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Sleepy Hollow: Necromancer

Andy Brooks: "Consider yourself warned."
Ichabod: "Considered."

Well, he did warn them.

The once again free-range Horseman has a name now: Abraham, or Bram for short. (A nice name with vampiric associations.) And he has a backstory, too, as Katrina's original fiance. We even found out why Katrina is being held prisoner. Katrina has been pretty much in character purgatory until now, as well as actual Purgatory. Not any more, I assume.

I thought the backstory might have been a bit more effective if we'd met Bram before this episode, though. It would have given Bram's jealousy and desire for revenge possibly a bit more oomph. I was also wondering, why Bram? Were the demons just taking any old dead guy on the battlefield and making him a Horsemen of the Apocalypse? You'd think a Horseman would be pretty high on the Moloch organizational chart, that someone would have to work his way up to be a Horseman. Is there something else we don't know yet about Bram?

We still don't know why Moloch doesn't want Ichabod dead, either. I'm getting curious.

This was yet another terrific episode for Ichabod and Abbie, together as well as apart. Just like blowing out the candles in the heads last week, she didn't so much as flinch when she was working on Andy, touching his dead, icky hand and smiling with just the right amount of friendly concern and not getting anywhere near inappropriate seductiveness. Ichabod showed sensitivity toward women that I liked; he was quite aware of Katrina's lack of options back in the day because she was a woman. And there was the fist bump. Gotta love the fist bump.

This was a big episode for Captain Frank Irving, whom I am starting to like in a great big way. Everything he says is funny and/or witty, and I love how well he's coping with weirdness — this week, exploding demons, very Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He partnered surprisingly well with Jenny, too. He was in serious danger twice in this episode and I was worried. Please don't write him out, Sleepy Hollow Powers That Be.

This week in Revolutionary history:

-- Jefferson designed the prison chamber. Well, he was an inventor.

-- What was that spinning glass wheel thing that guy was playing the flashback? Absolutely gorgeous. In fact, the costumes in that flashback party were lovely. And Ichabod did pick the right necklace for Katrina.

-- There was a Declaration of Resolves in 1774. Live and learn.

Bits and pieces:

-- Adams the shopkeeper is one of the good guys. Those secret chambers always made me think of Young Frankenstein. Put … the candle … beck.

-- John Cho did a great job channeling the Horseman.

-- Poor Andy Brooks had that horrible thingy inside his body. Like Castiel and the angel tablet. Ick.

-- TAC teams at every entrance? They have that kind of police firepower in Sleepy Hollow?

-- The credits aired fifteen minutes into the story. Alias used to do that. You could never tell when they were coming.

Quotes:

Ichabod: "Fist bump. Makes no sense."

Frank: "I can hardly believe Jefferson foresaw holding a headless man prisoner."
Ichabod: "He foresaw holding the worst type of demons that may walk the earth. A product, no doubt, of his years trying to reason with the French."

Frank: "Last I heard, he was dead."
Abbie: "Rules on that status have gotten a little bendy."

Frank: "A dead guy, a mental patient, and a time traveler from the Revolution."
Abbie: "That's our team."

Abbie: "She dumped her fiance for you. Wow, you got some game."
Ichabod: "I neither wanted, nor did I invite, 'game'."

Frank: "Wait here."
Jenny: "You're kidding."

Frank: "Check your math, Adolf."

Not as wonderful as last week's, but very enjoyable. Three out of four fist bumps, of course,

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

8 comments:

  1. Not as good as last week, but still really good. I had a lot of the same thoughts you did: the Alias-esque timing of the credits, Crane making the absolute right choice of necklace for Katrina, the randomness of Crane's buddy becoming the horseman.

    I didn't get that Orlando Jones' name was Irving before. Cute nod to the original story. In the story, Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt was Crane's rival for Katrina's affections (but not his friend).

