Sleepy Hollow S02E11: "The Akeda"
I'm just going to put this out there: Human sacrifice is wrong. In times of war, men and women regularly lose their lives in battle—regardless of whether they've chosen that path or destiny chose it for them—but that isn't the same thing as Abbie asking Ichabod if he'd be able to sacrifice his only son should Henry stand between them and Moloch. Fortunately for Ichabod, he didn't have to make that choice, because Henry turned on Moloch after realizing that his father figure was willing to sacrifice him in order to ensure the success of his plans to release hell on Earth. So Henry skewered that ugly demon with the Sword of Methuselah, which he could do because he no longer had a soul, and that presumably put an end to the erratic lightning, the hailing blood, and the demon army that was rising from the ground. However, we don't know for certain, because "The Akeda" ended before we had the chance to find out. And thus, even though Moloch was defeated, Sleepy Hollow's fall finale felt unfinished. Perhaps that's to be expected given the episode's status as a fall finale, but it's still incredibly frustrating from a storytelling standpoint.
When Captain Irving defeated Henry's Super Suit and then died from wounds he'd sustained during the fight, it was fairly clear what the outcome of the battle against Moloch would be, whether it happened this week or three seasons from now. As Witnesses and the stars of the show, Abbie and Ichabod couldn't risk dying, which prevented them from wielding the sword against Moloch. As the show's resident witch, Katrina was equally safe from harm. That left Jenny, and she wasn't a viable option because Sleepy Hollow couldn't afford to unnecessarily kill off another character so quickly after Irving. Abbie made a fairly convincing argument for being willing to sacrifice the people they love and not just themselves in order to end this war between good and evil, but in the end, the story dictated that Henry had to be the one to defeat Moloch. It wasn't so much that he was choosing his real parents or even choosing good over evil, but rather that he was tired of being bossed around by this unappreciative asshole:
Sleepy Hollow has long presented Moloch as the ultimate villain, the demon behind the curtain who's pulling all the strings. He made Brom the Horseman of Death, and he saved Henry and made him the Horseman of War. We've been led to believe he's the world's greatest evil and the reason Abbie and Ichabod were called up as Witnesses. So it's too bad that his defeat came far too easily and didn't really feel earned.
From a character standpoint, Moloch barely qualified as one, which means his role as a baddie was limited. We didn't even see his face until this week, a big tell that he was never going to be Sleepy Hollow's version of true evil. In each of his prior appearances, he was either cloaked in shadow or purposefully blurred; was this week's "reveal" of his ugly mug a visual representation of how little we actually knew about him, or was it the show's way of inspiring fear in our hearts? In the end it didn't really matter because he wasn't fully formed, so his death didn't feel particularly important beyond the effect it'll have on Henry's personal story. To put it another way: Moloch talked the talk but he didn't walk the walk. We were told he was the mysterious Big Bad of Sleepy Hollow, but he never did anything to prove he deserved that title. He never felt all that dangerous. But maybe that was the point.
Moloch appointed Brom and Henry as Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but it's not as if he created them from nothing; he preyed upon the evil that already existed within both men and used that darkness to his advantage. He might've given both men new life and transformed them into powerful foes for Ichabod and Abbie, but it was Brom and Henry's experiences as human beings that allowed them to become the evil creatures we know them as today. For all Brom's talk last week about choosing Moloch, neither Brom nor Henry was really all that concerned about unleashing hell on Earth. Brom always wanted to make Ichabod suffer and then skip off into the sunset with Katrina (whether she was willing to join him or not), and Henry just wanted to punish his parents for abandoning him as a child. Moloch and his apocalyptic desires were merely a conduit for telling Brom and Henry's respective stories. He provided the two men with an outlet for their anger and the tools to do some really nasty stuff, but in the end, he was little more than a demonic sugar daddy.
And if that isn't enough to diminish Moloch's importance in Sleepy Hollow's overall story arc, we of course have yet to meet the remaining two horsemen. That detail alone made it fairly obvious that despite the blood raining from the sky, the "apocalypse" we saw in "The Akeda" wasn't the one that was foretold. Defeating Moloch and stopping him from unleashing hell on Earth was actually just the first battle in a much larger war. Moloch told Henry there were horsemen before him and there'd be horsemen after him; so too will Sleepy Hollow have Big Bads after Moloch. Abbie and Ichabod have a long way to go before their work is done.
