Sleepy Hollow 2x18 Thoughts
Feb. 28th, 2015 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaSo I have continued to watch this season even though there were multiple times when I considered dropping it. I found a lot of the choices the writers made, especially with regards to Katrina but with basically everything, deeply annoying. It was just really disappointing overall (reminidng me of Elementary season 2.) Honestly I mostly kept watching the latter half of the season because I had the show set on my PVR and since it was there why not?
• My biggest issue was what they did with Katrina. She was okay in the first season. Kind of meh but that was largely situational and I had a lot of hope for her once she was freed from Purgatory and flashbacks. Instead the show dealt with her in all the worst ways. It was horrible. She never really showed any real power all season and was barely a help even in situations when she should be; her constant back and forth with the Headless Horseman/being prisoner was aggravating; her devotion to Henry was there but didn’t make much sense and could have been shown better; her constant relationship angst with Ichabod got tedious quickly; and her eventual turn to the darkside was completely unsupported and happened basically between one episode and another. Almost nothing with regards to her worked for me and it was just really bad writing for her all the way through.
This was really frustrating because they could have easily done great things with her. I actually love the dark side turn but that should have been built up to from the very beginning of the season. Or Henry’s first death should have been the impetus for her to slowly go dark side as she secretly tried to bring him back. Or both - her slowly going dark while being Hnery's captive then when he dies she goes full dark side and is semi-secretly the man bad for the backhalf of the season. Either way they should have spent more time showing it happening. Other things they could have done to better integrate her this season: spent less time on the Ichabod/Katrina angst and more on their relationship (if that makes sense); spent more time on her adjustment/living in the 21st century like Ichabod had; built on her relationships with Abbie/Jenny/Irving and even given her a friendship (which would have made her going evil/death have more weight); given a reason from the beginning for her weakened magic and let her be useful in the cases (or not if they wanted her secretly evil but show why).
How Katrina was dealt with wasn’t the only thing I disliked about the season, just the most major. A couple other random things that annoyed me:
- Jenny being backgrounded so much this season. Sometimes in situations that made no sense.
- Ichabod and Abbie destroying the Fenestella for absolutely no reason. They really, really didn’t need to destroy it right then. Eventually, maybe. But at that moment, no. That whole set up was beyond dumb. How the hell did Ichabod even get back to the room considering the Reavers literally just chased them up the ladder? Why the fuck didn’t Ichabod grab any of the books or the box of mentors before leaving? He certainly had time. The whole thing was super dumb and made our heroes look stupid. Though they did make the right choice with regards to saving the men.
- The direction the show went in with Hawley. I actually enjoyed him as a supporting character and hope he shows up again though perhaps with less screen time. But I was annoyed when they took his interest in Abbie (which I didn’t care about either way) and then just dropped it suddenly and went in a Hawley/Jenny direction. It made me go ‘whaaa?’
- Witches are supposed to be good, no? Or at least they are not evil. So the way they were talked about/addressed in episode 2x12 felt off to me.
- Irving's character arc was also weirdly done.
Of course it wasn't all bad or I would have stopped watching. I've continued to love Ichabod and Abbie and their partnership/friendship. Still adore Ichabod vs the 21st century. When we saw her Jenny remained consistently fabulous. Same with Abbie/Jenny. 'Mama' was a great episode for them.
But I'm glad I kept up because I loved the finale. It was great.
2x18 'Tempus Fugit'
• I loved Abbie in the past. It was delightful and fun. Her reactions were great. Abbie and Ichabod's interactions were wonderful.
• Katrina's death surprised me a bit. On the one hand, the show completely ruined her arc and clearly had no idea how to use her well so I'm glad she's gone. On the other, I did like her at times and she had a lot of potential especially post going evil. I'm disappointed that we'll never get to really see her as the big bad.
• Franklin was awesome. I loved his delight in Abbie and all the information she told him about the future. "She is the American dream."
• Abbie almost freeing herself from the jail and then taking out Sutton was fabulous.
• Ichabod and the phone was very amusing. The selfie video was adorable.
