Fight fire with fire, they say. Well, okay, in the case of this week’s Sleepy Hollow episode, “The Kindred,” it was more like fight monsters with monsters. Would we expect anything less from Crane and Co?
In an all too real nightmare, Ichabod Crane imagines a ritual where Henry and Abraham bond Katrina to Abraham for all eternity, against her will. Good thing it’s just a dream! But wait, before nodding off he read about the ritual in the Codex Tchacos (thank goodness for these Codexes characters find in so many shows these days) so it may be indeed what they have in store for her. Crane deduces where Abraham would likely be keeping Katrina, and it’s clear he intends to go rescue her. Abbie is rightly concerned that Crane is more obsessed with rescuing Katrina than figuring out Moloch’s larger plan for them and the world as we know it. She’s got a point, since now we have Abraham/Horseman of Death and Henry/Horseman of War to contend with. Crane argues Katrina isn’t just his wife, but also a powerful witch they can use in their fight, and yeah, I’ll give him that. It may be a good excuse for them to focus on rescuing her, but we all know Crane’s a true romantic and saving his wife is a pretty good reason alone.
There’s a new Sheriff in town and she’s not in the mood for games. I’m a little disappointed that they went for the trope that Abbie (on our hero team) is late to the first meeting with the new boss (new antagonist), thereby creating immediate tension. But, as much as that didn’t impress me, I was glad that they actually kept Reyes equitable to Abbie at their first meeting. Instead of immediately lashing into Abbie and making claims about her performance, Reyes instead just admonishes her that she better not be late again, and then goes on to confide in Abbie her intentions to clean up Sleepy Hollow and put things right again. I was wondering why Reyes was being forthright and sympathetic to Abbie, but then she admitted she knew Abbie’s mom. Unless I was asleep for half of the first season, we never really got much background on the Mills sisters’ mother, but now we’re heading into discovery as we learn she was, as Abbie puts it, sort of totally crazy. I hope this means we’ll get more back story on Momma Mills as this would play well into why the sisters are so keyed into communication with Moloch and Abbie’s role as Witness. Good stuff to come, if so!
Abbie, Jenny and Crane find Ben Franklin’s plans to create the Kindred, a body powerful enough to contain death’s spirit and do some mighty fighting of the good fight. Franklin never succeeded since they didn’t have a body part of the Horseman of Death back then. Lucky for our team, they do! Crane is all for a little gingerbread man making, but the Mills are more cautious. Abbie said exactly what I was thinking: How do they know they will have any control over the monster if they succeed themselves? What if he (it?) takes the head right back to Abraham? That would suck. And it’s not like Franklin left instructions on how to use it, like a golem. I did laugh at Crane’s almost childish reasoning that “it would be our monster!”
And what of poor Katrina? Back in the cabin in the woods (does anything not bad ever happen in cabins in the woods??) Abraham — in a visage as his old, corporeal self — chides Katrina for still pining for Crane when clearly Crane left her in purgatory for ages but rescued Abbie quickly. I love his attempt at seeding jealously in Katrina. She’s a witch. And she knows all about Abbie and her role as Witness and that she and Crane are dealing with the Moloch issue. But kudos to Abraham for trying!
And in case we forgot about him (like we ever would!) Abbie visits Captain Frank Irving in prison to update him and get the location of where he hid the head (it was really clever that he put in a safe deposit box, you have to admit). She then suggests he go for the insanity plea to get out of lock up and into the psych institute where Jenny was stuck for years, since visiting rights are more lax there. Irving gives it a go, but it’s odd that when he passes the lie detector test by admitting to seeing demons (specifically Ancitif) Sheriff Reyes implies that if they shunt him to the psych hospital, he’d be administered anti-psychotic drugs or electroshock therapy. Doesn’t he need an actual psych eval for that? Seems pretty vindictive of her to make such threats, which I assume means she blames the murders and mayhem in Sleepy Hollow on his law enforcement leadership. So of course we have to place bets on how long before she is exposed to the otherworldly goings on and asking him for advice. We know it’s going to happen eventually.
It seems that when The Powers That Be want to up the ante in a show, they find a way to limit the protagonists’ resources and back them into a corner. This show is no different, and now that we have Reyes on the job, it’s no surprise she catches Jenny in the police archives with their personal weapons cache. Jenny is smart and takes the solo blame, ensuring Abbie and Crane aren’t implicated as well. So now Jenny is off the roster, and it’s only Abbie and Crane left to grab the head and raise the Kindred. Which they do, at the very last second (natch). Amazingly, it does what they hoped and fights on their behalf, and not just Abraham but Henry’s psychically-linked armor, as well. But why did they have to do their ritual right within sight of the cabin? Couldn’t it have worked even down the road a little bit? I don’t really know what the point of that was, even now.
Katrina makes a move to ingratiate herself to Abraham and convinces him she will stay with him willingly. She’s done this to effectively become a mole and learn Henry and Abraham’s secrets, as she knows Moloch’s plotting bigger plans for all of them. When she tells this to Crane, while denying his rescue attempt, it almost makes sense. I assume she’ll inform them through mystical witchy means when she has something to tell them? I can’t really see Abraham just letting her wander about Sleep Hollow unsupervised any time soon.
Henry poses as Irving’s new lawyer – supposedly sent by Irving’s wife – and has Irving sign documents authorizing his services. Nifty trick by Henry earlier on in jerry rigging the pen to get the finger prick. It will be interesting to see what Henry has in mind for Irving after getting that document signed in blood. Also, poor Irving, not knowing what he’s getting into (the selling or binding of his soul, at the very least, I’m sure) while getting out of incarceration.
When all is said and done, Crane admits that maybe they shouldn’t create monsters to fight monsters, after all — even though it worked this time. Also, yeah, where is the Kindred and that precious Horseman head? And isn’t it weird for Abraham when he sees the Kindred and has to fight off a body being topped by his own head? I love this show and how these are the types of perfectly normal questions we get to ponder.
