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| Welcome to the madness, Sophie! Nice to have you aboard. |
Oh, help, Albert Kim. I think I love
you. Episode 3.09, “One Life,” was absolutely gorgeous. Thank
you for giving me my favorite episode of Sleepy Hollow since M. Raven
Metzner's “The Weeping Lady.” And my deepest thanks goes also to
director Kate Dennis who simply nails it all the way through.
Three well-written, interesting
stories, all about partnerships, were all skillfully interwoven. Our
theme of desperation leading to dangerous—sometimes deadly—choices
within those partnerships was beautifully played, without ever
feeling heavy-handed. We fans were given a proper and loving
introduction to FBI Agent Sophie Foster, played with crazy talent and
charisma by Jessica Camacho. And Albert Kim's marvelous poetic
sensibilities balanced subtlety with suggestion throughout the entire
episode.
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| Seriously, James Bond has nothing on you two. |
We begin the 18th Century,
with Crane and Betsy Ross taking a stroll before a British officer's
mansion. Naturally, they're engaged in reconnaissance for a later
mission, and, gloriously, Captain Crane has returned, in all
his charming, confident, hand-twitch-less form. The juxtaposition of
his clandestine conversation with Betsy with his chivalrous greetings
to passersby is so perfectly done I'd kiss Mison on the nose if he
didn't live 1,000 miles away (and I weren't afraid of stalker
charges). Mison's acting throughout this episode is just
impeccable—thank you for giving him such a fine showcase for his
huge talent. Also, hair and wardrobe, I doff my cap to you. Ichabod
is just drop-dead gorgeous in that tricorn and break-your-heart
curls.
Nikki Reed's acting is pitch-perfect
throughout this episode; her Betsy Ross as written is strong,
purposeful, and a necessary counterweight to Crane. I love how her
relationship with Crane parallels Abbie's, in that, when she gets
really angry and starts to lose it, he, very gently, and without even
a hint of condescension, calls her back to her self and steps in.
Also, it's really nice to see you trusting Reed's beauty rather than
pushing her boobs into her nose ala the first half of the season.
Mison's big-brotherly remonstrance of
Nathan Hale for his carelessness and desperation in the cause of duty
is perfect, and sets up our theme clearly but, again, without a heavy
hand. The bit about the British employing civilians as spies, and all
of them being trained to look for the glint off a spyglass, lent a
marvelous authenticity to the scene. Griffin Freeman, the actor
playing Hale, channels a young Heath Ledger, charming and believable
without a word.
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| "Do as I say, Nathan, not as I do." |
These scenes provide a lovely contrast
to the desperate Man Out of Time we meet up with in the present day.
The stuntperson on the motorcycle did a magnificent job playing
Crane. I loved the turn—Ichabod jumping off the bike before it
went into the water, without us or the bad guys seeing him—even if
it is one used often before. It reinforced that this man is
competent and smart, and I thank you for that.
The bad guys, however, give up on
Crane way too easily. I mean, hell, even I could have held my breath
under water longer than that. This unfortunate (and unbelievable)
lack of resolution in our characters reappears later in Act I.
Back in the archives, in a gorgeous
call-back to Season 1, Jenny asks Crane what was so important about
the artifact it was worth pissing off “apocalyptic cultists.”
Actually, all the call-backs in this episode were delightful, deftly
handled, and did exactly what they were meant to do: reassure us that
you all really are immersed in and committed to the canon. And it
was done subtly. You trusted your audience. Thank you so
much for that.
We see that Jenny and Joe are still a
team, and that Jenny is, in typical Jenny fashion, appearing to hold
it together much better than Crane since Abbie's disappearance. Said
disappearance seems to have completely undone Crane (thank you
writers). With a spot-on reference to Orpheus and Eurydice
(purrrrr), Crane's slightly frenetic case-solving and the non-verbal
exchange between Jenny and Joe shows us everything we need to know
about how this man has been acting for the past month. Jenny's anger
at Crane betrays her despair, though it does feel a bit sudden. The
easy amends between these two beloved siblings plays true.
Crane's embarrassment at having assumed
it was primarily his responsibility to find Abbie, his realization of
his desperation, his grasping at the thought of a new artifact to
pursue like a lifeline, his face as Jenny and Joe ask him to take a
respite while they pursue leads, is all played out with such passion
and restraint. Mison is entirely Crane, heartbreakingly heartbroken,
but the actor made subtlety his watchword throughout the scene (and
episode). He was as absolute joy to watch.
