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Sleepy Hollow: And the Abyss Gazes Back

Ichabod: "I've been researching modern wood-dwelling monsters: Chupacabra, Sasquatch, one Smokey Bear..."

Scary organ-eating monster wendigo in the woods, okay. But was anyone else thinking about a chaos demon that was all slime and antlers? And the curse was broken in the end, even though the rules said it was too late once he'd made that final transformation. Oh, well.

I was a bit sad that our wonderful Sheriff Corbin's son Joe was so petty and foolhardy that he joined the Marines to get back at his father for having a father-daughter relationship with Abbie. And Joe hadn't changed much in the end, when he could have asked to join their epic fight against evil in Sleepy Hollow, but instead asked Abbie for a recommendation for Quantico, transparent one-upsmanship. At least the casting was perfect, because Joe did look like Clancy Brown. And maybe Joe will finally grow up at Quantico.

While the monster-of-the-week was disappointing, the man-out-of-time stuff as Ichabod was "learning to relax" was golden, and the dialogue was so witty that it was Buffy-level. Absolutely loved Ichabod doing yoga with the tee shirt and the loose hair, the discussion of buns and dogs, him blowing into the breathalyzer in Abbie's patrol car ("I do believe I won") and of course, getting fragged online. Tom Mison and the writers are doing such a wonderful job with Ichabod experiencing the 21st century that the entire episode could have been about yoga, beer and video games, and I would have been fine with it.

And the Frank subplot did supply us with our Sleepy Hollow ration of disturbing. It feels like Henry is carefully moving Frank closer to true evil with every episode, and unlike Joe, who didn't know what had happened to him, Frank is seriously considering going all the way down the rabbit hole with full knowledge of what he is doing and what it will cost him. Who would put Frank in the same facility as the man who ran down his daughter? Could that Everett guy be any more of an asshole? He didn't even remember Macey's name.

Ichabod finally admitted that he loves Henry and wants to save him, but Henry's evil hijinks have reached epic proportions and I'm starting to doubt that Henry is redeemable, after all. He used the bone from the Pied Piper to transform Joe Corbin, and now he's using the jincan to poison Katrina. Creepiest bottle ever, and that spider going into Katrina's mouth made me shudder. Much scarier than slime and antlers.

Bits and pieces:

-- This week's flashback was to Daniel Boone in 1778, but there was nothing on the mighty Wikipedia about a hat covering his scars. And Daniel Boone didn't wear a coonskin cap; it was a television invention.

-- Ichabod is still living in Corbin's cabin, isn't he? Does it now belong to Joe?

-- Hawley had Shawnee contacts, but Ichabod won them over. Hawley kept trying to one-up Ichabod like they were kids. Hawley was also looking at Abbie like he wanted to jump her. I thought he was into Jenny?

-- Ichabod's online handle was "IchabodCrane1749."

-- Ichabod called a motorcycle a "single person automobile."

-- May I mention yet again that cutting nearly any other part of your body is less painful than cutting your hand? Abbie did the hand thing, and then Ichabod did it, too. I love when they do the "we're partners in everything" bit, though.

-- Okay, Supernatural reference.

Quotes:

Ichabod: "I find yoga neither soothing nor relaxing, made more uncomfortable still by discussion of my... double jug."
Abbie: "Okay. For the record, 'double jug' is much weirder than 'buns'."
Ichabod: "Please refrain from further use of that word."

Ichabod: "War does not permit us the luxury of dwelling on personal matters, nor indeed the downward facing of our dogs."

Abbie: "He used to wear these Superman pajamas and jump onto me from the couch screaming, 'I'll save you!'"
Ichabod: "Once a hero, always a hero. I'm sure young Corbin will find his way. Superman is... Peter Parker? No, no no no no, that's the arachnid fellow."

Frank: "I'm not a monster like you."
Henry: "Those who fight monsters should see to it that in the process, they do not become one. When one gazes long enough into the abyss, the abyss gazes back, doesn't it, Captain?"

Ichabod: "How is it that the man who settled Kentucky is remembered by the modern world as the guy with the raccoon on his head?"
Abbie: "Probably because he wore a raccoon on his head."
Ichabod: "Very rarely. Daniel much preferred beaver pelt."
Abbie: "As much I'd like to debate the variety of rodent hats that existed in your day, could we please refocus?"

Hawley: "You had me at 'secret Masonic cell'."

Ichabod: "The man who cursed you, Henry Parrish, is my son. Needless to say, he's going through a rebellious phase."

Ichabod: (to the video game) "You shotten herring. You are a scurvy louse. You are a slop bucket. You are a puss sludge no good by blow pair of … buns!"
Abbie: "Are you gaming online?"
Ichabod: "I'm not entirely sure. One thing I know is that my allies and I had just obliterated the largest horde of rabid zombies I'd ever encountered and then suddenly, out of nowhere, ChiefWiggum49 and HaloIsMyBitch12 decided to frag me."

