sleepy hollow 2x02: the kindred
Oct. 1st, 2014 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaydeefalls
Recap time! For the record, I had several glasses of wine before viewing this episode, so I am feeling no pain right now.
PREVIOUSLY ON SLEEPY HOLLOW: everyone introduces themselves, which is thoughtful of them, and by the by, Captain Irving still exists. At least in flashbacks.
I have to ask: is there a reason the camera starts out upside-down? Some greater symbolism that I’m missing? Do all dream sequences start with upside-down cameras and I just haven’t noticed until now? Anyway, the cinematography reorients itself to show us the Headless Horseman dragging Katrina into a freaky fire circle, Henry shows up and says some stuff that’s truly disturbing once you realize he’s talking about his own mother, and then the Horseman slits Katrina’s palm and his own so that their blood can mingle in a deeply gross way. Fortunately Ichabod wakes up at this point. Apparently he’s been exhausting himself by reading lots of books about creepy rituals that the Horseman may or may not inflict upon Katrina, so, okay, that nightmare actually does make a sort of sense. I can also see why the thought of his wife sharing bodily fluids with the Horseman would freak him out. You and me both, man. I’m kinda confused why he’s so convinced that the fire-circle ritual is precisely what the Horseman is planning, but since it is mentioned again precisely zero times in the rest of the episode, I’ll let this one slide.
Abbie gets Ichabod’s head back in the game through a skillful combination of maps, unnecessary exposition, and psychoanalysis. Inasmuch as anyone can psychoanalyze the avatar of Death, anyway. Then she gets called away to meet the new sheriff in town: Leena Reyes, Irving’s replacement, who comes bearing exposition of her own as well as tantalizing hints that she knew Abbie’s mom. Also, like most police chiefs on network television, she has no time for your bullshit. “We are going to bring some sanity back to this town,” Reyes informs Abbie. Oh, honey. There was never any hope of that.
(Sidebar: on the plus side, I genuinely have to commend this show on the diversity of its cast. Apart from Ichabod and his family -- and, y’know, his cadre of Founding Fathers flashbacks -- just about every recurring primary or secondary character in Sleepy Hollow is a person of color, and that’s very rare for primetime TV. Kudos, show.)
Ichabod intercepts Abbie at work to share with her a flashback he’s having tolast season a social gathering at the former estate belonging to the Horseman, nee Abraham. Obviously the Horseman of Death is a creature of habit and would have taken Katrina home to meet his undead parents or something. As they drive over, Abbie expresses hesitation about confronting Death on his own turf, but Ichabod defends his need to rescue his wife, adding in the incentive that she’s an uber-powerful witch who will totally kick supernatural butt once they get her back. Which begs the question of why she isn’t using her witchy powers to save her own damn self, but I digress. Also, is breaking someone out of a decrepit old manor house really more dangerous than breaking someone else out of Purgatory with the literal armies of Hell close on their heels? Because you did that like a week ago, for the record.
Anyway, they get to the estate, and Ichabod throws a rock or something at the demon horse, because that’s always a good plan. This verifies that, yes, the Horseman is in fact here, and Katrina’s inside. Abbie yanks Ichabod away before he can do anything particularly stupid like get shot in the face, so they head back to Apocalypse Prevention HQ to find a very convenient passage in Ben Franklin’s book about creating some kind of monster called the Kindred. Apparently you can Frankenstein yourself a body to contain Death’s spirit, or something like that. I’m just thankful for more ridiculous Ben Franklin flashbacks. He macks on Katrina for some reason, and it’s hilarious. Anyway, he couldn’t finish the Kindred himself because he needed to sew on one of the Horseman’s own body parts, which, hey! Guess what Team Future has on their side? A decapitated head!
I see that Lyndie Greenwood and John Noble have been added to the opening credits. Cool. Also, wow, we’re already about nine minutes into the episode. This show has absurdly long cold opens.
