Geekscape Recap: Sleepy Hollow: “For the Triumph of Evil”

Sleepy Hollow started this episode with, well, if not quite a bang, a definite scare.

Before we even get to the opening credits, we had a dream sequence (points for creepy monster make-up), a person jump off a building and land—quite convincingly, thank you—on a parked car, and an eyeball explode into a gust of sand.

So the writers have definitely got the pacing under control. And, thank goodness, time-of-day (no more three nights and four days in the space on an episode; last week it apparently took eight hours to drive from one end of Sleepy Hollow to another).

Wait…Is this a Dream??

So the episode starts right off with Abbie coming into work, where Captain Irving introduces her to Doctor Vega. She sees Crane interrogating someone—when she rushes in, she sees it’s her teenage self—and Crane’s eyes are covered with a white, milky film. As she goes into stop him, she becomes hunted by a no-eyed-no-mouth demon.

She wakes up (dream sequence!) and gets called to a crime scene where a lady jumper is asking for her—and only her.

She has time on the rush over to wake up and pick up Crane (Supposedly. We don’t see it happen. Though, when is someone going to take Crane to WalMart or Target and get him some clothes?)

We find out that jumper lady is Doctor Vega (she of the dream!), and she was the treating doctor at the psychiatric hospital that Abbie’s sister, Jenny, was put into years ago after they first saw the demon in the woods.

Vega’s last words to Abbie imply that not only does Doctor Vega deserve to die, but Abbie also has some horrible punishment waiting for her.

Captain Irving—just about at the end of his freaky-cases-that-don’t-make-sense rope–tells Abbie and Crane to look into it. Quietly.

Side note: Still very unsure about the armed forces set-up in Sleepy Hollow. It’s got a population of 140,000 (says so right in the opening credits); and the pilot was very clear that Abbie was a Deputy Sheriff, and that the poor Sheriff Sheriff got killed.  So, it’s fairly odd that a Deputy Sheriff is now reporting to Captain Frank Irving of the City Police (?) State Police (?)—we’re not sure.

Captain isn’t a rank that a Sheriff office typically has, so we can assume he’s not a Sheriff. But then there are all the Detectives…also not a rank commonly associated with Sherriff. And, how come no one is concerned about replacing the Sheriff? That is a fairly significant power vacuum.

And then, what about the fact that a Sheriff is an elected position and it reports to the County Board or Council or whatever governing body is about? Police are not elected, they are municipal employees. While not unheard of for the two to share offices in smaller towns, and some cities/counties merge the two (Las Vegas comes to mind) it’s still so vague. Clarity on who exactly Capitan Irving is and why he is in charge of a Sheriff’s Deputy would help. Also, why is a Sheriff Deputy a Lieutenant? So confused…

Finally, has anyone else noticed the Case of the Disappearing Uniform? First Episode: Abbie Mills is in full Deputy Sheriff regalia almost the whole episode. Second, half and half. Third, no uniform, just a badge and a gun.

Ok, back to the recap. Sorry.

Exploding Eyeball, Check

As Abbie and Crane leave the body, they engage in yet another ‘Abbie and Crane being the capitol-W-Witnesses of the coming apocalypse’ conversation.  There’s a little bit of regurgitating known information (God bless Winson and Beharie, because some of their lines could be cringe-inducing in lesser hands), in the end Abbie admits she doesn’t believe it yet; and Crane tells her she must stop being afraid and accept her fate.

So, yeah, that’s the episode’s theme.

So Crane and Abbie head to the Tarrytown (yes, that’s a real town) Psychiatric Hospital to see Abbie’s sister, because Crane knows that Abbie’s dream was prophetic and the Doctor Vega connection needs to be revealed (first they go watch videotapes of Doctor Vega in session with Abbie’s sister, before they decide, hey, we have a living person we can question).

We find out that Jenny is incarcerated for stealing $4000 worth of sporting goods and then insisting it was for the ‘end of days.’  Crane’s response: ‘Well, she’s sane, then,’ is one of many sparks of humor throughout the episode and gives us a glimpse of where the show could go—and how good it could be.

