Malcolm’s dystopian dream takes shape on ‘Sleepy Hollow’

It’s taken the first half of Season 4 for Malcolm Dreyfuss (Jeremy Davies) to really find his villainous groove, and in Friday’s (Mar. 3) “Child’s Play,” it feels like the scenery-chewing bad boy finally hit his stride. With power firmly in reach, he’s on a mission to win over an unlikely co-conspirator for his end-of-the-world shenanigans: Ichabod’s (Tom Mison) young fellow Witness, Molly (Oona Yaffe).

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Leave it to multiple visions of the future — experienced by both Dreyfuss and Molly — to open up the series up to a dystopia full of even bleaker possibilities. Honestly, we’re suckers for a decent dystopian tale, and the images of Malcolm — in full killer dictator mode, Molly at his side — leave us unable to predict what may come next.

One thing we are certain of is this: The relationship between Diane (Janina Gavankar) and her daughter is on uneven ground. It’s through Molly’s anger and resentment — emotions kept secret and unspoken — that a gruesome Gollum comes to life: Mr. Stitch. Sure, dude looks more like the lost member of Slipknot than any childhood imaginary friend, but the end result is just as frightening.

In the long run, it doesn’t take much work for the team to release the monster from Molly’s control: Putting mother and daughter in a position to face up to their issues and hopefully leaving a door open for more transparency moving forward.

But something tells us this bump in the road is a wee bit of foreshadowing for future episodes: Malcolm’s immortality and lofty goals of world domination — which most certainly will include Molly in some way — must put events in motion that will result in a crumbling society, putting Dreyfuss directly into the White House. Look out, Donald Trump!

But thankfully, Molly and Ichabod are connected on a level Malcolm could never even dream of. Team Witness till the very end…

Malcolm Dreyfuss has shown he’s a man of manipulative intellect and power, but his aim to play father to a young girl he doesn’t even know is going to be quite an uphill battle. Just looking at the man, you know Molly’s going to have a decent grasp on the whole “stranger danger” concept: Nobody’s stranger than Malcolm — and the danger couldn’t be more powerful. Dreyfuss better start digging into some parenting books, if he knows what’s good for him.

Because trying to compete against Ichabod for Father Figure of the Year, he’s going to lose — every single time.

“Sleepy Hollow” airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.

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