Warning: Ahead are major spoilers for the Season 3 finale of Sleepy Hollow. Do not read on if you need to catch up!
Uh, what the hell just happened? Sleepy Hollow has always been good at churning out the season ending cliffhangers, but, you know, this is kind of ridiculous. And, since we, apparently, just lost main character Abbie Mills from the series, how is the show supposed to go on after this?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a Season 4 for Sleepy Hollow is not at all out of the question at this point. The entertainment news site also confirms that Abbie Mills is really dead, because actress Nicole Beharie has officially left the show. Showrunner Clifton Campbell also told The Hollywood Reporter that a fourth season is currently being planned for, so that if the series does, indeed, get picked up, they know what direction they want to go in.
Tonight’s Season 3 finale saw Abbie and her cohort Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) make their final bid against The Hidden One. They took Pandora’s box to the catacombs and when opened, the evil inside made a beeline for Abbie, lashing her around the neck and trying to pull her in. Ichabod and Abbie’s sister Jenny managed to stop it, but it turns out that Abbie’s soul was the only thing that could stop The Hidden One, and, by the end of the show, she had willingly sacrificed her life to Pandora’s box in order to stop him from taking over the world.
OK, seriously, what the hell just happened? Abbie and Ichabod are the heart and absolute soul of Sleepy Hollow. What will the show even look like without Abbie? One of the biggest parts of the series has been the intense bond between Team Witness, the core of which is Abbie and Ichabod, and the totally undeniable chemistry of leads Nicole Beharie and Tom Mison. A chemistry so finely tuned that nearly all Sleepyheads (yes, that’s what the fans call themselves) shipped an Ichabbie (yes, that’s the shipper’s name for the proposed duo) coupling…and they shipped it hard.
The end of Season 3 did, in fact, do a pretty good job of setting up a possible fourth season. At the end, Ichabod was visiting Abbie’s grave only to be met there by her father. As it turns out, the mysterious Papa Mills knows quite a lot about demon busting and fancy, magical artifacts, and he had some big news for Ichabod. Apparently, there always have to be two Witnesses, and when one dies their duties go to the next one in line, along with a bit of the previous Witness’ soul. Papa Mills charged Icabod with finding the next Witness before “they” do and then beat a path out of the cemetery as Icabod was surrounded by government agents.
Well, there’s no doubt that Sleepy Hollow threw a big curveball tonight. If the show is renewed for Season 4, they will certainly be heading somewhere different.
