Ichabod is on a date with Zoe and he is so very very out
of his depth and awkward. Normally I find awkward endearing, but not here.
Reynolds and Abbie talk about the reveal last episode –
that Jenny is working to bring down/infiltrate this artefact dealer called
Atticus while Reynolds wants to bring him down as a big underworld figure and
make his name and career with the FBI. They discuss it like mature adults and
Reynolds recognises that Abbie is not responsible for everything Jenny does nor
is Abbie likely to break confidentiality
How very refreshing
Pandora is continuing to play with her creepy foliage and
doing random stuff the sake of her horticulture. This time raising “the red
lady from Caribe”. Which involves a woman made up of lots of stinging insects that
then go out and kill someone. Ok, new monster of the week
Ichabod is still in trouble from the
first episode and now has to go to court even as he pouts about his own
property (which he cannot prove) and being all pouty and outraged. They also
poke each other’s relationships.
In the court the judge is the man who was overcome with
the woo-woo stinging insects (and his skin looks awful). He is having a
complete megalomaniac power trip in his court room and trying to have people shot.
He continues to rant – before falling down dead. In the process Ichabod sees a
swam of stinging insects in the shape of a woman leave the scene.
They examine one of the insects – a Carribean wasp – and declare
the creature a Soucouyant (a Trinidadian monster) which causes paranoia and
death.
Of course this comes with an anecdote involving Abbie’s
ancestor Grace Dixon, Betsy Ross (who was EVERYWHERE AT ALL TIMES) and
Washington – with Washington being stung and Grace’s Obeah being needed to try
and stop him dying and kill the monster – the only cure for the sting.
Reynolds calls Abbie in for another death – a paranoid
member of the PTA burning books before dying. They decide that the Soucouyant
always aims for leaders (wait, that’s a stretch – PTA member and a judge? C’mon…
oh Sleepy Hollow). And who else is a
leader? Why that would be Agent Reynolds. Who starts scratching and being an arsehole
to Abbie – and a terrible driver.
He starts paranoid ranting about the weirdness of Ichabod
and how Abbie is working with jenny to undermine his reputation and steal his
career – yes, we have a devil wasp sting. He tries to drag her out of the car
and draw a gun – which ends up with him pinned on the floor and cuffed because
this is Abbie.
They have him sedated and brought to their lair and then
gather together the ingredients they need for Grace’s tonic to slow the
progression of the disease. But when buying some of the herbs from a
Trinidadian source he is suddenly possessed and yells spooky threats to Jenny
about her soul about to be claimed. This is naughty bad ominous stuff.
While tied up Reynolds is still overwhelmed by paranoia
and woo-woo – and reminiscing of their time together as romantic and how he
desperately wants to return to that.
Now the Soucouyant has to die – myth points to burn down
her home (which Abbie turns into hive). Thankfully the Soucouyant has killed
people exactly the same distance from her hive (you can triangulate from crime
scenes to get an idea of the area the killer is comfortable in – but it shows
you an area, not an X marks the spot). Between symbolism on the map and on the
woo-woo tablet Ichabod smuggled they decide that Pandora may be there as well –
and that the Soucouyant is her sixth and last monster.
Abbie and Ichabod go to the Hive while Pandora plucks her
6 scary flowers from the tree – and we get a little exposition. Each beast
created a specific kind of fear (secrets, chaos, loneliness, innocence lost,
death, fear itself) which she now plucked – and she’s quite happy that Ichabod
and Abbie killed off the monsters after she had finished using them.
Meanwhile Abbie is killing insects with an aerosol and fire. And doing better than Ichabod who is a bit too powerful to be taken down with a crossbow. Pandora’s woo-woo and box starts to do whatever ominous thing it’s planned, distracting her from the fight and leaving it to the swarm.
Abbie manages to pour acid on the hive just because the
Soucouyant kills Ichabod and she gets stung to death. But Pandora has finished
her spell – a door opens in the tree and she goes inside – it closes before the
Witnesses can follow.
Reynolds waits in the hospital with no memories and Abbie
makes nice in the hospital, not mentioning the big declaration of love.
Zoe and Ichabod continue to be date, this time not trying
so hard.
Abbie does speak to Jenny – largely to get her and Joe to
step away from Atticus. Jo and Jenny discuss it and Jo seems to accept that
they have to abandon their focus on Atticus (and the magic rock they gave up).
Except when he’s alone, Joe calls someone ominous to “finish
this.” He goes to a meeting with Atticus (and his goons) and he learns about a
large stash of cash his dad apparently horded. And Joe gives Atticus the Shard
of Anubis and more ominous talk about his dad, Sheriff Corbin who was
apparently much darker than he seemed. Atticus opens the stone to reveal a red crystal
as he talks ominously about power.
He tries to kidnap Jo and walks right into an ambush by
Jenny who reclaims Joe and the crystal – which disappears into Jenny’s hands.
That night as Jenny sleeps her skin is covered in an ominous
red light and she has ominous dreams of skulls and Sumerian Cuneiform.
Abbie and Ichabod assume Pandora will return. This does
not take a genius to figure out
Yet again Sleepy
Hollow is randomly grabbing any demon they can from anywhere in the world’s
folklore with little attempt to fit the rest of that folklore or belief system
into the show. It’s an increasingly habit and it’s unpleasant – especially with
Sleepy Hollow then shoe-horning all
these creatures into a very Judeo-Christian and American-centric setting of the
Revolutionary War on the show
I don’t know if it’s made better or worse that the
research seems to be so… lacking. They seem to pick the name of the creature
and then apply whatever traits they want without much reference to the original
legend
One thing I liked about Reynolds and Abbie is that his
paranoia was clearly woo-woo. Their interactions have been so professional, so
mature, so sensible that his change of behaviour instantly stood out. Similarly
I liked that Joe didn’t run off on his own and included Jenny. It strikes me
how much I’ve come to expect awful decision making and toxic, secretive
relationships on these shows that I am impressed when we see actual common
sense and maturity.
I’m not a real lover of the investigation this episode –
it was sloppy and took too many leaps (people of power? Triangulation from the
victims?).
I am glad we’re starting to get some answers as to what
Pandora is about.