• Abbie's password being Ichabod's birthday made me go aww.
• I liked that Abbie said nice things about Katrina. Not defending her per se but acknowledging that she had been good and had done good even though she now wasn’t the same woman.
• ”The seeds must have been there.” – Ichabod.. Well, in the same way they are for everyone? This bothered me a little. It has the implication that a part of Katrina was evil all along and thus this was inevitable (as opposed to say himself or Abbie.)
• I loved Jenny choosing to trust Irving in the end and her hugging him close.
• I loved that Grace recognised Abbie as her family and as a Witness.
• It occurs to me only now to wonder how everyone else in the past perceived Ichabod. Multiple times this episode we see Ichabod go against orders and the random soldier are like ‘yeah, sure’. Washington wants him right now – but it’s fine for him to take a side trip to the jail. Sutton relieves Ichabod of duty and sends him away, he returns wanting Abbie’s things and the guard is like ‘can’t see why not’. Ichabod is connected to multiple very famous and powerful men who all have a clear interest in him. Others with higher levels of knowledge of the secret war probably know why to various degrees but most people wouldn’t. It puts him in a very interesting position socially. Some people probably wanted to take advantage of it, others would have resented it (like Sutton). It also gives him a lot of power and leeway in his actions. Ichabod is basically the Chosen One. I don’t know how I never realised it.
• Why wouldn’t Katrina have gone into the house to attack Abbie and Grace? It made absolutely no sense. It was Grace/Abbie who were the real threat to her plot not Ichabod. Katrina had to know that they went to Grace for magical help and either way Ichabod was busy with the Horseman. As soon as the barrier was down she should have been in that house to stop the ritual. That bugged me a lot. It was one last contrived ‘Katrina is weirdly useless/incompetent’ after a season of them. Also I wanted a bad ass witch showdown!
• It also bugged me that when Ichabod attacked Katrina to stop her she didn’t just use her magic to fling him away.
• I did like that in her final moments it was all about her son for Katrina – her seeing his image and saying his name – instead of it being a moment between Ichabod/Katrina were they say goodbye or apologise. It’s much worse for Ichabod but for once it kept Katrina’s motives straight and it added a nice tragedy to the scene.
• My biggest issue was what they did with Katrina. She was okay in the first season. Kind of meh but that was largely situational and I had a lot of hope for her once she was freed from Purgatory and flashbacks. Instead the show dealt with her in all the worst ways. It was horrible. She never really showed any real power all season and was barely a help even in situations when she should be; her constant back and forth with the Headless Horseman/being prisoner was aggravating; her devotion to Henry was there but didn’t make much sense and could have been shown better; her constant relationship angst with Ichabod got tedious quickly; and her eventual turn to the darkside was completely unsupported and happened basically between one episode and another. Almost nothing with regards to her worked for me and it was just really bad writing for her all the way through.
This was really frustrating because they could have easily done great things with her. I actually love the dark side turn but that should have been built up to from the very beginning of the season. Or Henry’s first death should have been the impetus for her to slowly go dark side as she secretly tried to bring him back. Or both - her slowly going dark while being Hnery's captive then when he dies she goes full dark side and is semi-secretly the man bad for the backhalf of the season. Either way they should have spent more time showing it happening. Other things they could have done to better integrate her this season: spent less time on the Ichabod/Katrina angst and more on their relationship (if that makes sense); spent more time on her adjustment/living in the 21st century like Ichabod had; built on her relationships with Abbie/Jenny/Irving and even given her a friendship (which would have made her going evil/death have more weight); given a reason from the beginning for her weakened magic and let her be useful in the cases (or not if they wanted her secretly evil but show why).
How Katrina was dealt with wasn’t the only thing I disliked about the season, just the most major. A couple other random things that annoyed me:
- Jenny being backgrounded so much this season. Sometimes in situations that made no sense.