At the hospital, Jenny refuses to speak to Abbie, so Crane goes to talk to her by himself. After a few minutes of info-exchange, Jenny refuses to help, saying that her conscience is clear. Is Abbie’s?

Come on, It’s Not Like You Weren’t Mean to Your Sister

Crane goes back and pressures Abbie: what did Jenny mean? Is her conscience clear??

Abbie—rather easily, unless the whole faceless-nightmare-monster shook her up way more than she let on—tells Crane that when they were brought in for questioning after seeing the Demon in the Woods (and if you’re wondering, why were two presumably abducted girls taken in for questioning instead of being taken somewhere warm and fed hot chocolate, and if they were brought in, why wasn’t the Sheriff there? Or Child Services? So are we, reader, so are we).

Anyway, when the sisters were brought in for questioning, Jenny continued to insist she had seen a demon—but Abbie, and their rescuer, Mr. Gillespie—lied and said they didn’t see anything. Abbie was scared of losing the first good foster home they’d had, and Mr. Gillespie was too busy playing small town hero.

Crane and Abbie decide they should talk to Mr. Gillepsie.

Poor Mr. Gillespie, we hardly knew ya….

Handily, having just introduced him via flashback, we now head over to Mr. Gillespie’s home, where Mr. Gillespie is napping in his man-cave easy chair surrounded by bird houses. Clearly, the man has a terrible bird house problem.  A clatter wakes him up; he cuts himself on a nail, and the blood he wipes away leaves a creepy aboriginal symbol on the cloth. So, he’s obviously going to have some difficulties of the supernatural kind.

Back to the police station, Captain Irving pretends to be angry about a headless horseman prank as a way to…bond with Morales (he of the not-dating-Abbie-anymore fame)? Unclear. Orlando Jones does a great job with this character, we just wish (a) he’d be used more, and more logically (think Bobby to Sam and Dean…) (b) the whole Sheriff/Police thing gets cleared up.

So, he’s there when the call comes in: shots fired. And he goes. Even though the station is full of on-duty, not busy cops. Shouldn’t he be doing other things? Admittedly, all we know about police work we learned from Law & Order, but it seems like the guy in charge doesn’t usually go out on calls. By himself.

AND, he just got all buddy-buddy with the prank-playing cop. So it’s not like there isn’t someone right there to come along.

Still, when Abbie and Crane show up at Gillespie’s house, it’s a full-blown hostage crisis, so at least he wasn’t alone for long. Apparently, Gillespie, for unknown reasons, is holding his wife hostage and demanding to see Abbie. Abbie—still not in uniform—puts on a vest and goes in.

Does she have training in this? Is anyone even going to ask her that?

She goes in, and sure enough, Gillespie’s eyes have gone all white and milky and the scary-no-face-monster is there. He tells her they have to pay what they owe and that the next time she falls asleep, the Sandman will make her feel so guilty for her betrayal of her sister, killing herself will be the only option.

The faceless monster shows up, Gillespie shoots at him, Crane runs in to save Abbie; but before he can get there, Gillespie kills himself. That was pretty awesome, blood and stuff shooting up in the air in front of the kitchen window, Crane watching from outside.

No paperwork or anything after that. No shocked reaction to the top of someone’s head geyser up into the kitchen sink. No time!

Who needs Google, with Crane Around?

Our heroes head back to the library, sorry, The Magic Box, no, not right either, sorry–the creepy records room via the secret tunnel no one has noticed Crane tore down a wall to get to.

One more side note: these are the worst police ever. Not only have they missed the GIANT HOLE in their wall leading to the creepy tunnels, they have also completely failed to notice that John Cho’s body is MISSING.

Safely ensconced in the super-secret research room of solitude, Crane and Abbie begin to research Sandman myths. Never mind Abbie’s phone continues all the knowledge known to man…it’s the big musty books with no index that’ll have the answers.

