Thursday, September 26, 2013

Sleepy Hollow 1.02: "Blood Moon"

“Belief is sanity, Lieutenant. Now I’m no more eager to accept it than you, but if Katrina’s warning is real, and we shall sound find out, then it appears evil has found a new home in Sleepy Hollow.”
- Ichabod

We begin this week in a dream sequence. Ichabod is being chased by the four horsemen through a forest. Some tree roots (literally) swallow him into the earth only to reveal it was Katrina at work to warn him that before the other three horsemen can descend, evil creatures must first make way for them and the first one is coming at the blood moon. Ichabod wakes and we get to see Abbie plead her case about the horseman with Captain Irving while Ichabod gets acquainted with some modern conveniences like hair dryers, TV and coffee machines. Abbie goes to pick up Ichabod for the Sheriff’s funeral and he imparts Katrina’s latest otherworldly message. She’s skeptical because her word is being questioned as suspect and she’s tired of it. Over at the morgue, we learn that dead doesn’t always mean dead on this show. Andy comes back to life and I swear the scene should have come out of Torchwood: Miracle Day. His neck is still snapped back and the horned demon fixes it and basically tells him to go resurrect someone. Creepy. But totally not a waste of John Cho, hurray!

On the way to the funeral, we get some more hilarious Ichabod car banter. This time he’s avoiding discussing his and Katrina’s relationship (though we learn she disliked him when they first met and he believes she kept her witch-y secret to protect them both since the country was in the midst of the witch trials) and ranting about the donut tax being 10%. The Revolution began on a tax of less than 2%. If we could just have the pair of them riding around in the car with Ichabod remarking about things I’d be happy (and laugh a lot). The funeral is a somber event but also helpful in that Ichabod figures out that the first evil nasty on the way is a witch. We see night fall and Andy actually resurrects the burned body of a witch. He’s also got a message from Mr. Horns: Andy’s job is the help get the witch revenge and full resurrection. It seems the first step in this process is to kill some poor guy named Jeremey in his car on the side of the road. It’s very creepy. I have to say one thing I really like about this show is its ability to mix the creepy and the funny so well. But seriously, how the hell does Andy have access to a sheriff’s vehicle and uniform still? And didn’t anyone notice his body missing from the morgue?

Back at the precinct, Ichabod is trying to impress upon his new partner his theory about witches and their power being linked to the lunar cycle. But, when Abbie again balks at accepting what’s been dealt to them, Ichabod keys in on the fact she’s not finished morning the Sheriff. And so she gives a bit of back story about the time after she and Jenny saw the demon. She turned to being a bit of a wild child with drugs and stupid boys. The sheriff caught her breaking into a pharmacy but instead of arresting her, he took her to a diner and ordered apple pie. The scene we saw in the pilot turns out to be something of an homage since he tells Abbie she’s got til the pie is soupy to tell him what happened and decide to change her life. Obviously, she did. And it means we get some flashbacks with the actor who played the Sheriff. Nice to know this talent isn’t wasted either.

Not long after Abbie reveals her sordid past, they get called to Jeremy’s crime scene. After taking a gander at the corpse, Ichabod recalls a dark witch named Serilda who plagued the colonial troops during the war. General Washington thought the Brits had struck a deal with her. It fits the Sheriff’s theory about two competing covens in the area. They head back to check his files but find the office empty. Abbie goes to find where they ended up and Ichabod has a run-in with a cop who turns out to be Abbie’s (very recent) ex, Luke. Ichabod establishes not only his cover (visiting Oxford history prof) but that he can snark with the best of them. When Abbie returns with the news that the files got moved to storage in a guarded building, Ichabod comes to the rescue and shows her some secret subterranean tunnels they used during the war. Of course, it requires him to take an ax to a concrete wall.

As they traverse the tunnel into storage, Ichabod explains that the bones of convicted witches are also buried in the tunnels but that Katrina’s remains are still shrouded in mystery. They do some digging and we learn that Ichabod also has an eidetic memory (except for the 250-year nap he took) and he also know several languages. From a book, he recounts that Serilda was weakened by a good coven and burned at the stake. Before her execution, she swore to return at the blood moon and use the magistrate’s descendant’s to rise again. So Jeremy’s death wasn’t pointless. Unfortunately, we see Andy scope out a little boy who is then stalked by Serilda’s crispy corpse. Andy really is creepy. And there seems to be a small note of regret in his tone as he’s confronting the people who are going to die. As Serilda sneaks up on the boy, Ichabod and Abbie race off to try and warn the family. Serilda makes off with what she needs before Ichabod and Abbie arrive. So now it’s a race to stop her from resurrecting herself (though we do get a somewhat amusing scene where Andy is digging up her bones in the tunnels and griping about doing all the work). Abbie and Ichabod split up in the tunnels which usually never ends well. We get another classic Ichabod moment. He shoots at the resurrected Serilda and then promptly drops the gun, not knowing it had more than one round in it. Things are starting to look dire as Serilda taunts Ichabod with the knowledge that Katrina is the one who weakened her but now Katrina is trapped in a world between worlds. Helpful info, really, if he wants to restore his lady love to this world. He ends up igniting centuries-old gunpowder and blows Serilda to bits.

That morning, as they return to the precinct, Abbie has her own vision, except her info-dumper is the Sheriff. She wants to know what to do and he tells her to have faith and to not be afraid of number 49. Cut to an institution and room 49 houses her sister, Jenny. Jenny appears to be pretty bad ass, working out. But there’s definitely something not right as the demon appears behind her.

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