Monday, October 7, 2013

'Sleepy Hollow' 104 "The Lesser Key of Solomon" Review

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One of the first confirmed success stories of the new fall season, Fox’s Sleepy Hollow, just received a second season pick-up for thirteen more episodes. Some people thought it was a little surprising that Fox would order the same amount of episodes that the first season had when many shows get twice the episodes ordered for their second season once they’ve proven worth the investment. Capping the number of episodes per season is the best thing that could have happened to Sleepy Hollow outside of its fantastic casting since every week we’re getting a little more mythology to work with without being overwhelmed. It’s important these days to keep them coming back for more and tonight’s episode, ‘The Lesser Key of Solomon’, grew Sleepy Hollow’s mythology a boost by furthering the connection between the past and present as we learned that the conspiracy goes deeply enough to be found in the smiling facade of a next door neighbor. 




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So it turns out that the Hessians from Ichabod’s Revolutionary War days never truly stopped carrying out their mission in the decades following that conflict. I love this as it’s a smart way to keep both of the timelines connected. Plus Gunther’s speech definitely made me think the show was suggesting that maybe even people we’ve met on the series before have some sort of Hessian connection. Abbie’s mysterious recent ex boyfriend Luke certainly does seem to be at all of those crime scenes doesn’t he? I guess we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for sightings of the symbol near him or anyone else on the series. 


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What amuses me is that the very concept of the series touts Ichabod Crane in modern-day as a selling point early on, but his character can go entire episodes without being the main focus. This is truly meant to be a story on the journey of Abbie Mills. Ever since that day in the woods with her sister Jenny when they were confronted by Moloch this has been the tale of a young girl forced to grow up into someone that can prevent Hell from coming right to earth. It’s not that dissimilar from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in that way--young girl faces demons both internal and literal in order to save the world. But Jenny Mills is a far better character than Dawn Summers could ever be. The interplay between the sisters was a highlight of this episode as was watching Crane try to deal with years of resentment and bitterness so they could accomplish their task at hand. 

Crane has a great line in which he claims that Miss Jenny’s ‘past is precisely where her value
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lies’. Apparently, that past includes a great deal of world traveling and training, as part of her hidden life with Abbie’s deceased mentor Sheriff Corbin. It makes you think about what would have happened if Corbin were alive long enough to facilitate the reunion between the sisters instead of it happening as it is now. I really want an episode that focuses primarily on Corbin and it’s not just because Clancy Brown will always be the man to me ever since Carnivale aired. This is a character that clearly played a major role in both of the Mills sisters’ lives and as a replacement father figure his very different ways of ‘raising’ both girls played a part in how each turned out. I like to think he knew that with the battle of the end times on the way that having each sister develop certain skills was for the best. The idea of the two Witnesses to the apocalypse gets brought up often and tonight’s episode has me more convinced than ever that it’s actually the sisters that are meant to witness and Crane has a different role to play during these events. 



Fox
So now that the creepy demon that killed John Cho has been identified as Moloch and the Hessians are practically a cult devoted to him we have a very solid adversary base for this season. I hope any day now we'll hear word that the actress that plays Jenny Mills, Lyndie Greenwood, has been made a series regular and we'll get much more of her character in coming episodes. She's a perfect balance to Abbie as well as a constant reminder for her sister of what can happen when she loses her belief in the strange goings-on of Sleepy Hollow. Also, can Ichabod have an ongoing thing with the On Star lady, Yolanda? That scene was the perfect example of how this show has no issue making fun of itself from time to time even though things are getting deadly serious for anyone that crosses the path of the Mills sisters. 


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