SLEEPY HOLLOW: Tom Mison Teases Karaoke, the ‘Doomed’ Crane Family, and a Finale that Changes Everything

SLEEPY HOLLOW has put Ichabod Crane through a number of things as he’s struggled to adapt to the modern time, but he’ll face a doozy in the next new episode, “Kali Yuga”: karaoke.

“I smacked myself in the face, because that was something I joked about a long, long, long time ago with Heather Regnier, who wrote this next episode,” Tom Mison (Ichabod) told reporters on a recent conference call. “She called my bluff, and actually wrote it in. I curse myself, I curse Heather Regnier, and [then] got to picking what I thought would be a decent song for Ichabod. She allowed me to choose, which was very kind of her.”

And while Ichabod might have some fun with his karaoke adventure, things are considerably more tense at home: as Ichabod and Katrina struggle to figure out where their marriage stands, the odds appear increasingly stacked against them.

“It’s quite nice to have the relationship be so layered. Particularly for it to not be an easy ride,” Mison said. “There are lots of things to criticize about every character in the show, and their attitude towards the Crane’s dilemma, [and] particularly, it’s easy to criticize Katrina and Ichabod. Is there a way for them to survive in the modern world? Probably not. They tried their best, they’ve been going back and forth, but it does reach a [another] level very soon. There will be revelations that affect the relationship in quite a large way.”

One potential problem is Henry, their son (and, inconveniently, also War), who has been missing since he killed Moloch.

“Being MIA has given Henry time to digest, to plan his next move,” Mison teased. “And when he does come back, he comes back with bang. He’s not going to muck about anymore. He’s not going to accept, ‘But I’m your father, but I’m your mother’ anymore. He’s back, and he wants blood.”

So, yes, things are looking tough for the Crane family. Or, as Mison put it: “The Cranes are doomed! They were doomed from the start. They’re at odds with each other, they’re at odds with their time, and at odds for how they plan to spend their time. They were always doomed from the moment Ichabod came out of the ground, and Katrina came out of Purgatory, and Henry was the horseman of War. I think, particularly, in the latter half of this season, you’ll see that snowball.”

As the season heads towards its conclusion (they finished production on season 2 this week), Mison echoed Orlando Jones’ (Irving) tease that a death (that will stick) is coming, and the finale will once again be an hour that changes the scope of the show.

“Brace yourselves [for the finale],” Mison teased. “I will say something, and it won’t be a big spoiler: there’s not going to be a cliffhanger type ending of season 1; we’re not going to repeat that. Instead, there is such a level of finality that is rather shocking, that will, again, change everything. It’s an exciting way to end the season.”

Where the show goes from there is still a bit of a question mark. SLEEPY HOLLOW hasn’t been renewed for a third season yet (Fox bosses Dana Walden and Gary Newman told reporters at TCA earlier this month they’re waiting to renew the series), and there was talk of making the series less serialized and more episodic — a change Mison would embrace.

“I rather welcome that change,” he said. “Every writer comes to set with their episode, and when we sit around and have a drink after work, and discuss ideas, there are so many amazing ideas for the standalone  episodes, that to give that format to that group of writers, I have absolute faith it won’t become the dreaded ‘monster of the week’; it’ll be much fuller than that. With some great ideas from them, I think we could, easily, fill another season with just what they have now, let alone with what they’ll have in the next few months. I think within that, you can keep exploring character, rather than having to stick to following certain character arcs through however many episodes, when the next writer might have a specific story they want to tell, but they have to stick to something from before. I think it’ll be a welcome change.”

Whatever changes the show may face in the future, Mison is thankful to face them with his co-star, Nicole Beharie (Abbie).

“It’s such a joy to play [together],”  he said. “It’s so nice when you’re part of a pair — and we have to rely on each other an awful lot, Nicole and Tom, as much as Ichabod and Abbie — and when you’re working together for eight months, and it was eight months this season, you’re going to have days where you’re feeling under the weather, and struggling to get yourself in. It’s so nice to have someone on the other side just raising your game, all the time. And I hope she feels the same from me. It’s fun to play with Nicole. We throw ideas in. We seem to agree on everything, which is very fortunate. We both come from a background where the scene is more important than the individual actor, and we’re striving to get the best out of a scene rather than showing ourselves off. And I think that’s where the magic lies: in both trying to tell a story, and coming at it from the same direction. It’s a real treat, it’s a real joy.”

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SLEEPY HOLLOW airs Mondays at 9 PM on Fox.

Related:

SLEEPY HOLLOW: ‘Spellcatcher’ Photos
SLEEPY HOLLOW: ‘Kali Yuga’ Photos — Ichabod and Abbie Karaoke
SLEEPY HOLLOW: Orlando Jones Teases an Upcoming (Real) Death, Surprises, and More

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