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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

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In this week’s episode we meet a Weeping Lady of the Hudson, and we get more complicated backstory for Ichabod and Katrina! These two are slowly being revealed to be the, I don’t know, Kanye and Kim? of the colonial Northeast. So much drama! Plus Abbie once again finds herself in danger!

We open on the scene we’ve all been waiting for: Ichabod has a fangirl! The friendly redhead from last season’s reenactment has returned, and has obligingly mended Ichabod’s coat. And sewn him breeches. And made him lingonberry jam. …And crocheted a pillow. Why, Miss Caroline, are you harboring a crush? She stammers out that she merely “finds his dedication to colonial reenactment is inspiring,” but she is shocked and disappointed to learn that there’s a Mrs. Crane.

We briefly flash over to an expository makeout session, where a pair of teenagers imported from the 1960s are in a car, debating about whether to go past 2nd base. One of them hears the scraping of a hook on the outside of the car… when they hear a weeping woman, who then flings herself against the windshield and almost shatters it. Having served their expository duty, the couple flees into the night.

Back at Miss Caroline’s home, Ichabod stops in to apologize to her. He didn’t really do anything wrong by today’s standards, but he knows that according to his colonial principles, accepting lingonberry jam from a lady implies certain things, and he needs to make sure they can still be friends. She accepts his apology, he performs a sweeping bow that probably just fanned her crush right back up to volcanic levels, and he leaves just in time for her to be attacked by the Weeping Lady.

Sleepy Hollow The Weeping Lady

Wait, why is the Weeping Lady at her house?

They find Caroline in the morning doing her best Laura Palmer impression, and track back to Makeout Point, finding her “I Heart Founding Fathers” mug along the way. Ichabod once again gets fingerprints all over the thing, and Abbie once again does not correct his behavior. Seriously, show, if you’re going to bother with procedural stuff, at least give us a scene of her explaining fingerprints and forensics to him? Maybe they could sit down for a CSI marathon? We learn that Ichabod still has no idea what today’s modern couples are into…which is probably just as well. They run over to the school to learn if any of the kids saw anything weird while they were not quite rounding 2nd Base last night, and the kids immediately remember the Weeping Lady but still don’t mention that the car was actually damaged…which makes it evidence, doesn’t it? Am I the one taking crazy pills, or is everyone on this show just really ignorant of police procedure? There’s been a murder, shouldn’t more cops be questioning the kids, and searching he riverbanks for clues? But of course it gets weirder.

Abbie immediately recognizes the myth of the Weeping Lady. While she and Ichabod are researching at the library, Ichabod gets a message about Ned Stark’s trial from his mole/wife Katrina. Which is much heavier on the wife side of things, as all she does is declare her love for him, without providing a single scrap of useful information. Abbie, meanwhile, runs into Hawley! He apologizes for running away from the Piper, but Abbie scoffs at his offer of help, telling him he doesn’t even, like, believe in the Apocalypse, despite all of his time selling magical artifacts! He asks, “Do people who sell Christmas trees all believe in Santa Claus?” Huh. Good point, Hawley.

He leaves just in time for her to get attacked by the Weeping Woman, and we finally get to see what she actually does. And yes, it’s terrifying.

Abbie is pulled into a porthole in the floor, which somehow leads to the Hudson. When she manages to surface for a second, she sees the Dobbs Ferry Bridge above her. But then Ichabod is reaching into the hole in the library floor, and just barely manages to grab her hand and pull her out. Not soon enough though—she isn’t breathing!

Sleepy Hollow The Weeping Lady

Ichabod is at a loss, shaking her and saying “No, no, no!” repeatedly, until Hawley pushes him aside and performs CPR. He’s left to watch as Abbie finally coughs up water and starts to breathe again.

I’m left with a boring question, though: how the heck are they explaining this to the paramedics? Oh, um, yeah, Abigail Mills, of the SHPD, the one who single-handedly rescued that kidnapped kid last week? Yeah, the one where no culprit was actually arrested or charged? Yeah she just almost drowned at the library. NBD. Carry on.

We learn now that Ichabod also had a fiancé, Mary Wells.

Sleepy Hollow The Weeping Lady
She's the one on the right.

See, Abbie managed to grab a piece of her demonic attacker’s shawl, and it happens to match the one Miss Wells was wearing when last she and Ichabod spoke. He made it clear it was over, she made it clear she blamed Katrina, and as far as he knew, she sailed back to England. So why has she become a local Sleepy Hollow legend, haunting the river? Is she targeting the women Crane loves? Could that mean…Katrina’s next?

We cut to Katrina, being next.

With a magical-crossbow assist from Hawley, Ichabbie run to Headless’ house, just as he comes flying through the barn doors, which prompts another question – where is Headless always going when they show up at his house? He always seems to be making dramatic exits and leaving Katrina alone, but why? Unfortunately, Katrina is also gone, so Abbie suggests they head to Dobbs Ferry. They find Katrina—what’s this? Katrina is competently using magic to free herself from a dangerous situation? Who are you, woman, and what have you done with Ichabod’s wife and all of her mascara? Ichabbie get there in time to assist her in a second spell, one that should free Mary’s soul and send it to a better place. So…Heaven? Or one of the better parts of Purgatory? Again, I really want this show to commit to a cosmology. Abbie’s game to help with a spell, and Ichabod tries to fend off Mary, who doesn’t want to hurt him. As she phases through him, he says “She’s heading for Katrina… and Abbie!” This is a really obvious thing for him to say, but the way his voice folds in on itself when he says Abbie’s name seemed pretty significant.

The spell takes effect, but is it just me, or does she not look like she’s going anywhere “better”? As she dies (again) Ichabod asks how she came to be in this pitiable state, and she points at Katrina!

