Tag: Washington irving. Orlando Jones

Geekscape Recap: Sleepy Hollow: “The Lesser Key of Solomon”

by S.J. Borger

So, congratulations are in order for Sleepy Hollow: not only is it the first Fox series to be picked up for a second season, but it also continued its upward trend: last night’s episode was by far the best in terms of consistency and plotting. Was it a little too procedural? Did it give up too much style for a predictable substance? Maybe, but it was still the best entry in the series so far. And it moved; scene to scene connected in a fast, cohesive and entertaining way.

The episode starts with a one-two punch of a voice over explaining the show’s backstory, followed by a ‘previously on.’ It’s a good two minutes of rehashing events before the show starts; when it does, it’s a flashback to Boston Harbor, 1773. Crane and a Revolution-era A-Team are tracking a cargo. It’s protected by another Hessian (they’re everywhere!), who blows it up with an incantation to Lord Death (never a good sign) and boom (quite literally) flashback’s over.

SLEEPY HOLLOW: Lt. Abbie Mills searches for her estranged sister in “The Lesser Key of Solomon” episode of SLEEPY HOLLOW airing Monday, Oct. 7 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2013 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownine Harris/FOX
Crane (Tom Mison) flashes back to 1773 and the Boston Tea Party.
2013 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownine Harris/FOX

Back to the Future

Crane is giving romantic advice to an unknown woman—a radio show? A wrong number? Nope, the Northstar (read Onstar) lady.  It was a nice bit of humor before jumping right into the action: it’s just moments since last week’s episode, we find out, as a white cargo van careens out of the psychiatric hospital and Abbie runs out, informing Crane that Jenny has escaped.

This does nicely answer our final question from last week; Abbie had not left poor Crane all alone in the super-secret research room, but had brought him with her. And left him in the car, sure. Why not?

Abbie manages to convince Captain Irving to give her time to find Jenny before calling in the escape to State authorities. Irving, in fine, if caustic, form, eventually relents and gives Abbie and Crane 12 hours to find Jenny.

Meanwhile, Jenny (in a hoody as her disguise, because no one in a hoody has ever drawn unwarranted suspicion) visits a dive bar—apparently one of her old haunts. The bartender, Wendel, pours her a drink and welcomes her back.

Jenny drinks (one shot, whiskey. Just I case we didn’t already know she was a badass). She asks if Wendel still has her things. He does, and is glad to get rid of them–Jenny’s so badass even her stuff scares normal people. From a safe comes a mysterious, beat-up, badass duffel bag. Jenny spouts some more badass tropes, just to cement how truly badass she is, takes her bag, and leaves.

In case the scene didn’t clarify it—or the whole breaking out of the psychiatric hospital didn’t clue you in—Jenny is badass.

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Jenny Mills (guest star Lyndie Greenwood) after her escape from the Psych ward.
©2013 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownine Harris/FOX

Ze Germans Are Coming! Ze Germans are Coming!

We move to young kid learning piano from a creepy German piano teacher–Gunther. CREEPY PIANO TEACHER. Who’s GERMAN. So, he’s the bad guy.

Gunther gets a creepy distorted-voice phone call on an ancient cell phone. The caller creepily telling him where to find Jenny (creepy!) and that Jenny might know where ‘item 37’ is. Also, a ‘team’ has been dispatched with info on Jenny and her ‘known associates.’ Even creepier! Gunther hangs up and abruptly dismisses kid playing song on the piano.

While each scene was successful, they were very routine. No new angles. No interesting quirks or inner dilemmas hinted at. Rebellious woman of course goes to the hole-in-the-wall bar when on the run; the bad guy is hiding in plain sight as quiet, foreign piano teacher.

These tropes are fine—the scenes were fine–they were just very standard. Still better than some of the more cliché heavy moments in earlier episodes. Besides, lots is happening and the plot is moving. Onward.

