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Sleepy Hollow: What Lies Beneath

"To use the common vernacular, Jefferson unfriended me."

Another day in Sleepy Hollow, and another Founding Father.

If there's anything they've introduced so far that I wished they'd keep around permanently, it was that hologram of Thomas Jefferson. It would have been nice for Ichabod to have a friend from his own time that isn't Katrina, plus Jefferson was one of our most interesting, brilliant and complicated founding fathers. I would have particularly enjoyed Jefferson and Abbie having a long conversation about Sally Hemings, because you know she would have brought it up.

But I could just feel that the Fenestella and its contents weren't going to make it past this episode. All that information and foreknowledge would have amounted to major future plot spoilers, wouldn't it?

Ichabod and Abbie again spent the entire episode together, and they were again completely in tune — that nothing was more important than the lives of innocent people, even a secret chamber full of valuable Witness lore. I thought it was apt that our Witnesses again discussed what has been bothering fans of the show, which is that they don't know exactly what they're fighting now, other than miscellaneous unaligned evil.

Fortunately or unfortunately, that evil is slowly coalescing around Henry, who may have just recruited Katrina. Henry visited Katrina in a dream and brought her blackened roses with thorns, just like a little boy proudly bringing his mommy a fistful of dandelions. (And especially fitting, since Katrina blackened a flower herself in the previous episode.) Henry told Katrina that he killed Moloch for "our kind" and it was time to begin their work. Who else knew that Katrina would wake up with the roses still there, and blood on her hand from the thorns? Everybody?

Frank Irving's situation was finally explained, and it was so sad. He knows he is Henry's creature and used a charm to briefly become himself again so that he could provide financially for Cynthia and Macey. Points to Jenny for picking up on it, and for helping Frank take care of his family. It was a nice reminder of all that Jenny sacrificed to protect Abbie. It also makes Frank a wild card in whatever season-ending conflict we're approaching. Not to mention interesting confirmation that Katrina hadn't lied about the state of Frank's soul.

Finally, they introduced another ally, Pulitzer-winning journalist Calvin Riggs (Sharif Atkins from ER). Five minutes with the guy and I liked him much better than Hawley. Calvin was aware that Sleepy Hollow isn't a normal town, and I'm intrigued by the idea of him possibly reporting some of this craziness. What could he report, and how could he prove it?

Sleepy Hollow usually reminds me of Supernatural, as I've mentioned in nearly every review, but this time it was more Whedonesque. There were the Hellmouthy references and a second library. "What Lies Beneath," the title of this episode, immediately made me think of "From beneath you it devours" (or "It eats you, starting with your bottom"). The tunnel scenes always remind me of Buffy and Angel, anyway. And there were Reavers, too. Are they just borrowing liberally from existing sources as well as Colonial history?

Bits and pieces:

-- There was a flashback in which Ichabod gave Jefferson his opinion on where to put a particular section of the Declaration. Very cute.

-- ... But the founding fathers lived in different colonies/states and it stretches the bounds of coincidence for Ichabod to have known so many of them so well, even with Washington's sponsorship. Maybe they should stick with the ones introduced instead of continuing to bring in new ones?

-- I liked the thingies in the Fenestella that looked like blue power cords. Sort of spiritual power cords?

-- Ichabod's hair is heading into Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans range. I love it.

-- Where's Headless, by the way? He's been gone for quite awhile.

Quotes:

Abbie: "Gotta say, kinda sick of heading down small dark spaces."
Ichabod: "I was the one buried alive."

Ichabod: "Uncommon men prize uncommon words."

Abbie: "By the way, you guys are the ones who put freedom of the press in the Constitution."
Ichabod: "Well, we did not predict the twenty-four-hour news cycle."

Jefferson: "We both outlived our expectations. And Adams."

The coolest Founding Father factoid, and I've probably mentioned it elsewhere, is that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day and their last words were of each other. And it was on July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after the Declaration of Independence.

Frank: "I lost my job. I lost my soul. I lost my family!"
Sigh.

Ichabod: "All that knowledge lost. But I suppose we have the internet."

Ichabod: "As you have so aptly put it before, I've got this."

Only two more episodes, and no word yet on renewal. Three out of four uncommon words,

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

1 comment:

  1. I was really disappointed that they didn't do a better job with continuity in the Jefferson/Ichabod relationship. There was the joke in the first season that they had been friends and Ichabod had been shocked to learn about Sally Hemings and very disappointed when he realized that Jefferson had appropriated more than one of his quips as his own.

    I kept expecting Jefferson to be evil or the whole thing to be a trap or a test. It just seemed way to convenient for a magical encyclopedia to appear with everything they needed. It was obvious to me that they weren't going to sacrifice the lives of other people for anything, even answers to the apocalypse.

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