SLEEPY HOLLOW: Tom Mison Previews the ‘Brilliant’ Finale, a ‘Very Different’ Ichabod

SLEEPY HOLLOW — which had one of the best/most deliciously twisty season finales with last year’s “Bad Blood” — has set up quite the season-ender for its sophomore year: fresh off Henry’s death, a heartbroken (and very angry) Katrina cast a spell allowing her to return to 1781 via a portal, and she intends to rewrite the past and let Ichabod die…in the hopes that she’d be able to raise her son. Unfortunately for Katrina, Abbie’s attempt to stop her led to Abbie going back into 1781 (and where she promptly landed in jail, because she didn’t have her papers which acknowledged her freedom).

And while time travel elements were a part of SLEEPY HOLLOW’s DNA from the start (after all, Ichabod was from the past, and woke up in 2013), star Tom Mison (Ichabod) admittedly he had his hesitations initially when he heard about two characters going back in time for the season finale — until he heard what the plan was.

“I’ll admit, I was worried,” Mison acknowledged. “When time travel comes into anything, there’s the possibility of it becoming very, very confusing. There’s the possibility if you start to try and pick [the story] apart, it will fall to pieces. But then I found out the way around it [with what the writers are doing], and I thought, ‘That’s brilliant. That’s a brilliant way around all the intricate difficulties of time travel’…I think they dealt with it in a very smart, simple, clean way.”

One of the fun elements the show will explore in the season finale, “Tempus Fugit,” is the relationship between a displaced Abbie and an Ichabod who has never met her.

“It’s [a dynamic] of mistrust, instantly,” Mison laughed. “I’m sure he’s had lots of people in prison try and negotiate their way out of the cell. I don’t imagine that’s anything new to him. What’s new for him is there’s a woman in a very peculiar jacket with lots of zips on and wearing trousers. That’s immediately [making him realize] she’s something different, she’s something exotic. When she starts correctly predicting events, his first thought is she’s a spy. I like that finally the roles are reversed, and she has to persuade him of things, rather than him having to persuade her.”

“Also, it’s a very different Ichabod,” he continued. “18th century Ichabod is very different [from] 21st century Ichabod. You can completely understand why he’s so anal in the modern day, and why he finds it so difficult [at times to adapt] — the manner in which things are worked in the modern day. He led men in battle. He was responsible for lots of lives. It’s a blow to him when lives are lost. He’s a serious man, and he has a lot of responsibility. And it’s good to find that core of him; it helps you understand his mentality in the modern-day.”

As for Mison, he relished spending (most of) the finale hour playing a version of Ichabod that has rarely been showcased in an extended way.

“It was such a relief; it was such a treat,” he shared. “Normally we’ll get a scene or two in a flashback, and I’ll be sitting there with a Founding Father, and there will be a voice over of modern day Ichabod saying what’s happening. So to actually go and explore it — it’s something I thought about a lot. There’s a difference between then and now. There have been lots of talk about my hand gestures in the modern day; Ichabod is very twitchy with his hands. All of his tension and worry and fear and doubt, he can keep a very straight face, but he can’t hide the tension in his hands. Whereas in the past, he’s far more relaxed, and he’s in control, and physically, there’s a change. That was fun to play around with.”

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SLEEPY HOLLOW’s season finale air Monday, February 23rd at 9 PM on Fox. And be sure to check back with Give Me My Remote after the episode ends for more from Mison!

Related:

SLEEPY HOLLOW Season 2 Finale Photos: ‘Tempus Fugit’
SLEEPY HOLLOW: 5 Teases For ‘Awakening’
SLEEPY HOLLOW: Tom Mison Teases Karaoke, the ‘Doomed’ Crane Family, and a Finale that Changes Everything

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