Sleepy Hollow 2×14 Review: “Kali Yuga”

Sometimes it seems like Sleepy Hollow has reached into my mind, picked out all my favourite things and combined them in the most bizarrely wonderful way possible. “Kali Yuga” is not one of those times. A Hawley-heavy episode was definitely not on my wish list and this week reminded me why, although it also gave us Ichabod and Abbie’s karaoke bonding for which I will be forever grateful. But then that’s the problem with this season over all, Ichabod and Abbie remain fantastically entertaining, it’s the rest of the show that’s a mess.

This week in Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod dropped some historical names as usual, Hawley got a backstory and Frank Irving went from being one of the most interesting aspects of the series to a total drag. They robbed Fort Knox (sort of) and there was an evil woman that wanted to make Hawley her demon bride or something. Also Katrina was there in case you forgot, although, to be fair, she has become a little less annoying in the last couple of episodes.

I will freely admit that I am a little biased against Hawley but I just don’t understand his addition to the cast and why the writers seem so adamant to force him onto the viewers all the time. Thankfully they seem to have got the idea that any romantic intentions they had about Hawley and Abbie’s relationship would not be well received by the audience, but instead of actually dealing with it, they just had him move on to the other Mills sister. Jenny Mills deserves so much more than being someone’s second choice. Look, as an easy solution to all Team Witness’s supernatural problems Hawley is a useful tool but they have got to stop trying to position him as an interregnal part of the group, especially when all their efforts just make him more unlikeable.

Hawley’s backstory, which made up the core of this week’s episode, was about as bland as everything else about his character (he is the worst). He’s got issues because of an evil woman in his past and now he has to choose between helping her or his new allies. In the end he has to sacrifice his own safety and happiness for Team Witness and I suppose this is supposed to make me feel something but it didn’t because I just don’t care. At all. In fact, apart from the karaoke scene, the highlight of the episode was that Hawley left to hunt his evil surrogate mother at the end, so hopefully we won’t have see him for a while.

Anyway, while I’m still super intrigued by Frank Irving’s mystery resurrection, I’m also bored and confused by the way they are going about it. The last couple of weeks it was like the story has been put on the back burner but they don’t want the audience to forget about it so they inject these trivial moments into every episode that are honestly doing more harm than good. It would have been wonderful to see them delve further into the divide between Frank and the Witnesses because that’s a super interesting dynamic that is sure to result in oodles of heartbreak. Instead we’re given a boring court scene and a bunch of moments between Irving and his ex wife—a relationship that has been largely ignored since the end of season 1.

I just don’t understand why Frank isn’t being more cautious, especially considering his family could be in danger. It makes it seem obvious that something isn’t right, so why do they keep pushing the idea? We get it, Frank Irving might have come back wrong and it’s a little too convenient that he has come back at all. Let’s move forward already instead of wasting valuable time on boring conversations that just reiterate things that have been said before.

The highlight of this show, and the reason I keep coming back week after week, is Abbie and Ichabod’s relationship. A relationship that has been sorely underused throughout the second season. “Kali Yuga” made it obvious that Sleepy Hollow is at least attempting to rectify this mistake with the fantastic karaoke scene and of course the trash-compactor moment. Much of the conversation in the Knox vault was an attempt to drum up drama by talking about things that have happened in recent episodes but Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie make it work, and that is the magic of this show.

Look, I like the move to a more episodic format and I’m happy that they’re making an effort to round out the supporting cast (with the exception of Hawley who needs to have a bridge dropped on him immediately) but I’m just not sure where Sleepy Hollow is going. It still doesn’t seem to know what kind of show it wants to be and that’s why it comes across as such a mess. I want this show to succeed, but if it doesn’t pull itself together soon I might have to cut it loose.

What did you think? Have you imagined all kinds of wonderful ways of getting rid of Hawley? Did you love the Star Wars reference? Do you think Frank Irving is now a fully fledged member of team apocalypse? Let us know in the comments.

Author: Undie Girl

Undie Girl (aka Von) has a BA (Hons) Major in Cultural Studies. The title of her honours thesis was “It’s just gay and porn”: Power, Identity and the Fangirl’s Gaze. She’s currently pursuing a Masters of Media Practice at University of Sydney. Von’s a former contributor The Backlot’s column The Shipping News and a current co-host of The Geekiary’s monthly webcast FEELINGS… with The Geekiary.

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