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SLEEPY HOLLOW Review: Secrets & Family Ties in “Whispers in the Dark”

BY The Screen Spy Team

Published 9 years ago

SLEEPY HOLLOW Review: Secrets & Family Ties in

By Jennie Bragg

Secrets. Sleepy Hollow is full of them and we got a glimpse into a few new ones this week. Pandora is back with her hipster-style evil and she’s conjured another creature from her box. She’s set up shop in a coffeehouse at the Tarrytown train station, selling coffee and creeping out one of the station patrons by telling him, “You’ve got to tell me your secret.” He looks nervous and unsettled and next thing you know, a black smoky cloud is taunting him and he’s not much longer for this world.

His secret relates to an embezzlement scheme that he and two colleagues have stumbled across – and which he is about to report to the FBI. This is the driving story for this week’s baddie but it is really secondary to the bigger secrets that Crane and Abbie are harboring. Crane’s has to do with his past as an American patriot and spy while Abbie’s… well more on that later because that’s the bigger reveal.

This smoky wraith conjured by Pandora is a demon that bonds with a human host and, essentially, hunts down and destroys people harboring secrets. This revelation comes thanks to Grace’s journal (yay for a short flashback to the luminous Grace), and sends Ichabod down memory lane. Where he again meets Betsy Ross. He and Betsy are fighting General Howe, a British officer using an American traitor turned into a wraith to root out spies from the Culper Spy Ring.

Meanwhile, Abbie has a new boss, she and Ichabod are tracking down the new baddie using the Archives, which Ichabod has grand plans to save, Joe Corbin is back in town and Jenny has a rock. Like Abbie said last week, LOTS to catch up on.

NEXT: WHERE WE ARE NOW

This episode tried to cover a lot of ground, introducing some new faces and some returning ones, establishing the story behind Abbie and Daniel’s relationship and what looks likely to be Jenny and Joe’s relationship for the season, expanding on Betsy Ross’s role in the war against evil and her relationship with Crane, launching Crane’s campaign to save the Archives (and perhaps to become a U.S. citizen?) and a big reveal at the end for Abbie. Fitting all that in with the baddie of the week made for a pretty crowded episode and occasionally these moments of character revelation seemed rushed. Hopefully this will clear up once relationships are established and the longer story arc for the season is underway.

To me, the overall tone and pacing and even dialogue of this episode seem different than the Sleepy Hollow of seasons one and two. Even the settings are giving the show a different feel. The show is certainly making good use of its new location in Atlanta – the train station was gorgeously filmed and it’s interesting to see Ichabod in a big city environment, when previously his world was largely contained to the sleepy little Hollow. But his character in particular seems adrift, with no clear purpose, no job, no place to live – I do miss the cabin, where Ichabod could been seen in an environment that made more sense for this pre-modern era man – and Abbie now more clearly splitting her attention between her career ambitions and her role as a Witness. Add to that his lack of any connection to his previous life, and Crane seems like he’s still in reboot mode. Abbie, on the other hand, is having lots of interesting things thrown at her and it looks like we will be seeing more of her personal struggle to tie together her past, her present choices for her professional and personal life and the Witness duties she’s been thrust into. And Jenny and Joe’s scenes were a delight – I just hope they aren’t always working apart from the two Witnesses because we need to see the four of them together.

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