After taking a two week break to let my favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, win the World Series, “Sleepy Hollow” is back! Unfortunately, I wouldn’t say it came “roaring” back with this episode, but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t a solid hour of television for this surprise hit of the Fall.
This week spent a lot of time focusing on Ichabod Crane’s past in flashbacks as the Mills sisters tried to track down a kidnapped Crane with the help of the Sin Eater. This provided a solid look into Crane’s history as we found out the why and how to why he left the British military to join George Washington in his campaign against evil in all of its various forms. We also received an introduction to the Freemasons, led in this episode be the always awesome John Noble.
As is the case with most episodes of “Sleepy Hollow”, the overall plot was moved along nicely while providing us more personal insights about our lead characters. We again got to see the Mills sisters work together, we were provided some important information about Ichabod’s past, we were introduced to another player in the battle for/against the apocalypse with the Freemasons, and the writers are doing a nice job of constantly expanding on the mythology of the show. All in all, it was a solid outing for Ichabod and company, but there was one major issue I had with this episode that brought the quality down for me.
Once again, the characater to find themselves in the most peril this week was Ichabod Crane. Obviously, I don’t have a problem with putting one of our heroes in peril, but this is the second episode in the first half of this season to really focus on “Will Ichabod Crane survive?!” – of course he will. Unfortunately, doing this really removes the sense of danger and suspense because I highly doubt a show about the Headless Horseman and Sleepy Hollow would ever kill off Ichabod-freakin’-Crane, at least not permanently. I would definitely like to see some of the other, “second-tier” characters put in more danger because as we have seen by the demises of John Cho’s and Clancy Brown’s characters, none of the supporting cast is safe.
It was really only the fact that Ichabod “maybe” dying being used as the point of suspense for this episode that dragged down my interest a little this week, but as I stated before: still a solid episode for “Sleepy Hollow”. With us moving into the second half of this abbreviated season I’m betting the writers have a lot of twists and turns waiting for us, and don’t be surprised if we all get left hanging on one hell of a cliff-hanger at the end of the season. I am definitely devoted to this ride that is “Sleepy Hollow” and can’t wait to see what’s in store.