Sleepy Hollow Season 2 Finale Recap “Tempus Fugit”: Selfies Save the World

In the Sleepy Hollow season 2 finale recap, Abbie travels back in time to stop Katrina from unmaking the world as she knows it while trying to save her friend Ichabod from a fate worse than death….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

The second season of ‘Sleepy Hollow’ hasn’t been as well received by many fans and critics as the debut offering although I’ve loved every moment from beginning to end. Certainly some episodes were better than others, but my hat goes off to the writing team, who continuously came up with newer and different demons that would make Buffy the Vampire Slayer jealous by comparison. The central story continued to chug along as the Witnesses battled with Moloch and his henchman to prevent the apocalypse. When that finally resolved itself at the midway point of the season, the direction of ‘Sleepy Hollow’ veered off course ever so slightly, but the ship was righted when Katrina Crane finally tapped into her dark side and Henry Parrish made his last stand.

It was the inevitable outcome of a nation of Sleepy-heads who never found Katrina to be a particularly worthwhile character and ended up disliking her because she seemed like more of a hindrance than a help when it came to teaming up with Ichabod and Abbie.

The season 2 finale titled ‘Tempus Fugit’ (Latin for time flies) brought about a major shift for the characters on ‘Sleepy Hollow’ and left us with a fresh canvas full of possibilities if the show gets picked up for a third season. Considering how amazing the finale was tonight, there better be another year with this series.

Habeas Corpus

Picking up from last week’s time traveling conclusion, Abbie is currently in jail after being arrested on the street for doing nothing more than being a black woman on the street in 1781. It was a brave move of ‘Sleepy Hollow’ to at least acknowledge the horrible atrocities that took place in our nation’s history even amidst the founding fathers, who are so often held up in such high esteem while many of them still partook in slavery. When Abbie demands an audience with Captain Ichabod Crane and he shows up wondering what madness this strange woman is spouting, she even mentions claiming habeas corpus (being wrongfully imprisoned) but not before mentioning that she can’t actually use it for about another 100 years. Again, small jabs but intelligent story telling and not glossing over important historical facts.

Following the brief political interlude, Abbie proceeds to tell Ichabod that she’s from the future — a future where they are partners and close friends. He laughs her off like a mental case, but when she tells him about a Hessian soldier, who rides a horse and wears a mask while wielding a broad axe and a bow tattoo, Ichabod is forced to listen. This is the exact description of a warrior Ichabod was meant to face on the battlefield until he was called away to meet with Abbie in the jail.

While he was gone, his entire regiment was slaughtered by the Hessian with most of them beheaded by the monster. Ichabod’s commanding officer reprimands him for leaving his soldiers and demands that he take Abbie back to jail where she will eventually be sold at auction, back into the slave trade. Ichabod will then have to answer to General George Washington for his treasonous actions. Ichabod follows his orders but when Abbie once again reveals more details about his life that nobody should know, he starts to believe her ever so slightly. She asks to speak to one of his commanding officers — Washington or Thomas Jefferson will do just fine — but the only problem is they are in Virginia currently.

Luckily, Benjamin Franklin just returned home from a trip to France and he might be the perfect person to help with this problem.

Don’t Lose Your Head

Maybe the best part of the entire episode happens when Ichabod and Abbie arrive at Franklin’s house and without batting an eyelash, he believes every word coming out of her mouth. Franklin doesn’t doubt for one second that Abbie’s from the future and takes her tales of 2015 like testament. He’s so excited when he finds out that all of his inventions are still in use during the modern day and Franklin even gets a one up on Jefferson when he discovers that he’s on the $100 bill while old TJ only got the $2 bill (one that rarely gets used and seems odd amongst other currency).

Franklin quickly deduces a plan, which involves a reversal of the spell that was just cast that brought Abbie to the past in the first place. Franklin says any spell can be reversed as long as it’s done as quickly as possible and the only person he knows that’s capable of that kind of magic is a woman by the name of Grace Dixon, who resides at Fredericks’ manor. Grace is Abbie’s long dead great, great, great, great grandmother and she’s the key to reversing the spell and stopping the time altering events that have already taken place. Franklin also tells Abbie to avoid telling Ichabod that Katrina is the witch responsible for all of this happening. He’s positive his protégé couldn’t handle the truth about his wife right now.

While all of this is happening, Katrina finds the Hessian aka Abraham and befriends him on the battlefield after discovering that Ichabod didn’t die during their fight earlier in the day. She realizes that Abbie made the trip back in time with her and now she has to take extra steps to ensure Ichabod gets killed and never has the chance to eventually lead the charge that will one day see their son die.

Just when Ichabod, Franklin and Abbie are ready to go to Fredericks’ manor, the Hessian and Katrina show up to cause mass murder and as it turns out decapitation. But this time it’s not Ichabod who gets his head lopped off — it’s the father of invention himself, Benjamin Franklin and wow what a dramatic scene that turned out to be when he loses his head. Just before he has his head chopped off, Franklin manage to light a homemade grenade that blows up seconds later, which in turn saves Ichabod and Abbie from the Hessian’s wrath.

