Review: “Sleepy Hollow” 1.07 – “The Midnight Ride”

I find it hard to do a critical review on a show that’s just so damned fun to watch.  I wouldn’t call last night’s Sleepy Hollow, “The Midnight Ride,” a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, yet I enjoyed every single minute of it.  I mean, how can a show mix ancient relics with silly modern day issues like X-rated spam and contaminated water and make it all work? 

This week they played a lot more with the fish out of water bits with Crane, more than any other episode so far.  I love how Crane flaunted his cup of free water from the tap (complete with noisy straw) after being appalled that Abbie would actually buy water (or that one modern day trip to the warehouse store could supply an entire compliment of troops in Lexington).  I also laughed over the fact that the coveted missing ancient manuscript, the one that is vital in preventing the apocalypse, the one the headless horseman tried to find through treachery, was discovered to be in London.  No matter, because they put it online!  Good thing the headless horseman isn’t computer savvy.  So what happens when you leave a guy from Revolutionary War times alone with a computer for the first time ever?  Naturally he’s going to accidentally click on the icon that opens the video sex chat window.  It’s like watching my Dad figure out the Internet. 

The most priceless bit though was Crane figuring out how to deliver a voicemail to Abbie via the “smart phone.”  That was the best message ever, reading as though he was sending something on parchment.  That’s how you do it if the smart phone existed in colonial times. 

Technology wasn’t the only thing rubbing Ichabod the wrong way though.  American History really messed with him this week as well.  I loved Ichabod having a fit about the historical inaccuracy of Paul Revere’s midnight ride in front of those school children at the historical center.  I especially chuckled over his rant that Revere never said “The British are coming,” pointing out we’re all British.  No doubt that’s been a sore spot for historians for many years.  Also, how much did you feel over Crane finding out that his hero Thomas Jefferson wasn’t the great guy he thought he was?  Talk about crushing a fan boy’s dream.  I mean, Captain Irving actually had to explain how our modern day DNA testing proved he fathered six children with a slave.  However, it was Abbie going online to show a famous quote by Jefferson, one actually given to him by Crane, that was the ultimate convincer.  I know Crane, you think you know someone…

Among all these rude awakenings for Crane though was an actual plot.  Sadly, the headless horsemen wiped out the entire chapter of freemasons from last week.  That made me really sad.  I was hoping we’d see more of them as the adventures continued.  Making their head lanterns though was creepily cool.  Exactly what did four lanterns mean as opposed to one by land, two by sea?  I guess it meant the headless horseman was messing with you.  The horseman wanted his head and lucky for Abbie and Crane, Captain Irving finally got his evidence that the dude exists.  Yes, it came from a harrowing confrontation in a lab that almost cost Irving his life (the poor lab tech didn’t make it), but whatever works.  Crane finally decided maybe they should destroy the head, but he and Abbie learned the hard way you can’t kill death, nor his head.  Even wiring it to explosives didn’t work (I thought the broken sledgehammer was a good enough clue). 

While Katrina was noticeably absent this week, Evil John Cho is back!  He’s as creepy and odd as ever.  He’s trying to help Abbie this time, and started by warning Morales to stay away from her.  It’s my guess the motive isn’t all it seems to be, especially considering how freaked out Morales was when getting a phone call from Abbie after his encounter with EJC (I really need to learn his character’s name).  EJC is at least proving to be a good messenger between Abbie and Crane and the headless Horseman through his ambiguity.  If that ends up being his role in all of this, I won’t be disappointed one bit.

Crane was able to figure out through the printouts of the manuscript pages (since he couldn’t figure out how to get rid of the video sex chat girl), how to decipher the code.  The password was etched by Paul Revere on the back of the teeth of the headless horseman skull.  It was Cicero, which is our shout out to last week’s amazing episode.  Good thing Revere was resourceful, huh?  They can’t kill death but they can trap him.  So, after an exciting little chase through the caves with some fake glowing skulls (now believer Irving helped make them), they were able to catch their headless villain in a trap with glowing florescent lights to simulate daylight.  Yes, that was a Devil’s Trap.  Score one for Supernatural!  They’ve actually done something that is now canon in another series.  They’ve hit the big time.   

There’s the setup for next week, interrogating a headless guy in a cave.  Like I said, not a lot of plot, but a lot of enjoyable fluff this week.  This whole episode was really meant to be the setup that bridged last week and next, so why not have some fun in the process?  I know I did.

What did you all think of “The Midnight Ride?”