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Sleepy Hollow: Dead Men Tell No Tales

[This post also includes a review of the Bones episode "The Resurrection in the Remains."]

In a nutshell: Not bad at all.

I honestly had no idea how they could make a Bones/Sleepy Hollow crossover work, since Bones is a procedural that takes place in the so-called "real world" and Sleepy Hollow is sort of nuts, and isn't, and doesn't. But it was a fun crossover. It may have worked because Ichabod and Abbie went to Washington, DC in both episodes, and the Bones cast stayed where they were, where life was real. Plus it was Halloween, and the two episodes were connected with a general life-after-death theme. Although the Bones episode centered on a couple who played Flatliners in order to experience the hereafter, and the Sleepy Hollow episode was about Colonial zombies.

About the Bones episode, including spoilers:

The body of a medical student named Sarah Lippman was found under the floorboards in a church during prep for a Halloween kegger... on top of an iron coffin containing a headless 18th century British redcoat, which was of course why Ichabod and Abbie showed up. Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) automatically gravitated toward Abbie Mills, since they're both law enforcement, while Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Ichabod Crane, both brilliant oddballs, also clicked as a pair. Booth also knew and liked August Corbin, the Sleepy Hollow character played by Clancy Brown.

Turned out that the headless corpse was the body of General Howe, who appeared in flashback in the Sleepy Hollow episode "Whispers in the Dark." Our heroes found Howe's skull when they learned where the flatlining took place and how Sarah was killed, and Abbie and Ichabod eventually got Brennan to agree to send Howe's body to Sleepy Hollow.

I used to watch Bones because of David Boreanaz, but I stopped several years ago because it got repetitive and frankly, I find Brennan annoying. But I did like how she thought Ichabod and Abbie ought to be having a whole lot of sex, and the episode as a whole was gross and fun. Maybe it was David Boreanaz's one expression, or the number of years it has been since I watched Bones, but he looked bored and unhappy and I didn't see the chemistry with Brennan that I used to see. Has Bones gone on too long? Maybe nearly twenty years of doing three television series in a row is wearing him down.

And now back to your regularly scheduled Sleepy Hollow review.

I love Halloween episodes, and this was a good one. A costume party at a bowling alley, Colonial zombies at a mausoleum, and a huge battle in the streets. What's not to love?

Pandora started the ball rolling by stealing and reviving General Howe's body as it was coming into town. Zombie Howe raised his own dead soldiers from a mausoleum that was once used as British headquarters for the invasion of Manhattan. Flashbacks told us that General Washington actually ordered Ichabod to assassinate General Howe, but Ichabod failed. Probably because, being Ichabod, he had to stop and argue with the guy first.

Ichabod and Abbie went back to Washington DC to ask Bones and Booth to help them find Howe's original tomb under the Capital Building, and the four discovered a very Indiana Jones chamber that has active Greek fire. Greek fire kills Colonial zombies! Unfortunately, Greek fire also can't be extinguished, which caused a huge fire in New York City during the invasion.


Again, Booth spent time with Abbie, and Brennan with Ichabod. Crane's Masonic ring opened the tomb. My favorite moment was Ichabod quoting Star Wars: "Oh, my. I have a bad feeling about this." And Booth seemed a little more like Angel, probably because of the subterranean mystery. I liked that our two couples again discussed the mysteries of life after death.

Ichabod and Abbie left Bones and Booth in DC and returned to Sleepy Hollow, just in time for a very Buffy-like Halloween. Pandora, wearing what had to be her own very scary snakey face, walked around in the open among the trick-or-treaters with General Howe and his troop of undead British soldiers, who opened fire on the populace. Of course, Abbie and Ichabod were there to save them and draw the zombies into the tunnels, where Jenny and Joe were waiting with Ghostbusters-like Greek fire weapons to destroy them. Effects-heavy, but definitely a fun monster melee.

There was movement on the personal front. Ichabod, with a lot of encouragement from Abbie, decided it was time to move on from Katrina and date the adorable Zoe Corinth. It felt like it was meant to be during the opening bowling alley costume party in the opener, where only Zoe Corinth realized that Ichabod was dressed up as John Adams, and of course, Zoe came as a sexy Betsy Ross. (Jenny was a Mountie and Joe a dead doctor. What was Abbie? She looked like Daisy Duke but had a necklace with the word "Queen" on it.) Of course, it seems a lot more likely that Zoe Corinth will either (1) turn out to be evil, or (2) end up as cannon fodder, but maybe they won't go the predictable route.

