Sleepy Hollow Season 2, Episode 18
“Tempus Fugit”
Posted by Kim
Let’s pretend my plan this WHOLE TIME was to wait to recap the Season Two finale until RIGHT BEFORE the Season Three Premiere, okay? Okay. Let’s get right to it, shall we? You’ve waited long enough.
(In all serious thank you to every single SleepyHead who would not let me off the hook regarding this recap and your need for it. You humble me.)
#CreepyHollow
This episode sat firmly and completely in WHATTHEDAMNHELL land. I thought that during my initial watch and my rewatch confirmed it.
Nothing Creepy To See Here, 0/10 Sandmen
#WHATTHEDAMNHELLHollow
Where were we? Oh yes. Katrina has gone ape-shit and full-on evil and in her madness decided that Ichabod needed to die. She cast a time-travel spell to go back in time and Abbie followed her. Upon her arrival, Abbie was mistaken for a runaway slave and put in jail. There was a hell of a ruckus when this plot point came to light and I gotta say…I thought Sleepy Hollow handled this potential land mine beautifully. First of all, it’s probably what WOULD have happened. Second, it set up this episode to be a parallel to the pilot, reversing Abbie and Ichabod’s roles. Third, Grace Abigail Mills is no victim. While her disgust at the situation shows (Nicole Beharie once again proved how SPECTACULAR she is with her facial expressions), she is quick on her feet and shrewdly uses her knowledge of the future to get a face to face meeting with Captain Ichabod Crane.
Where is Crane, you might ask? Being a bad ass MOFO on the battlefield. “Tempus Fugit” opens with a spectacular battle sequence as Ichabod hurtles towards his date with the Hessian Soldier. I love seeing Ichabod in his element, he carries himself with a confidence we haven’t quite seen in the modern world. He’s a force to be reckoned with. He’s got swagger. He’s a bit arrogant, to be honest. It ALL works and Abbie knows EXACTLY how to play him. Ichabod has always been a man of logic and he can’t deny his curiosity regarding Abbie and her statements. Plus, sass always appreciates sass, so I gotta think Abbie’s “The law is Habeus Corpus, you violated it.” quip piqued his interest. Then there’s that whole “You cannot defeat him without me” bit. That’s MILDLY convincing.
Meanwhile, back at the battlefield, Katrina is giving an Oscar-worthy performance as the distraught wife wandering through the hospital wing searching for her wounded husband. Ichabod, as it were, was supposed to have met the Hessian on the battlefield, but missed the encounter thanks to meeting Abbie in the prison. When she learns that Ichabod is not there, she does her best to arrange her features in a mask of relief but the simmering rage is visible just beneath the surface. THEN she find out that Abbie is the one that kept him away and her face says one thing: BITCH, IT IS ON. So she tracks down Abraham in the woods and is basically like “Hey Boo, Ichabod is the worst. Imma help you kill him, savvy?” For good measure, she shows off her witchy powers. Abraham is as convinced as a soulless white-eyed monster can be. It should be noted that give-no-fucks-Katrina is my FAVORITE Katrina. Let’s try not to think about what might have been, shall we?
As she is a scholar of both Doctor Who and Back to the Future, Abbie is well-versed in the consequences of messing with the past. “The fact that you didn’t die may have screwed up history forever,” she says. She has a point. How else is he going to get to Abbie in 2015 if he’s not enchanted by Katrina and tied to the Horseman? TIME TRAVEL IS HARD. Ichabbie, under the pretense of Ichabod escorting her to a slave auction, make their way to Benjamin Franklin’s. (DON’T WORRY, I’m going to cover the carriage ride in the Shippy Section because I literally almost flailed off the couch when they got in each other’s faces.) Benjamin, naturally, is delighted by Abbie. “She’s everything we’re striving for here,” he gushes. “Miss Abigail Mills…she is the American Dream.” (THAT’S RIGHT SHE IS.) Benjamin can tell right away that Abbie is not telling Ichabod everything, so he invents a reason to get Ichabod out of the room so he can get all the information. She confesses that Katrina is the witch pursuing them and she’s struggling with how to tell him. “We’ve learned that it works better when we’re honest with each other,” she says but Franklin urges her to keep quiet because Ichabod is not ready for the truth. Yes, because he handled the revelation about Katrina SO WELL in the future, Benji. No one ever handles learning that their wife is a crazy ass witch, it’s best to just rip off the band-aid. Ben’s plan is simple: they need to reverse Katrina’s spell and send Abbie back…to the future (GOTTA GET BACK IN TIIIIIIIME). The only one capable of reversing the spell is one Grace Dixon. They must go to Frederick’s Manor (Ichabod: “Oh, good. You have a plan.”) post-haste. They are interrupted by Not!Headless though. Ben tries to stop him by lighting a bomb (as you do) but before he can do that Not!Headless FREAKING BEHEADS HIM. That’s right. In this timeline, our founding father Benjamin Franklin is beheaded by the Horseman of Death. Good to know.
