SLEEPY HOLLOW Recap: Like Minds, One Heart in “Delaware”

Like Minds, One Heart

“Delaware” offers several opportunities to reaffirm what Sleepy Hollow does not yet wish to openly acknowledge: the real love between The Witnesses.  Their synergy saturates the opening scene as each surprises the other with an indulgence of a favorite decadent delight.  Crane prepares a cappuccino for her, while she has purchased him a gourmet maple-bacon doughnut.  As Abbie sweetly brushes crumbs from Crane’s beard, they read each other’s thoughts:  Crane can feel her fear at the prospect of entering the Catacombs once again, and she knows he wants to go alone to spare her the pain.  She won’t let him, offering,“Wherever you do, I do.”  Those are words Abbie can and should live by.

The canoe trip down the Delaware/Styx is also a prime example of these two subconsciously practicing their wedding vows.  Each runs down the hardships that the other has had to endure; specifically, their own deaths and those of the ones they had loved.  Abbie wisely notes that it is the latter that she has the most difficult time accepting:  “I can endure anything; it’s the losses that wear me down.”

Crane won’t allow her to feel empty, wishing instead to focus on what they’ve gained: each other.  He calls her “a partner of the highest calibre,” and in an adorable moment, Abbie teases him into telling her that she’s his best, even more than Betsy or Washington.  In return, she gives him the highest compliment a girl who’s loath to trust can give:  “You never waver in your faith…you know how rare that is, don’t you?”  Tom Mison is at his smoldering best as he delivers the capper:  “When it concerns you and me, Lieutenant, there is no greater certainty.”  You know, Crane, that’s exactly how SleepyHeads feel as well.

Finally, Crane and Abbie come upon the portal that Washington and Ross used to reach the Catacombs where Abbie had been, but there they pause so Abbie can steel herself for the rest of the journey.  Crane extends his support in words, reminding her, “This time you’re not alone.”  Then, he extends his hand, and they enter the Catacombs together as they had entered Purgatory two years before: tightly linked.  However, when they reach the site that Abbie had occupied for her 10 months, Crane kneels for their conversation, allowing her to stand tall and confirm, “I beat this, didn’t I?”  Her victory is her own.  Crane suggests that they were only able to endure the experience via their internal conversations with other, the means by which they could “watch over each other.”  In short, when they are in need, it is to the other that they both turn, which I hope is not being missed by their internal barometers for what makes them happy and whole.  When Abbie was gone, Crane did not seek out Zoe for support; when she was desperate, Abbie did not conjure up images of Daniel.  The fact that each of them, when it matters most, seeks out the other is, as Crane says, “a truth bomb, if ever I’ve heard one.”

If that bomb explodes, it could power Sleepy Hollow for years.  Anyone got a match?