You have to wonder what later seasons of Sleepy Hollow are going to look like once they’ve exhausted most of the recognizable horror monsters and myths. In the meantime, if “creepy” is what the crew is aiming for, then well done. There are few cross-generational and cross-cultural figures in folklore that I’ve encountered in my lifetime as haunting as The Weeping Lady (La llorona, as I was introduced to her as a child). Not so surprisingly, the writing staff finds a way to execute “The Weeping Lady” in a totally believable Sleepy Hollow kind of way. Again, it’s every bit the supernatural procedural you don’t want to watch at night that The X-Files was, and it’s smartly integrated in a way that adds dimensions to our main characters.
Mary, the jilted lover who haunts Sleepy Hollow as the episode’s titular monster, is one of two characters enamored with Ichabod who we see make rather sad and unfortunate exits from the world. What I like best about Mary’s time in the episode (apart from the fact that she’s played by Heather Lind, who finds a startlingly similar role here to her character in Turn in several ways) is that the flashbacks in the episode feel real and lived in. Most of what we’ve seen so far has been exposition-y and narrated over by Ichabod. It’s been filler material to connect the past to the present, often in contrived ways to justify certain trinkets or presences in episodes. Here, there is legitimate storytelling done to paint the picture of Mary’s character. And once the episode has finished and we find out that Katrina has lied about the facts surrounding Mary’s departure back to England, the bubbly and annoying Mary and the malicious and terrifying ghost she becomes all condense into a tragic story of overzealous love leading to the worst of possible situations. Katrina’s right to think Ichabod would have done the honorable thing and taken Mary back to England to be buried, because that’s the kind of guy he is. By betraying his trust, she shares the worst part of who Mary was and, most surprisingly, genuinely begins to have us wondering if what she’s doing with Abraham isn’t entirely for the benefit of Team Crane-Mills. It’s weird. I wanted to avoid writing about Katrina’s subconscious predilections as long as possible, because I really didn’t think we were going to go down this path, but the stories being told so far have put legitimate barriers between Ichabod and Katrina–not to the point where he’s ready to give up on her, but a noticeable amount of groundwork is being developed to give us a potential choice that Katrina has to make in which going with Ichabod isn’t one of the options.
In any case, Mary’s presence helps bring these ideas out while also giving the episode one of its best monster-villains and some of its best effects. Seeing a section of the room go into water mode is spectacular and accentuates the sheer terror of The Weeping Lady rising up and charging whoever she is after. On top of that, the dragging of the targets into a water portal add a final element that makes the design perhaps the most memorable of any to date. If “The Weeping Lady” isn’t one of the strongest episodes of Sleepy Hollow in terms of the show’s mythos, it’s one of its most effective at being a genre show meant to elicit emotional responses (fear, in this case). What a perfect time of the year for this to be airing, and what high expectations this sets for the episodes that are closer to Halloween.
Although it’s not integral to the overall plot of Sleepy Hollow, I also think Miss Caroline is a noteworthy figure in this episode for illuminating a few things. At first, she is used for comedy in hers and Ichabod’s scene together in which she makes advances because of how attracted she is to his commitment to reenactments. But then the episode does a 180 and shows how she’s an example of one of the few people in Sleepy Hollow who Ichabod can call friend. Their final scene together before she dies might be Sleepy Hollow‘s most heartwarming, which is saying a whole lot considering all of the fantastic Ichabod-Abbie moments we’ve had in the past. The episode further buys into that idea and lets Ichabod be deeply affected by her death in a believable way. Ichabod rarely loses his composure like he does when he first sees her corpse. And he does what you would expect him to do by giving her the farewell she would have wanted. Most importantly, though, her death is brought up in the conversation between Ichabod and Abbie near the end of the episode. As witnesses, the people who are a part of Ichabod and Abbie’s lives are always at risk. It’s an idea used most prominently in superhero narratives, distancing protagonists from emotional connections to other people. Yet, neither Ichabod nor Abbie is willing to give up those important people in their lives, which is a much more interesting response to the potential danger at hand. Ichabod doesn’t think of Caroline as merely an unfortunate casualty in a bigger war, but to some extent, she is. This is what comes with being a witness, and the choices of these characters (Abbie becoming so close to her sister and both of the main characters letting Frank into their lives so fully) suggest that it’s better to be surrounded by a few people who care about you and who you can care about than to try to accomplish things alone.
Thoughts from the Horseman’s Head:
– “Oh, look! She comes bearing a selection of delicacies from the Far East!” Smooth moves from Ichabod Crane, ladies and gentlemen.
– Things That Confuse Ichabod: emojis. “Oh, yes. A grimacing yellow caricature should do the trick.”
– “I’ve gotta go see a guy about a thing.” Matt Barr continues to be–at the very least–entertaining in his role as Hawley. He lips also touch the lips of both Mills sisters in this episode. Just saying.
– Touching on that, Abbie actually drowns. I think I was saying last week that even though our two leads can’t die, the writers need to somehow convince us that they’re always in real danger. I will now insert my foot into my mouth.
– Great, great, great, GREAT! touch having Henry be The Weeping Man, of sorts, at the end. It’s a thematic tie-in, a clever superficial detail and a way of exploring Henry’s relationship with Molloch.
[Photo via FOX]
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