Abbie and Ichabod manage to escape when the bomb explodes but Abbie ends up right back where she started: in prison. Ichabod is naturally devastated by this turn of events, blaming Abbie for Ben’s death. He leaves her to rot in jail (and face serious reprimands from Colonel Sutton)…but not before Abbie confesses about Katrina (“We’re partners? Tell me what you discussed with Franklin in private.”). Abbie ALSO plays her trump card and tells Ichabod that Katrina is pregnant and not telling him. You actually see something click in Ichabod’s brain, even if he fights her at first. I gotta give Colonial!Ichabod credit: he takes the news about Katrina’s treachery WAY better than Modern!Ichabod did. With Abbie’s pleas to check her cell phone ringing in his ears, Ichabod sets off for home.
When he arrives home unannounced, Ichabod sees all the makings for an elixir for a pregnant woman spread out on Katrina’s table and immediately suspects that Abbie’s words are true. Katrina saunters in smoothly and they engage a little game of emotional chicken as he tries to get her to come clean. Katrina lies, as per usual, claiming the elixir is for their neighbor. She also conjures her knife to stab her husband in the back because she is a loving wife, you know? Ichabod ALSO spots the grimoire, again confirming that unlike his wife, Grace Abigail Mills has never lied to him. Thankfully, Ichabod is called away before Katrina can kill him. FOILED AGAIN, YOU WITCH. Back at the prison, Abbie (again, no damsel in distress) manages to free a nail from a bench and uses it to try and pick her lock. She is interrupted by Douchebag Colonel Sutton, who advances on her menacingly. (Me: No no no no no please don’t go THERE, show.) Abbie KICKS HIS ASS because she is the American Dream, dammit. Ichabod, having unlocked her phone and realizing that everything Abbie said was true, arrives in Luke Skywalker “I’m here to rescue you” fashion, but Abbie has gone and rescued HERSELF. (One of the best female characters on television, y’all.) Finally on the same page, the witnesses set out for Fredrick’s Manor. It’s time to get Abbie home.
When the time travel storyline for Abbie was introduced, the fandom was clamoring for her to be able to meet Grace Dixon. This was a moment Abbie DESERVED and damn if it didn’t pay off in spades. Abbie’s face is a mixture of awe and gratitude and damn near relief when Grace realizes who she is. “It’s you. The Witness.” You can tell it takes everything Abbie has to not throw herself in the arms of her ancestor and SOB. You can tell there is SO MUCH she wants from Grace but she has precious little time. They immediately go about concocting the potion to reverse the spell (with Ichabod adorably helping by handing them flowers when needed) and Grace gives Abbie as much information as she can. She shows Abbie her journal, pointing out the blank pages. These pages are the most important of all, the pages that Abbie herself will write. She urges Abbie that this war is not over, that there will be many more battles for her to face. “Sometimes, all it takes is to put pen to paper to make a difference,” Grace says wisely. If I wasn’t already considering tattooing “I know my value” to my wrist, this would be a runner-up tattoo. (Also it’s rather long for a beginner tattoo. I digress.) All too soon, Katrina and Not!Headless arrive and start to chip away at the defenses surrounding Frederick’s Manor. Ichabod knows the game here and goes out to face his destiny. When Abbie fights him on this, he replies “If you succeed, it won’t matter.” Abbie, despite her misgivings about abandoning her partner, stays with Grace to complete the spell. Just as Not!Headless’ axe is about to connect with Ichabod’s neck, time freezes. Katrina screams in rage. The spell has worked. Time to go back to 2015.
As soon as they land right back where they started, Katrina goes after Abbie. Modern!Ichabod doesn’t even hesitate once he sees Abbie in danger. The time to reason with Katrina, to sweet talk her into stopping has passed. The time for action has come…and Ichabod, who has been paralyzed with inaction ALL SEASON when it comes to his wife, finally acts. He stabs Katrina and she dies in his arms, ashing away like Henremy did. BYE FELICIA. “You didn’t have a choice,” Abbie comforts him. Ichabod, GOD BLESS HIM, steels his spine and fixes his eyes on his biblical life partner. “Yes, I did. We all did.” Game. Set. Match.
“Ready, Captain?” “Ready, Leftenant.” 10/10 Golems
#ShippyHollow
Everyone knows that the BASIS of what makes Sleepy Hollow work is the relationship between Ichabod and Abbie. Whether or not you ship it or just want them to be bros for life, this statement is true. What makes “Tempus Fugit” so brilliant is that it asks the audience to go on that journey with Abbie and Ichabod falling in love learning to depend on each other all over again. (AND FALL IN LOVE TOO SORRY I SHIP IT SO HARD.) One of my favorite things about the episode was how Colonial!Ichabod was just as delighted by Grace Abigail Mills as his modern counterpart. Even when he doesn’t fully believe her, Ichabod’s natural instinct is to listen to Abbie. He may call her ridiculous but he still follows through on her advice. That, my friends, is love. Of course, there is also the matter of all the latent sexual tension between them. I’m not kidding when I said I made audible noises when Ichabod got all up in Abbie’s face as they bantered about the future during their carriage ride. There’s a little thing I call the “kiss or kill distance” and Ichabbie likes to permanently reside in that space. It’s almost too much for me, I hope it never stops.