Down by the old mill we find The Hidden
One (hereafter “Bob,” because THO is not a name) in hiding with
the wife. It's taken her a month, but Pandora has finally figured
out that they never needed the Shard of Anubis for the hubby to
regain his full power. It turns out the box he gave her for a
wedding present--the one full of bad guys like Headless (we haven't
forgotten; I see a finale in Abraham's future)--is quite adequate to
reinstate Bob's reign of terror on earth. Only the lid survived the
massive Abbiexplosion in Pandora's lair, but it's enough. Eager to
please her abusive dick of a husband, Pandora puts out a beacon to
summon all the baddies freed from her box back to Sleepy Hollow.
I love that there's trouble in paradise
between these two. But, c'mon, guys, if all Pandora had to do was
invoke her box, why did we have to deal with all that
hunt-for-the-gem-of-a-jackal nonsense in the first place? More to
the point, why did Pandora? I'm guessing the Pandora's Box route
takes longer, ergo it's less efficient, but how can it possibly be
less efficient than waiting 4,000 years to find the Shard of Anubis
before resurrecting your lover? Also, it took Pandora a month to
think of this? What have they been doing all that time? I mean, I
get that it's their second honeymoon and all, but a) priorities
people, and b) if Bob was that much of a crab-apple the whole month,
Pandora couldn't have been feeling all that randy towards him.
But, I quibble (which tells you how
good this episode is, that I consider this a quibble).
That Crane would ignore Jenny's advice
and immediately take the stolen Lydian jug back to Pandora's lair,
attempting to reach Abbie in the Otherworld by way of a spell,
resonates absolutely true for his character. The only thing—and it
was kind of huge—that didn't work for me in this scene was the fact
that Crane, like his apocalyptic cultist friends a few scenes
earlier, gave up so easily. He saw the jug shaking. Yet after it
stops, instead of trying the spell again and again until it works
(like he did with the Kindred), he just gives up in frustration.
Crane would have given it another try, I think, especially after all
he went through to get the thing (including sacrificing that
motorcycle he's wanted since “The Akeda”). In both this case and
the earlier scene, it felt like the characters gave up easily because
it served the writer's purpose rather than their own.
As Crane leaves the cave, he says to no
obvious soul, “why are you following me?” The quiet dignity with
which Crane lets Sophie know he's on to her, the tension of the
exchange which follows, with Crane keeping the upper hand, but never
at the cost of his wounded vulnerability, played beautifully. It
also underscored yet again why Mison has such a long resume of voice
acting. The man can communicate more with a change of timbre in his
voice that most people can with a panoply of physical tricks.
After our characters leave Pandora's
lair, we see the old Tree of Fear light up, and a face coming through
it. Damnit, Crane! I told you you gave up too soon! Now you missed
the creepy face-that-is-decidedly-not-Abbie coming out of the tree!
Continuing the effort to find Pandora
and Bob, thereby hopefully tracking down Abbie, Jenny and Joe visit
the illegal fence she and Abbie beat up in Season 2. McKenna, you
old dog, great to see you. McKenna sends them to Randall—it's old
home week on Sleepy Hollow, and I love it!
The little bit of Lance Gross as Daniel
Reynolds we get in this episode is terrific. Reynolds wants to
know if Foster's surveillance of Crane has produced anything of
substance vis-a-vis Abbie, anything to justify an arrest. His angst
over Abbie plays out equally believably and well with Crane's.
Foster's description of Crane is perfect—we can see him as she
does, with his books, walking in the woods, shouting at the sky.
“We're missing something. This guy is wrong. I know it,”
Reynolds insists. Truer words, Danny, but you are so far from
understanding why this “international man of mystery” rubs you
wrong it's hilarious.
Just out of curiosity where did
Reynolds get a photo of Crane from two years ago when he didn't meet
him until a few months ago?
Sophie can see the toll Abbie's
disappearance has taken on Reynolds, and encourages him to take a
long weekend at a cabin in West Point. Everything between Gross and
Camacho in this scene plays true, and throughout this episode they
were given great writing and superb direction. “I don't know what
people do in cabins” city-girl-Sophie confesses to Reynolds--a
lovely, tender, honest beat.
