Sleepy Hollow - S1E2 - Blood Moon
Previously on Sleepy Hollow, ‘Pilot’
New Characters:
- Serilda of Abadon (Monique Ganderton) – Old timey gypsy witch
- Detective Luke Morales (Nicholas Gonzalez) – Det. Mills’ ex, also mills about the station
- Jenny Mills (Lyndie Greenwood) – Det. Abby Mills’ crazy younger sister, mentioned in Ep. 1
Ichabod Crane is being chased through the misty woods of Sleepy Hollow by the Headless Horseman, who is soon joined by the other three Horsemen in a very Black-Riders-through-the-Shire opening scene. He runs straight into a bramble and gets pulled underground by the vines, discovering that his wife Katrina has rescued him from the Horsemen. In another “I don’t have time to explain” explanation, Katrina gives Hero Crane the skinny on our bad guys.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (who we will now designate as the 4H, for brevity’s sake) are Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. Not in that order, as best as we can tell, since we know Death is the Headless Horseman. Since the over-arcing story is based on the Apocalypse, it’s helpful to not have to run and find your Bible every time they’re going to bring these guys up. They’re bringing about the Apocalypse and will be preceded by an Army of Evil. The first soldier will rise with the Blood Moon and must be stopped!
The footage from Guest Star John Cho’s prison death is being reviewed by Captain Irving, and his death is very clearly due to his charging into a mirror like a bull and “snapping his neck backwards like a Pez dispenser”—geometry be damned, and not a single creepy ram-headed demon in sight! Captain Irving tells Mills that, even though Crane is psych-ward crazy, he and Mills are the Obi-Wan to his Princess Lea. This speech is mostly given as a voiceover to an adorable montage of Crane following sticky-note instructions (what are these magical notes that stay in one place?) to all of the electrical appliances in his hotel room. The hair dryer and light switch only vaguely impress him, but the Planet of the Apes reboot is what really makes his eyes widen in amazement. Also, in a seemingly unnecessary explanation, Captain Irving will be in Albany “securing resources” and won’t be able to attend the funeral of Sheriff Corbin (red flag! Red Flag! RED FLAG!).
When Lt. Mills picks up Crane as his hostage apartment, he gives her the good news/bad news of the dead witch vision and the dark soldier that is coming that they must defeat.
Flickering lights, sparks, and a hand shoots up out of a body bag. It’s Recurring Guest Star John “Pez Dispenser” Cho! HE’S ALIVE!!!
His head is still all wonky-and by wonky I mean equal parts gruesome and ridiculous-as he stumbles around a morgue. As he rights his head (but not his now-weird neck skin), creepy ram-headed demon appears. JC pulls a giant talisman out of his mouth as the ghostie tells him to must “release” someone.
In the car, Crane and Mills discuss Katrina and her secret witchiness. In one of the funnier conversations they’ve had so far, and hopefully a harold of their future chemistry, Crane rails against the cost of donut holes and how there should be rioting in the streets. Not an important scene, but one that reminds us that this show is supposed to be fun and might even have some writers back there in the row behind all of the special effects guys.
At the funeral of Sheriff Corbin, Crane wanders around the cemetery and comes back to Katrina’s fake (and yet ornately carved) headstone. He inspects it further to find that word witch is still engraved on it, and then figures out what the hell Katrina was talking about when she said described the dark soldier as “one of us”. Not a Revolutionary War time traveler, or a dream woman—it’s a witch!!
John Cho is acting weird, but in surprisingly sound mind for someone who was previously dead. He drops the giant talisman in the middle of a historic Sleepy Hollow monument, and a sizzling charred woman appears! He tells her that he has been sent to help, and that flesh of her enemies will get reclaim her flesh into a non-burned format.
Since he’s still a cop…sort of…John Cho does his very best T-1000 impression and pulls over some guy named Jeremy Firth. He tells Firth that the road he’s traveling “won’t be far”-which to me means you turn the fuck around with a quickness—and then Burned Witch lands on his car and sets it on fire.
