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Sleepy Hollow: The Kindred

"Meet our new best friend."

Abbie and Katrina both think that Ichabod needs to be more focused on the mission. Maybe they're right.

We don't know much about Katrina, other than she's a witch and a Quaker and that Ichabod and Bram both love her. So far, she has been the least interesting character in the story, which isn't really her fault since Purgatory has put a serious crimp in her ability to interact with the other characters. I thought that making her a prisoner again as soon as she was freed was a mistake. But you know, maybe it wasn't.

Why did Katrina decide to stay with Bram? Was she telling Ichabod the truth, that she was willing to risk a horrible fate just to work the mission? How much of it was guilt about leaving her baby with the coven and a desire to save Henry? Bram was trying to make her jealous of Abbie, and I think Katrina is better than that — but honestly, even the most selfless of women would feel a twinge seeing her husband's intense closeness and devotion to another woman, especially a woman as strong, beautiful and interesting as Abbie. Plus Abbie was talking to Ichabod about how her short time in Purgatory got to her. What did two hundred years of it do to Katrina?

This is the first chance they've had to make Katrina a more complex character, and it appears that they're going for it. Wouldn't it be interesting if Katrina gradually became a villain? She would make a powerful enemy. I noticed the second time through the episode that Ichabod even said that a witch as powerful as Katrina could tip the balance of the war to either side.

Poor Frank. Not only did we not get his magical restoration to Sheriff-hood, he may have just signed his soul away — in blood, yet — to Moloch, via Henry Parrish. And I was so enjoying it up until that point, because we got yet another fun Supernatural callback — Frank telling the absolute truth in order to get himself committed to Jenny's alma mater, Tarrytown Psychiatric. I never even once thought about the fact that Frank is out of the loop with Henry, who is doing diabolical with such a twinkle in his eye. John Noble was delightful as Henry the helpful lawyer.

Was there a pen theme in this episode, maybe as in "the pen is mightier than the Horseman's sword?" There was Ichabod's pen-on-a-chain diatribe in the bank, too, which I loved because any scene that includes Ichabod's caustic interpretation of modern life makes me happy. And the "wedding industry." And that credit cards are turning us into "an insolvent flock of debtors."

I'm also enjoying the Benjamin Franklin flashbacks. Yes, a "Franklin-stein" monster is, shall we say, far fetched, but if any of our Founding Fathers would have been into the reanimation of dead tissue, it would have been Franklin. (Or possibly Jefferson the inventor. I wonder if we're going to get Jefferson flashbacks at some point?)


I was thinking the obvious, that this Kindred thing wouldn't turn out well. And then it did. The Kindred not only "survived" the episode and fought both Horsemen to a draw, it also rescued Abbie. I like it when I'm surprised. Since it's off somewhere with Bram's head, I'm sure we'll be seeing it again.

Finally, we have Sheriff Reyes, the mean new sheriff in town, and she's acting just the way Frank Irving initially did last season when confronted with a rash of beheadings (must be a drug cartel). Reyes caught Jenny with the weapons cache and put her in prison, because our heroes need another challenge. And Reyes knew Abbie and Jenny's mother. They couldn't be hinting any more strongly that crazy Mama Mills is going to show up soon. (Yes, I know she's been cast.)

The season premiere focused on Ichabod and Abbie. This one was mostly about the supporting cast. Made sense.

Bits:

-- The Beetlejuice credits are back, and even though I disliked them at first, they've grown on me. Lyndie Greenwood and John Noble have credit cards now, too.

-- The moody, dark photography on this show is special. The opening nightmare sequence was gorgeous.

-- Sheriff Reyes found Jenny in the Archives. What will our heroes do without the Archives? It's the Sunnydale High library. And did anyone else think about Buffy and Angel and their sewer talks when Ichabod and Abbie were searching for the Kindred in the tunnels?

