Sleepy Hollow - S3E6 - This Red Lady from Caribee

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Previously on Sleepy Hollow, ‘Dead Men Tell No Tales’

Friday night in the Hollow

Ichabod and Zoe go a hibachi restaurant on their first date, which seems like a bad idea on many levels. Predictably in between the roguish banter of the chefs, the fruity parasol drinks, and a list of date questions he shouts over the grease flames, it goes badly. Thankfully they are not nearly as twee in person as they are in texts. Abbie, glam in a black dress and straightened hair, promises Danny she’ll get a grip on Joe and Jenny’s side project.

The Last Curse

Pandora calls forth her final monster, a Soucouyant in the form of a Caribbean lady in red made from a swarm of wasps, to bring back the fear of fear itself. Roosevelt was right! It first attacks the judge due to help clear up Ichabod’s run-in with Customs. As Abbie and Crane arrive for the hearing, the paranoid judge goes mad and dies on the bench just as Crane catches a glimpse of the buzzing lady escaping through the grate. He narrows down the wasp to Jack Spaniards, a harbinger of the Soucouyant.

This time it’s Abbie that recalls an entry in Grace Dixon’s journal recounting Washington’s bout with paranoia, setting off the Unfortunate Betsy Ross Flashback O’ the Week. Et tu, Abbie?! When Betsy’s improvised citronella lamps fail to cure Washington after an attack, Grace’s Trinidadian obeah tincture slows the poison while Betsy arms up and goes Penzance Pants on the Red Lady. As usual nobody saw fit to write that detail down, so the crew is left wondering how she ultimately killed the demon; probably with her storyline. As they puzzle over a promising poetic clue, Abbie’s called to a second victim, a PTA mom who’d gone all banned-books burning before dying

On the scene, Reynolds busts her talking to Ichabod on the phone, but instead of his typical smiling passive aggressive remarks, he turns aggressive-aggressive. As he drives wildly from the scene, demanding and accusatory, Abbie realizes he’s been stung too, and, when he drives off the road into Dem Woods, he clearly doesn’t realize that trying the Mills sisters is inadvisable and ends up on the wrong side of Abbie’s knee and handcuffs. I watched that about a hundred times.

After Joe helps her secure him in the Masonic cell, Danny deliriously channels The Fall, going on about what Abbie “does to people” and how he’s still back in the cabin at the Outer Banks where she left him. Juicy!

Claimed

After deciphering the tincture recipe with Crane, Jenny hauls Joe to the nearest shady Caribbean market while he mopes about being restricted from pursuing the Corbin mystery. After much teasing and Joenny shipping, the shopkeeper Azzaca sells Jenny a brick of Chadon Beni for $500, but when she hands over the cash, he prophesies under a shamanic trance:

A shadow older than time falls over your soul. You shall be claimed.  

Suddenly he’s not so teasing, urging Joe to protect her. But does he? Heck no! He gets drunk and meets with Atticus Nevins, who admits that the code on the back of his dad’s photo is two Swiss bank accounts… in exchange for the Shard of Anubis. Nevins gives him some Yakov Smirnov “In this, the debts collect you” logic, shatters Corbin’s Mayberry reputation, and pops open the Second Worst Prop Ever Made to reveal a glowing disk. Using gloves.

He and his armed henchmen escort Joe out the door, but it was all part of Mrs. BAMF’s plan. Jenny re-hijacks Joe and the opened shard with her bare hand. Not surprisingly, it disappears into her hand. More surprisingly, Joe does not stay with her that night to see what that means, so her dreams are haunted by it taking over her body. No, Jenny, no!

Burnin’ Down the House

According to legend, Crane says they need to follow the Soucouyant and “burn down her house,” which Abbie translates as the hive. A satellite picture of the area of Dem Woods reveals a pattern similar to a tree of six flowers on the back of the First Worst Prop in the World, Crane’s tablet, so they head there, finding Pandora’s cave where she’s donned full ceremonial garb, grown herself some fancy earrings, and is gathering the flowers of secrets, chaos, loneliness, innocence lost, death, and fear itself.

Beset by wasps, Crane stalks Pandora with a crossbow while Abbie tries an improvised flame thrower on the Red Lady. Pandora snatches Crane’s arrow from the air as a glow lights up the tree and the building shakes. He runs back to Abbie and hands her a can of Prussic acid, directing her to the hive at the base of the tree. So, they switch rooms, Abbie plunging into the Stalker Pool to kill the hive and Ichabod battling the Red Woman, who almost gets the upper hand but Abbie succeeds. Their victory is short lived as Pandora tells them, “Bear witness,” and disappears into the tree.

A poem by producer Albert Kim:

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Pandora’s tree is open,

Oh shit.

Wrapup

Reynolds recovers in the hospital and thanks Abbie for saving his ass and being discrete about whatever nonsense he may or may not have admitted to since he doesn’t remember. Abbie still somehow looks fabulous, and I kind of love that he’s the one still broken up about it all. Meanwhile Ichabod takes Zoe on a First Date Do-Over, trading bouquets (he gives her some rather scandalous red roses while she offers an appropriate fall assortment) and promenading about in a garden. In response to his worries, she says, and I quote:

JUST GO WITH IT.

You know who else said that, right? Betsy. Freakin. Ross. I’m not saying that means something, but I’m not not saying that. Anyway, that date leaves him dreamy in front of the fireplace later, so Abbie is naturally forced to burst his bubble.

“A wise woman once said, “Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Oh wait, that was every woman.”

As for Pandora, they discuss the tree as a potential entrance to the underworld (Persephone!), and that, whatever her intentions, Hell is surely yet to come.

Overall Thoughts:

This week’s episode benefited majorly from Haven writer Shernold Edwards’ influence and Trinidadian background and was a thrilling experience. Abbie looked fantastic, the monster was effectively menacing, and the visuals were rich at every turn. For the first time in ages, Sleepy Hollow chilled me to the bone by the shopkeeper’s trance and Pandora’s “Bear witness” command; between that and Abbie’s takedown of Reynolds, I’ll have this episode on repeat for a while. Even the shippy moments between Abbie and Reynolds, Joe and Jenny, and Crane and Zoe were sweet and not pushy or overdone.

On the downside, Betsy Ross’ scene was silly and stilted as usual. Although it was nice to see Grace Dixon again, the forced “Your reputation proceeds you” exchange and recitation of the citronella recipe was just too much. It didn’t make much sense that Joe wouldn’t watch over Jenny after what happened with the jewel, or that Crane would hop out on a date after Pandora disappeared into the underworld. However, it is exciting to see theories starting to pay off regarding her arc, and perhaps a hint of suspicion falling on Zoe as we suspected on the podcast. Could Jenny be the threat in the second half of the season? Only two more episodes until the mid-season break!