Henry has a supernatural Skype session with Moloch, which probably contains a lot of important exposition but I can’t be bothered to remember any of it. Instead, let’s go back to Ichabod’s build-a-monster plan. It’s kind of like those build-a-bear workshops except less cuddly and more gross and dangerous. (Although remembering the creepy fucking doll Katrina gave their baby, maybe it’s all the same to him.) Abbie reluctantly agrees to retrieve the head, which Irving apparently hid in a bank vault. HI IRVING HI, I MISSED YOU. Prison’s not treating him so well. Abbie strongly implies that a psychiatric ward will somehow treat him better. Normally Abbie’s logic is pretty sound, but this is not her finest moment, I have to say. Just because you once busted Ichabod out of the loony bin -- oh, and Jenny, a couple of times -- okay, maybe you have a point, it’s a hell of a lot easier to break out of this particular psych ward than jail.
Meanwhile, back in the Headless Horseman’s Haven of Psychological Manipulation, good ol’ Abraham is laying down some harsh truths about Ichabod’s loyalty to the people he loves. Katrina isn’t buying his bullshit about how she and Headless are meant to be, but she does have awkward love triangle flashbacks to that time Ichabod and Abbie got all snuggly right in front of her. Meanwhile, back in Sleepy Hollow, some hapless bank employee mistakes Abbie for Ichabod’s girlfriend and tries to sell him a credit card and, like, an engagement ring. Ichabod isn’t buying it. Instead, he engages in a battle of wills with a pen that’s chained to the desk, because the writers of Sleepy Hollow know exactly how best to bring joy and laughter to my shriveled heart. Anyway, they get to Irving’s safe box, and then somehow waltz out of the bank with a skull in a jar without anyone noticing.
Meanwhile, Jenny drops by her sister’s workplace with a really thoughtful gift -- an arsenal of weapons. Sheriff Reyes takes one look at the ex-con and the pile of pistols and places her under arrest. Which, in fairness, is a pretty logical reason to arrest someone. A+, Team Witnesses, all of your allies from last season are in jail now!
Speaking of, Irving is busy taking a lie detector test to prove that he is “insane”, because he genuinely 100% knows that he didn’t kill anybody -- a demon did it. He has totally run out of fucks to give. I salute you, sir. Reyes is probably wondering exactly what sort of clusterfuck she wandered into in this damn town.
Meanwhile, Abbie and Ichabod are looking for the rest of Franklin’s unfinished Kindred, and she attempts to educate him on literary precedent. The words “Franklinstein’s Monster” are uttered. I can die happy. Ichabod gets lost, some bats happen -- because why not, is why -- and our dynamic duo wander about underground having a heart-to-heart about how the people they care about most are their greatest weaknesses. Then they stumble across an undead battery -- just go with it -- and I start wondering exactly how many Revolutionary War-era graves in this town are hooked up to Rube Goldberg-esque mechanisms that hurl coffins at our unsuspecting heroes. This is what happened with Zombie George Washington last season, too! Was this like a THING in the 18th century? Anyway, they find Franklinstein’s Monster -- or at least all the component body parts. I am going to find a way to work the phrase “Franklinstein’s Monster” into every conversation I have for the rest of my life, FYI.
Over at the estate, Henry reveals to Katrina that he knows Ichabod is coming, and Has Plans For Him. How does he know this? Because Moloch, I guess. Outside, Abbie takes out the Horseman’s head, which seems to know something is up. This is such a bad plan, guys, I can’t even. Henry’s fondling a pen or some shit, and then his eyes go black and he summons his avatar, the Horseman of War; Abbie and Ichabod are outside bickering over incantations and failing to accomplish anything (Abbie is such a backseat spellcaster); Katrina is turning the tables on Abraham by working some serious emotional manipulation of her own, which he is falling for way too easily. And then Franklinstein’s Monster rises. Yay, Kindred? I have a bad feeling about this dude. But on the plus side, we get a fun little threeway fight between the Kindred, the Headless Horseman, and War, which is interrupted by Abbie and her shotgun.
