Sleepy Hollow S02E09 – “Mama”
Fake! This is faker than that “Moon landing” footage the government released!
Sleepy Hollow “Mama”
Written by Damian Kindler
Directed by Wendey Stanzler
Just wait until we find out our dad is also a ghost!
Sleepy Hollow raises the bar this season with a disturbingly great episode that features some frank depictions of mental illness and suicide, in addition to having demons and ghosts running around. Somehow the balancing act works just fine, and the added heart-string tugs of Abbie and Jenny’s mom being one of the ghosts leads to some great bonding and background information about the Mills sisters.
What we do know of Abbie and Jenny’s mom before this episode wasn’t much. We know she has issues and was eventually committed to an asylum (the responding officer has become the new Sheriff), and Abbie and Jenny were then dumped into the foster system, leading to their rift. We know she had died, I can’t remember if it was specifically stated that she killed herself, but I think so. And because of all the strange and spooky stuff that has happened on the series, it is understood if not specifically stated that she might have been less crazy than it seemed. That turns out to be true, and we get to see a whole lot more of Lori Mills, including interactions with her daughters as they grew up as well as the spectral version running around the asylum.
My favorite part of this episode is them instantly recognizing what this random jumble means!
Patient bodies are piling up at Tarrytown, the psychiatric hospital that Frank Irving is currently staying at and Jenny Mills and Lori Mills are former patients of. Three bodies in three days, all of which are suicides. Abbie is specifically assigned by Sheriff Reyes because of her knowledge of dealing with weird events, as demonstrated by the doomsday cult she helped bring in. Her family connection to the place is also a plus, and it means Jenny will be along to help, as she’s familiar with the location.
Ichabod is MIA because he has a cold, which leads to some cute character moments and him mentioning that he fought at Saratoga while having dysentery. But he’s no match for being sneakily drugged by Nick Hawley, who tags along. A view of the video of the latest suicide shows the room wasn’t empty when he died, there was someone in the corner. Thanks to the magic of the cameras having a night view mode (Enhance! ENHANCE!) we see the ghost of Lori Mills chanting in the corner!
Why did mom want us to watch this video of a cat playing a keyboard???
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Sleepy Hollow S02E04 – “Go Where I Send Thee…”
Yes, Ichabod, contaminate the bone evidence of murder with your DNA!
Sleepy Hollow “Go Where I Send Thee…”
Written by Damian Kindler
Directed by Doug Aarniokoski
Frank Irving is trapped in a generic movie poster!
If there is one thing Sleepy Hollow is good for, it’s providing completely crazy monster scenarios. This weeks episode, “Go Where I Send Thee…”, is a prime example, thanks to a demonic Pied Piper who dates back to the Revolutionary War. How often do you see demonic Pied Pipers on your television screen? And yet, Sleepy Hollow does so brazenly, and it fits right in with their on-going mythos, to the point where no one is batting an eye!
The Pied Piper is the monster of the week, and he’s kidnapping a young girl as part of a family curse that has been happening for generations. Like all the prior family curses on Sleepy Hollow, it all dates back to the Revolutionary War period. Fake Revolutionary Daniel Forbes Lancaster (who Ichabod explains joined the rebellion only after it was apparent the Colonials would win) had a British detachment of troops staying in his house, which got a little too grabby with his daughters. So he hired a local demonic Pied Piper assassin to kill them. I guess back in the 1700s, you could just hire demonic fairy tale assassins with relative ease. In any event, after the Pied Piper slayed all the troops (in super fast cool knife fighting moves!), Daniel Lancaster has the demonic Pied Piper shot with arrows and dumped in a lake. This betrayal doesn’t end well, because demonic powered assassins tend to not stay dead, and he returns every generation to abduct a female member of the Lancaster family on her 10th birthday.
First of all, why would you betray a demon-powered assassin? That’s just looking for trouble. Secondly, why would you betray one with a Pied Piper theme, since the town’s betrayal of the Pied Piper in the original tale ended badly? It’s like he’s too stupid and arrogant to learn the morals of these fairy tales. And the Lancaster family now has trouble for generations. Good going, moron!
Look, there are a thousand variations of “Abbie gives Ichabod a bone” jokes I could make, or I could go so meta I’m beyond the joke while still making it. I choose the latter!