At home, Crane's making lasagna-for-one
in a marvelous call-back to the poetic “Pizza for One” box Abbie
ate from in Kim's “Heartless” (2.8). From the moment we're in
the kitchen with him, we belong to Mison utterly. Crane's posture,
his brow, his frowning sigh, his just staring at the lasagna he
insists (so Crane-like) on heating up in the pan rather than the
microwave tell us everything we need to know about what Abbie's
absence has done to the man. Dennis, Kim and especially Mison
deserve so many kudos for this scene.
A noise distracts Crane from cooking,
and he heads upstairs to investigate. En route, he encounters
Abbie's camisole, the one Abbie caught him staring at as he folded
laundry in episode 3.02. Again, another wonderful call-back, and I
love the spice of thinking Abbie is trying to get his attention that
way. Mison's gorgeous restraint when he sees an open window, the way
he catches himself, his disappointment, when he realizes all he was
hearing was the wind....*Sigh*. Seriously, I could so happily just
listen to the man read his grocery list.
In a fine turn, of course, it wasn't
just the wind. Someone is writing a message on the mirror: “Help
me, Crane,” and the entire audience shudders. Certain that it's
Abbie trying to communicate with him, Crane reaches towards the
mirror, only to have his arm grabbed by a spirit and branded with a
symbol he doesn't recognize. Okay, if that was Abbie, the Witnesses
need to have a serious conversation about boundaries. Wonderfully
creepy.
When next we find Crane he's fallen
asleep on the mirror with his eyes open, all Gandalf-like, and
Sophie's calling. She accuses him of breaking into her house; it
turns out she, too, got a message from the Great Beyond. The
absolute Cranishness of him interrupting her, as she's going on about
her telling Reynolds he was a harmless kook, to demand the nature of
the message, was so perfect I wanted to cheer.
At Sophie's apartment, the partnership
between these two delicately begins, and it unfolds magnificently
throughout the episode. “Help me Crane” was also etched into
Sophie's floor (“you're paying the security deposit,” she tells
Crane, still convinced he's punking her). Crane rolls up the sleeve
on Foster's arm and they both see that she, too, has been branded,
only her symbol is the mirror image of Crane's. The lights flicker,
they look around nervously, and a ghost materializes in the corner.
Crane's thinks it's Abbie, and as the spirit rushes through him we
see what he sees--fragmented moments of Abbie calling him for help.
He's convinced by the end of the scene that she's dying.
Since Jenny and Joe were able to bribe
McKenna into telling them who has the map they're looking for, we get
a chance to be briefly reunited with Jenny's old business associate,
Randall, beautiful as a night sky and “dumb as a bag of hammers.”
Randall's not quite ready to forgive or forget Jenny and Joe for
their last encounter, wherein they left him trapped in a bathtub
while they pursued Sophie. “Like you haven't been handcuffed by a
girl in a motel before,” Jenny purrs against him. Touche, Mr. Kim.
Using her more than ample charms, Jenny pick-pockets Randall's
phone. I love that I didn't see her lift his phone, and the
short-hand between her and Joe afterwards.
Back at the archives, Sophie slowly
comes on board with the whole supernatural element of their
predicament, with Crane trying—efficiently--to be there for her as
she picks up the pieces of her blown mind. Crane finds the Shinto
symbol for gateway in a book, and when he and Sophie put their arms
together they find their brands form that very glyph. Crane figures
out this means they need a gateway. In an attempt to be helpful, I
shouted at the TV, “You got a mystical tree over in Pandora's lair
that's just sitting there not doing anything!”
Ah, but it seems that whomever is
calling from Beyond wants them to use a very specific gateway—a
mirror. In another subtle call-back to last season and the
Disney-mirror-phone, Crane pulls the cursed bug out of hiding.
Sophie's bachelor's degree in archaeology, the one Reynolds mentioned
in passing a few scenes back, comes in handy when she remembers that
a people in Papua New Guinea considered mirrors so powerful they
didn't have a word for them, but rather indicated them by showing
what they do—ala, hers and Crane's brand. Now, why a Shinto demon
is using the communication techniques of folks from New Guinea I have
no idea, but, this is creative and interesting, and hell, it's always
good to have an archaeologist on the team!
Sophie and Crane's burgeoning
partnership is beautifully, delicately, marvelously unwrapped, and
recalled for me the warmth, charm and frisson of Season 1 Ichabod and
Abbie. Sophie is a great character, and Camacho is a marvel—what a
first-rate actor! She and Mison have an easy, lovely chemistry, and
their characters play well off each other. More to the point, she
holds her own with Mison, and that is no small feat.
