Sleepy Hollow: The Kindred

Last week, Sleepy Hollow took a page from Penny Dreadful and dove headlong into wackadoodle as the team reanimated a piecemeal-Horseman killer (designed by Ben Franklin) to take on the Horseman.

Here’s the skinny on what you need to know going into tonight. I’m going to diverge from a full-on recap and instead hit you with the things that are relevant going forward.

Crane and Abbie are still awesome. This is news to no one but there is a really good moment between them where Abbie admits what I saw in the premiere — she was at wit’s end when the AlterCrane came upon her, and her joy at seeing him made her realize he is her weakness. I love that as brass tacks as she is, she’s found somebody in the word to test her, threaten her independence, and count on. She tells Crane this to make him realize that Katrina is his weakness, and that he doesn’t always think rationally when it comes to her.

Katrina takes one for the team. Katina realizes she’s Abraham’s weakness, and when she makes overtures toward him that she will accept him in her own time, he backs off the bravado. So she makes the decision to stay with him willingly, as a spy for Crane and Abbie. This crushes Crane, but he knows she’s right. There’s a really good look between her and Abbie, too, that essentially is a silent agreement that Katrina will take care of herself, and Abbie will look after Crane. They still can’t defeat the Horseman, and they don’t know exactly what Parrish is up to, so they need a mole. Katrina proves her point when Abraham returns and she’s free but did not run away.

Irving just went from bad to worse. Irving is still locked up, and battling the new sheriff, who seems more mega-pissed at him than she should be, when his attorney (one Henry Parrish) arrives to free him. He has him sign papers with an old quill pen that draws blood, which Parrish wipes up, so we know Irving is in deep shit. And the moment Parrish walked in, I realized Irving doesn’t know who Parrish is. Yikes.

Jenny is behind bars. After the sheriff makes a move on Jenny, too, Abbie goes to see her and promises she’s going to get her out of jail. Jenny responds with a pointed remark that this time, it better not take years.

I like that Franklin seems to be filling in this season where Washington did in the first season’s backstory — that’s a cool framing device. I love that Abbie and Crane can still talk to each other about anything and we don’t have any of the bullshit baggage of delayed reveals. We’re setting up a lot of threads for our characters. As long as we always come back to Crane and Abbie as the center, I’m good.

Here’s a sneak peek of tonight’s new episode, “Root of All Evil.”

Photo courtesy of FOX