The Selfie to Save Us All

Following Franklin’s execution, Ichabod heads home where Katrina nearly murders him with a rogue knife laying on the table, but they are interrupted by his Colonel who says he’s being sent to General Washington immediately after having his command yanked thanks to his part in one of the founding fathers just being decapitated by the enemy.

Abbie is led back to jail, but begs Crane to search through her belongings to find the shiny, square object called a phone, which she was carrying when she traveled back in time and unlock it using his birthday as the passcode (awwww) and look at a file labeled photos. It will prove everything she’s been saying as true.

Ichabod takes a leap of faith and investigates Ms. Mills’ claims while his Colonel decides to do his own interrogation of the prisoner. Of course Abbie isn’t your everyday average prisoner and while he has plans of beating the truth out of her, she quickly turns the tables on him, chokes him out and slams him into the bars to knock him out cold. Meanwhile, Ichabod tries to understand this strange device Abbie brought with her from the future. When he finally gets it to light up, he’s shocked and stunned by what it can do. The most Ichabod thing ever happens next when he reads ‘slide to unlock’ and he pushes it across the table to no avail unfortunately.

Finally, Ichabod gets the phone to light up and ask for a passsode, which he remembers is supposed be his birthday. He punches in the digits and sure enough there’s the file marked photos and inside is a video shot with Abbie where the dynamic duo argues over ‘selfies’ and waffles. Ichabod realizes (while still largely in shock) that everything Abbie has telling him must be true.

Ichabod grabs Abbie from the jail cell where the Colonel is knocked out cold and they make a mad dash for Fredericks’ manor to find Grace Dixon and reverse the curse.

Magic the Gathering

At Fredericks’ manor, Abbie comes face to face with her ancestor and she wants nothing more than to pick her brain on all the things she knows, but time is running out. Katrina used some of her blood magic while tending to Ichabod’s commanding officer’s wounds to determine where Abbie and her wayward husband were heading. Just before she leaves him, Katrine reveals her true nature as a witch before killing the Colonel by presumably squashing his face with her witchcraft and he in turns bleeds out through the eyes. A rather gruesome (yet creative) death.

Meanwhile back at the manor, Grace is whipping up the spell to reverse Katrina’s magic, but in doing so she’s drawing away from the power of the hex placed on the house used to protect it and all of the inhabitants. And like clockwork, Katrina and the Hessian show up to wreak havoc and stop the witnesses from going back to present day. Ichabod decides this is his time to go to battle with the man supposedly responsible for his death and he knows he’s on a suicide mission.

Abbie gives him a hug before he heads off to battle, but if she completes her mission, the next time she sees Ichabod he’ll be alive and well in 2015.

Ichabod puts up a fight against the Hessian, but ultimately he’s toppled by the creature from hell. Just when it looks like he’s about to become the Headless Crane, Grace completes the reversal and much to Katrina’s horror, everybody is transported back to the future.

When they awaken, Abbie and Katrina are back in town hall just moments after Henry’s death. Katrina flips out and tosses Abbie against a wall and begins to choke the life out of her. Ichabod (alive and well as we expected) grabs the grand grimoire and stops Katrina from killing his partner. Katrina tries desperately to finish off Ichabod with the same knife we first saw back in 1781 that nearly killed him while they were in their house together, but he turns the tables and ends up plunging the blade deep into her abdomen. Ichabod’s eyes go wide as Katrina falls to the floor, bleeding from her stomach.

Moments later, Katrina sees a vision of Henry offering his hand to her. She’s finally going to be with her son and as her wound bleeds out, Katrina burns away and turns to dust.

Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead.

Ichabod and Abbie have stopped another agent of the apocalypse, but this time it came at the expense of his wife and the woman he loved most in the world. Ichabod also lost his son during this ordeal, which means in modern time, he no longer has any family except the adopted family who fights evil alongside him.

Following Katrina’s death, Jenny and Irving show up and reveal that he’s no longer a bad guy either after Henry died and released his soul. Now the fearsome foursome is ready to face whatever the demon world throws at them because back in 1781, Grace Dixon told Abbie that the reason the end of her journal was filled with blank pages was because the greatest wars were still ahead of them.

Moloch might be gone, Henry and Katrina might be dead, but that doesn’t mean evil has been vanquished. There’s still work to do.

Overall, a very satisfying ending to ‘Sleepy Hollow’ season 2 and a real reset for Ichabod and Abbie going into next season (assuming there is a next season). The anchors of Ichabod’s past have been eliminated and this really does appear to be a fresh start with any number of possibilities ahead for the witnesses in season 3. There are still plenty of unanswered questions as well — at the top of the list, what the hell happened to the Headless Horseman?!? Hopefully, FOX decides to renew this fantasy thrill ride and we’ll find out when/if Sleepy Hollow returns in the latter half of 2015.