TV REVIEW: Sleepy Hollow’s “Awakening” Sets the Scene For an Ambitious Finale

By Jennie Bragg

It happened. It finally happened. After so many episodes of wondering, “What exactly is Katrina’s deal?” she finally got one. She’s a bad witch. A very bad witch.

I’ve been longing for Katrina to go bad for ages. It seemed like the best way to solve the “third wheel” problem with her character. It was fine in season one when she floated in and out to offer up some tidbit of insight to Ichabod. But once she entered the 21^st century, it seemed the show couldn’t figure out what to do with her, and she was an awkward addition to Team Witness.

Now she’s joined forces with Henry and that makes her so much more interesting. And tips Ichabod’s world sideways again.

Ok so her turning was supposedly because of her great guilt over leaving her child behind. A guilt that never was assuaged even when her child became a soldier for Moloch, traded her to the Headless Horseman for the second seal, tried to kill her husband and impregnated her with a demon baby? Never mind that.

And yes her turn to the dark side was awfully fast. One day she’s holding a dead rose and the next thing you know she’s in league with Henry to form a coven to rule Sleepy Hollow. But never mind that either. Because how fun was it to see Katrina in a full rage at the end of the episode, really exercising those powers that we never saw when she was trying to be good?

As if that wasn’t enough, we got Frank Irving back. Katrina’s gone bad and Frank’s gone good, and that’s an interesting set up for what looks to be a very ambitious finale.

As for Henry, he was back as the engineer of the evil that our witnesses battle in this week’s episode. Abbie and Ichabod have been busying themselves searching for some items that they might have had access to if they had thought to take out anything from the fenestella last week. They’re at the local used bookstore, and, as he did in “Golem,” Ichabod is trying to flirt his way to getting hold of some rare books. As they leave the store, the witnesses talk about how useful it would have been to have the guidance that Jefferson had so carefully prepared for them. In the end, they conclude that the one rule that they know is true is “we must put our bond as witnesses before anyone or anything else.” Which to be honest I think they already knew. I mean, they mention it every week.

Meanwhile Henry is out causing minor mayhem via three Sleepy Hollow residents who become possessed all at the same time, with nasty results for the people around them. Our two witnesses investigate and realize that the source of the possession is the bell in the town center. The bell is cast from the same mold as the Liberty Bell, which, as it turns out, Ichabod was responsible for cracking. Or at least cracking an earlier cast of it, since the Liberty Bell was cracked in the 1800s. It was a little confusing. But never mind.

When rung, the bell can turn anyone descended from a coven into a witch. With the potential for thousands of Sleepy Hollow townspeople to turn, Abbie suggests, yet again, that they bring Katrina in as their Advisor on Witchy Things. Ichabod is not enthusiastic. He says that “since her encounter with the warlock Solomon Kent, Katrina has been distant, withdrawn…”. Instead, the witnesses make a plan to crack the bell, as Ichabod did with the first one, to prevent it from being rung.

And this is where Katrina starts to get more interesting. Henry shares his plan to bring about the return of a coven to Sleepy Hollow using the bell and the black magic found in the Grand Grimoire. Only he needs a pure blood witch to ring the bell. Katrina and Henry will lead this coven – and leave behind the the Muggle, Ichabod.

Ok it’s a little strange how fast Katrina goes for this idea. “You’re asking me to give up everything I’ve believed in…?” she asks Henry. Pretty much. And then she does. But later, it is made clear that it’s not the power she cares about, it’s being with her son and compensating for having abandoned him. This motivation is key to tracking what Katrina does for the rest of this episode. And is supposed to make her rejection of Ichabod more plausible. When he asks her how she can disregard all that they were together, she says “it is already done” but with a face that shows how painful it is for her. Katrina is obsessed with redressing the wrong she did to her child and anything else will be sacrificed.

While Abbie and Ichabod are trying to thwart Henry, Jenny is on a mission to reverse Henry’s possession of Frank’s soul. Frank has now gone completely bad, and it was a shock to see him aiming a rifle at Abbie, Ichabod and Jenny while they were trying to take the bell out of the town square. Jenny is charged with fetching the Gorgon’s head, since the Gorgon’s stare might turn Frank back to good. As usual, Jenny gets off the best snark of the night: “Right, because everyone has a head storage jar laying around.” In Sleepy Hollow, that they do, Jenny, that they do.

But it’s not the Gorgon’s head that redeems Frank. Fans had been teased that at a major character was going to die in this episode, with some worrying that might be Frank’s fate. Instead, it’s in the final show down between Abbie, Ichabod, Henry and Katrina that it happens. Abbie and Ichabod devise a plan to blow up the bell, but are captured by Henry and Katrina. In a James Bond style ending, they’re conveniently tied up – and not, for some reason, immediately disposed of – to watch while Katrina and Henry prepare to ring the bell and return the coven. Oh villains, when will you learn not to let your victims linger before killing them? This gives Ichabod the chance to reach into Abbie’s pocket, pull out a piece of flint, slice the ropes so they can shoot the bell and Henry.

And with Henry’s death, Frank is released. Jenny hugs him in relief and fans everywhere wonder whether those two are just friends or what.

Now we get the full power of Katrina’s wrath. She turns on Ichabod, enraged, saying that she should have let him die and that “this time, I will.” And she’s got the Grand Grimoire to do it, reciting a spell to send herself back in time. Only Abbie tries to grab her and is jettisoned back with her.

This is the set up for what promises to be a very ambitious finale. In a call back to the pilot, Abbie finds herself in the middle of the woods, not realizing where, or more accurately, when she is. After almost being trampled by a horse drawn carriage, Abbie realizes she has been time traveled to 1781. She gets thrown into a jail cell when she is unable to show any identification papers. This whole scenario is one that had to be handled very carefully, and fortunately, Abbie never stops, well, being Abbie. She’s not one to back down or get pushed around. And she quickly realizes that her best option is to ask to see one Captain Ichabod Crane.