Sleepy Hollow: "John Doe"
This was probably the best episode since the premiere: a genuinely twisty plot, a Monster of the Week that felt consequential, an important turning-point for Abbie’s acceptance of herself as a witness, more background on what’s up with Katrina, and providing Ichabod with a permanent residence.
Perhaps the casting of a little girl of colour as “the evil girl” was a coincidence (as this show is astoundingly good at diversity) but I can’t help but feel that she was meant to reflect Abbie in some way, especially given her brief interaction with Thomas. I’m sure a lot of people felt that this was some sort of dream-sequence or flashback to a young Ichabod - or at least that’s what I initially assumed.
Even given that that wasn’t the case, it still strikes an interesting parallel between them: that this pretty little girl lures Thomas out into the contemporary world, whilst Abbie is helping Ichabod negotiate the new time period that he’s in. That Thomas was meant to be a reflection of Ichabod was clear, considering their ability to communicate with each other and Ichabod’s obvious longing for Roanoke, so I’m left wondering if this little girl will turn up again in relation to Abbie. Who was she anyway? Just an illusion? Or some sort of extension of the Horseman of Pestilence?
And though this was the most original plot of the series so far, dealing more with the idea of time travelling (or at least with a village suspended out of time) and utilizing another horseman to contend with, I’m not entirely sure the whole thing holds together. If I got things straight, this lost colony of Roanoke was infected by Pestilence and held on a hidden island outside of a time. Though they all had this plague, the healing waters in the village kept it at bay until Pestilence was ready to lure one of their number out into the world and infect more people with an illness that their immune systems couldn’t possibly fight.
Okay, that all makes sense. But then what was all that about the spirit of Virginia Dare leading the community away from Roanoke? Was it really her, or was it the Pestilence putting them into this “holding cell”. Was she the same entity as the little girl that Thomas saw or a genuine benevolent spirit?
Then it turns out that they were dead all along. But… how then could a dead child infect others? Okay, they threw in that line that he was returned to flesh and blood once he was lured into the contemporary world, but how can dead people carry an illness? And if they were dead then why did they need the water? Were the townsfolk aware that they were ghosts? That they had been existing in stasis for four hundred years? By what power were they being kept there, Virginia’s or the Horseman’s?
And it wasn’t until my second watch that I realized the significance of the little girl that tries to give Abbie the flower - it was the same one that Ichabod pointed out in the forest, the one that closed for days after coming into contact with human touch. The fact that the flower the girl was holding hadn’t closed was meant to be a clue that she was dead. But then, how could Ichabod track Thomas’s path by the flowers if he (similarly dead) could not have had an effect on them? I guess because by that point he had been transformed (somehow!) back to a living human…?
I know this all feels like nit-picking, but I’m a stickler when it comes to plot consistencies. Rules need to be established and obeyed, and this just felt messy. And that the solution to reversing the disease was simply to take Thomas back to the village was way too easy. How would that help the people already infected? Surely a better idea would have been to take the water back to the hospital.
Still, it was nice to see Katrina again, though the actress looked so different from her past appearances that I didn’t recognise her at first. She’s still the exposition fairy, and Ichabod still doesn’t seem hugely enthusiastic about seeing her again (the kiss seemed more perfunctory than passionate) but at least the scene answered some questions and opened up a few more as to her role in all this. She’s being kept there by Moloch for a specific reason, though we don’t yet know.
Miscellaneous
I’m not entirely sure why the Horseman of Pestilence has a distinctly samurai look to him (if that’s the right term), though I suppose it was the Rule of Cool in effect, along with the need to make him look distinctive. Still, I wish they’d at least given him a scythe.
“You know you can admit when you don’t know what a word means.” That was a lovely line, beautifully illustrating Ichabod’s pride. I know I mentioned in a past review that I found him a bit too good-to-be-true, but the fact that his easy confidence in the 21st century is partly an act in order to maintain his pride makes a lot of sense.
And he’s still a man of his time in regards to chivalry: opening doors for Abbie and giving her a helping hand across the river. I kind of get the feeling that these are Tim Mison’s acting choices, and it’s causing me a lot of warm fuzzies.
I don’t know what’s funnier, Ichabod giving Luke the stink-eye at the crime scene, or Luke glowering at Ichabod in the background at the police station. But what was up with that phone call Luke made to the university? The woman on the phone confirmed Ichabod’s identity and his role as a consultant without stating the minor fact that he should be long dead. Has someone deliberately set up a cover-story for Ichabod should people start asking questions? And if so, who? Irving’s immediate appearance post-phone call would suggest that it’s him.
Some of Ichabod’s mannerisms are hilarious. He’s so prissy!
Before this episode, I had no idea that the lost colony of Roanoke was a real occurrence. Apparently it was indeed led by a man named John White whose grand-daughter Virginia Dare was the first colonist born on American soil. Apparently White returned to England and returned three years later, only to find that 90 men, 17 women, and 11 children had completely vanished, with no sign of a struggle or battle.
That was a beautiful scene of Abbie in the chapel demonstrating that she’s slowly opening herself up to faith and her role as a witness. I’ve recently watched Whitechapel in which a little old lady was an instigator of several rather nasty supernatural occurrences, and so it was a nice counterpoint to see that Abbie’s epiphany was brought on by another elderly woman whose face we never see.
Those were some nice visuals in Katrina’s purgatory, what with all the other shadowed souls wandering around behind her listlessly. And I’m pretty sure I glimpsed the silhouette of Moloch behind Ichabod just before he wakes up.
The Headless Horseman is back!