Sleepy Hollow ended season 1 with a bang, but started season 2 off with a whimper. Fortunately for us, the first episode back after the midseason finale promised new and exciting changes to drive us through towards the end of the season.
So, with that in mind, here are four ways we would improve Sleepy Hollow in 2015.
Cut out the Hawley love triangle and keep the Mills sisters united
Listen, we like Hawley. He’s a realist. Forget about saving the world, he just wants to get paid. He’s handsome, and hot, and sexy, and probably some other qualities that are difficult to focus on when his golden hair is shimmering in the light of day. But we don’t like the idea of his love triangle storyline interrupting our Mills family bonding.
The sisterly relationship between Jenny and Abbie is one of the most well-developed on the show. We’ve watched them work to rebuild their fragile relationship to regain each other’s trust and unconditional love. The last thing we want now is for these two fabulous, smart, driven sisters to start fighting over a man who, let’s face, doesn’t hold a candle to either one of the Mills girls.
We are digging his crush on Jenny, though, so that can stay; it’s kind of fun how his nonchalant attitude towards the impending apocalypse even makes Jenny look like the sensible Mills sister in comparison.
Use the Katrina-hate to ‘Sleepy Hollow’s’ advantage
Nobody can stand Katrina. This has become a well-known fact. Viewers think she’s dull and useless, and the Sleepy Hollow Scooby gang just kind of acts like she’s a drag to have around.
But the Katrina-hate doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In our first episode back in 2015, it seems that the Sleepy Hollow writers have taken the Katrina criticism to heart, and aren’t even trying to make her likable anymore. In fact, with her ridiculously stupid behavior of releasing an apocalyptic horseman out into the wild, it’s almost like the writers are straight-up writing to make Katrina unlikeable. Even Crane is fed up with his wife now! Which I repeat: is a good thing.
Once the writers choose to abandon the hope of reuniting Crane and Katrina as the hero and heroine, they can start to embrace Katrina’s full potential as her own character. Let her embrace the crazy. Let her fall into evil! She has absolutely every reason to join the dark side, and we quite frankly think she’d do much better there. Ichabod’s growing fondness for Abbie is definitely pushing her away, and her insane need to play savior with her son and ex-fiancé’s lives is blurring her own vision of good versus evil. And since she’s pretty useless as a good-witch anyway, how fun would it be to watch Crane fight his cray-cray redheaded witch of a wife? (Not to mention, this of course would start clearing the way for #Ichabbie.)
Give Irving something to do
Irving basically spent the first half of the season sitting in a mental ward insisting that he wasn’t evil (or crazy), only to finally get out and… die. His storyline in season two so far has been the epitome of anti-climactic, (and to be honest, that was part of why we never really bought the midseason finale death in the first place) but his zombie milk-guzzling in 2015’s opener definitely has us intrigued. Have we finally stumbled our way onto the Horseman of Famine? And if so, does this mean the Witnesses will be forced to fight against their former ally as he struggles against his own demonic inclinations? We can only hope so! If there’s anything we like, it’s conflicted heroes and morally ambiguous villains*!
*Like our hopefully upcoming evil-Katrina plotline.
Give villains purpose
Henry started off as a great villain. Driven mad by vengeance, but unstoppable due to his parents’ unconditional love, he wreaked havoc on Crane and Katrina’s lives in a subtle and terrifying way, without them even realizing it. His reveal in the season 1 finale was a jaw dropping showstopper, but then came season 2, and his motivation just started to feel irrelevant. He had gotten his revenge! Or, at least, sort of? It was really unclear? But there he was, still obsessed with his monsters-of-the-week that never really seemed to serve a purpose.
The Henry-logic quickly wore thin this fall, and it isn’t going to cut it in 2015. The villains need a reason to do what they do, and their actions need to affect the people around them in a meaningful way. This new angel-guy seems interesting enough, but why should we care what he does? How does the choices he makes move the story and relationships along?
So we propose, once again, that Katrina and Irving be allowed to go full-on Anakin in 2015. We want to see Katrina delve into her wicked side — we already know she’s keeping an arsenal of secrets in that big hair of hers. And we want to see Irving struggle against his zombie-demon evil nature as he realizes the horror of becoming a monster. The more we can believe in the evil of villains, the more we can revel in the goodness of our heroes.