Two out of four bottles of goo for Joe and the monster stuff, but four out of four for the very Buffy dialogue and Ichabod learning modern forms of relaxation,

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

14 comments:

  1. I am glad that I am not the only one who picked up on the Chaos monster reference. And after the episode finished, I was ready to watch it again for all the fun/witty references. Crane with long loose hair - le sigh. Well done guys, well done!

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  2. Agree that while the MotW was a bit off, Crane doing yoga and playing online was worth the price of admission.

    Loved that ad. The scrolling list of things to potentially cause law suits was inspired.

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  3. I LOVED that ad! That was all kinds of awesome! I need to watch it again and jot down the potential law suits, because what I saw made me laugh.

    Completely agree about the episode. Wasn't much into the MotW. And, we've gotten two episodes in a row where the MotW was someone from either Ichabod's or Abbie's pasts.

    Frankly, if they want to dredge up the past, I'd be more interested in finding out what happened to Abbie's mother as opposed to some random guy who happens to be Corbin's son. I really don't care about the antagonism he had toward Abbie, because I don't know him.

    But, Ichabod "beating" the breathalyzer, doing yoga, having loose flowing hair, getting fragged on an online game? More of that, please!

    (And more hilarious ads like this!)

    Kat

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  4. I paused and wrote down the list of potential law suits. And, I wrote them as they are written on it:

    Injured in a horrific accident?

    Accused of a crime you didn't commit?

    Tortured by the monsters of society?

    Rear-ended by a drunk driver?

    Lost your head in an ancient battle?

    Cursed into becoming a wendigo?

    Dry cleaners bloodied your clothes?

    Neighbors music convincing you to kill?

    Body part taken for scientific experiment?

    Possessed daughter murdered a priest?

    Your luggage lost in time by airline?

    Obnoxious coven buried you alive?

    Succubus attempted to suck your soul?

    Pesky demon pushing you to suicide?

    Sliced up by the sword of Methuselah

    Pentagram painted on your house?

    Property stolen by sadistic cult members?

    Pizza delivered in over 30 minutes? (This one's my favorite law suit!)

    Swallowed someone's poisonous spider?

    Accidentally signed your name in blood?

    Concussed by grocery stores can goods?

    Your son's doll blamed for murder?

    Attacked by faceless nightmare man?

    Framed for the murder of art restorer?

    Priceless ashes stolen by dark coven?

    Hallucinating demons in the woods?

    Divorcing wife who's really a witch?

    Put to sleep for over 250 years?

    Run off the road by headless driver?

    Got food poisoning from sin eating?

    (Ha!)

    Kat

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  5. Yeah, I don't even watch this show, but that list had me laughing out loud. I love how it starts out with the ones you always hear in the bus bench lawyer ads, then progresses into the supernatural blowback. I think "Your son's doll blamed for murder?" may be my favorite.

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  6. Jess, at least three-quarters of what they listed has actually happened on the show already. Including "Your son's doll blamed for murder".

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  7. Too funny! I'm probably going to have to try this one at some point. It seems to have a lot of things about it that I would enjoy. Including John Noble doing what John Noble does best. :)

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  8. Jess, you know what I'm going to say -- definitely, please do try Sleepy Hollow. I hadn't planned on reviewing it, but it was so good that I couldn't help myself. The two leads, Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie, are wonderful together, and John Noble is definitely doing what he does best.

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  9. Has anyone tried calling that number in the ad?

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  10. Pucklady, it's a 555 number so it probably doesn't work.

    914-555-0129

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  11. That list is hilarious!

    Just like last week, I have to point out that Grimm also did an episode about a Wendigo (To Protect and Serve Man) during Season 2, in addition to Supernatural and now, Sleepy Hollow. I guess some legends are just too obvious not to use!

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  12. TV Guide, in its November 10 issue, did a short blurb about how many shows have used a Wendigo. Starting with shows that have used it in the past (The X-Files, Charmed, Supernatural, and Grimm), it points out that four shows (Teen Wolf, The Blacklist, Sleepy Hollow, and Hannibal) have used it recently.

    From the article:
    Bryan Fuller, Hannibal's executive producer, thinks the creature's current popularity probably comes from its roots in (Native) America. "There's a home-turf appeal," he says, "as opposed to, say, Dracula or the Mummy, which are more international."

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  13. Okay, so "some point" is now, and I love the list from the ad even more! I still think "your son's doll blamed for murder" is my favorite. Especially now that I know it ties back to the world's ugliest doll. Too funny!

    Re: this episode --- the MOTW plot didn't do much for me, but agreed on the casting of young Mr. Corbin, the spider in the mouth, and on the delightful opening with Abbie and Ichabod doing yoga. I particularly like how it started out funny and then settled into a very genuine moment of support and friendship. Abbie encouraging Ichabod to express how he felt about the latest turns in the Katrina situation was lovely.

    I really loved the "variety of rodent hats" line. The way she delivered it was just hilarious.

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