'Sleepy Hollow' Review/Recap: "Heartless"

Maria Millage ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

This week Sleepy Hollow brought viewers a lot of teamwork, a lot of creepy, and a lot of conflict (seriously, it was off the charts).  The dream team—which has been expanded to include Ichabod (Tom Mison), Abbie (Nicole Beharie), Katrina (Katia Winter), and now Hawley (Matt Barr)—took on a succubus, an evil demon who takes the form of a woman to seduce and steal the souls of those who have extremely internalized sexual desires.
As per usual, the week’s big bad was summoned by Henry (John Noble), the Horseman of War, who is still on a quest to bring his master, Moloch, into the human world.  Oh, wait, he already did that.  That was probably the point in the episode where most of the show’s fans’ jaws dropped and everyone said “Say what?”  Let’s back up a bit.
So, everyone must remember last week when Henry managed to impregnate Katrina with Moloch in the form of an evil demon child and Abbie and Ichabod raced against the clock to both abort Moloch and save Katrina from dying. The thing is, that when they thought they aborted Moloch they apparently just transported his energy somewhere else so he didn’t kill Katrina but he also managed to get out of Purgatory and is now in the position to start terrorizing the mortal world.  Or, he will be soon  since he’s currently in the form of a terrifying looking baby thing. Think Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Henry summoned the succubus to steal the life energy of her victims, which he then used as nourishment for Moloch.  Luckily, Ichabod and co. killed the succubus before she was able to generate enough life forces to fully raise Moloch but she and Henry still made a dent into bringing him to full life force.

What was really strong about this episode was the developing character relationships. There was a lot of one-on-one time between the majority of the main cast—read: Abbie and Ichabod, Abbie and Katrina, Abbie and Hawley, Katrina and Ichabod, and Ichabod and Hawley.  In other words, the writers gave viewers everything they needed to just stir up a giant pot of drama.  And that’s exactly what they did.
First off, Katrina is still convinced that Henry is not evil and all they need to do to get her son back is sever his ties to Moloch and save his soul.  No one else probably believes this but it’s her driving motivation right now, and something that has popped up in every episode so far this season without fail.  There is no doubt that this is going to continue to drive her forward this season as well as continue to bring her into conflict with other characters.  In this episode that character was Abbie, who is fully onboard the “Henry’s evil” train.  Though the two did have a nice heart-to-heart at the end of the episode, which culminated in Katrina deciding to go back to Abraham (Neil Jackson) in order to a) get close to Moloch and try to kill him and b) convince Henry to defect to the good side. Jury’s still out on if either of those is actually going to happen any time soon, if ever.
Abbie and Ichabod’s good-natured banter was back in this episode even though they didn’t share a lot of scenes together.  It also became excruciatingly clear how Katrina’s renewed presence in Ichabod’s life is going to affect his relationship with Abbie.  Crane, the eternal gentleman, very clearly put his wife’s welfare ahead of Abbie’s and there was very clearly something lacking that fans have come to take for granted in the relationship between the two.  Nevertheless, Ichabod is still extremely protective of Abbie, as shown by his potential aversion to the blossoming relationship between Hawley and Abbie, which was practically shoved down viewers’ throats in this episode.  In other words, if you don’t think Hawley has a wee bit of a crush on Abbie after this episode, you should get your eyes checked.  There was a lot of awkward staring and a lot of flirting, making it clear that this is a relationship that is probably here to stay.  But then again, after everything she’s been through lately, this writer at least thinks Abbie deserves a little bit of R&R.

Ichabod and Hawley’s relationship was also on the rocks this episode but then when hasn’t it been?  Ichabod has never been a fan of Hawley, calling him choice names in the past and making it clear that he’s not a fan of his profession of buying and selling supernatural artifacts.  The two did have a bit of a bonding moment towards the end of the episode, however, when they were both being brutally attacked by a succubus trying to suck out their energy in the back storeroom of a nightclub.  Clearly that’s the best way to make new friends.
There also was quite a bit of strife in the Cranes’ relationship, with Ichabod still having trust issues.  By the end of the episode he admitted to Abbie that relationships should be allowed to grow and change as their participants do but it’s clear that he’s worried about the nature of his and Katrina’s relationship, especially since she has kept so much from him.  The succubus also proved useful on this front as a creature that is able to sense and decode a person’s inner desires.  She referred to doubt in Ichabod’s heart and there’s only one person that could be about.  No matter what the writers choose to do with Ichabod and Katrina this season, it certainly will be interesting to watch their relationship strengthen or weaken as the fight against the Apocalypse continues.
On a final note, viewers finally got to see Katrina taking on a more developed role in this episode.  Considering she was rarely there at all in season one, the introduction of her as a true series regular in season two made a lot of fans hopeful that she would be framed as a strong female character more along the lines of Abbie or Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood).  So far that has not been the case and she’s been used by the writers as more of a pawn to advance other characters’ arcs or the plot as a whole.  This episode broke that pattern. Without Katrina, several important steps never would have been made and they likely would not have been able to stop the succubus before it went after Hawley the first time.  So let’s have a round of applause for Katrina.  Hopefully this trend will continue as she works at bringing down Moloch from inside the ranks of Henry and Abraham.
Honorable mentions for comic relief in this episode go to Ichabod and Katrina watching The Bachelor and Ichabod being horrendously confused about club music.
Overall Episode Grade: A-