GAAAAAAHHHH.

Sleepy Hollow The Weeping Lady

Katrina tries to dance around Ichabod’s extremely direct question of “What in God’s name did you do?” but finally admits that she met Mary on the cliff before she went back to England. In Katrina’s account, Mary became extremely aggressive, accusing her of stealing Ichabod away and bewitching him. Which is oddly specific, given that no one knew she was a witch? Then Mary lunged at Katrina, fell off the cliff, and died on the riverbank below. Katrina, not wanting Ichabod to be upset, used a simple enchantment to mimic her handwriting in a note to Ichabod saying she’d sailed back to England. And apparently her family never contacted him asking where the hell she was.

Ichabod is, understandably, pretty pissed. Here’s yet another lie from his wife, this time with an actual death attached. But they don’t have time to discuss it, because Headless is back. And Katrina, quite ably, talks him down from killing both Witnesses and rides away with him while Ichabod watches helplessly. Later, at a wake for Caroline, Ichabod tells Abbie that he’s not sure his relationship can withstand all the lies and secrets.

Meanwhile, Henry has a meeting with Moloch. Well, Moloch screams at Henry not to think for himself, refers to Katrina as a “Hellfire Shard” who can’t be killed, and leaves the poor Horseman of War sitting alone in his room, sobbing like a child.

Sleepy Hollow The Weeping Lady
Good talk, Moloch.

Notes & Errata

The show cleverly takes the primarily Mexican and Southwestern folklore of La Llorona and gives her a connection to Ichabod. In the usual rendition of the tale, La Llorona kills her children after being betrayed by her husband or lover, then drowns herself. Sometimes she returns to lure living children to their deaths, sometimes she is stopped by Nick Burkhardt, or by the Winchester Brothers’ sweet car. In this version, it’s all about Ichabod. Mary kills to seek vengeance for her former love, seemingly at the behest of Henry, who is then punished for thinking for himself. She hasn’t been betrayed by Ichabod (he broke up with her, but was as honest as possible, given that he was lying to himself about his feelings for Katrina) and no kids are involved at all. On the one hand, making her his jealous fiancée, and drowning her in the Hudson, connects her both to 200 years of Sleepy Hollow lore, and to our Witnesses. On the other, I found it a little weird that they’re taking a story from a different culture and region and turning it into more fodder for Ichabod’s drama…

Is anyone else pissed that Caroline is dead? She was really cool, and the idea of Ichabod as a semi-pro Revolutionary War re-enactor is adorable.

OK, so we need to talk about Katrina. She’s a mole, she finally finds a way to get a message to Ichabod, but all she tells him is that she loves him. Which is sweet, but, how about useful information? Maybe something about that pesky Apocalypse? And then she suddenly has yet another secret from Ichabod, this one that she watched his former fiancée die on a beach, then lied about it to him for years. This is getting pretty bad. Yes, she saves him from Headless, and yes, she casts another long look at him as she leaves him there, but come on. And what is this Hellfire Shard thing? Has this entire plot… been a plot? Katrina helps convert Ichabod to Revolutionary ideals, ties his bloodline to the Horseman’s, has his kid, and then everyone resurrects just in time for the End Game? How was she able to evade Moloch in Purgatory for two entire centuries? Hmmm…

Three times now this season, Ichabod has had to sit an watch as others acted: Abbie was the one who defeated the Piper, Hawley saved Abbie, and now Katrina has saved him and ridden off with Headless. Each time he’s been flat on his back and helpless. Is he failing as a Witness? After last Season pushed him as Mr. Eidetic Memory Who Can Also Speak Every Language and Swordfight, are we now getting Man Trapped Out of Time Whose Skills are Failing Him? Because that guy is waaaay more interesting to me.

Also, did Ichabod allow Abbie to think that he was the one who saved her, and not Hawley? Because I was very unclear on that…

I appreciated that they gave us a moment to dwell on Caroline’s death, and Ichabod’s emotional responsibility for it, before moving on to his worry about Katrina. Rather than just being collateral damage in the Apocalyptic War, or a catalyst for Ichabod’s actions, Caroline is a real person, with her own life in the community. But rather than taking the easy step of shoehorning Ichabod into a funeral with her family, the writers took an extra step, and gave us a memorial held by her friends in the re-enactment community that works within the show, and doesn’t overplay Ichabod’s role in her life.

I was also glad that he and Abbie shared a generous handful of whiskey at the end.

On a lighter note: that “I Heart Founding Fathers” mug! Totally this year’s Big Hug Mug.

Sleepy Hollow The Weeping Lady
Maybe Ichabod will at least keep the mug?

Ichabod Struggles with Modernity:

Well, a serious one this time: his lack of CPR training almost killed Abbie.

He distrusts emoticons’ ability to convey emotions. I desperately want to see him mastering emoji. Hell, Orlando Jones’ iRoc Emoticons could have a cameo!

He thinks “lovers lane” is the place where a betrothed couple will walk hand-in-hand as their parents follow closely behind. Awwww….

Abbie Struggles with Scully!

I’m going back to this heading, because once again Abbie has ended up the target of a demon. But, unlike Scully, she accepts the supernatural, walks toward it when she encounters it, and fires her gun at it. Ineffective perhaps, but at least she’s accepting the reality of her situation.

Well, she’s completely OK with her Witness role, since she’s now willing to take part in a ritual with Katrina without a second thought.

So, what did I miss? No Reyes or Irving this week, and barely any Henry, but Jenny and Hawley are going to be a thing? Jawley? Henny? Hmmm…we’ll need to work on this.


Leah Schnelbach finds herself missing Katrina’s crazy eyeliner. She did not expect this. Follow her on Twitter!

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Leah Schnelbach

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Intellectual Junk Drawer from Pittsburgh.
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