-- Ichabod pronounced the incantation incorrectly the first time, and it didn't work. That thought has occurred to me when someone on Buffy or Supernatural did an incantation. Fun.

-- Has anyone else noticed that sometimes there are white lights flashing on and off in Henry's eyes?

-- Benjamin Franklin was flirting with Katrina in the flashback. Very in character.

-- Reyes threatened Frank with drugs and shock therapy. Very unnecessarily mean.

-- Bats again, this time in the secret tunnels. Bats symbolize death and rebirth. Appropriate, since we have a lot of that going on.

-- Katrina said that according to the Apocryphals, the Witnesses won't die at the hands of the Horsemen.

-- Bram's estate is in Willow Point, which is now Dobbs Ferry.

Quotes:

Ichabod: "This is undoubtedly what Abraham has in mind for Katrina."
Abbie: "Not exactly up to Martha Stewart standards."
Ichabod: "Martha who?"
Abbie: "She's big in the wedding industry."
Ichabod: "Wedding 'industry'? So the blessed rite between a man and a woman..."
Abbie: "...has become a billion dollar business, and some great guilty pleasure TV."

Sheriff Reyes: "We are going to bring some sanity back to this town."
Good luck with that.

Abbie: "This is insane!"
Ichabod: "Much of my life can be characterized under those auspices."

Ichabod: "Thomas Jefferson once said, 'Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies'."
Abbie: "Just stand in line and go with the flow."
Ichabod: "Two statements which mean the opposite."
Abbie: "You founded a country. Figure it out."

Ichabod: "These people entrust you with their fortunes, yet you cannot trust them with a simple inkwell?"

Abbie: "It's nice to know that even a man from the eighteenth century won't ask for help with directions."

Abbie: "Do we need to light candles or something?"
Ichabod: "Only if you wish to set a mood."

Three out of four rather large safety deposit boxes,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

3 comments:

  1. One of the best parts of this episode is the expressions from Abbie when Ichabod talks about rescuing Katrina. Whenever, he brings up the "importance" of releasing Katrina, as an asset to use against their enemies, because she's this powerful witch, you can totally read the look on abbie's face as " yeah right, dude if you want your girl back you don't have embellish" .. We've yet to see how powerful she is, given her knack for getting captured so easily, and serving as a distraction from more urgent dangers they face.
    I honestly don't see any need for her character. They should have had her killed off early in the past, before ichabod was risen in the present, and just used her death as motivation for vengeance. The writers seem to keep trying to find new ways to ways to keep her character around, but for no real purpose..

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  2. I spent last season believing that all the Katrina character did was keep Ichabbie apart. This episode, however, may have changed my mind.

    While I believe that the actress is the weakest of the bunch (and, wow, but do Mison and she have zero chemistry), I would like to see Crane's wife become a villain as well. Poor man -- both his wife and son? Could be a great season ender...

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  3. Well, I like Katrina, so I hope she doesn't turn villain (or isn't one already). For the moment, I believe in her devotion to Crane. Maybe I shouldn't, because we do have lots of evidence that she lied and kept huge honking secrets from him. (Is Katrina a Quaker? I've got my doubts about that. I think that was maybe a cover she was using to get access to Cicero. Other than that one episode, we haven't seen much evidence that she's anything of the sort.) It seems like she's always been pretty hip to the bigger picture, and she may have gone after Ichabod for "grand destiny" reasons. If so, I hope it was for the side of good, because he's certainly devoted to her (yes, possibly to the detriment of the larger cause at times), and I would hate for him to get hurt if she's being untrue.

    That twist with Frank was devastating. I was so upset! And after being so happy to see him again! What horrors await him now? Is he going to suffer Brooks' fate? Argh!

    Bits: I've definitely noticed the thing with Henry's eyes. I started wondering this episode if John Noble has a glass eye or something. And can I just say how much I love when Ichabod rants against the commercialism and industries that create the funding for this show? It tickles me to no end.

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