They finally got Katrina into the modern world, albeit for a brief time. This is a good development, as leaving her to be a "spy" in Abraham and Henry's camp wasn't working the way the writers thought it would. She should hopefully stay with Ichabod and Abbie in the long run so that the show can introduce and develop a new dynamic within our heroes. Even if it's both the Cranes and not just Ichabod looking bewildered at the changes between Revolutionary times and today. The episode gives us a taste of this in bit parts, from Katrina almost getting run over by a speeding car to her choice of rather form-fitting modern clothing.




This doesn't last too long, however. No sooner that Crane gets some extended time with his wife does the plot turn to the genre's most hoary of concepts: the woman impregnated by a demon baby. Worse still, the solution for Katrina's predicament comes across as way too convenient, though that's a regular complaint on this show. The wildness of these plots is part of the show's charm. However, it's getting to the point where the larger overall plot is showing some strain.


The goal of this episode was to bring about the seemingly rapid rise of Moloch through gestation in Katrina's womb. It follows the through line of Henry's acquisition of the Jincan poison (which Katrina helpfully tells us that witches use to bring about demons and such) and depositing into his mother's body. It's a good framework for the plot to base on. Unfortunately, this reduces Katrina to being the helpless victim. That's a bad place to be, especially one who is female because they always get these kinds of occurrences. I fear Katrina may be stuck in the place where she's either the damsel in distress or relegated to support for Ichabod and Abbie. She somehow fulfills both roles in this episode, having been impregnated and enabling a spell that warns the heroes of Henry's minions coming for them.




Since the show has Abbie and Ichabod as the main relationship, Katrina can only be an appendage that is awkwardly shoehorned in without a secure place or action to take. It's abundantly clear that Ichabod and Abbie won't engage in a relationship of a romantic nature so this is an instance where the writers struggle with how to use Katrina to full effect. She is only there to suffer needlessly while Ichabod and Abbie figure out how to defeat the demon before it's too late. The "Aurora Borealis in a tiny prism" is yet another neat-looking invention of the show that is able to save Katrina's life just in time.


There is the one moment where Katrina and Ichabod talk about their continued attempts to save their son from becoming all evil. The conversation feels short-sighted given all of the evidence in the show so far that Henry has been corrupted by evil forces. Those forces sometimes don't appear to work in concert with each other either. Witness Henry's odd torture of Abraham's character as he chases down a running Katrina. But it does play into Ichabod's pointed conversation with his son late in the episode. The conversation is mostly showing off Tom Mison and John Noble's collective ability to bring gravitas and intensity to what would be an otherwise stilted and boring scene. It's unlikely that Henry will come back to his parents' side (a fact the Cranes seem unable to reconcile) so his father begging him to stop this war doesn't have much purpose.





That's the problem with being unable to see what lies beyond this episode. It may be that this was the starting point for Henry's journey to redemption, but for the time being, he is the story's main villain. What he has planned for the future is unclear. We have to accept that there is some long-term plan in place, and that it's being slowly drawn out over time.