To be honest, Moloch's defeat couldn't have come soon enough. His presence actually slowed Sleepy Hollow's momentum even as Ichabod and Abbie made him their driving force. And while I'm glad the demonic hellbeast that's indirectly responsible for the death of Captain Irving is no more, I'm more excited about what his demise means for Henry. By killing Moloch, he has the chance to evolve into a real character. John Noble was an excellent addition to Sleepy Hollow's cast, but his talents have been wasted in a role that's largely been stagnant since he first revealed himself to be the Horseman of War in the Season 1 finale.
The reveal of Henry’s true nature—he was a cold and calculating monster feigning friendship in order to carry out his plans for revenge—was a mind-blowing moment that left viewers' collective jaws on the floor. But in Season 2, Henry has mostly been mimicking the behavior of every child in every Target everywhere. At times, I've half expected him to start whining about Frozen. But now that Moloch's been eliminated from the equation, Henry no longer has to play the role of dutiful soldier; he'll finally—hopefully—be able to work on his abandonment issues with his real parents without also trying to please his "father." Henry and Brom are the real, flesh-and-blood villains of this story, and one look at their screentime and character development proves that.
Which sadly brings me to Irving's fate. I've avoided talking about his death for as long as possible because it's arguably the most frustrating event in Sleepy Hollow history. To say that the series did a serious disservice to Orlando Jones in Season 2 is an understatement. John Noble might've had to portray a petulant child, but at least he had a real storyline. Meanwhile, the writers sidelined Irving in Tarrytown and stripped away his soul before leaving him to languish until the story dictated that he be present. Irving was apparently so broken by the time the events of "The Akeda" transpired that he willingly put on his game face and gave his life for the greater good.
The late Elmore Leonard once published 10 rules for writing, but the one that matters is this one: Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. That translates to the screen, too, and it means that everything you write should be focused and necessary. Everything you write should serve a purpose. But Irving's death served no purpose. There will always be casualties in war, and death is a powerful motivating factor that's commonly used to rally the troops for a final showdown—but that only works if your audience cares that the character is dead.
Irving was essentially written out of Sleepy Hollow the second he chose to take the fall for his daughter at the end of the show's first season. We didn't get to see his emotional breakdown in Tarrytown. We didn't get to see him devolve into a shriveled shell of his former self. We didn't get to see anything, and because of this, his death ultimately holds no meaning. And that's far worse than the fact he was killed in the first place. For a character who played such a large role in Season 1, he was killed off with little to no build-up. Some would argue that in real life, death is often sudden and without meaning, but this isn't real life, this is the most insane TV show in recent memory, and the death of a series regular should hold more weight than Irving's ultimately did. What happened to him was a damn shame.
At the end of the day, what purpose did "The Akeda" serve? After the well-paced and exciting events of the competent "Magnum Opus," the payoff this week was less than stellar. Moloch is dead, the Headless Horseman is once again locked up, Henry is still in possession of the sword and probably not yet ready to forgive his parents, and Irving is dead. This episode had all the makings of an eventful and grand mid-season finale—and on the surface it was enjoyable—but there are still too many unknown variables to declare it a decisive victory. I don't know where Sleepy Hollow is headed in the back half of Season 2 now that the immediate threat of the apocalypse has been handled, but I hope Irving's death was not in vain and that the show will take advantage of its slightly smaller cast and refocus itself a bit. I still see a lot of potential in Sleepy Hollow, as long as the show finds a way to use it.
SHERIFF CORBIN'S FILES
– Ichabod wants a motorcycle! Considering he doesn't know how to drive a car in reverse, and that a bike is about as close to a horse as he's going to get with regard to day-to-day transport, maybe it'd be good for him. I mean, "Abbie and Ichabod on a motorcycle" was probably on the whiteboard bucket list in the Sleepy Hollow writers' room because someone thought it would look cool, but I could get behind this, I think.
– The Horseman of Conquest/Pestilence made an appearance early in Season 1, but ultimately wasn't able to break through to our world, which made him more of a nuisance than a threat. Still, that's more than we've ever seen of Famine. Where are those buggers? J/K please stay away for as long as possible.
– Are Ichabod and Katrina still on a break now that Moloch has been defeated? I care very little about their little lover's quarrel, but figured it merited at least a mention here.
– As explained during the episode, "The Akeda" (which is usually spelled Akedah) refers to the Binding of Isaac, in which God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son.
– "You brought roots to a sword fight?"