To Wendel, the bartender. Poor Wendel, it’s not such a good day for him. Gunther shows up with Central Casting German Thug 1 and 2.

Side note: That’s an awful lot of first-generation German’s hanging out in Sleepy Hollow. Just saying.

They ask for Jenny’s whereabouts. Wendel refuses. After the mandatory bad-guy-has-moral-upper-hand-because-the-bad-guy-is-aware-he-has-no-morals discussion concludes, Wendel gets tossed on the pool table with a case full of very nasty tools beside him.

Got to give him credit for refusing, though.

SH Recap 4.5
SLEEPY HOLLOW: Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) searches for Abbie’s sister.
;2013 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownine Harris/FOX

Tell Me About Your Mother

Back to Abbie and Crane, who are at the police station attempting to figure out where Jenny may have gone. Crane, looking through Jenny’s file, questions Abbie about her childhood. We discover that Abbie’s father left when they were young and mom had a ‘nervous breakdown,’ putting the sister’s in foster care.

Crane notices in Jenny’s file that there was one foster family Jenny stayed with longer than any other—perhaps they might know her hiding spots?

Speak of the devil—Jenny’s at a truck stop bathroom, going through that duffel. Money, passports—guns. She holds both up (one in either hand) because, remember, badass? Then checks they’re loaded. Of course they are. Because leaving live ammunition in your weapons for years is totally not going to be bad for the weapon or the ammunition.

Back to the bar, where poor Wendel is dead—body hung from a hook, head in the pool rack. Irving, in a that’s-why-he’s-the-captain deduction exercise, points out to the detectives that Wendel was tortured and that the beheading is a drastically different type than that which killed Corbin. Poor detectives, they were so proud of their ‘same as Corbin’ theory.

Crane and Abbie visit Jenny’s last foster mother; who is, of course, a terrible foster mother just in it for the monthly checks.

Not a bad scene, played well by all involved, but it was predictable. Exactly what a viewer who’d seen Law & Order would expect. Yes, it gave us a peek into Jenny’s life but we already knew it wasn’t ice cream and puppies. But it didn’t challenge us. Or surprise us. Or take any risks.

Turns out foster mom does know one or two things about Jenny—including that she used to visit a cabin up by the lake when she was upset.

Sleepy-Hollow-Episode-4-Video-Preview-The-Lesser-Key-of-Solomon-01-2013-09-30
Lt. Abbie Mills deftly picks a lock.
©2013 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownine Harris/FOX

Into the Woods

Crane and Abbie go to the cabin; Abbie breaks in with her lock picking skills.

Turns out its Corbin’s cabin—and Jenny is there. Corbin, apparently, mentored both girls in different ways. Abbie towards a career as an officer of the law, Jenny as a sort of super-commando.

The sisters pull guns on each other (because who among us hasn’t wished, every now and then, to be able to aim a weapon at a sibling’s head?) and proceed to have a series of sisterly arguments.

Crane chides them for both being childish and they put the guns away. Jenny reveals that Corbin visited her the day before he died and told her that he had a premonition of his death—and if that happened, she was to go to his cabin because there was an important object there.

Now, if you’re asking yourself, why did she even bother to store her stuff at the bar when there was Corbin’s super-secret cabin? The one no one knew about and far less likely to be traceable, or sold while she was locked up, or burnt down or whatever—that’s a good question.

Of course if she hadn’t gone to the bar we wouldn’t have known what a badass she was—and that she could hold a gun in each hand while looking pensive.

So, Jenny pulls out a wooden box that hides a leather bag that holds a sextant and a scrap of leather with a symbol on it.

The symbol sparks yet another one of Crane’s recollections—this time back to Boston Harbor, 1773, and the Colonial Mission: Impossible team. Turns out they—sent by Washington himself–were after a device that was stored in a box that had the same symbol.

