Sleepy Hollow - 'And the Abyss Gazes Back'

"Alas, poor Wendigo..."

It's been a while since I last visited Sleepy Hollow, and this episode revisits a couple of ongoing threads, specifically Henry's machinations against former-Captain Irving and that bone flute he got from Hawley the Idiot in 'Go Where I Send Thee'. In Tarrytown, Henry is trying to push Irving to kill the man who crippled his daughter (allegedly to reclaim his soul, but we the audience have doubts,) while the bone of the flute was ground up and sent as 'magic anthrax' in a letter to the late Sheriff Corbin's son in an attempt to secure one of Corbin's collection of relics.

As a result of the bone powder, Joe Corbin is cursed to transform into the Wendigo, an organ-eating monster, at the scent of blood. He is back in town having been honourably discharged from military service after the rest of his platoon were eaten (oops) and there is a limit to how often he can change before it becomes permanent. Hawley and Ichabod seek a cure from a group of Shawnee (Hawley's incomprehension when showing respect and understanding of their culture cuts more ice than his cash business is priceless and sums up much of why Hawley is an idiot) but Henry does end up with his price, a mystical poison which he uses to infect Katrina.

The episode touches heavily on father/son relationships. Joe's relationship with his father was strained due to his feeling that Corbin senior's need to help all and sundry meant that he wasn't enough, and he gives Ichabod some advice regarding his own bizarre family situation. Also, the actor playing Joe was wicked convincing as Clancy Brown Jr.

The Irving plot seems a little more strained; the Captain's collapse towards doing War's bidding was a little too swift, but perhaps this is a result of having signed away his soul? Either way, is builds on the nature of War, as does Henry's description of Wendigo Joe as 'a creature of War'. The Horseman of Death is basically just a killing machine, but War is a general and he is building his army one soldier at a time.

'And the Abyss Gazes Back' is a little routine, but overall a decent episode, thanks as usual to the leads. I'm still not enamoured of Hawley the Idiot, and I probably never will be, although he seems to be here to stay.