Review: Sleepy Hollow 2.10- "Magnum Opus"

Magnum Opus: The greatest work of an artist. I’m not sure which part of tonight’s episode writer Donald Todd is alluding to as the show’s opus, but my take away is that it’s the performance of Abbie Mills and Ichabod Crane together that is the showpiece. For starters, this episode had a lot of my favorite Sleepy Hollow quirks to it. There’s the cold open close-up on Ichabod, appearing to ponder his own identity, but which ends up being Abbie and Crane playing “Who Am I?” with their phones in an attempt to distract their conscious minds from the puzzle of the diary. But, with an assist from Katrina Crane, using her witchcraft to speak to Crane and Abbie through the mirror from her captivity at Henry Parrish’s place, they figure out that the secret weapon hidden in the diary is an actual weapon. By using some pretty nifty “Da Vinci Code” type clue-busting, Abbie and Crane decipher the Dixon diary and find the likely location in town of The Sword of Enoch (and if you check your Jewish lore, his son, Methuselah, was the slayer of demons thanks to the sword). Unfortunately for them, Henry magically DVRed their mirror convo with Katrina and know they’re off to find the sword. Since he really doesn’t want anyone killing his bestie, Moloch, before he comes to full power, Henry sends Headless to go after Crane and Abbie and get the sword first.

Although Headless does get to the location first, he has to scram when the sun comes up, leaving Crane and Abbie the time they need to figure out the sword is hidden underground in some tunnels. Oh, and since there are bodies of past seekers turned to stone thanks to a Gorgon (!) living down there, they decide to lure Headless back to the tunnels to have him fight the beast for them. Wait, a Gorgon has lived down there for centuries and we never knew?? It’s kind of creepy, but I give credit to TPTB for opening new doors of where their show can take us. Also, did you notice that Headless swiped what looks like a shield or plate when he first followed Crane and Abbie to the ruins? Did anyone else think that was put there by the Freemasons to be used as a reflective device to battle our lovely, hometown Medusa? But clever idea of Abbie’s, making the man with no head (read: no eyes) fight the Gorgon for them.

Headless follows through and arrives the next night, fights the Gorgon and then Crane. Meanwhile, Abbie has the joy of playing Indiana Jones selecting the Holy Grail as she’s presented with 2 dozen swords of various shapes, sizes and quality. In a neat twist, it’s not any of the swords on display, but one that’s submerged under water in a font in the center of the room. They retrieve the sword in all its heavenly-white light glory (which does a lovely job illuminating Tom Mison’s baby blues, by the way).

Much of the episode centers on the warning given by Grace Dixon in her diary: that one must know oneself completely to be able to acquire the sword, otherwise death is assured. It’s interesting that Crane and Abbie both have moments of doubt about themselves and their roles as witnesses and destroyers of Moloch. While Abbie starts off very self-assured – she knows she’s a daughter of the Dixon clan and has her destiny clearly defined as such – Crane is less certain, and claims his entire life, until then, was either heavily influenced or directly manipulated by others. But, after they discover the Gorgon, Abbie freaks out a little and is sure she sees her fate underground, frozen in stone, along with her ancestors. Crane is able to shake her uncertainty and reminds her they are together for a reason at this point in history. And when Crane feels defeated at not finding the sword at first, Abbie reminds him that even though he was maneuvered to this time and place by others, his own actions, of helping the Mills and fighting to defeat Moloch, proves he knows himself and his strengths. That’s when they realize that they have what the other seekers of the sword didn’t have, and why the others failed — they have each other.

Unfortunately, they also have to contend with Henry, who uses the Trumpet of Joshua to summon Moloch’s servants to him (and yeah, that’s the same horn mentioned in the bible that brought down the walls of Jericho) as Moloch nears full corporeality. And with Frank Irving on the lam, after leaving Jenny Mills waiting for him past a highway checkpoint, they really don’t have much help as they head inevitably into battle with Moloch himself.