TV REVIEW: Sleepy Hollow “Go Where I Send Thee…” Starts And Ends On A Dangerous Note

Sleepy Hollow moved to a different rhythm this week, but “Go Where I Send Thee…” still managed to have some strong moments.

The episode sees Ichabod and Abbie on the hunt for The Pied Piper. Not the German tale many of us are familiar with, but a demonic mercenary that lures one daughter from each generation of a familial line to her death. What for? Well, their great great great great great (give or take a few greats) grandfather got rightfully angry about some redcoats harassing his daughters while they camped out in his house during the war. So in response he asked a mercenary to “handle it.”

He picked the legendary Pied Piper, a man known for his speed, luring men with his deadly flute skills, and selling his soul to a demon. Needless to say, things go horribly wrong for grandpappy’s line after he kills the mercenary in an attempt to destroy the last witness to his ordered slaughter. The mercenary rises from his death with a super ugly face and decides to take daughters of his own in retaliation.

When the daughter of a woman who helped Abbie turn her life around goes missing, Abbie vows to get the young girl back. She and Ichabod set out to try and find the girl, but they hit an interesting discovery. Abbie goes into a musical induced trance when Ichabod planes a bone flute they found on the forest floor which gives Ichabod a lightbulb moment. Going back to the archives, they are able to put the pieces together about what kind of monster they are facing.

Setting back out into the woods to resume their search for the girl, they gain a helping hand after running into Nick Hawley. He’s not so casually hanging out behind a rock, wounded and dirty (he was probably already dirty tbh though). Apparently The Piper came after him after he encountered the girl roaming in the woods. Abbie works out a sketchy agreement with Nick despite Ichabod’s vehement reservations, and so the two amigos and third wheel venture out to find the girl. It doesn’t take long for them to locate her in a lair that frighteningly resembles the one in Jeepers Creepers. As they are trying to free the girl, The Piper shows up and almost overtakes them all.

Narrowly escaping thanks to Ichabod’s quick thinking, they move to take the girl back to her family and come back to end the demon’s reign of terror once and for all. Except Nick Hawley doesn’t want any part of it. He just wants his bone and he doesn’t want to have to ask twice. Ichabod is disgusted, but Abbie handles the situation rather well. She keeps up their end of the bargain by giving him the bone flute. However, she breaks it before handing it over, rendering it useless… or so we think.

Nick marches off while Ichabod and Abbie take the girl back to her mother. In a surprise twist, the mom knows all about the family curse and is willing to sacrifice her own daughter to save her other three children. Abbie and Ichabod put the pieces together, racing back to the woods to find mother and daughter ready to march into the clutches of the demon. Abbie works her talking down magic, but right as things look in the clear The Piper shows up.

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Abbie manages to shoot him away before Ichabod follows the monster back to its well and a fight ensues. He seems to be in the clear with his noise canceling ear plugs until he’s not and The Piper has a painful upper hand. Things seem lost, but only for a moment as Abbie is there by her fellow witness’ side to make sure their mission is complete. Elsewhere, Frank sees his future flash before his eyes and confronts Henry directly about it before realizing his massive mistake. Back with Nick, we see him give away his broken bone and discover for who he was collecting it: Henry.

Unlike the last three episodes, this week had our witnesses on a more traditional case. Henry smashed some bones in the background while Frank realized his fate, but for the most part the episode was Sleepy Hollow in its procedural format. Abbie and Ichabod find a monster, figure out its creepy link to the revolutionary biblical war, and put an end to it rather heroically just in the nick of time.

While the series struggled with its more serialized storytelling in the first season, its successes in season two have drawn heavily from that approach. As a result, its absence was painfully obvious. The lack of ensemble was also pretty glaring and left the episode feeling a little flat coming off the show’s three week high. Sleepy Hollow had finally figured out how to properly juggle screen time and development for everyone and within a week it disappeared almost entirely.

That’s not to say this wasn’t a good episode. It was classic monster fun with a strong and thoughtful mythology, adorable Ichabbie moments, and a few knuckle clenchers. We learned quite a bit about Nick Hawley’s character and his possible running relationship to the witnesses. He’s cute and fun until its his money on the line and then he’s not. He’s also almost entirely oblivious to the greater picture, unmoved by what he does know. For now we put him in the corner along with Sheriff Reyes. Sometimes we like Nick and sometimes we want nothing more than 500 meters distance between the witnesses and him.

We also got a major development in Frank’s storyline. Both he and we were witness to his potential future and it was full of fire and butt kicking. Just not in the name of Team Humanity. We’ve been patiently waiting since episode two to see exactly what his bloody signature on Henry’s contract meant and now that we know it feels pretty hopeless. Frank isn’t aware that Henry has restrictions on his witness visitation. Henry’s also dangerously close to Frank’s family while Frank is locked up. Despite the fact that we know Henry was totally wrong about Frank’s relationship to Ichabod and Abbie, Frank is in a pretty dire situation. He made a noble choice in the finale, but can he make it again? A prayer circle would seem appropriate right about now.

Pictured: Nicole Beharie as Abbie Mills, Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane — Credit: Fred Norris/FOX

Despite the lack of ensemble this week, there was quite a bit of teamwork from our witnesses. The most exciting part of the episode came as a direct result of this. The two must fight The Piper, but Ichabod’s awesome sword skills seem the most appropriate to battle him so he sets off with his noise canceling ear plugs to put the monster down. Except he gets hit, falls and The Piper uses his powers to emit ear drum rupturing noise. Ear bleeding ensues and we’re all just basically clutching our hearts because Ichabod is down for the count and Abbie is nowhere to be found. Except at the last minute she pops up and slays the musical demon.

We’ve seen team ups like this before, but unlike past episodes this actually felt like a team kill. Yes, Abbie put a literal end to the monster, but Ichabod’s careful skills and growing familiarity with modern amenities made him a more formidable and reliable fighter. The two (and show) seem to have finally settled into their respective witness roles while not being caged by them. One is a little more attune to putting the mythology together to create a game plan while the other is more into the battle, but they can very easily and successfully switch off. As a result, their dynamic is more dynamic and fun to watch. It also makes them a much larger force to be reckoned with.

Perhaps this wasn’t the series best episode, but it wasn’t terrible either. “Go Where I Send Thee…” was a nice break from the heavy handed (but wonderful) dramatic tension we had been receiving the last several weeks. With an extended episode order it shouldn’t have come as surprise that an episode or two might watch like feel good filler. However, Sleepy Hollow managed to keep up the action, humor and lead chemistry this week with more than half the team missing and a little less drama.

Favorite/Funniest Moments

• Ichabod being an actual speed demon as we and Abbie experience him driving a car for the first time.
• Abbie telling Ichabod to stop creeping by people’s windows because it’s, well, creepy.
• Abbie and Ichabod teaming up to slay the coneheaded Piper.
• At this point any time Abbie shoots a gun it’s a fav moment.
• Nick Hawley’s response in the well to realizing that a wild cosplayer didn’t actually attack him in the woods.
• Ichabod drinking that “shameful” Italian drink, but loving it just like the rest of us. Bonus points for the whipped cream mustache on his actual mustache.
• Henry angrily crushing bones because come on now you don’t need to be angry all the time.