Abbie stumbles across a bit of lore about a dream spirit, along with the now-familiar symbol that we saw on Gillespie’s bloody rag. It’s an old Mohawk legend, says Abbie, of a Sandman. Ro’kenhrontyes, they called him.

This sparks yet another eerily specific and crazy-helpful memory (with requisite flashback) from Crane. He then declares they need to find a shaman. Cue ‘things-are-different-now’ conversation, which is where Sleepy Hollow is really at its best: when they allow Crane to be amazed, annoyed and sometimes flabbergasted by all that is around him, and the changes and assumptions of the people in our day and age.

Abbie remembers one person who might be able to help, and off they go in search of the last Mohican (well they didn’t come out and say that, but…).

The Last Mohican

They find one, selling used cars—Wendel Clark (played by Philip DeVona).

And he was great (offering Crane a Delorean was a lovely little throwaway line. its lines like that, that make Sleepy Hollow have so much promise!); at first reluctant, he is convinced when Crane quotes the “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” which was a little heavy handed but, hey, worked!

Wendel just happens to have a fully equipped lodge just ready and waiting for some dream-warrior time. Got the tea all brewed up, cots all ready. Even has two random Native American bros to help out.

Tells Crane and Abbie that the only way out is to fight the dream spirit on the spirit realm, the dream plane. Win, and Abbie will be absolved. Lose, and she’ll die.

Abbie drinks the tea; Crane does as well. An endearing, nice moment between these two, who, with no words, show us their loyalty and gratitude.

The ritual requires, apparently, three parts: the tea (check); shirts off (hah, Crane apparently does not believe in manscaping and we say, good! Nice to see a hairy chest once in a while, and Abbie wears a sports bar, which is surprising, considering the amount of….lift happening when she has a shirt on), and wait a minute…scorpion bites.

Of course Wendel has scorpions. What self-respecting Native American car salesman/Shaman doesn’t?

Dream a Little Dream of Me

So Crane and Abbie get bitten, and boom, instant dream world. They are, of course, separated, and as Crane races through the spirit-woods to find Abbie, she is being stalked by the Demon, who taunts her, and then, disappearing into a whirl of sand and dust, drags her….somewhere.

Crane, having discovered the dream plane version of the Sherriff station, makes his way to the interrogation room, where Abbie is being forced to watch her younger self betray her sister.

Crane attacks the demon, who fights him off—telling him, in a way heavy with foreshadowing, that Crane is not that demon’s problem to deal with.

Abbie realizes what she has to do: admit her wrongdoing, and her fear (ha, remember how we said, back in the beginning, there was a theme?? See, here it is, paying off.), and then says she isn’t afraid anymore.

The Sandman turns to glass, which Abbie shatters.

Her and Crane return to the real world, and the super-secret-records room to recuperate.

Except it’s not so super-secret, because Captain Irving shows up—since he has a key—and approves them using the room for the more ‘off-beat’ cases. He even says he’ll get them a key.

Abbie leaves Crane, saying she has to go talk to her sister (Poor Crane. I mean, how is he supposed to get home? Get dinner? Does he have any money? A phone? He definitely can’t drive…).

Duh-Duh-Duuuuh

Abbie gets to her sister’s room (room 49, harkening back to Sheriff Corbin’s words the week before: Don’t fear 49.) and of course, sis has boogied out. Abbie orders the hospital locked down, and then discovers the open venting hidden by the ceiling tiles. Begrudging respect wars with annoyance.

All in all this was the strongest episode of the bunch. Fast paced, for the most part well-plotted. While some of the rules of the world lack consistency, and we still run into issues of Crane-knowing-everything-but-only-when-it’s-convenient–there were some scenes that felt awkward within the rest of the episode–for the most part the episode was a huge step forward. Here’s hoping next week is a big of a leap.

Keep posted next week for all the haps in the Hollow!

Sleepy Hollow airs on Fox, Monday nights at 9 p.m.