Mills and Crane walk through the halls of the police station and talk about her doubts about all this ghosty business. Mills tells the second half of her story after seeing the Four Trees: Her sister goes to the institution and Sheriff Corbin saves her from her teenage self. They get the call for unusual activity and arrive at Firth’s burned out car. The corpse is charred inside the vehicle and some of his ashes are missing—Crane knows who did this!!
Revolutionary War flashback: Crane and Co. stumble upon a camp—a camp NEAR ALBANY! (Remember those red flags? Cue dramatic music)-on the night of a blood moon. The camp had been reduced to ash, and the dark presence Crane felt in the camp that turned out to be dark coven leader Serilda of Abaddon. G-Dub knew about the dark witches, and so did Sheriff Corbin’s files.
Unfortunately, Corbin’s files have been removed from his office, so while Mills goes about the station looking for them, Crane has a bristly exchange with her ex, Luke. Since Corbin’s files have been moved to the guarded Armory across the street, Crane shows Mills the secret war-era tunnels that run underneath the entire city. The tunnels were used to run supplies without getting caught, and also to house the bones of witches-but more on that later, I’m sure. The city planners found the tunnels, and even built some metal staircases where necessary, but left a bunch of mysteriously coded crates of BP, or black powder, or gunpowder. The tunnel to the Armory is clear, though, and the heroes find the files.
Cyborg John Cho finds two Children of the Corn rejects playing soccer in their front yard. Through suberfuge and good policework, he finds out that one of the kids is named Kyle Hemington also that his dad is dead.
Since Crane has photographic memory (or eidetic memory, since he doesn’t know what a photograph is yet), he remembers the story of Serilda of Abaddon and exactly which book that Sheriff Corbin owned to find it in. The other coven of witches, the good ones, trapped Serilda with magic (and a Blair Witch doll), and then she was burned at the stake. Before burning, Serilda cursed Town Magistrate Firth: the ashes of his ancestry will be her flesh. Jeremy Firth, the burned body found in the car, was a direct descendent!
Kyle Hemington is also a direct descendent; while Crane and Mills make that discovery and race over to his house, he’s getting snatched out of his bed by Serilda.
Oh, wait—he was just hiding. And he’s adopted. But Serilda must have known that, because she just makes off with the ashes of Kyle’s father, the real last descendent of the town magistrate.
John Cho, errand boy to the ghouls, digs up Serilda’s bones in the tunnels beneath the police station. The heroes split up in the tunnel, but neither of them come across Serilda, who is articulating her bones with a remarkable speed and accuracy. A little ancestor ash, a little black magic, and Serilda has herself a lovely new body!
Crane finds her, can’t shoot her, and runs away to find the crates of black powder. You know, the ones that were conveniently left in the tunnel for 232 years. Serilda follows talking shit about Katrina, how the Mrs. Crane is the one who bound her, and now her between-worlds fate is sealed. Crane, who takes all of this in stride, throws his torch onto the crate of black powder and blows that witch up.
Back at the office, assumingly to do all of the paperwork that ensues after blowing up a historic basement, Mills has a confrontation with the ghost of Sheriff Corbin. As her new life-after-death coach, he tells her to not be afraid of “Number 49”.
Room 49, Sleepy Hollow Insane Asylum. Jenny Mills, who got the same script notes as John Cho, is conducting a Sarah Conner workout session. The sister of Lt. Mills is being dosed so that she doesn’t see ghosts anymore (according to the snarky nurse), but spits the meds out as soon as she’s alone. As she resumes her workout, the Creepy Ram-Ghost flashes behind her!
Overall, I like what they’re doing here. The chemistry between Crane and Mills is great fun to watch, though it doesn’t happen nearly often enough. Reminiscent of the first few seasons of Supernatural, we’ve got one big important storyline but lots of little side stories to follow along each week, and that could help keep the storyline fresh and the “old guy, new century” jokes entertaining.
And next week on Sleepy Hollow? This guy!
