TV REVIEW: Sleepy Hollow’s “Kali Yuga” Proves a Point About Team Work

By Jennie Bragg

Ok boys and girls, I’m going a bit high school English class on you. I’m going to talk about the theme of tonight’s Sleepy Hollow episode: that the Witnesses together are greater than the sum of their parts.

In the lead up to Season 2, the show’s creators previewed that this season would be about War unleashed on Sleepy Hollow, how War would create divisions among our characters, and sow the seeds of distrust. That was certainly the case with the biggest rift, of course, between Abbie and Ichabod. The problem was that Abbie and Ichabod spent too much time apart – and this show is built on the amazing chemistry between these two.

So it’s a relief to see that “Kali Yuga” may be a turning point for Abbie and Ichabod. And what better way to show that turning point than with some slightly inebriated karaoke.

Abbie, Jenny, Ichabod and Hawley are on a double date – I mean, are hanging out at a bar on karaoke night. Abbie is onstage doing a surprisingly good rendition of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy (who knew Abbie loved karaoke?) and Ichabod is doing a surprisingly good rendition of a man not thinking about his wife at all.

Jenny has the job tonight of pointing out to both Abbie and Ichabod that they haven’t exactly been besties recently, and asks if they have talked out their problems. They each reassure Jenny that they’re ok but it all seems a little too pat. Also they’re both too distracted to really focus on her questions. While the sisters talk, Ichabod sings an 18^th century sea shanty. (That’s right, an 18^th century sea shanty. What, you thought he might do Brown Eyed Girl?) Jenny’s not buying it – but she’s distracted too since Hawley hasn’t returned from a late night black market artifacts deal.

Before going on, can we just take a moment to say yay, Jenny is back. Where was she this season? She sparkles in every scene here and her snarky humor is a leavening for the earnestness of the Witnesses’ mission.

This week’s baddie is brought to you by Hawley (and, er, also Ford, which had some very prominent product placement throughout the episode). Turns out his “deal” is just a ruse for his former guardian – his disconcertingly hot former guardian – to trick him into helping her lift a valuable artifact from the estate of Theodore Knox, descendent of Henry Knox. She needs an artifact to turn her back from a vetala, an undead human that serves Kali, the Hindu god of death and regeneration, to human.

When Ichabod enlists Katrina to help at the Archives, Abbie and Jenny pair up to track down Hawley. This is when Ichabod and Abbie’s happy story of having resolved their differences unravels. Ichabod discovers the charm that Abbie accepted from Orion (without telling him). Abbie tells Jenny she’s fine with letting Crane figure out his issues with his “witch wife” and mourn his “Horseman of War” son’s death – with her eyes rolling so hard they might fall out. Jenny, always straight to the point, asks, Do you really think you work better apart?

The team find out that Hawley’s guardian is actually a murderous treasure hunter named Carmilla Pines. And that artifact she wants? It won’t turn her back to human. It will help her turn more humans into vetalas to serve Kali. Our team, sans Katrina, heads out to the Knox estate. The plan is for Jenny to follow Hawley while Abbie and Ichabod work together to stop Carmilla. Only Crane gets buttonholed by Knox, and Abbie heads off without him. Are you sensing the theme here yet?

Carmilla traps the two in Knox’s vault while she makes off with the Hindu artifact. Being stuck in an underground vault with no cell service finally gets our witnesses communicating. This is a long, talky scene, and while I think the show often relies too much on explaining instead of showing, it feels good here to have them admit all is not rosy and work it through. And just to make sure it’s clear, after their talk, they escape from the vault by working together, and kick Carmilla’s ass by, you guessed it, working together. And just to make sure it’s really really clear, our witnesses end up back at the karaoke bar to sing a duet.

For those of us wondering what happened to the whole Apocalypse theme, we turn our eyes hopefully to Frank Irving who has been exonerated and is now back at home with Cynthia. Only Cynthia is not too sure about reuniting the family without first trying to figure out the whole how did Frank return from the dead question. She enlists Katrina to unbind Frank from Henry. So all is well.

Except for the small matter that Frank now realizes he does not cast a reflection in the window. Frank just cannot cut a break this season.