The Super Sleepy Dispatch

Recap and Review: Sleepy Hollow 2:5 The Weeping Lady

Wherein Henry is a very bad boy leading to the seeds of mistrust being sown in Ichabod’s marriage.  Ichabod proves that being a tall gillygaloofus doesn’t interfere with being a chick magnet.  Hawley has chosen the side of good and appears to be sweet on Abbie despite having tasted all Miss Jenny has to offer!

We open with Ichabod entertaining a lady caller, whos come bearing handwoven, hand sewn and hand churned gifts.  It’s Caroline, the friendly revolutionary war re-enactment enthusiast that Ichabod met last season.  Apparently they’ve become friends and she’s become smitten.  To Ichabod’s extreme discomfort,  Caroline picks this moment to make her move.  Ichabod explains that he’s very married just as Abbie walks in bearing eastern cuisine (Chinese takeout).  Caroline exits abruptly.Abbie is delighted with the before dinner entertainment, telling him that it was obvious Caroline had a, case of “Crane on the Brain”! We all do Abbie; we all do. 

Still Ichabod was charmingly clueless.   He’s apparently quite familiar with eligible ladies providing him his clothing and embroidery, asking only for the pleasure of his delightful company.  Oh those were the days!

Crane’s excuse is that he has Katrina on the brain!  He’s justifiably worried about his lawful wedded witch.  Abbie reassures him by saying that Katrina is with the Horseman of Death by choice.  I wouldn’t find that particularly reassuring myself, especially since Katrina’s big plan is trusting an apocalyptic Horseman to behave like a gentleman.  I give her credit.  It’s a testament to both Katrina and Abraham that he’s keeping his word thus far.  The girl is a natural enchantress with bountiful charms.  I would kill for that hair, metaphorically speaking.

At Abraham’s house, Katrina is being proactively industrious.  She grinds berries to make ink to write a love note and enchants a crow to courier it to her love Ichabod.  It takes her two attempts to get the spell to work.

Abraham enters and is suspicious of her activities.  He wants to touch her but doesn’t,  like he wants to trust her but doesn’t.  He tells her that she will be safe from the Apocalypse and want for nothing if she binds her fate to his.  He desires her to willingly make the choice but will not wait forever.

Abraham visits his fellow Horseman via magical mirror skype and asks him to strengthen the wards that prevent Katrina from doing magic because he thinks that she’s broken them. Henry offers to complete that rather permanent and disfiguring binding spell, however Abraham insists that he wants her to chose to join them and Moloch on her own accord.  Henry says he will stop by and check the wards.  However Henry also implements his own plan to torture his parental units.

He finds a wooden box, opens it and pulls out a ladies toiletry set and other items including Katrina’s book of “Gulliver’s Travels” to peruse them for a sin that he can use against her.  Lo and behold, her signature holds the key memory of her sin.

My love for this show grows as I realize they have not only tied this week’s monster of the week to Katrina’s past, probably Ichabod’s as well, and are also maintaining its urban legend roots. A couple of teens in the front seat of a car are kissing with light petting although the boy is pushing for more.  The girl stops the action enabling the boy to hear crying.  He turns off the radio to listen and something lands on the hood of the car.  They speed off out of there as fast as, they can.

Meanwhile, Ichabod has asked Abbie to drive him to Caroline ‘ s house so that he can apologize to her for their misunderstanding.  She answers the door with a cute mug (I the Founding Fathers) which makes Ichabod smile.  She tells him that everything is fine and they can be friends.  They make plans to see each other at the upcoming Battle of Saratoga event.  They end things on excellent terms especially because Ichabod is forever her servant, etc., complete with a divine bow.

Inside her house we see a glass in the kitchen fill with black water.  She walks into a room and sees a woman in black crying.  The woman turns into a horrific spirit and attacks.  The following day a grief-stricken Ichabod joins Abbie at the river bank crime scene where her body was found.  He is devastated at her death and upset to hear that it could be suicide.  Abbie decides to investigate.

They start searching upstream, presuming that the body drifted from the actual crime scene where death occurred. Ichabod finds Caroline’s silly sweet mug.  Abbie realizes they are near Lovers Lane, which Ichabod assumes means the same thing as in his day a place for a chaperoned stroll. LOL! She finds car tracks indicating a speedy getaway. Also no one exited the car.  I am enjoying seeing Abbie using more of her professional skill set for a change.

She decides to visit the high school “queen bees” because they are the fonts of gossip based knowledge.  Ichabod realizes that they are not planning to visit bee apiaries.  His modern street smarts are growing by leaps and bounds this season!

They go to question the high school spirit squad and finally Ichabod shows some discomfort at seeing so much of the female form; a commonplace sight these days.  They find the couple in question who think someone was playing a prank on them because they saw and heard the Weeping Lady.  

Abbie says that she’s a local legend that dates back hundreds of years.  Internet research indicates she drowned in the river, there is an early historical account and she weeps because her lover or husband jilted her. They hit the local library.

Katrina’s crow finds Ichabod at the library and delivers her loving missive.  He’s very touched and glad to hear that she’s fine and thinking of him.

