Orlando Jones – Frank Irving – Sleepy Hollow
It was one of the most shocking deaths of the 2014 television series. Sure, there were other shows where a character was off-ed and it was shocking (e.g. Boardwalk Empire), but we say coming. However, this one not so much.
Orlando Jones’ Frank Irving spent the majority of Sleepy Hollow’s second season on the sideline. After being on the front lines in Season One he was committed to Tarrytown Psychiatric. Sadly, we didn’t see a lot of Irving, but when we did it was always memorable. Two scenes come immediately to mind. The first was when he was duped into signing his soul away by Ichabod’s song Henry Parrish (John Noble). It was a scene we knew was coming, but man was it ever tense. Then, in the episode entitled, “Mama” the ghost of Nurse Gina Lambert (Cynthia Stevenson) tried to convince him to take his own life. It was a super, super intense episode. Jones, always known for his comedic ability, sold the drama of the scene perfectly.
However, Irving’s passing that was his biggest moment of the season. In the mid season finale, Crane and the gang need to use the Sword of Methuselah to defeat Moloch’s horseman. Of course, there is a catch. Whomever wields the sword must sacrifice their soul in order to use it. Now, none of the gang wants to do that, but since Irving “sold” his soul, he becomes the hero of the episode. Irving wields the sword like a boss — he is a complete and utter BAD ASS, killing off a number of Moloch’s demons. However, his battle with the Horseman of War, turns out to be fatal. While he dispatches the demon, we see Frank unexpectedly fall. It was shocking – how could such a central character bite it? Well, we think this isn’t the last time we’ve seen Frank Irving. We saw John Cho’s character come back a number of times throughout the series, so I think we’ll see more of Frank. He’s too good of a character – he’s funny, tough and has fantastic chemistry with Ichabod and Abbie.
–Bill Bodkin, Editor-in-Chief
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