They take the mirror to Jefferson's
cell. “So why are we doing this in your, uh, dungeon?” Sophie
asks Crane, still not sure she's down with his plans to enter another
realm via the mirror, find Abbie, and bring her back. Crane curtly
explains that the cell concentrates mystical energies and asks Sophie
to “anchor” him in the real world, using a rope and her body
weight. As you do.
“Whoa, buy a girl a drink first,”
she says, in a line that both Crane and this audience member found
odd, but it is saved/explained magnificently when Sophie follows up
by letting on just how anxious and uncomfortable she is with what
they're doing. Crane tries to reassure her by telling her what the
Leftenant would do, were she there, and Sophie gets how much Abbie
means to him.
As it happens, though, Crane does buy
her a drink afterwards, or at least pours her a stiff one, at a new
makeshift chemistry lab/bar in the archives, because instead of
Abbie, Crane inadvertently brought a murderous demon with him back
from the Great Beyond, who, after nearly killing Crane and Sophie,
escaped into the wider world.
Did Crane know this was a possibility?
Uh, yes. Is Sophie pissed that he went ahead anyway, and
without telling her? You betcha. But not so pissed that she's
forgotten the soft spot she's had for Crane ever since he threw her
up against a wall outside Nevins' bait shop. Sophie's tenderness and
resolve as she calls Crane out on his fuck-up is beautifully done.
She understands why he let himself be played by a demon, but that
doesn't mean it wasn't still a huge mistake.
Alone again with his thoughts and a
beautiful array of photos of Abbie, Crane speaks to her in her
absence. All through the episode he keeps referencing what she would
say if she were here, but this is the best. Speaking to her aloud,
he asks plaintively, “You don't blame me, do you?”answers for
her, “'What I think doesn't matter Crane. What do you think'?'”
and then in frustration replies, “who asked you anyway!”
Sophie returns to tell Crane
that—oops--that demon Crane brought into the world has killed
someone. Crane figured out this is a desperation demon, so it's drawn
to attacking desperate folk. Sophie is still feeling out her depth
with the whole supernatural thing, so she brings Crane on a
ride-along. En route we get treated to Sophie's backstory, delivered
with exciting authenticity by Camacho. We also learn that the demon
has struck again, further out of town, but en route to...West Point!
It takes Sophie no time at all to
figure out who the demon is going after next. “There's only one
person who's as desperate to find out what happened to Abbie Mills as
you,” and that's...Daniel Reynolds?! Really?! I would have
guessed that might be her sister, Jenny?!
Meanwhile, Pandora's old man is griping
that his demon army is taking too long to convene. “There is a
quicker path,” Pandora tells him. “Find the Witness that took
the Eye of Anubis.” Ruh-roh. The stakes of finding Abbie have just
been dramatically upped. If the bad guys get to her before Team
Witness, and Abbie has, in fact, absorbed the Shard of Anubis, it's
going to be curtains in a bad way for our brave Leftenant. More
action from our villains would be a welcome addition, though. One of
the things that makes Headless such an arresting villain is that he
is seldom static (pardon the pun). As Abraham he did a lot more
talking, but one of the great benefits of a villain lacking a mouth
is he has to take action to communicate.
Bob copes with this news about as well
as any recently resurrected god finding himself relatively powerless
would: he threatens the woman he loves. “If you fail to find her, I
will not suffer alone.” Pandora, honey, y'all are beyond couples'
counseling. You need to get out of there, stat. Marriage is tough,
especially when your husband's been dead for a couple of centuries.
Just ask Katrina Crane. Oh, wait, you can't, 'cause her husband
killed her.
Outside Randall's storage unit we're
treated to an out-of-character moment, namely, Jenny Mills taking
forever to pick a simple lock so that Joe can have
plenty of time to mansplain to her that her sister is probably dead.
Look, I get it. You wanted a moment between Joe and Jenny—I love
me my feels—and I also get that Jenny is upset, but in no universe,
least of all Sleepy Hollow's, does it take JENNY MILLS THAT LONG TO
PICK THAT KIND OF A LOCK.