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Categories: Television Reviews Tags: Damian Kindler, Doug Aarniokoski, Francie Swift, John Noble, Matt Barr, Nicole Beharie, Orlando Jones, Sleepy Hollow, Tom Mison
Sleepy Hollow S01E12 – “The Indispensable Man”
Hello, boils and ghouls! I cannot tell a lie, this week’s Tales From the Crypt will be spooktacular!
Sleepy Hollow “The Indispensable Man”
Teleplay by Damian Kindler and Heather V. Regnier
Story by Sam Chalsen
Directed by Adam Kane
Newcomer? I’ve been here since the pilot!
It’s the two-hour Sleepy Hollow Season Final Spectacular! The two episodes are not two parts, but two separate episodes that are merged together for a two-hour long finale. A few lines from the two episodes hint that they might have had an idea that the last two would be combined, but there isn’t much more than that. So I’m pretty comfortable with giving them separate entries, because that’s how they’ll appear most often.
All your questions will be answered….Okay, not really. But we learn a lot of stuff, realize we should have picked up on a lot more, and get cliffhangered the frak up until next season. But before all that, things first got to get crazypants!
The big deal in The Indispensable Man is we learn about the mystery of George Washington writing diary entries after he’s dead. Turns out, he’s Zombie George Washington! And that’s far from the weirdest thing that happens in this episode of Sleepy Hollow. It’s not even the weirdest phrase, which goes to “Many a mickle makes a muckle”, which is both real and going into my vocabulary even though I’ll rarely have a use for it!
I’ll make you headless in more place than one!
There are charming moments, such as Ichabod Crane learning to use a cell phone. Ichabod leaves outgoing voicemail messages like my mom, and takes to texting like my mom. Basically, Ichabod is my mom. Ichabod gets caught up in the phone upgrading hype, even after delivering a gigantic speech about the evils of lassie-faire capitalism run amok. So instead of my mom, Ichabod is now a bunch of people I knew in college. Ichabod really gets around! Of course, now Ichabod can be using map apps on his phone (and does!), talks about social networks, and even chats to his virtual assistant. Who is about as helpful as the real Siri, which means not helpful at all and Ichabod gets annoyed with her. No Her romance for Ichabod!
Just wait until you see John Adams’ tomb!
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Sleepy Hollow S01E09 – “Sanctuary”
Ichabod Crane IS Paul Bunyan, this fall on Fox!
Sleepy Hollow “Sanctuary”
Written by Damian Kindler and Chitra Elizabeth Sampath
Directed by Liz Friedlander
Bad Swamp Thing! NO!
Sleepy Hollow becomes Creepy Hollow with this haunted house entry, featuring handheld camera scares that resemble a found footage movie. A huge chunk of the episode takes place with characters trapped in a haunted house and menaced by a monster Scarecrow, but as this is Sleepy Hollow, we also get some awesome character moments, introduced to some more supporting cast members who will definitely be around for episodes to come, and even throw a new mystery twist on top of the already sky high pile.
Some of the coolest X-Files episodes were the monster episodes. The creatures were unique and diverse, and it helped break up the conspiracy mythology of the show turning everything too depressing. Sleepy Hollow has improved on that format, with the monster episodes that are tied into overall story arcs, without the story development becoming the focus or a distraction. The monster here not only menaces today, but has its origins in Ichabod’s time, and even reveals a connection to Abbie.
We fought a revolution and I can’t even get fresh fries???
Outside of the plot, Sleepy Hollow did more of what it is becoming known for, having multiple minority characters who have distinct personalities and aren’t just tools for the main character to use. Abbie and Ichabod are dual main characters, and Abbie’s sister Jenny is the cool tough breakout role that makes me long for Lyndie Greenwood’s name in the opening credits. Orlando Jones has gone from the “skeptic boss” archetype to a fully functional leader who has to deal with the Biblical Apocalypse happening in his town and trying to keep it under wraps so people don’t panic and so no one carts everyone off to the nut house.
Now, Jill Marie Jones and Amandla Stenberg (Rue from The Hunger Games!) join the cast, Jill Marie Jones as Captain Frank Irving’s ex-wife Cynthia Irving, and Stenberg as his daughter Macey. Macey is in a wheel chair due to something vaguely hinted at (but it is implied that Frank is to blame for not being there), and Cynthia is worried that Frank has practically stopped visiting his daughter, and is threatening taking full custody. Frank is not happy to have this happening on top of everything else, though Macey seems less than broken up about the current situation when talking with Jenny.
Corn? Corn? Corn?
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