Despite Katrina’s desire to split the Horseman of Death from Abraham, Abbie and Ichabod find themselves working alongside an angel named Orion who’s determined to kill Headless. Here is a recap of the Sleepy Hollow episode “Paradise Lost.”
Recap:
Abbie, Ichabod, Katrina, and Jenny awake in the forest, but there’s no sign of Henry. White light sends us six weeks later. Ichabod learns about organic produce as he and Abbie wander through a farmer’s market. Finding an apple with worms in it, Ichabod’s convinced evil’s still at large. Abbie disagrees and fails to convince Ichabod to talk to Katrina, who’s living alone at the cabin while they re-establish their marriage. While searching through the woods for evil, Abbie and Ichabod stumble upon three demons performing a ceremony to locate someone. It’s interrupted when an angel named Orion flies in. Orion escaped purgatory alongside others when Moloch died.
Katrina visits Abraham, still chained up in the Masonic cell, and offers to split the Horseman of Death from his human side. Abraham’s less enthusiastic about it, but agrees to let her try. Katrina texts Ichabod to meet her in the records room and tells him about her plan. Ichabod’s not on board. Upset Abbie hasn’t shown up to be her wing-woman, Jenny calls her from a bar. Jenny flirts with the bartender until Hawley arrives with a demon tracking device called the Egg of Asag. He doesn’t really know how to use it.
Abbie and Ichabod learn that the demons are searching for a new master to serve, perhaps Headless. Wanting to destroy him, Orion asks Abbie to take him to the Horseman and gives her a charm capable of summoning him like her guardian angel. He then tells Katrina he was killed by the Horseman’s ax, sending Katrina rushing to Abraham. She releases Abraham on the promise he won’t kill anyone while she works on the spell. Trying to figure out the egg, Jenny realizes that Hawley is jealous of her feelings for that bartender. She makes a crack about him busting his real relationships to pieces, and Hawley realizes he needs to break the egg to pieces, revealing a small sphere inside. Through the sphere, he sees the Horseman’s location.
Abbie uses the charm to summon Orion to the Horseman’s location just as Ichabod calls to say Orion may not be as much of a good force as they thought. He appears in the weeks before great catastrophes, natural disasters, and plagues. Orion tells Abbie he wants to steal the Horseman’s power to bring great judgment upon the Earth and rebuild it into a paradise. Innocent casualties, such as Katrina, will just be a part of the cleanse. As Abbie and Ichabod take on the demons outside, Orion throws his weapon into Headless’ back and begins the power suck. Having devised a plan to stop him, Ichabod crushes Orion’s weapon, and Orion flies off defeated.
A barefooted man walks into a convenient store and downs a carton of milk. It’s Irving looking worse for the wear. He asks the cashier if this is heaven or hell. “Nah, man. It’s Sleepy Hollow.”
Comments:
– “Paradise Lost” was a mediocre return for Sleepy Hollow. After Abbie and Ichabod saved the world from an epic disaster, this episode wasted no time alluding to Orion bringing about another one. It’s an effective way to handle the series moving forward, but it just isn’t all that engaging at this point. The demon minions in “Paradise Lost” reminded me of something found in an episode of Buffy; however, they barely posed a threat here and Orion was easily send on his way.
– The best part of the episode was the revelation that both good and bad forces escaped from purgatory. It opens up a host of new allies and villains, including types of characters, such as angels, that we haven’t seen on this show. I’m fascinated to know where they take the angel mythology since they have been heavily featured on other supernatural series.
– Did Abbie not learn from Henry turning out to be the Horseman of War that she shouldn’t trust new associates who claim they can help? Her blind faith in Orion and almost smitten-ness with him was unbelievable – as in I had a hard time understanding why she would act so blindly.
– In addition, what prompted Abbie to tell Orion about Irving? Mentioning Irving was dead was a forced and attempted setup to shock the audience more when he appeared at the end of the episode. But this one mention made it all the more obvious that the characters had barely thought of Irving at all and not even mourned for him, which raised my suspicions that something was up.
– This episode had a few too many Biblical references, and they’re bothering me for two reasons. First, while the foundation of the series was built upon the Biblical apocalypse and most of these references were major stories from the book, the writers unfairly assumed that the audience had this knowledge. Their relationship with the source material seems to fluctuate from rules to Jack Sparrow “guidelines.” And second, they did not add much to the scenes, but instead were thrown in there as some sort of justification for what was going on or what was being discussed. It’s reminded me of having to back up claims made in an essay with quotes from other sources.
– Having Abbie ask Orion all about heaven and hell and God and whatnot was a wasted opportunity for her to ask about something unique and more meaningful to her character. These questions were those that the majority of people would ask if given the same opportunity, but Abbie has seen too much during her life as a Witness to not believe that something of the sort exists.
– They way in which Hawley figured out how to use the Egg of Asag by turning Jenny’s words into his inspiration was far too convenient. It was something you’d find on Castle, not Sleepy Hollow. (Not to speak ill of Castle. I love that show.) Plus, the dialogue in this scene (and the whole episode, really) was verging on poor.
– Now that Orion has mentioned it, I suppose it does make more sense for Abbie and Ichabod’s duty as Witnesses to be to witness what happens, not necessarily to fight it, but what good does that do? No character or audience member has faulted them for fighting against evil, so this was something that didn’t need clarifying or commenting on.
– Katrina’s new black lace shirt was reminiscent of the black lace veils worn by the Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart. Here’s hoping she finds more use for her powers than just saving the Horseman of Death.
– Who would have thought that Abbie and Ichabod would be fighting on the same side as Headless, if only for a moment.
Abbie: Reinvention isn’t such a bad thing. Have you ever had a grapple?
Ichabod: I have had to engage in hand-to-hand combat on many occasions.
Abbie: Not that kind of grapple. It’s a mash up. It’s a grape plus an apple.
Ichabod: My point exactly. A union that hardly seems necessary.
Ichabod: How can we be certain he is as he says?
Abbie: The wings are kind of a dead giveaway. If you can’t trust an angel, who can you trust?
Ichabod: Lucifer was an angel.
Hawley: Guy serves spirits. You hunt them.
Jenny: I would be if you had brought the egg of haggis you said you had.
Hawley: Egg of Asag.
– So, Fox decided to bring the series back this week, then repeat a random episode next week. Makes no sense to me, but see you back here in two weeks.
