Sleepy Hollow, Episode 2: "Blood Moon"
You can't judge a book by it's cover. Conversely, you can't judge a television show by it's pilot. There have been shows that have had grade A pilots, but the shows themselves have been steaming piles of crap. On the flip side, some shows have shaky pilots, but once they figure out the tone and direction of the show, it is relatively smooth sailing. The pilot of Sleepy Hollow was a pleasant surprise, mixing horror elements with some time displaced comedy. How was the second? Hit the jump to find out.
Ichabod is not sleeping well. His dead witchy wife, Katrina, is appearing in his dreams to tell him that the first challenge he will have to face is coming. He wakes up in the hotel he is being held in, since he is a material witness. I loved the Post-Its that were peppered throughout his room, probably from Abbie. It is little touches like that one that will help flesh out the shows world and make it successful. '
Abbie is not having the best day either. Things were looking up at the end of the pilot, but the other officers who saw the Horseman have recanted and Ichabod is being written off as a delusional crazy person. There is also a video of Dark John Cho slamming his head repeatedly into the mirror into his cell. It's not surprising that once Abbie meets up with Ichabod, she is not the true believer that he was hoping for.
At the morgue, it turns out that Dark Cho isn't as dead as we thought. He gets up and out of the bag, his head still bent all the way back. That was a cool effect. Another place that the show excels is in the effects and make up department. That shot of Dark Cho was pretty awesome, as was when he readjusted himself. I loved the neck folds. Again, attention to detail will only help this show succeed. Creepy eyeless demon shows up, makes Dark Cho pull a necklace out of his mouth, and sends him to release her. Vague much?
It turns out the first demon is a witch named Cirelda of Abaddon. She belongs to the evil coven, one of the two witch covens that the sheriff mentioned in the pilot. Dark Cho is locating the descendants of the magistrate who sentenced her to burn and then she is killing them, so she can bring herself back from the dead. Or something like that. It also can apparently only happen under the blood moon. Why? Because Ichabod says so, and I trust him. I was kind of vague on the details, but whatever. It ended up with a pretty cool scene where Cirelda uses the ashes to resurrect herself. There is something supremely creepy about someone dumping a dead persons ashes on themselves, unless that is what you do for fun, if so, there is nothing creepy about it at all. It is completely normal. Ichabod is able to stop Cirelda by blowing her up with gunpowder. Lucky.
This was another solid outing for the show. Abbie and Ichabod continued to pay really well off each other. It was nice to see that the chemistry we saw in the pilot wasn't a fluke. Also, in just a few scenes, the show did a great job of portraying the paternal relationship between Abbie and Corbin. I sort of hope he keeps coming to Abbie in visions. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Ichabod and Katrina. We're supposed to be rooting for them, but there is nary a spark to be seen when they are on screen together. There is still a nice balance between horror and comedy. The "monster-of-the-week" this week was a little messy. It was kind of convoluted and was wrapped up a little too neatly. There was a lot of talking, which can cause the mind to wander. You want people to be in it all the time.
So, what did you guys think? Were you a fan? Am I wrong about Katrina and Ichabod? Are you excited to meet Abbie's sister? Are you still on board? Let me know in the comments.
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