Hawley is also at the library and he is delighted to see Abbie there.  He tries to flirt but gets no play so he offers his help in the future.   He admits his first monster encounter rattled him and he is arming himself with occult knowledge to help him protect himself and survive any other encounters.  It’s a big step for the character and already he’s more likeable.

As Abbie peruses the stacks she hears crying and sees a black, rippling pool.

The black rippling resolves into a weeping woman in black, who becomes a corporeal and gruesome spectre that lunges at Abbie violently when she tells her to put up her hands and turn around.

Abbie shoots repeatedly but is grabbed and pulled into the rippling murk, finding herself underwater with the ghost dragging her down to her death.  Abbie continues to fight and briefly surfaces to see the river bank where Caroline was found. Unfortunately she is pulled under again. 

Ichabod rushes to Abbie’s aid finding only a murky dark pit of water inexplicably located in the library’s floor. Always a quick thinker, Ichabod sticks his hand into the pit and gropes for Abbie.  After several tries he grabs her hand and manages to wrest her free from the spectre’s grasp, pulling her out to the library floor.

Cue emotional drama as Ichabod cries, “She has drowned!” drawing out the words to a mournful wail.  His face matches his tone as he cradles her lifeless form. 

Hawley runs to her rescue annoyed at Ichabod’s inaction.  He saves her life with mouth to mouth first aid. She rouses coughing up water.  She will be fine. Hawley pointedly says “You’re welcome.”to Ichabod, whose face betrays no gratitude to a man he despises and is starting to see as a rival.

After Abbie receives medical attention they return to the archives.  Ichabod’s research has born fruit.  Apparently the first account of the Weeping Lady was written in 1779 by a local innkeeper who says the lady drowned after being rejected by her lover.  The timing fits because Ichabod has realized that the ghost is targeting women that he cares for in some capacity.

Luckily Abbie tore a piece of lace from the Weeping Lady’s clothing.  Ichabod immediately recognizes the color, the pattern and the fine Scottish workmanship.   Yep it belonged to a former love that he was actually betrothed to once. 

Miss Mary Wells did visit him in Sleepy Hollow to collect him and bring him back to England;  however he declined to accompany her and told her that the love that he felt for her was like that of a sibling.  She had told him by letter that she understood and would immediately return to England without him.

Of course she had been upset initially and jealous of Katrina despite the fact that she was still betrothed to Abraham at the time.

Despite her goodbye note, everything else fits, and he now believes that she must be the spirit haunting Sleepy Hollow.  For some unknown reason she has suddenly become violent.

It’s at this point that Ichabod thinks of Katrina, realizes that he’s lost her note,  assumes that it fell into the water when he rescued Abbie and now Mary has it.  Hes sure that Mary will go after Katrina,knowing that she is now Ichabod’s loving wife.

Before saving Katrina they visit Hawley at his dockside abode to ask for a useful weapon against ghosts because guns do not work.  He lends them a crossbow originally belonging to Van Helsing!  Of course this is a shout out to everybody’s favorite vampire (Dracula). He teases Abbie about paying first just to see her get riled.  I think he really likes her.

The Weeping Lady shows up at Abraham’s love shack right on schedule to grab Katrina.  Abbie and Ichabod arrive just in time to see Abraham ride off in a hurry which tells them that they are too late.  Inside they find water and his lost letter,  now soaking wet.  He’s devastated but Abbie says that there’s still time to save her and takes Ichabod to the river bank.

Away from the warded love shack Katrina is able to enchant some seaweed into helping her escape.  She is able to make it into the woods by the time Abbie and Ichabod show up. 

Ichabod fills her in about Mary.  Katrina says her ghost was raised by dark magic and she will need to do the same to put her to rest.  Only Henry could have raised her.  Katrina needs an anchor to help her stay grounded during the witchery.  Abbie volunteers to help because there is no available witch. 

As Katrina and Abbie sit facing each other and chanting the spell, Ichabod searches for Mary.  He has questions about her fate and knowing him, he feels guilty.

Ichabod finds her and tries to comfort her.  He fires the crossbow when she attacks.  It bursts into flames and appears to do nothing to her except at first.  However when she charges at Ichabod she passes through him because she’s become incorporeal.

Next, she appears before Katrina and Abbie who are still chanting, however she can no longer hurt them.  A dark spirit leaves Mary and she appears as she did when she was alive.  Ichabod cradles her in his arms and asks what happened to her because he believed that she returned to England with everything between them resolved per her goodbye letter.  Mary is fading fast and can only point at Katrina as she turns to dust.

Ichabod is deeply in love with Katrina.  He is also a very smart man that knows that his wife has lied to him before.  He demands to know why Mary pointed at Katrina.  He wants to know what Katrina isn’t telling him.

Katrina admits that Mary arranged to meet with her privately and accused her of turning Ichabod against her and against his country. She said that Katrina bewitched him with her seductive charms. Mary became angry and attacked her, tripping and falling down the hill to the river bank, apparently hitting her head along the way.

