Sleepy Hollow Episode 2.6: No More 'Dances with Wendigos' Guys, Please!

Writers, Sleepy Hollow is a great show, but it can, and must, be better.

The chihuahua is by far the best thing about this scene.

Episode 2.6 had so much to commend it, from a story perspective, the performances in particular of Nicole Beharie, Zach Appelman, and Orlando Jones, the editing, lighting, and special effects. Thematically, you went to both a good and interesting place. I want to spend this critique telling you how wonderful I thought that all was.

I can't.

In the beginning, namely Episode 1.02 last season, you sowed the seeds for a potentially appalling or potentially liberating relationship between Sleepy Hollow and the American Genocide by having Ichabod Crane, a Revolutionary War soldier working under George Washington, be surprised by Euro-America's devastation of Indigenous America. Tom Mison's extremely touching, well-acted-- albeit wholly unbelievable--shock and horror that entire nations Ichabod considered his friends are all but gone laid the groundwork for some compelling story lines and storytelling. But then you had Abbie sum up the post-Revolutionary invasion of Indian Country with, “after the war, the new government and the Native Americans fought over land,” effectively heading Sleepy's relationship to the invasion and ethnic cleansing of this continent right to the edge of a cliff. Last Monday night, with “And the Abyss Gazes Back,” you dove right off of it.

We need to start with the roots of this problem, because they produced the tree that brought forth this unfortunate fruit, and will continue to do so if left unaddressed.

Root #1: Making Ichabod Crane ignorant of the genocide of Indigenous Americans.

The genocide executed by the American armies, government and people was well, well under way by the time Ichabod Crane came to the colonies. It was not something that started as a response to “battles” between the colonists and native nations after the war. Crane, as an intimate of Washington, would have been well aware of both the assaults on Native communities and the efficacy of some indigenous resistance resulting in massacres of American settlers.

Root #2: Ichabod Crane, as a soldier in the American army, fought beside the Mohawks, becoming what Seamus Duncan caustically referred to as a “friend of the tribe,” or as we're seeing this season, multiple Native nations.

The Mohawks, along with the majority of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois confederacy), sided with the British in the Revolutionary War, believing that their chances of survival were stronger under Crown rule than colonial. As it happened the War proved devastating for the Iroquois.

As for friendships with members of other Native nations, while it's far from impossible, the level of intimacy Crane would have had to have to become fluent in as many languages, spiritual beliefs, and hunting techniques as Sleepy Hollow suggests requires far more from this audience member than willing suspension of disbelief. It requires a lobotomy.

Root #3: Ichabod Crane's BFF, George Washington, has consistently been portrayed as a veritable saint in the War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness, yet both during the Revolution and after, Washington was personally responsible for ordering horrific acts of ethnic cleansing and scorched earth policies which devastated Native nations. (I still can't believe you haven't addressed the fact that Washington manumitted his slaves only upon his death).

Root #4: Abbie's reduction of genocide to “the new government and the Native Americans fought over land” was only tolerable if it was going to be revisited. While it's completely believable that a young police officer reared and educated in Sleepy Hollow, NY could have been so inadequately educated as to consider this an accurate reflection of what transpired, it is inconceivable that showrunner Mark Goffman, a graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, could come to this script that ignorant of American history.

As for plot exploitation of Native peoples, things started getting ridiculous in Episode 1.02 with Crane and Abbie drinking a supposed Mohawk potion that included plants not indigenous to North America, and then being stung by a scorpion, an animal that could not possibly ever have lived in that bioregion. This is one of those things that's more irritating than offensive, and I'm happy to throw it in the cabinet of Totally Absurd Sleepy Hollow Phelebotinum, the things I put up with as long as the heart of the story is there.

Something I can't throw into that cabinet is your playing the first Native person we meet in Sleepy Hollow as an environmental villain for laughs. Of course there are Native people who pollute as badly as non-Natives, but without any context or understanding of how that came to be, this is wildly inappropriate; attributing such behavior to a medicine man borders on idiocy.

This season, so far, we've been told that Crane was trained to hunt by the Abenaki. Hawley questions Crane's sanity given that the Abenaki have been gone from New York State for 200 years. I'm still wondering how much time the Abenaki have spent in New York State period.  Doesn't Abenaki mean “People of the Land of the dawn,” or “Eastern people,” as in, the first folks to see the sunrise?

More to the point, the Abenaki are simply used and exploited by the writers to give Crane forest cred. No discussion of the impact of the colonies or the War on the Abenaki is even attempted.

This brings us to Episode 2.6, wherein we learn the mind-boggling “facts” that Ichabod Crane was close friends with Daniel Boone, lifetime enemy of the Shawnee, and close friends with the Shawnee, so much so that he is fluent in both the Shawnee language and spiritual customs.

Really, Sleepy Writers?

First off, why would Crane have known Boone or the Shawnee? While Boone fought in some battles, largely far from the center of Crane's activity, his primary purpose as a Revolutionary militiaman was facilitating the settlement by Euro-Amercans of the Shawnees' land, through force and terror if necessary. The vast majority of this land was west of the original colonies at the time Crane was active on the Revolutionary scene.

For Crane to have become fluent in Shawnee language and customs he would have had to have lived with the people for a substantial period of time and earned their trust. There's no way that could have happened and he remain a friend of Daniel, or Squire Boone, Jr. There's no way that could have happened and he be surprised, ala Episode 1.02, to learn that the majority of Native Americans are dead.