Also, Joe, Cute-Boy-With Pecs does not
replace Beloved Sister, but I get what you're trying to say. You had
to be the bad-guy-voice-of-reason-in this episode and the fans hate
you for it. Sucks to be you, Joe, but even though you were kinda
being a dick, I still like you.
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| Don't piss off Ichabod Crane or he'll put on a bathrobe. What am I saying? PISS HIM OFF A LOT MORE! |
We're treated to a terrific
bait-and-switch at Reynolds' cabin, as we find it's Crane and not
Danny awaiting the demon in his bathrobe. The bait and switch is
then played out physically by him and Sophie using mirrors to fool
and trap the demon. While we needed the exposition, I suppose, of
Crane using a shard of the demon's birth mirror to wound it, and
Mison did an admirable job of trying to make it sound like the sort
of ordinary conversation one would always have with a demon under the
circumstances, that did feel clunky.
At FBI HQ the next morning, we're
deftly shown how Daniel was absent from the cabin the previous night
through Sophie's apology for cutting short his weekend by calling in
an Abbie-sighting. Sophie then continues trying to convince Daniel
that Crane didn't kill Abbie and he's barking up the wrong Brit.
About now, Reynolds has got to be thinking, “Jesus, what kind of
cologne does this Fitzwilliam Darcy-assed dude wear?” Daniel
concedes that maybe Foster has a point, but I say no way is Reynolds
done with Crane. He knows a sizeable percentage of the fandom ships
Ichabbie and he doesn't like it one bit.
Back in Revolutionary America, poor
Nathan Hale heads for the gallows. Crane had Betsy to tell him the
guard rotation had changed at their target mansion, but Hale goes it
alone, gets caught, and now has to pay the price. Beautiful, noble,
heroic Crane tells Betsy the plan for rescuing Hale, but she's having
none of it. She explains that even if the two of them were able to
rescue Hale before his hanging, they'd reveal the presence of
hundreds of Revolutionary soldiers, resulting in their death. This
was a bit of a quick jump for me, and I do feel like we missed a few
steps in the logic, but the meat and emotional weight of this scene
is hefty. As Hale looks at Crane as he says his famous final last
words--“I regret that I have but one life to give for my
country,”--we're reminded of Crane's earlier advice to the young
man (“Unlike a cat, you have but one life”). Crane's regret is
palpable as he says to Betsy, “he was our partner and we just let
him die,” Crane says to Betsy. Firmly, with marvelously acted but
unspoken devastation she underscores the moment's secondary lesson,
after the dangers of behaving rashly: “Not all our partners will
survive. Sometimes you must accept that there aren't going to be any
miracles. The best you can do is continue your mission.”
The scene is very powerful, and leads
well into the present-day scene which succeeds it: Crane removing
Abbie's photo from a bulletin board, and Sophie asking him if he's
suspending the search. I did NOT like the seeming parallel with
Nathan Hale, i.e., Crane accepting that Abbie may in fact be dead,
and that he must shift his focus back to their shared mission. Yes,
he says quietly, he'll never stop in his search, but the focus, the
centerpiece of the scene was that he's been too single-minded, with
terrible consequences (a result of his desperation and rash judgment,
NOT his single-mindedness). Crane's tenor, as well as his words,
felt like he was giving up, and this in an episode during which he
and Sophie develop a relationship which echoes Crane's and Abbie's,
just felt wrong, almost like we were being warmed up to the idea of
Sophie replacing Abbie (2/29: fortunately this fear has not borne
out).
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| It's a good team. It's a nice team. It's a lovely team. Now bring Abbie back. |
Both the scene at Randall's locker, in
which Joe is captured, and, we fear, killed, and the loving scene
between the very-much-alive Joe and Jenny back at her trailer,
resolve their story beautifully for this episode. That business
sorted, Jenny and Joe bring the supernatural map scored from
Randall's storage unit to the archives, and we see—through some
visuals I found pretty naff—that Pandora's demons are converging on
Sleepy Hollow, a “demon convention,” as Sophie so aptly puts it.
So our team is set up and ready to go for their next
adventure...except where's Abbie?!
Thankfully, we get to see, if only for
a moment. Abbie's waking up on the floor of a mysterious cave in our
final scene, calling out for her loved ones with Crane in the lead.
But do tell, writers...has she been asleep on the floor of that cave
for a month and is only now waking up? I expect explanations...and
soon!
Sleepy Hollow is back. No,
seriously:
Sleepy Hollow is back!!