Sleepy-Hollow-Episode-4-Recap-The-Lesser-Key-of-Solomon
Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie, C) and Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison, L) find Abbie’s estranged sister, Jenny (guest star Lyndie Greenwood, R).
©2013 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownine Harris/FOX

And Voila. A Secret Map!

Crane rearranges the parts of the sextant to reveal that it is also a projector—and it projects a map of Sleep Hollow where the mystery box is hidden.

They are interrupted by gunshots—it’s the Germans (plausible that they found the cabin, since the distorted voice did tell Gunther that there would be a list of known associates). After a shootout that proved everyone involved is a terrible shot, German Thug 1 and 2 run off with the sextant—leaving Gunther behind to answer just enough questions to move the plot forward before crunching down on a cyanide pill (why he waited until after he had given them all the information, we don’t know).

There’s a torture/don’t torture argument between Jenny and Abbie which doesn’t really go anywhere, but does show off Jenny’s knowledge of guns. ‘Cause she’s badass. Just in case we’d forgotten.

Meanwhile, Irving has found Gunther’s house using good old-fashioned police work. The house is normal—the basement? Not so much.

Apparently the Hessians—we know Gunther is a Hessian thanks to a tattoo on his chest—have been living in secret in the community just waiting for the signs so that they can assist their evil dark lord.

Side note: Was anyone else unsure if the Germans had been there for hundreds of years, unaging, or if there was some secret Hessian society still operating, training little Hessians to be sleeper agents and sending them over?

The object they are after is the Book of Solomon, where according to legend, King Solomon wrote down the spells that would release the 37 demons from their banishment to Hell’s 7th circle.

Along with those demons, the demon king? Lord? Ruler of some sort would also rise—Moloch, or the demon Abbie and Jenny saw in the woods all those years ago. The brains of the operation, so to speak.

So Gunther crunches a cyanide pill and dies. Crane—he of the memory—draws the stolen map. Solomon’s book is buried in the abandoned Dutch Reform church. Off they go.

SH recap 4.2
SLEEPY HOLLOW: Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie, R) and Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison, L) search for Abbie’s estranged sister.
2013 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownine Harris/FOX

To the Creepy Abandoned Church!

German Thugs 1 & 2 are already there. It’s a suitably creepy church, though the statue of a nun seems a little off (didn’t think Dutch Reform went in for nuns, but okay) and they—rather easily—find the chest (with the book inside it) hidden in a fireplace.

Side note: Why didn’t someone just hide the book in the library? Or the super-secret research room? It’d probably be harder to find then in some giant stone box with demonic writing all over it.

Also, was the Church deconsecrated? If not, does the consecration rule not work in the Sleepy Hollow world? If not, why not?

Crane, Jenny and Abbie rush over, and during the car ride we learn that Jenny traveled the world as a freedom fighter and has super-commando training. Of course she does.

This is a reoccurring issue; our characters are all the super-best. Crane remembers everything and always has the perfect flashback to solve the case. Abby is a super-cop; Jenny is a special forces trained freedom fighter. If they have these great strengths, they should have correspondingly great weaknesses. But their foibles and weaknesses aren’t truly detrimental to their attempts to fight the good fight, nor do they force them to change, or cause them any real loss—they are the kind of weaknesses you say you have at a job interview: “I just work too hard,” or “I find that my greatest weakness is once I’m given a task I just have to complete it,” or “I pay too much attention to detail.” These aren’t real, fatal flaws and without them the characters remain stereotypes.

There is a pointed conversation between Jenny and Crane about fighting for things one believes in. Considering the day Abby’s had, Crane and Jenny are lucky all she did was roll her eyes.

Back at the Church, German Thug 1 and 2 find a spooky baptismal font in the center of the church. They open up the book (a decidedly medieval-looking book, which isn’t quite right for Solomon’s time but okay) and chant the super-evil chant to wake up Moloch (in German, nonetheless, ‘cause that was around 3000 years ago). The baptismal font bursts into flames and oily goo spills out into a pentagon-y shape.

