Sleepy Hollow - 'Kali Yuga'

Jaime Murray; professional bitch monster.

The Witnesses are in trouble when a Hindu vengeance beast called a vetala comes to town, and turns out to be Hawley's long-lost foster mother. This relationship is creepy as hell, which is not entirely surprising given that there is all of eight years between them and Carmilla Pines (played by genre fiction's go-to bitch from Hell, the probably quite lovely in real life Jaime Murray) not only shares a name with literature's first lady of the vampires, but was a murderess even before she got turned into an undead thuggee acid-monster.

'Kali Yuga' is another in the post-Moloch run of fairly slight episodic entries in the Sleepy Hollow canon, as the show wrestles with what smells of editorial mandate: less arc, more sexy. On the plus side, while Ichabod and Abbie are at their most ineffectual, this prompts a confrontation which (hopefully) resolves their growing distance over the past few episodes. It's not just the show that has been losing focus since Moloch was destroyed. Better still, Hawley sets off to track down and destroy his creepy oedipal mentor monster, which means we don't have to have him knocking around Sleepy Hollow being an irritating nth wheel.

Irving is released, some new evidence having completely exonerated him somehow. Katrina gives him a spiritual and determines he is Horseman free, but he also appears to lack a reflection. I'm not sure this is because he is a body and mind without a soul or just because Katrina is pulling some dodgy shenanigans, since the show now seems unsure what to do with her outside of the occasional spotlight episode.

The highlight of the show remains the chemistry between the leads and Ichabod's young old man grumbling, which is why I'm pleased to see the tension resolved; it just wasn't as much fun. This week, Ichabod hates yoga and the Witnesses cement their renewed partnership by belting out a slightly awkward 'Proud Mary' at karaoke night.