Katrina claims that she examined her and determined that she was dead.  Then she used an enchantment to write the letter to prevent him from feeling obligated to return to England with her body because he needed to stay on his path as a Witness.

Nice story but I am thinking that it doesn’t explain how she ended up in the river or why she she became a Weeping Lady.  Weeping Lady apparitions are brokenhearted AND drowned.  Methinks Katrina is still withholding the fact that she killed Mary to keep Ichabod for herself.  Not to mention that she prevented Mary from having a proper Christian burial and caused untold grief to Mary’s family because they lost her without knowing what happened.  

Ichabod is emotional and indignant as he lists everything she has kept from him.  It’s gotten to be a long list and it’s hard for him to swallow.  At this inopportune moment Abraham rides up ready to kill Ichabod.

Katrina stop him from killing Ichabod with magic and explains that Ichabod didn’t kidnap her. It was a vengeful spirit and Ichabod saved her life. Katrina tells him that he owes Ichabod his life.  When Abraham acquiesce she tells him that she is ready to go with him and takes his hand.

She gives Ichabod a final look before riding off with Abraham.

The following day we see Hawley returning to his plein air abode with breakfast.  Jenny is waiting for him with the crossbow.   He seems disappointed that Abbie didn’t return it and Jenny admits she was coming his way anyway for a helping of Hawley!

This is a Jenny that we’ve never seen.  She’s a coy, sexual and aggressive seductress.  She’s fabulous really.  As she approaches Hawley exuding heat, he tells her that they mutually agreed to cool things.  She’s clearly changed her mind, so she gives him a taste of what he’s missing and steals his coffee. 

It’s pretty obvious that Hawley is saving himself for the other Mills sister.  I like that aspiring to be worthy of Abbie is his path to the light.  However this is a love triangle I am dreading.  Scorned Jenny is not someone I need to see and it makes her vulnerable to more demonic manipulation.  Both sisters have had enough drama in their lives.

Abbie threw together a memorial for Caroline at a local tavern.  Ichabod gives a lovely remembrance before joining Abbie at the bar.  He tells Abbie that they cannot trust anyone else, only each other.  Also he loves Katrina but marriage is hard and there must be trust for the relationship to work.

And now Abbie is in three “love” triangles (Abbie/Ichabod/Hawley, Abbie/Jenny/Hawley, Abbie/Ichabod/Katrina) at the of an episode featuring a vengeful jilted spirit where she was mistaken for Mrs. Crane. Methinks the writers are telling us that the Apocalypse will be no match for a woman (women) scorned!

Speaking of the real Mrs. Crane, shes visibly upset and Abraham feels her pain.  He assures her that he didn’t ask Henry to raise the vengeful spirit.  Abraham wants Katrina to be happy.  He’s so noble and sincere in his love for her that I feel my heart thawing for our dear headless spectre of death.

My heart is softening for Henry too who is clearly emotionally stunted because he wasn’t loved as a child.   Moloch is angry that Henry engineered this bit of revenge on his parents and risked Katrina’s life in the process  She’s fated to be a “Hellfire Shard”, a chosen vessel. Moloch tells Henry that his role is to follow Moloch’s plan.  Poor little Henry sits on the floor and cries after his stern scolding from Moloch the Father.

I am gobsmacked and humbled.  This one episode has changed the potential landscape immensely for most of the main characters. Sleepy Hollow is elevating the humble monster of the week vehicle into something special and exciting.

I predicted that Katrina would be a Horseman in my review of the season 2 premiere,  “This Is War”.  Now, Moloch’s wording makes me think beyond the Horsemen… Whore of Babylon maybe?  No disrespect meant to Katrina or her virtue.  She uses her femininity to control the situation as much as her magic.  Mary was correct to believe that Katrina bewitched men with her feminine wiles.

I have always been suspicious of her motives as a character.  I think she will chose evil now because of Ichabod’s rejection and her jealousy of Abbie,  no matter how misplaced that jealousy may be.  Abbie Mills is not a homewrecker y’all! She just happens to be the one person to have earned Ichabod’s trust.

Sewing the seeds of jealousy in Katrina may have been the purpose for keeping Abbie in Purgatory as a replacement for Katrina.  Abbie’s sacrifice sealed Ichabod’s trust in her.  Of course Ichabod would move heaven and hell to save her as soon as possible!  And now Katrina has seen firsthand their closeness and affection.  I am not an expert in colonial mores but I suspect the modern platonic friendship between men and women is different than in ye olde days of yore and is more physically affectionate.  Full body hugs for instance, which Ichabod and Abbie have shared on occasion.

It also seems that both Horsemen retain human emotions and human desires.  It remains to see whether those will overcome Moloch’s hold even briefly.

Then there is poor Abbie and all of those pesky relationship triangles.  As if the End of Days wasn’t enough to contend with she will have to contend with sparring “suitors”, a jealous sister and a jealous wife that’s also a witch.  This is bound to blow up.

It’s going to be a wild ride.

Thanks to Larry Teng, Director, and M. Raven Metzner, Writer, for this provocative episode.

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