will be so different. At least Lara still has her skills.

Everyone is recapped and knows where they stand and everything gets more complicated. Firstly blood from the woo-woo dagger happens to mix with some black goo and apparently War blood + Ichabod blood + Black goo of spider demon memories = Henry Parish!


Yes, Ichabod’s son, former Horseman of War is back and he assures everyone he’s totally team good guy. Jenny is full of trust over this and drops him in a magic circle to deal with later.

Issue 2 is that Jobe, Malcolm’s pet demon, has trashed the Archive to steal some woo-woo: woo-woo that raises zombies. He intends to use the essence of the zombies to power up their weakened Headless Horseman of death to complete Malcolm’s collection. Oh and have zombie Hessians destroy Sleepy Hollow for funsies – Jenny, Alex and Jake are on that and it involves more nifty speeches from Jenny about how ready and awesome they are which I’d be way happier about if it didn’t sound like she was about to pass the torch and was talking to her replacements.

Which brings us to Issue 3: bringing Ichabod back. This requires Lara and Diana to go on a road trip to Sleepy Hollow to Ichabod’s place where he was one of Katrina’s spell books where she was planning on de-horseman-of-deathing Abraham (oh gods no that would have been terrible) which they can now use on Ichabod

So Lara and Diana go on road trip and brief bonding over time line differences and they find the spell surprisingly easily and cast it with equal ease. Yes I was totally expecting many epic quests here – but turns out they can do it right here

Which they do, using Diana’s love and respect for Ichabod and

SCREEEEEEEEEECH wait, what? These two have known each other for a hot minute. “Love” you’re dropping the L word here? Why is this word here? Is this just Lara not having a clue what Diana and Ichabod’s relationship was like?

Somewhere, Abbie rolls her eyes

They cast this spell which sends Lara into Ichabod’s mind to convince him to de-war himself which she does by wont of they’re deep and profound Witness bond

Abbie rolls her eyes again

Y’know at least Jenny teaching Alex and Jake is developing them to replace her. Don’t just drop in all this love and bonding nonsense between Diana, Molly and Ichabod when they’re still on the napkins&good-china-at-meal-time-stage of the relationship.

Ok… yeah… Lara and Diana manage to rescue Ichabod – but the whole process involves using a spell to make Ichabod save himself  - and then having him rescue Lara from War playing in his hea. And then having him kill the Hessian zombies to boot to rescue the rest of the gang (hey couldn’t War have a good at his fellow Horsemen while he’s at it? I think that would have been far more useful than the zombies. Let the zombies go to Sleepy Hollow, I’m sure eventually someone will pick up a flame thrower)

C’mon, this episode with Ichabod as War gave everyone else the chance to step up without him – but this show has been really reluctant to do that.

All is not bad for Malcolm though – for Jobe also frees Henry (can we talk about how shit Banneker’s wards are at keeping out demons?) so he can drop in on Malcolm and ask for his old horseman-of-war job back, if you please. And yes, he’s totally lying about being good now. But you saw that coming, right?

Henry’s back… I’m torn. Because I liked Henry Parrish as a villain – but his storylines were so inherently connected to the Cranewreck that I have to say I cringe over anything that could drag up those days. Also the horsemen we’ve seen now don’t seem to be, well, coherent like the old Henry as War was.


I am much more intrigued on the role Lara will fill now… except I sense a Hawley-ness. Her skill set feels vaguely similar to Jenny’s (magical knowledge and skill, combat ability, shiny toys) and any gaps she has Alex (technology) and Jake (arcane lore) fill in nicely… I feel Jenny is going to not be in season 5. If this is renewed.