Seriously, she’s facing down two Horsemen of the Apocalypse with a shotgun. Oh, Leftenant.
Then the Kindred finds a horse...somewhere (is he a Horseman now, too? Where the hell did a third horse come from?) and, like, impales Headless on a farming implement or something. Somehow I doubt this will slow Death down for long.
Meanwhile Ichabod and Katrina have a touching reunion -- there’s even snogging! I think this may be the closest thing to chemistry they’ve ever had! -- but Katrina refuses to be rescued because she’s learning all kinds of fun secrets from Henry and Abraham, and also she wants to be a good mommy and save Henry from himself somehow. Like the rest of the characters on this show, she’s not so good with the plans. But Ichabod allows himself to be convinced, and with much angsting and hand-kissing, he leaves Katrina behind. Abbie shows up in time to give Katrina a truly epic WTF face, but she just gets Ichabod out of there and asks no questions. The deception works -- Katrina convinces Headless that she stayed behind of her own free will, because she doesn’t belong in this new world. And because having spent one full season keeping Katrina utterly isolated from the rest of the main cast, the show couldn’t possibly break formula now by integrating her. Don’t be silly! (It’s almost a pity -- I feel like Katrina would catch on to the future way better than Ichabod. She would totally buy tons of black eyeliner and shop at Hot Topic just for shits and giggles.)
(It’s entirely possible the Katrina in my head is way more interesting a character than the Katrina on the show.)
Time for denouement! Abbie is cautiously pleased with how the Kindred worked out, though Ichabod doesn’t think they should fight monsters with monsters anymore. Franklinstein’s Monster himself is apparently MIA, which is definitely not gonna bite them in the ass at any point in the future, no sirree. Abbie goes to visit her sister in jail, and warns her not to try breaking out for now. Just because Abbie says so, I guess, since she doesn’t give any concrete reasoning for this. Jenny just asks not to be abandoned there for thirteen years again this time. Meanwhile, Irving is in fact in the loony bin, but that’s okay, because he’s got himself an excellent new lawyer -- Henry Parrish! So...Abbie never filled you in on that part of the story, did she, Frank? Oops. And then he accidentally signs a contract in his own blood. Like you do.
Yeah, that’s gonna end well.
PREVIOUSLY ON SLEEPY HOLLOW: everyone introduces themselves, which is thoughtful of them, and by the by, Captain Irving still exists. At least in flashbacks.
I have to ask: is there a reason the camera starts out upside-down? Some greater symbolism that I’m missing? Do all dream sequences start with upside-down cameras and I just haven’t noticed until now? Anyway, the cinematography reorients itself to show us the Headless Horseman dragging Katrina into a freaky fire circle, Henry shows up and says some stuff that’s truly disturbing once you realize he’s talking about his own mother, and then the Horseman slits Katrina’s palm and his own so that their blood can mingle in a deeply gross way. Fortunately Ichabod wakes up at this point. Apparently he’s been exhausting himself by reading lots of books about creepy rituals that the Horseman may or may not inflict upon Katrina, so, okay, that nightmare actually does make a sort of sense. I can also see why the thought of his wife sharing bodily fluids with the Horseman would freak him out. You and me both, man. I’m kinda confused why he’s so convinced that the fire-circle ritual is precisely what the Horseman is planning, but since it is mentioned again precisely zero times in the rest of the episode, I’ll let this one slide.
Abbie gets Ichabod’s head back in the game through a skillful combination of maps, unnecessary exposition, and psychoanalysis. Inasmuch as anyone can psychoanalyze the avatar of Death, anyway. Then she gets called away to meet the new sheriff in town: Leena Reyes, Irving’s replacement, who comes bearing exposition of her own as well as tantalizing hints that she knew Abbie’s mom. Also, like most police chiefs on network television, she has no time for your bullshit. “We are going to bring some sanity back to this town,” Reyes informs Abbie. Oh, honey. There was never any hope of that.