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SLEEPY HOLLOW: Jenny Mills (guest star Lyndie Greenwood) in the final moments of the episode.
2013 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownine Harris/FOX

That Was Almost A Close Call

Crane, Jenny and Abbie rush in. Despite having numbers on their side, and surprise, and supposedly being a super-cop and commando-chick, they are handily defeated by the German’s when one of them takes Jenny down and holds a gun to her head just as Abbie reaches the book.

The German tells Abbie to put the book down or Jenny gets it (if you are feeling like you’ve seen this before, reader, you have).

Abbie, of course, throws the book down into the flames. The German let’s Jenny go to try to save it—the book bursts into flames, and the Hell portal closes. It was just that easy.

There’s another brief scuffle and both the Germans end up dead.

Back at the police station (Still no paperwork!) Jenny and Abbie make amends, because Abbie arranges for Jenny to get out of the psych hospital early (no charges for the escape, the hospital doesn’t want the ‘bad press’) under Abbie’s conservatorship.

We end with Crane showing Abbie an excerpt from Paradise Lost that refers to Moloch. Moloch led a revolt of demons against heaven and was punished. He is the demon of child sacrifices, and the demon which controls the horseman, and imprisons Crane’s wife.

Now, says Crane, they know his name.

Tune in next week for more haps in the Hollow!

Sleepy Hollow airs on Fox Monday nights at 9 p.m. EST/PST

Geekscape Recap: Sleepy Hollow: “For the Triumph of Evil”

by S.J. Borger
Sandman Mirror
The Sandman Cometh. The newest Demon in “For The Triumph of Evil” episode of SLEEPY HOLLOW.
©2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownie Harris/FOX

Sleepy Hollow started this episode with, well, if not quite a bang, a definite scare.

Before we even get to the opening credits, we had a dream sequence (points for creepy monster make-up), a person jump off a building and land—quite convincingly, thank you—on a parked car, and an eyeball explode into a gust of sand.

So the writers have definitely got the pacing under control. And, thank goodness, time-of-day (no more three nights and four days in the space on an episode; last week it apparently took eight hours to drive from one end of Sleepy Hollow to another).

Wait…Is this a Dream??

So the episode starts right off with Abbie coming into work, where Captain Irving introduces her to Doctor Vega. She sees Crane interrogating someone—when she rushes in, she sees it’s her teenage self—and Crane’s eyes are covered with a white, milky film. As she goes into stop him, she becomes hunted by a no-eyed-no-mouth demon.

She wakes up (dream sequence!) and gets called to a crime scene where a lady jumper is asking for her—and only her.

She has time on the rush over to wake up and pick up Crane (Supposedly. We don’t see it happen. Though, when is someone going to take Crane to WalMart or Target and get him some clothes?)

We find out that jumper lady is Doctor Vega (she of the dream!), and she was the treating doctor at the psychiatric hospital that Abbie’s sister, Jenny, was put into years ago after they first saw the demon in the woods.

Vega’s last words to Abbie imply that not only does Doctor Vega deserve to die, but Abbie also has some horrible punishment waiting for her.

Captain Irving—just about at the end of his freaky-cases-that-don’t-make-sense rope–tells Abbie and Crane to look into it. Quietly.

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Clancy Brown as Sheriff on Fox’s Sleepy Hollow.
Photo: courtesy of clancybrown.com.

Side note: Still very unsure about the armed forces set-up in Sleepy Hollow. It’s got a population of 140,000 (says so right in the opening credits); and the pilot was very clear that Abbie was a Deputy Sheriff, and that the poor Sheriff Sheriff got killed.  So, it’s fairly odd that a Deputy Sheriff is now reporting to Captain Frank Irving of the City Police (?) State Police (?)—we’re not sure.

