Sleepy Hollow, “Heartless” (2.8) - TV Review

There’s something that’s been completely off for me this season. It seems like the writers are scrambling in one sense for one-off plots, and dragging when it comes to the main “war is coming”, Moloch plot. This episode picked up a bit for me from what a lot of season 2 has been doing, but it’s still not all there.

The strongest part of the show is still Abbie and Ichabod’s relationship. Their banter, their chemistry, it really shines through on the most mundane of episodes. Tom Mison, Nicole Beharie and John Noble keep this show afloat, as far as I’m concerned. Tuesday’s episode was the tried and true “succubus” plot. Both X-Files and Fringe have had similar plots, and they work out fine, but I still find it archaic that a beautiful woman is considered a succubus. Still though, as far as monsters-of-the-week go, this was an arc that felt fully fleshed out (alliteration y’all), with a strong purpose - to suck the life from those who secretly desire, and put it in a badly CGI-d jar to feed to baby Moloch. Okay, sure. I’ll play along.

Katrina is now with Abbie and Ichabod. During the opening scene, Ichabod is showing her reality television, The Bachelor, to be specific. She loves it, and finds it incredibly romantic, which I found brilliant as a character point. Ichabod, of course hates it. He also hates electronic music. Abbie is a bit stand-offish about Katrina, hesitant to work with her, and slightly protective of Ichabod, he has to serve as a referee in their small cat fight. Telling them to put aside their differences, as Katrina is a strong witch who adds greatly to their team. This show hasn’t done a great job in the past of actually showcasing Katrina’s witch powers, but tonight we got to see a bit in action which was nice. She helps them track down the succubus, and finds a spell to destroy its heart to render it mortal.

Abbie approaches Hawley in a bar to help, okay, let’s discuss the thrown in story of Hawley secretly desiring Abbie. I get why her character would appeal to him, but what about Jenny? Are they just dropping that? Will it be used to possibly tear the sisters apart later on in the season? I don’t know how I feel about this. Abbie seems sort of interested in him, but thwarts his advances. When the succubus picks up Hawley, and Katrina points them in the direction of Hawley’s boat home, Ichabod, after saving Hawley quickly catches on that it’s Abbie he desires. Ichabod begrudgingly tries to get over his hatred for the man and be supportive, and even talks to Hawley about it, which I found hilarious.

In the end of the episode, Katrina decides for the good of the war she needs to go back to Abraham, and gather intel for them. Little does she know, Henry (Walternate), has cast a spell so that Katrina will see baby demon Moloch, as a cute little human baby, while she wears the necklace the horseman gave her. Duh, duh, duh.

I give this episode two thumbs up for Ichabod hating on the Bachelor. I give this episode two thumbs down for still feeling like filler, and a hastily written love triangle.