(Sidebar: on the plus side, I genuinely have to commend this show on the diversity of its cast. Apart from Ichabod and his family -- and, y’know, his cadre of Founding Fathers flashbacks -- just about every recurring primary or secondary character in Sleepy Hollow is a person of color, and that’s very rare for primetime TV. Kudos, show.)
Ichabod intercepts Abbie at work to share with her a flashback he’s having to
Anyway, they get to the estate, and Ichabod throws a rock or something at the demon horse, because that’s always a good plan. This verifies that, yes, the Horseman is in fact here, and Katrina’s inside. Abbie yanks Ichabod away before he can do anything particularly stupid like get shot in the face, so they head back to Apocalypse Prevention HQ to find a very convenient passage in Ben Franklin’s book about creating some kind of monster called the Kindred. Apparently you can Frankenstein yourself a body to contain Death’s spirit, or something like that. I’m just thankful for more ridiculous Ben Franklin flashbacks. He macks on Katrina for some reason, and it’s hilarious. Anyway, he couldn’t finish the Kindred himself because he needed to sew on one of the Horseman’s own body parts, which, hey! Guess what Team Future has on their side? A decapitated head!
I see that Lyndie Greenwood and John Noble have been added to the opening credits. Cool. Also, wow, we’re already about nine minutes into the episode. This show has absurdly long cold opens.
Henry has a supernatural Skype session with Moloch, which probably contains a lot of important exposition but I can’t be bothered to remember any of it. Instead, let’s go back to Ichabod’s build-a-monster plan. It’s kind of like those build-a-bear workshops except less cuddly and more gross and dangerous. (Although remembering the creepy fucking doll Katrina gave their baby, maybe it’s all the same to him.) Abbie reluctantly agrees to retrieve the head, which Irving apparently hid in a bank vault. HI IRVING HI, I MISSED YOU. Prison’s not treating him so well. Abbie strongly implies that a psychiatric ward will somehow treat him better. Normally Abbie’s logic is pretty sound, but this is not her finest moment, I have to say. Just because you once busted Ichabod out of the loony bin -- oh, and Jenny, a couple of times -- okay, maybe you have a point, it’s a hell of a lot easier to break out of this particular psych ward than jail.
Meanwhile, back in the Headless Horseman’s Haven of Psychological Manipulation, good ol’ Abraham is laying down some harsh truths about Ichabod’s loyalty to the people he loves. Katrina isn’t buying his bullshit about how she and Headless are meant to be, but she does have awkward love triangle flashbacks to that time Ichabod and Abbie got all snuggly right in front of her. Meanwhile, back in Sleepy Hollow, some hapless bank employee mistakes Abbie for Ichabod’s girlfriend and tries to sell him a credit card and, like, an engagement ring. Ichabod isn’t buying it. Instead, he engages in a battle of wills with a pen that’s chained to the desk, because the writers of Sleepy Hollow know exactly how best to bring joy and laughter to my shriveled heart. Anyway, they get to Irving’s safe box, and then somehow waltz out of the bank with a skull in a jar without anyone noticing.
Meanwhile, Jenny drops by her sister’s workplace with a really thoughtful gift -- an arsenal of weapons. Sheriff Reyes takes one look at the ex-con and the pile of pistols and places her under arrest. Which, in fairness, is a pretty logical reason to arrest someone. A+, Team Witnesses, all of your allies from last season are in jail now!
Speaking of, Irving is busy taking a lie detector test to prove that he is “insane”, because he genuinely 100% knows that he didn’t kill anybody -- a demon did it. He has totally run out of fucks to give. I salute you, sir. Reyes is probably wondering exactly what sort of clusterfuck she wandered into in this damn town.