Captain isn’t a rank that a Sheriff office typically has, so we can assume he’s not a Sheriff. But then there are all the Detectives…also not a rank commonly associated with Sherriff. And, how come no one is concerned about replacing the Sheriff? That is a fairly significant power vacuum.

And then, what about the fact that a Sheriff is an elected position and it reports to the County Board or Council or whatever governing body is about? Police are not elected, they are municipal employees. While not unheard of for the two to share offices in smaller towns, and some cities/counties merge the two (Las Vegas comes to mind) it’s still so vague. Clarity on who exactly Capitan Irving is and why he is in charge of a Sheriff’s Deputy would help. Also, why is a Sheriff Deputy a Lieutenant? So confused…

Finally, has anyone else noticed the Case of the Disappearing Uniform? First Episode: Abbie Mills is in full Deputy Sheriff regalia almost the whole episode. Second, half and half. Third, no uniform, just a badge and a gun.

Ok, back to the recap. Sorry.

Crane and Abbie
SLEEPY HOLLOW: Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison, R) helps Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie, L) discuss the details of the case on Monday’s (9/30) Sleepy Hollow, “For The Triumph of Evil.”
©2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownie Harris/FOX

Exploding Eyeball, Check

As Abbie and Crane leave the body, they engage in yet another ‘Abbie and Crane being the capitol-W-Witnesses of the coming apocalypse’ conversation.  There’s a little bit of regurgitating known information (God bless Winson and Beharie, because some of their lines could be cringe-inducing in lesser hands), in the end Abbie admits she doesn’t believe it yet; and Crane tells her she must stop being afraid and accept her fate.

So, yeah, that’s the episode’s theme.

So Crane and Abbie head to the Tarrytown (yes, that’s a real town) Psychiatric Hospital to see Abbie’s sister, because Crane knows that Abbie’s dream was prophetic and the Doctor Vega connection needs to be revealed (first they go watch videotapes of Doctor Vega in session with Abbie’s sister, before they decide, hey, we have a living person we can question).

We find out that Jenny is incarcerated for stealing $4000 worth of sporting goods and then insisting it was for the ‘end of days.’  Crane’s response: ‘Well, she’s sane, then,’ is one of many sparks of humor throughout the episode and gives us a glimpse of where the show could go—and how good it could be.

At the hospital, Jenny refuses to speak to Abbie, so Crane goes to talk to her by himself. After a few minutes of info-exchange, Jenny refuses to help, saying that her conscience is clear. Is Abbie’s?

SH Sister
Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison, L) speaks to Det. Abbie Mills’ sister, Jenny (guest star Lyndie Greenwood, R) in the Tarrytown Psychriatic Hospital.
©2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co. Photo: Brownie Harris/FOX

Come on, It’s Not Like You Weren’t Mean to Your Sister

Crane goes back and pressures Abbie: what did Jenny mean? Is her conscience clear??

Abbie—rather easily, unless the whole faceless-nightmare-monster shook her up way more than she let on—tells Crane that when they were brought in for questioning after seeing the Demon in the Woods (and if you’re wondering, why were two presumably abducted girls taken in for questioning instead of being taken somewhere warm and fed hot chocolate, and if they were brought in, why wasn’t the Sheriff there? Or Child Services? So are we, reader, so are we).

Anyway, when the sisters were brought in for questioning, Jenny continued to insist she had seen a demon—but Abbie, and their rescuer, Mr. Gillespie—lied and said they didn’t see anything. Abbie was scared of losing the first good foster home they’d had, and Mr. Gillespie was too busy playing small town hero.

Crane and Abbie decide they should talk to Mr. Gillepsie.

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SLEEPY HOLLOW: Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison, L), Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie, C) and Capt. Frank Irving (Orlando Jones, R) wait as Abbie ventures into hostage situation.
9;©2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownie Harris/FOX

Poor Mr. Gillespie, we hardly knew ya….