Go on and kiss the girl.
Oh, yes. The trust. Right before Ichabod decides to do away with the whole concept of personal space, she tells him “We take on the impossible and we figure a way out.” What I loved so much about this episode is that ABBIE had to be the emotional one in this episode. Not that she is a soulless robot, but Modern!Ichabod has always been the one of the pair to wear his heart on his sleeve. Not so with Abbie and I love how her situation forced her to be more open with Ichabod. She keeps reminding him that they are PARTNERS (erm…just say soulmates, gurl, it will get us there faster.) and she keeps revealing bits and pieces of herself to him. Pieces that perhaps she keeps secret from Modern!Ichabod. Does her Ichabod know that her passcode is HIS FREAKING BIRTHDAY? I doubt it. Does he know that her phone is full of silly pictures and videos of him? I DON’T KNOW. But all these little things add up to just how important he is to her and just how much of a residence he has taken up in her heart.
Also, I CAN NOT with the selfie video. Idiots.
“We’re partners.” “More than that. We’re friends.”
Most of “Tempus Fugit” ran at a breakneck pace. It had to, there was SO MUCH to cram in. But one of my favorite moments of the episode was the scene where Ichabod and Abbie discussed Katrina’s betrayal. For as much as Benjamin Franklin said that Ichabod wasn’t ready, once he learned of it, once he and Abbie got on the same page, he didn’t question it. There was none of the turmoil Modern!Ichabod faced. Sure there was guilt (“How did I not see it?”) but there was no uncertainty. Once he was with Abbie, he was WITH her. “You knew I’d not survive without you,” he says, with an arch of the sassbrow. Colonial!Ichabod’s flirting game is JUST as strong as Modern!Ichabod. Leave me here to die.
Then there is the matter of Abbie saying goodbye to Colonial!Ichabod and asking him to call her “Leftenant”. What started out as a formal address has become an endearment to her and in that moment she really needed to hear it. It was her way of connecting with the Ichabod she loves, just in case it all goes awry. It’s WHY she clutches at him because she can’t NOT. Their hug in the finale is SUCH an interesting contrast to the hug in the premiere. The hug in the premiere was out of mutual desperation and relief born out of dire circumstances. It was a hug to remind each other that they were alive. There is desperation in this hug too, but it’s a different kind. Like I said, in this moment, Abbie has an overwhelming need to let him know how much she means to her. She tries to brush it off with a “We hug it out” but really, that line is bullshit. She’s not very giving when it comes to showing her emotions but clinging to him is the only thing that makes sense to her in the moment. It’s a goodbye of sorts but it’s also a promise. It’s a promise that everything’s going to be okay…but in case it’s not…at least Ichabod knows she cared and she got to have that moment with him. I love how the hug STARTLED him and I also love how he didn’t resist it. I’M FINE.
Let me remind you, Ichabod had a choice and he chose ABBIE. 9/10 Fistbumps.
#SassyHollow
“Tempus Fugit” had so many lovely parallels to the pilot and it also gave Abbie the chance to fumble about in an unfamiliar setting. Much like Ichabod being perplexed by the car windows in the pilot, Abbie fumbles with the shades in the carriage. Abbie’s wardrobe is still a point of contention with Ichabod (“I’ve never seen a woman in trousers.”) and they still joke about a Starbucks being on every corner. All of the banter gave me a case of the warm sassies (go with it).
But really, the heart of every episode is where Colonial!Ichabod discovers how to work Abbie’s cell phone. It’s really best said in a gif set because I may be good with words but my words could never do justice to Tom Mison’s face.
“What devilry is THIS?” 5/10 Donut Holes of Sass.
Odds and Ends
- I can’t discuss the reunion with Frank and Jenny because I am STILL TOO SAD about Orlando Jones leaving the show. WHY WHY WHY.
- Both Franklin and Grace seemed to intimate to Abbie that there may be others like her out there. Did anyone else pick up on that? Will that be used in season three? Time will tell
- “I look forward to experiencing YOUR America.” NOPE.
- Seriously, I weep for what we could have had with Evil!Katrina. It was the best Katia ever was on the show.
SEASON THREE PREMIERES ON THURSDAY! I’ve seen the premiere already and I really think you guys will love it. Until then, leave your thoughts on “Tempus Fugit” and your hopes for Season Three in the comments. See you guys Thursday!