- Ichabod and Abbie destroying the Fenestella for absolutely no reason. They really, really didn’t need to destroy it right then. Eventually, maybe. But at that moment, no. That whole set up was beyond dumb. How the hell did Ichabod even get back to the room considering the Reavers literally just chased them up the ladder? Why the fuck didn’t Ichabod grab any of the books or the box of mentors before leaving? He certainly had time. The whole thing was super dumb and made our heroes look stupid. Though they did make the right choice with regards to saving the men.
- The direction the show went in with Hawley. I actually enjoyed him as a supporting character and hope he shows up again though perhaps with less screen time. But I was annoyed when they took his interest in Abbie (which I didn’t care about either way) and then just dropped it suddenly and went in a Hawley/Jenny direction. It made me go ‘whaaa?’
- Witches are supposed to be good, no? Or at least they are not evil. So the way they were talked about/addressed in episode 2x12 felt off to me.
- Irving's character arc was also weirdly done.
Of course it wasn't all bad or I would have stopped watching. I've continued to love Ichabod and Abbie and their partnership/friendship. Still adore Ichabod vs the 21st century. When we saw her Jenny remained consistently fabulous. Same with Abbie/Jenny. 'Mama' was a great episode for them.
But I'm glad I kept up because I loved the finale. It was great.
2x18 'Tempus Fugit'
• I loved Abbie in the past. It was delightful and fun. Her reactions were great. Abbie and Ichabod's interactions were wonderful.
• Katrina's death surprised me a bit. On the one hand, the show completely ruined her arc and clearly had no idea how to use her well so I'm glad she's gone. On the other, I did like her at times and she had a lot of potential especially post going evil. I'm disappointed that we'll never get to really see her as the big bad.
• Franklin was awesome. I loved his delight in Abbie and all the information she told him about the future. "She is the American dream."
• Abbie almost freeing herself from the jail and then taking out Sutton was fabulous.
• Ichabod and the phone was very amusing. The selfie video was adorable.
• Abbie's password being Ichabod's birthday made me go aww.
• I liked that Abbie said nice things about Katrina. Not defending her per se but acknowledging that she had been good and had done good even though she now wasn’t the same woman.
• ”The seeds must have been there.” – Ichabod.. Well, in the same way they are for everyone? This bothered me a little. It has the implication that a part of Katrina was evil all along and thus this was inevitable (as opposed to say himself or Abbie.)
• I loved Jenny choosing to trust Irving in the end and her hugging him close.
• I loved that Grace recognised Abbie as her family and as a Witness.
• It occurs to me only now to wonder how everyone else in the past perceived Ichabod. Multiple times this episode we see Ichabod go against orders and the random soldier are like ‘yeah, sure’. Washington wants him right now – but it’s fine for him to take a side trip to the jail. Sutton relieves Ichabod of duty and sends him away, he returns wanting Abbie’s things and the guard is like ‘can’t see why not’. Ichabod is connected to multiple very famous and powerful men who all have a clear interest in him. Others with higher levels of knowledge of the secret war probably know why to various degrees but most people wouldn’t. It puts him in a very interesting position socially. Some people probably wanted to take advantage of it, others would have resented it (like Sutton). It also gives him a lot of power and leeway in his actions. Ichabod is basically the Chosen One. I don’t know how I never realised it.
• Why wouldn’t Katrina have gone into the house to attack Abbie and Grace? It made absolutely no sense. It was Grace/Abbie who were the real threat to her plot not Ichabod. Katrina had to know that they went to Grace for magical help and either way Ichabod was busy with the Horseman. As soon as the barrier was down she should have been in that house to stop the ritual. That bugged me a lot. It was one last contrived ‘Katrina is weirdly useless/incompetent’ after a season of them. Also I wanted a bad ass witch showdown!
• It also bugged me that when Ichabod attacked Katrina to stop her she didn’t just use her magic to fling him away.
• I did like that in her final moments it was all about her son for Katrina – her seeing his image and saying his name – instead of it being a moment between Ichabod/Katrina were they say goodbye or apologise. It’s much worse for Ichabod but for once it kept Katrina’s motives straight and it added a nice tragedy to the scene.
