Stuck in 1781, Abbie must convince Ichabod that she’s from the future and gain his help to break the traveler’s spell before Katrina and the soon-to-be headless horseman kill them. Here is a recap of “Tempus Fugit.”
Recap:
Wading through the battlefield searching for the Hessian with a mark on his hand, Ichabod gets called away to see Abbie. He’s not convinced that she speaks the truth, but he’s at least interested in listening and takes her for a walk through the battlefield. Stopping along the way to disinfect wounds, Abbie worries that she may have screwed up the future forever! Having volunteered to transport her to be sold at auction, Ichabod allows Abbie to use the length of the carriage ride to convince him of her story. She suggests going to Benjamin Franklin for help.
The pre-headless Hessian looks for Ichabod in the forest, but finds Katrina instead. She wants to team up to take down the Witnesses, and uses magic to casually snap the neck of a soldier who overhears them. Occupational hazard.
Franklin has no problem believing Abbie’s story and knows that they must ask Grace Dixon for help to reverse the traveler’s spell. Before they can leave, the Hessian barges in and starts shooting. Ichabod and Abbie fire back with multiple guns, while Franklin lights a bomb. The Hessian’s flying ax decapitates the Founding Father. Abbie and Ichabod escape, leaving the bomb behind to stall the Horseman a moment more. Back in the jail cell, Abbie reveals her withheld knowledge: Katrina has aligned with the Hessian. Ichabod doesn’t believe her, so Abbie tells him he’s going to be a daddy and he should look at their selfie on her cell phone to prove they know one another.
Colonel Sutton, a superior officer, removes Ichabod of duty, so Ichabod returns home where he spots a spread of witchy supplies on the kitchen table. During his chat with Kat, she hovers a knife pointed in his direction, but soldiers knocking at the door stops her. Washington needs to see him. Ichabod leaves, growing suspicious after seeing witch-like drawings on the table. Digging through Abbie’s personal effects, Ichabod finds her phone. After a brief struggle to decipher the meaning of “slide to unlock,” he enters his birthday and watches a video of him and Abbie. Colonel Sutton arrives to take Abbie away, but she strangles him and Ichabod helps her out of there. Katrina meets with Colonel Sutton, swipes some of Abbie’s blood left on him in their struggle, and uses it to locate her. She thanks him by magically strangling him.
Abbie, kind of freaked at first, meets Grace Dixon, who believes her time travel tale right off the bat. To reverse the curse, they’ll have to draw on the energy protecting the house, which will leave them susceptible to attack. And they don’t have much time to do it. Lightning strikes and so does the Hessian. After Ichabod and Abbie hug it out, he tries to hold off Katrina and the Horseman to let Abbie and Grace perform the spell inside. Moments from Ichabod losing his head, time stops. Flashes of Abbie and Ichabod’s time together send us forward in time to right before the last episode left off. As Katrina air strangles Abbie, Ichabod grabs a knife and throws down with his wife. In the tussle, he stabs her. She sees a vision of Henry extending his hand and evaporates to join him. Jenny and Irving rush in, ready to stand beside the Witnesses in the upcoming battles.
Comments:
– Overall, this episode was much like the second half of season two: somewhat interesting, yet essentially doing little to further the seasonal story arc. Killing off Henry and Katrina will have an impact if a third season is granted, but having no big bad or no greater threat of evil made this finale feel underwhelming. It lacked purpose and a profound impact on the series. The repercussions in the present were not noticeable, and they did not perform many actions that were unexpected.
– I know I have been pretty harsh on Sleepy Hollow this season, but it’s just because I know how great this series can be. Season one was phenomenal, and I hope that they are granted the opportunity to build back up to that level of storytelling.
– The opening scene on the battlefield was greatly amplified by the Len Wiseman directorial touch. It was intense and cinematic and reminiscent of the pilot and flat out cool. A great way to start off an episode.
– My major complaint about this episode is the number of times that the characters mentioned the danger of screwing up the future forever. In any story including time travel, this is a valid concern, but it is also seems to be the most common trope of the topic. “Tempus Fugit” did not take a unique approach to this trope, nor did they explore the problem beyond mentioning it a number of times.
– Abbie making friends with Franklin by telling him that his inventions survived throughout history was a cute moment.
– Franklin calling Abbie “the American Dream” was poignant and beautiful.
– Franklin’s bomb looked like something straight out of a cartoon.
– This time around, flashback Ichabod was unpleasant. He was too stubborn and too grumpy, and there was something else about him that was grating, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Even though he was at war and thus not expected to be his normal charming self, he lacked all of the warmth the character possessed in his other flashbacks this season and last. He wasn’t the Ichabod we’ve grown to love, which is especially problematic when I spent an entire finale episode not liking the main character.
– Strangling people with no hands or snapping their necks with magic is apparently Katrina’s newfound favorite thing to do. It was attention grabbing and a pretty sweet exhibition of power in the world of television.
– With Katrina’s death, this series lost one of its severely underdeveloped characters and one that could have been much more useful, powerful, and amazing than she was allowed to. If Ichabod had not been avoiding her and scolding her the past several episodes, her death would have a more profound impact on him; it will certainly impact him, but now the writers must also convince the audience that Ichabod wasn’t over her as much as he seemed. At this point, I see her death as being a move springing from not knowing what to do with her character rather than a creative decision to further another character’s story. If anything, these past two episodes made me want more Katrina than ever before.
– The incredibly important moment in which Abbie finally convinced Ichabod that she was telling the truth had the potential to be such a strong and creative moment, but instead, a selfie saved the day. A selfie. In 1781. Sleepy Hollow frequently veers into absurd territory, and it’s part of the show’s charm, but this crossed the line for me. First, how did Abbie’s iPhone battery last that long? And second, if I were Ichabod seeing that video, I would be more likely to believe that it’s a sign of witchcraft than time travel.
– The act breaks on Sleepy Hollow have not been noticeably awkward until this episode. Cutting to commercial after Katrina professed, “I am a witch,” and while the Hessian held Ichabod by the throat were especially abrupt cuts and did not create the strong cliffhanger moments like they should have to convince the audience to stick around.
– The ending of “Tempus Fugit” would have been more effective had they addressed the types of battles that they are going to have to face or the villain bringing about these problems. With season three being uncertain, there is some amount of satisfaction in wrapping up stories as much as possible while not completely ending them, but there is also the necessity to excite your audience into clamoring for another season. This ending fell flat in doing the latter.
– This again.
Ichabod: Assuming I do not die or become suspended in time, you have a lot of explaining to do. I’ve never seen a woman in trousers.
Abbie: I know what you mean. Had to do the same thing when you popped out of a cave.
– A money funny.
Franklin: What is Jefferson on?
Abbie: The two dollar bill.
Franklin: The two dollar bill. The two. The two. Does anybody use the two? Sounds cumbersome.
– “I viewed a moving picture in which you and I attempted to create a still picture.” – Ichabod