Handily, having just introduced him via flashback, we now head over to Mr. Gillespie’s home, where Mr. Gillespie is napping in his man-cave easy chair surrounded by bird houses. Clearly, the man has a terrible bird house problem.  A clatter wakes him up; he cuts himself on a nail, and the blood he wipes away leaves a creepy aboriginal symbol on the cloth. So, he’s obviously going to have some difficulties of the supernatural kind.

Back to the police station, Captain Irving pretends to be angry about a headless horseman prank as a way to…bond with Morales (he of the not-dating-Abbie-anymore fame)? Unclear. Orlando Jones does a great job with this character, we just wish (a) he’d be used more, and more logically (think Bobby to Sam and Dean…) (b) the whole Sheriff/Police thing gets cleared up.

So, he’s there when the call comes in: shots fired. And he goes. Even though the station is full of on-duty, not busy cops. Shouldn’t he be doing other things? Admittedly, all we know about police work we learned from Law & Order, but it seems like the guy in charge doesn’t usually go out on calls. By himself.

AND, he just got all buddy-buddy with the prank-playing cop. So it’s not like there isn’t someone right there to come along.

Still, when Abbie and Crane show up at Gillespie’s house, it’s a full-blown hostage crisis, so at least he wasn’t alone for long. Apparently, Gillespie, for unknown reasons, is holding his wife hostage and demanding to see Abbie. Abbie—still not in uniform—puts on a vest and goes in.

Does she have training in this? Is anyone even going to ask her that?

She goes in, and sure enough, Gillespie’s eyes have gone all white and milky and the scary-no-face-monster is there. He tells her they have to pay what they owe and that the next time she falls asleep, the Sandman will make her feel so guilty for her betrayal of her sister, killing herself will be the only option.

The faceless monster shows up, Gillespie shoots at him, Crane runs in to save Abbie; but before he can get there, Gillespie kills himself. That was pretty awesome, blood and stuff shooting up in the air in front of the kitchen window, Crane watching from outside.

No paperwork or anything after that. No shocked reaction to the top of someone’s head geyser up into the kitchen sink. No time!

Super-Secret-Meeting-Place: Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison, L) and Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie, R) discuss the Sandman and how to stop him. © 2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co. Photo: Brownie Harris/FOX
Super-Secret-Meeting-Place: Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison, L) and Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie, R) discuss the Sandman and how to stop him.
© 2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co. Photo: Brownie Harris/FOX

Who needs Google, with Crane Around?

Our heroes head back to the library, sorry, The Magic Box, no, not right either, sorry–the creepy records room via the secret tunnel no one has noticed Crane tore down a wall to get to.

One more side note: these are the worst police ever. Not only have they missed the GIANT HOLE in their wall leading to the creepy tunnels, they have also completely failed to notice that John Cho’s body is MISSING.

John Cho in Sleepy Hollow © 2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co.
John Cho in Sleepy Hollow. His heads on backwards because he’s DEAD. And just walked out of the least guarded morgue on the east coast. 
© 2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co.

Safely ensconced in the super-secret research room of solitude, Crane and Abbie begin to research Sandman myths. Never mind Abbie’s phone continues all the knowledge known to man…it’s the big musty books with no index that’ll have the answers.

Abbie stumbles across a bit of lore about a dream spirit, along with the now-familiar symbol that we saw on Gillespie’s bloody rag. It’s an old Mohawk legend, says Abbie, of a Sandman. Ro’kenhrontyes, they called him.

This sparks yet another eerily specific and crazy-helpful memory (with requisite flashback) from Crane. He then declares they need to find a shaman. Cue ‘things-are-different-now’ conversation, which is where Sleepy Hollow is really at its best: when they allow Crane to be amazed, annoyed and sometimes flabbergasted by all that is around him, and the changes and assumptions of the people in our day and age.

Abbie remembers one person who might be able to help, and off they go in search of the last Mohican (well they didn’t come out and say that, but…).