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  2. That Irving thing didn't occur to me until last week, too. I haven't read the original story in years. My cousin was a bit perturbed at how radically they've changed it; she's a bit of a purist.

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  3. I was struck with a real Buffy vibe this week. When we saw Crane, Abbie, Irving, and Jenny all standing in the prison together, I thought, 'Oh, here is the Sleepy Hollow Scooby gang.' I like the way they all interact as a group and individually. Agreed that I would like to see this group continue for a while.

    The backstory worked for me, even though Crane's friend being the Horseman seemed a tad contrived. I love the flashback scenes.

    Although romantic triangles can sometimes be all too much, the Abbie/Crane/Katrina one works. On the one hand, we have the couple who defied all convention at the time to marry because they were so in love. However, that was centuries ago and the chances that they can remain together are slim.

    On the other hand, we have this fantastic partnership and friendship, which is clearly becoming something very important to both parties. The look on both Crane's and Abbie's faces as the episode ended was simply wonderful -- resignation combined with trepidation.

    And, as you say, Billie, gotta love the fist bump.

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  4. "What was that spinning glass wheel thing that guy was playing the flashback?"

    That was an armonica, sometimes called a "glass harmonica". The mechanical version shown in the episode was invented by Benjamin Franklin.

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  5. You're funny, Billie.

    I love how the group is coming together...Abbie's "That's our team" quote was my favorite.

    The Horseman is much more interesting (and scarier) to me now that I know he was once a real person. I had the same thoughts about Bram. They should have introduced him sooner, although it might have taken the surprise out of it. I was very surprised!

    There was only one thing that bothered me...Haven't they ever heard of a generator? ? Last week, when they trapped the Horseman with the UV light, I thought "I hope they set up a generator in case the power goes out"! OK, maybe they had a busy week, but it bugged me that no one thought of taking a run to Home Depot to grab a generator when the power went out instead of just standing around watching him slowly regain his strength. Or, at least, couldn't Irving use his position to get the power company to make them a priority for repairs?

    Otherwise, this was one of my favorite episodes so far.

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  6. I yelped with laughter at the French quote:

    "He foresaw holding the worst type of demons that may walk the earth. A product, no doubt, of his years trying to reason with the French."

    Otherwise, I am just in love with this show. Sure there are giant plot holes but I don't care. It's been a long time since I saw a show that I really, really liked.

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  7. This one irked a bit. Not only was the Horseman turning out to be Ichabod's old buddy and romantic rival "a tad contrived," as Chris put it, the character behavior really pushed up against the boundaries of the "characters believably acting stupid" zone for me. It's a big pet peeve of mine when characters make stupid or irrational decisions for plot-based reasons, not character-based ones. And the whole setup for why Brooks was in the cell with the Horseman just felt like smart characters being stupid because that's what the plot needed. "Considered," my ass.

    I can buy that Ichabod would initially want to question the enemy, but he's a very smart man, and I have trouble believing he'd view putting Moloch's henchmen together as an acceptable calculated risk under these circumstances. They weren't in a desperate situation that required immediate intel. So why throw caution to the wind and stick Brooks in there? Especially after ALL those VERY CLEAR warnings that Brooks couldn't be trusted and would have to do Moloch's bidding! And it seems to me that Abbie would have tried a bit harder to talk sense into Ichabod on this one. Maybe we're supposed to chalk it up to them feeling overconfident after their success trapping Death, but it just didn't ring true to me that they would be so stupid here.

    Plus, like M said, why didn't anyone notice the obvious flaw in their UV lights plan sooner? As soon as I saw that the lights were intended to be an ongoing part of holding the Horseman captive, my first thought was "Seriously? What happens if the power goes out?" Come on, writers. Let the smart people be smart.

    All that said, I'm glad the Scoobie Gang is really coming together, and the fist bump moment was very funny.

    So much for Katrina being a Quaker. Was that just a cover identity, or a writing inconsistency? I'm confused.

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