Sleepy Hollow ended the fourth season with a bang, both literally and figuratively. But if the show continues, what does that mean for season 4?
It’s not often that a show has to start a new season without its main character, but it’s been done before. The Vampire Diaries did it with Elena Gilbert and now Sleepy Hollow must learn to do it without Abbie Mills.
In the season 4 finale we found ourselves saying goodbye to Abbie once more – but permanently this time. While some people may hold out hope for her return, it’s quite clear that we will not be seeing this particular Mills sister anytime soon. But what does that mean for the show if it gets renewed for a fourth season?
It could be a strictly supernatural cop drama
The thing with Sleepy Hollow is that it balances cop drama, supernatural drama and historical drama in a very unique way, always centering more so on the supernatural and historic aspects. That’s what made it unique, and that’s what made us love it. With this new season on the possible horizon, it’s looking like it’s going to be way more of a police/federal drama.
All along season 3 we knew that the Feds were looking into Abbie but we didn’t know why, and now it’s been made clear. George Washington made Ichabod Crane in charge of an entire government department that controls the supernatural, and since Ichabod Crane is now alive and well it’s time for him to take his spot.
Clearly this doesn’t sit well with the people in charge, and Ezra Mills warned Crane that not everyone in this organization is corrupt. Given the fact that Crane joined these new Federal agents, I definitely see a season 4 being more centered around his involvement with the government than the supernatural apocalypse.
It’d have a learning curve
With a new Witness somewhere in the world, Ichabod is going to have to find them and teach them everything about the supernatural, assuming that they don’t know anything about it. And given our track record with people being introduced to the supernatural on Sleepy Hollow, I’m guessing the chances are pretty great that they’re going to be blind to it all.
While it can be fun to see a new person adjusting to the supernatural, it’s kind of an overplayed plot. We’ve seen it happen, what, four times now on this show? It’d be really refreshing if Ichabod found someone who is already well aware of the supernatural but completely unaware to the fact that they are now, apparently, a Witness.
It could just not exist
The show has had extremely poor ratings ever since the second season starting disappointing viewers with the lackluster Katrina Crane. Since then it looks like they’ve never been able to get back to its season 1 glory. The show took forever to get renewed for a third season and now we’re waiting again to hear if it’ll have a fourth.
So, naturally, Sleepy Hollow could just end entirely without Abbie Mills. Luckily the season finale wasn’t an entire waste of time, and it gave us enough closer that we’re satisfied with Abbie’s story but curious enough about what is going on with Ichabod. The writers gave us just enough information to make up our own headcanon should the show not continue, and for that I thank them.