Meanwhile, Abbie and Ichabod are looking for the rest of Franklin’s unfinished Kindred, and she attempts to educate him on literary precedent. The words “Franklinstein’s Monster” are uttered. I can die happy. Ichabod gets lost, some bats happen -- because why not, is why -- and our dynamic duo wander about underground having a heart-to-heart about how the people they care about most are their greatest weaknesses. Then they stumble across an undead battery -- just go with it -- and I start wondering exactly how many Revolutionary War-era graves in this town are hooked up to Rube Goldberg-esque mechanisms that hurl coffins at our unsuspecting heroes. This is what happened with Zombie George Washington last season, too! Was this like a THING in the 18th century? Anyway, they find Franklinstein’s Monster -- or at least all the component body parts. I am going to find a way to work the phrase “Franklinstein’s Monster” into every conversation I have for the rest of my life, FYI.
Over at the estate, Henry reveals to Katrina that he knows Ichabod is coming, and Has Plans For Him. How does he know this? Because Moloch, I guess. Outside, Abbie takes out the Horseman’s head, which seems to know something is up. This is such a bad plan, guys, I can’t even. Henry’s fondling a pen or some shit, and then his eyes go black and he summons his avatar, the Horseman of War; Abbie and Ichabod are outside bickering over incantations and failing to accomplish anything (Abbie is such a backseat spellcaster); Katrina is turning the tables on Abraham by working some serious emotional manipulation of her own, which he is falling for way too easily. And then Franklinstein’s Monster rises. Yay, Kindred? I have a bad feeling about this dude. But on the plus side, we get a fun little threeway fight between the Kindred, the Headless Horseman, and War, which is interrupted by Abbie and her shotgun.
Seriously, she’s facing down two Horsemen of the Apocalypse with a shotgun. Oh, Leftenant.
Then the Kindred finds a horse...somewhere (is he a Horseman now, too? Where the hell did a third horse come from?) and, like, impales Headless on a farming implement or something. Somehow I doubt this will slow Death down for long.
Meanwhile Ichabod and Katrina have a touching reunion -- there’s even snogging! I think this may be the closest thing to chemistry they’ve ever had! -- but Katrina refuses to be rescued because she’s learning all kinds of fun secrets from Henry and Abraham, and also she wants to be a good mommy and save Henry from himself somehow. Like the rest of the characters on this show, she’s not so good with the plans. But Ichabod allows himself to be convinced, and with much angsting and hand-kissing, he leaves Katrina behind. Abbie shows up in time to give Katrina a truly epic WTF face, but she just gets Ichabod out of there and asks no questions. The deception works -- Katrina convinces Headless that she stayed behind of her own free will, because she doesn’t belong in this new world. And because having spent one full season keeping Katrina utterly isolated from the rest of the main cast, the show couldn’t possibly break formula now by integrating her. Don’t be silly! (It’s almost a pity -- I feel like Katrina would catch on to the future way better than Ichabod. She would totally buy tons of black eyeliner and shop at Hot Topic just for shits and giggles.)
(It’s entirely possible the Katrina in my head is way more interesting a character than the Katrina on the show.)
Time for denouement! Abbie is cautiously pleased with how the Kindred worked out, though Ichabod doesn’t think they should fight monsters with monsters anymore. Franklinstein’s Monster himself is apparently MIA, which is definitely not gonna bite them in the ass at any point in the future, no sirree. Abbie goes to visit her sister in jail, and warns her not to try breaking out for now. Just because Abbie says so, I guess, since she doesn’t give any concrete reasoning for this. Jenny just asks not to be abandoned there for thirteen years again this time. Meanwhile, Irving is in fact in the loony bin, but that’s okay, because he’s got himself an excellent new lawyer -- Henry Parrish! So...Abbie never filled you in on that part of the story, did she, Frank? Oops. And then he accidentally signs a contract in his own blood. Like you do.
Yeah, that’s gonna end well.
