I understand that with a longer season than the last, the plot has to be a little more paced out. This episode indicates that might not be the best approach. The show has proven to thrive on chaos and burning through plot at a quicker pace. Holding off on the big face-off between Abbie, Crane, and Henry Parish until the end of the season means all the action is a prelude.



Abbie and Crane are more reactive to threats rather than being the aggressor. Crane seems to acknowledge at the end of this episode, but I don't feel like the good guys of the show do enough to fight back against Henry and his growing army of minions. It's also become something of a troubling trend for the show to rely on the comedic chemistry of the Abbie-Crane duo. The monster that fuels the plot of this episode wasn't that interesting so there had to be more comedy than is usually in the series.


The prospect of interacting with Sheriff Corbin's son seemed promising at first. Then it slowly devolved into some awkward supernatural problem that demanded an equally supernatural solution. Corbin is apparently able to transform into a Wendigo, and apparently ate some of his military platoon-mates before being discharged. He returns to Sleepy Hollow as part of a demand from his dead father. Joe isn't a particularly likable character, and seemed to go out of his way to make sure that people knew that. A part of him seemed to blame Abbie for his father's death, although that also came off as a bit of jealousy over the close working relationship between the two partners.




It's very unfortunate that Sheriff Corbin isn't alive at this time to clarify things with his son, but it plays as a weak driving force for the relationships of the current characters. Corbin was being used by Parish yet again for his own gains. There's a lot of running and chasing and dead bodies left in the wake of the Wendigo, yet he hardly becomes a real fearsome threat. That might be because Crane uses another ancient chant (using half of a skull in the process) that makes Corbin revert from the Wendigo to human just in the nick of time. It conveniently coincides with the fourth transformation that was supposed to be permanent. It's more of a distraction because Parish got exactly what he wanted: The Jincan poison that transforms into a spider that he sends into Katrina's mouth at the end. That was actually scarier than the Wendigo.


The episode only had one other subplot in play. Captain Irving stages a little rebellion against Parish when it is discovered that he owns his soul. The only way to release Irving from the contract is for him to kill the man who paralyzed his daughter. That man just so happens to be in the Tarrytown Psych Ward with Irving. Somehow, the authorties or the powers that be didn't realize that Irving has a past history with this man and that is something other people might exploit. So yes, Irving does get tempted, but pulls back at the last second. The course of the subplot feels too predetermined, even with the nice use of Irving's vision as an instrument of death from earlier this season.




Since the subplot is so lightweight that it could almost pass as an afterthought, there has to be more laughs derived from Crane's complaints about modern conveniences. It is funny that he can't stand yoga, and that he somehow gets the hang of online gaming (Tom Mison's reading of the wacky user names made for a good laugh), but it shouldn't form the crux of the episode. The laughs come from jokes that are too easy and one-note. They are supposed to enhance the experience of watching the show. The plot needs to be better, the characters more proactive in their approach to the war with Parish and Moloch for the humor to break the tension. There's time to get things right, although a pattern is developing that can turn into a big concern.