The Schoolhouse Rock version of American history you guys settle for and twist beyond recognition usually doesn't bother me, because a) it pertains to the “victors” in both the Revolutionary War and imperial expansion, and because b) the actual history of the events you're perverting is well-established in the American consciousness.

This doesn't work when we're talking about victims of genocide, particularly a genocide which continues to benefit the political and biological descendants of those who perpetrated it. Particularly when the genocide is still going on.

One can only conclude that you're either completely unaware of American history, or you're literally trying to whitewash it, painting the Boones and the Shawnees as pals after the fact (after, for example, the Shawnee killed 2 of Daniel Boone's children in battle, captured him and captured his daughter—sounds like a Crane family reunion). It's bad enough that you're exploiting Native people for storytelling purposes while giving absolutely no airtime to the injustices Euro-America continues to perpetrate against them, but this is way, way too much.

I should not have to give you props for hiring an indigenous actor--Sicangu Lakota Eddie Spears--to play Big Ash, but props nonetheless since last year you brought in (excellent but not indigenous) Australian actor Michael Teh to play a Mohawk medicine man despite the fact that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of talented, skilled, and unemployed indigenous actors in this country.

Spears gave a fine performance (though the Chihuahua is still my favorite character in that scene), given what he had to work with. I'm right up there with Genevieve Valentine: if we need to have new recurring characters, I'll take Big Ash over Hawley any time. But how is it Hawley managed to make friends with not one but FOUR Shawnees in upper New York State? Granted, Shawnees can be found anywhere these days, but I lived in Denver—the unofficial “capital” of Indian Country—and in 15 years I only met 3 Shawnees, two of whom were related to each other, and the other of whom was just passing through.

How did Ichabod know that Frank was the medicine man (for the love of God, please stop using the word “shaman.” There's no way a man who lived so closely with Native people would use that word)? Is it because he's the elder? That's not a requisite for being a medicine person. Never mind the more obvious phlebotinum leap, his calling this group of men a “Shawnee hunting party.”

Please, Sleepy Writers. You are so much better than this. Be better. How?

The show Longmire was recently cancelled, much to my dismay. While fans and producers are working hard to get it a new home, the show's indigenous consultant, who did a phenomenal job, Marcus Red Thunder, may be in need of a job.  Perhaps you could give him a call? 

http://alldigitocracy.org/how-aes-longmire-gets-it-right-when-portraying-american-indians/

Or, better still, hire a Native consultant who is actually from the Sleepy Hollow area. And then find yourself an excellent Native writer to join the writing staff and be with you in the room 24-7. This is not only good business, it's necessary reparation.

As for what worked in the episode, both the story and the themes of the episode were just marvelous. Every scene between Beharie and Appelman rang true, the theme of a soldier/warrior being cursed with both “nostalgia,” aka PTSD, and a “monster within,” by War was gorgeous, and largely well-executed. Thank you for giving at least a tiny bit of Frank Irving as a man who manages to fight the monster within and remain true, in the end, to himself, Henry Parish be damned.

However, speaking of people of color in Sleepy Hollow, enough with the White Guys already. Last year, you gave us three magnificent characters in Abbie Mills, Jenny Mills and Frank Irving. With the exception of Abbie, you've all but deleted those characters from the story, in favor of Nick Hawley, Abraham van Brunt, now Joe Corbin, and even Henry Parrish. Don't get me wrong—I love all four actors, and with the exception of Hawley, all four characters. But I don't want them in my show at the expense of Jenny and Irving. Even Reyes I'd be more interested in spending time with—she's proven herself a powerful, strong, brave woman, and one of these days I have a feeling she may also prove interesting.

I mentioned in my critique of Episode 2.4 that I was waiting for Hawley to go Full Han Solo on us and redeem himself. Not only has he yet to do so, but his character in 2.6 proved even more reprehensible, selling a “sacred mask” the Shawnee inexplicably and unbelievably sold to him. If you want us to accept Hawley even slightly as a suitor for Abbie, you have got to give Matt Barr beauty in something other than his biceps.

As for Crane in this episode, Mison did a largely credible job, at times very moving. But the scene in which Joe Corbin asks him if he loves his son did not land. Mison's subtlety in response to the question was spot-on, but tonally did not work at all because you preceded that exchange with the running joke of Henry going through “a rebellious phase.” I like both of these—Ichabod's pained love for his son, him treating Henry like a poorly-reared 3-year-old—but not together. As a result, I absolutely did not believe Ichabod when he said he loved his son. And I need to believe him; that's important. What happened to that passionate, angst-ridden father of “The Golem”? Has Henry's burying him alive gotten rid of all of that sense of protectiveness and guilt?

As for the scenes in which Crane is introduced to more aspects of the modern world, while I absolutely adore you for putting Tom Mison in long wig and yoga clothes and having him flash us his belly in a handstand, it's completely unbelievable that Abbie hasn't noticed yet that the man needs no help whatsoever in the abs or “double jug” department (no one could execute a handstand that well if he did). As for Ichabod playing video games, no, guys. Just. No. It's believable that Joe Corbin, a war vet who grew up with video games, would find himself playing them for relaxation upon his return from Afghanistan. It's completely unbelievable that a man as sensitive and empathetic as Crane, who fought a war in which more often than not he felt the breath of the man he killed on his face as he died, would find such a thing anything but deeply disturbing (see, for example, his reaction to the reenactors in last season's finale).

Finally, we're only six episodes in, and already you've used “bitch” twice in scripts. Please stop. I know it's the hip thing that all the cool kids are doing these days, but a large percentage of your audience comes from a demographic that deeply resents that word being used ever, in any context.