SLEEPY HOLLOW: Flashback of Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison, C) 'talking' with the Mohicans2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownie Harris/FOX
SLEEPY HOLLOW: Flashback of Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison, C) ‘talking’ with the Mohicans
2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co. CR: Brownie Harris/FOX

The Last Mohican

They find one, selling used cars—Wendel Clark (played by Philip DeVona).

And he was great (offering Crane a Delorean was a lovely little throwaway line. its lines like that, that make Sleepy Hollow have so much promise!); at first reluctant, he is convinced when Crane quotes the “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” which was a little heavy handed but, hey, worked!

Wendel just happens to have a fully equipped lodge just ready and waiting for some dream-warrior time. Got the tea all brewed up, cots all ready. Even has two random Native American bros to help out.

Tells Crane and Abbie that the only way out is to fight the dream spirit on the spirit realm, the dream plane. Win, and Abbie will be absolved. Lose, and she’ll die.

Abbie drinks the tea; Crane does as well. An endearing, nice moment between these two, who, with no words, show us their loyalty and gratitude.

The ritual requires, apparently, three parts: the tea (check); shirts off (hah, Crane apparently does not believe in manscaping and we say, good! Nice to see a hairy chest once in a while, and Abbie wears a sports bar, which is surprising, considering the amount of….lift happening when she has a shirt on), and wait a minute…scorpion bites.

Of course Wendel has scorpions. What self-respecting Native American car salesman/Shaman doesn’t?

Sandman Stalking SH
The Sandman, Sleepy Hollow’s newest Demon.
Originally published on adweek.com “A Visit to the Set of Sleepy Hollow”. Photo: Randall Slevin.

Dream a Little Dream of Me

So Crane and Abbie get bitten, and boom, instant dream world. They are, of course, separated, and as Crane races through the spirit-woods to find Abbie, she is being stalked by the Demon, who taunts her, and then, disappearing into a whirl of sand and dust, drags her….somewhere.

Crane, having discovered the dream plane version of the Sherriff station, makes his way to the interrogation room, where Abbie is being forced to watch her younger self betray her sister.

Crane attacks the demon, who fights him off—telling him, in a way heavy with foreshadowing, that Crane is not that demon’s problem to deal with.

Abbie realizes what she has to do: admit her wrongdoing, and her fear (ha, remember how we said, back in the beginning, there was a theme?? See, here it is, paying off.), and then says she isn’t afraid anymore.

The Sandman turns to glass, which Abbie shatters.

Her and Crane return to the real world, and the super-secret-records room to recuperate.

Except it’s not so super-secret, because Captain Irving shows up—since he has a key—and approves them using the room for the more ‘off-beat’ cases. He even says he’ll get them a key.

Abbie leaves Crane, saying she has to go talk to her sister (Poor Crane. I mean, how is he supposed to get home? Get dinner? Does he have any money? A phone? He definitely can’t drive…).

Don't worry, Ichabod, I'm sure she's coming back...eventually... Courtesy of Fox
Don’t worry, Ichabod, I’m sure she’s coming back…eventually…
2013 Fox. Broadcasting Co

Duh-Duh-Duuuuh

Abbie gets to her sister’s room (room 49, harkening back to Sheriff Corbin’s words the week before: Don’t fear 49.) and of course, sis has boogied out. Abbie orders the hospital locked down, and then discovers the open venting hidden by the ceiling tiles. Begrudging respect wars with annoyance.

All in all this was the strongest episode of the bunch. Fast paced, for the most part well-plotted. While some of the rules of the world lack consistency, and we still run into issues of Crane-knowing-everything-but-only-when-it’s-convenient–there were some scenes that felt awkward within the rest of the episode–for the most part the episode was a huge step forward. Here’s hoping next week is a big of a leap.

Keep posted next week for all the haps in the Hollow!

 

Sleepy Hollow airs on Fox, Monday nights at 9 p.m.