And finally, Abbie's job at the FBI just intersected with Jenny and Joe and the Shard of Anubis, since Reynolds just put Abbie on his task force that is targeting Atticus Nevins (great name) and his antiquities smuggling ring.

Leaving us with some big questions. Was August Corbin working with Nevins, or against him? (I'm guessing 'against'.) Are we working up to flashbacks with Clancy Brown again, pretty please? And does Joe Corbin know Ichabod's full story? I don't think he does, even though he's on top of the supernatural stuff.

Bits and pieces:

-- On Bones: Loved the demon prescription lenses and the brain prank.

-- The Hudson Valley Historical Society is now Ichabod's official credential. Works for me because he really is a one-man historical society and it's a good name for the archives.

-- Ichabod was once a "leftenant" himself, under Howe.

-- As I've said before, Tom Mison rocks all of his costumes, but that John Adams costume was particularly gorgeous on him.

-- Loved Washington's empty Capital Building tomb. And the mausoleum. Gorgeous sets. Or locations. Whatever. It reminded me of the season one episode where we saw Washington's very cool secret tomb.

-- The Sleepy Hollow episode included a scene at "Mona's Fat Bottom Bait Shop." Best store name ever.

-- A pickleback chaser for rye whiskey. Gag.

-- Pandora's Treevil has come up with a red rose this time. What's that about?

-- The Twitter tag for this crossover was #HollowBones. Clever.

Quotes:

(From Bones)

Hodgkins: "Is there a cosplay competition going on that I wasn't invited to?"
Ichabod: "Do I look like I just beamed in from planet Vulcan?"
Has Ichabod seen Star Trek? Tell me Ichabod has seen Star Trek. I'd pay to watch Ichabod watching Star Trek.

Ichabod: "Oh, that is potent. I believe Franklin once gave me a similar concoction."
Abbie: "Benjamin Franklin invented 'Sex on the Beach'?"
Ichabod: "He called it 'Fondled in the Forest'."
Abbie: "Now you're just making things up."

(From Sleepy Hollow)

Abbie: "No matter what she became in the end, you cared about her. I mean..."
Ichabod: "Six years. We were husband and wife for six years. She taught me strength, resilience, and how to properly iron my vests."

Brennan: "I trust this will be a short visit. We have a five year old at home who still has alterations needed for her Jane Goodall costume."
Ichabod: "I seem to recall you have two children?"
Booth: "Her brother's going as a chimp."

Abbie: "A basement is never just a basement with the Masons."

Brennan: "Do you understand what this means?"
Booth: "George Washington is a complete bad ass?"
I liked that Booth shot the mystery lock instead of trying to solve it.

Abbie: "You're not worried about them."
Ichabod: "Hardly. Her skepticism's interminable. She'd dismiss Moloch as a tall man with a skin condition."

A surprisingly successful crossover, and since Brennan and Booth are now Skyping with Abbie and Ichabod, it could happen again if the ratings were good enough. Three out of four Ghostbusters-like Greek fire weapons,

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

5 comments:

  1. Loved Booth stumbling over the word "exsanguinated." You used to be a vampire, man. It was a really random idea for a crossover but it mostly worked. Like you, Billie, I haven't watched Bones in years.

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  2. Two shows that I no longer watch, but I was intrigued enough by the crossover idea to watch these two episodes. Bones is a shadow of its former self. Once populated by characters that were quirky and fun, it has devolved into actors just phoning it in. Shame.

    Sleepy Hollow, on the other hand, was fun. Tom Mison is wonderful and I loved watching him again. The story was a bit OTT for me, but I did like the special effects and the humor. The Sex on the Beach joke made me laugh out loud.

    I enjoyed these and thought they worked well together. Not an epic crossover event, but fun.

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  3. Abbie was meant to be Beyonce I'm told.

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  4. I haven't watched Bones for a few years either, but WOW the acting and direction have gotten to be capital-T TERRIBLE. And that's coming from someone who always liked David Boreanaz on BTVS/Angel and who doesn't mind the Deschanel sisters. The Bones actors couldn't even pretend to care, and the contrast with the very serious Sleepy Hollow actors made it all the more striking.

    Still, taken as a whole, it was pretty decent (for a stunt).

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  5. I meant to watch both of these episodes, but stalled out after watching the Bones one. Like many others have said, that show has really gone downhill since whenever I stopped watching.

    Fun fact: Malcolm David Kelley (Waaaaalt from Lost) was in the Bones episode. (He looks totally different now that he's a grownup.) Why is that a fun fact? Because Tamara Taylor, who plays Dr. Saroyan in the lab, played his mom on Lost.

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