Sleepy Hollow Review - Episode 3 - For Evil to Triumph - "We met once upon a dream."

I trust that you know where the quote above comes from? If not you can just leave now...

...I'm very cross with you.

Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797

Episode 3 of Sleepy Hollow is titled "For Evil To Triumph", which comes from the saying,

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

It's a quote from Edmund Burke, an Irish born member of the British House of Commons. He was an author and political thinker, who lived during the time of Ichabod Crane (pre-Somnambulistic Temporal Locomotion -- Yeah. I just coined that term.). We'll have to see if he mentions knowing him in this episode.

So evil relies on honest and true people to look away from need?

Let's see how this works into the episode, shall me?

"I'm afraid that if Ichabod shows
up now we may turn into a
Law & Order spin off."

This episode opens with Abbie briskly walking into the Sheriff's office. Guess we are dashing into the story...following all the Previously On stuff.

She's quickly met by Irving. He's with a forensic psychologist, Dr. Vega, who has helped them apprehend an important criminal. This is also the reason Abbie returned to the office. They quickly walk and talk on their way to the interrogation room. This is in danger of being a West Wing parody. (Irving would be Leo. Be sure you note that in your inevitable crossover fanfic.)

To Abbie's surprise Irving has sent Ichabod into the interrogation to question the nasty blighter. Thankfully Abbie see's the distinct trouble with doing this. More than it being odd for Irving to make use of Ichabod, it seems like a useful fact a defense attorney could use come a trial. Is this a bad dream?

Still, as they enter the interrogation viewing area, Ichabod is in the room, hunched over the table, demanding answers from...a young girl.

"Hey. I know we need to get our
arrest numbers up...But, come on."

Abbie is bemused so far at all of this. But is confused about who they have caught.

That's when Irving explains it to her. Abigail Mills. They finally caught her. And now Abbie can see past Ichabod, and sees the criminal. It's a young version of herself. Oh. This is a bad dream.

Abbie is upset, and reflexively says that Abigail Mills hasn't done anything wrong. (Yes. She and the girl are the same person. -- In case you were getting confused.) Irving won't agree to that.

Abbie bursts into the interrogation room. But once she is inside, she finds that she is alone in there with Ichabod. And Ichabod now has all white eyes.

He demands she be honest now. "The truth will set you free."

Freaking out now, she turns to find the door locked. Looking back she sees that she is all alone now, the lights in the room flickering.

Heh. I missed this obvious joke
in the last review.

And with that, the Sandman cometh.












No, he looks like this...

Well it looks like someone escaped...a 90's music video...? ...That's as far as my music referencing can go.

Yeah. That's not something you'd want to meet...ever.

But it approaches Abbie, and...

She wakes up.

I know, I know. Some people will always complain about dream fake outs. But that's due to the fact it is abused and poorly applied in many shows and movies to generate shocks that are meaningless.

But here it is valid. The show is one that makes use of dreams to convey information and contact people, so it's not out of nowhere. And the creature this week is one that uses dreams. So the scene does a nice job of setting the threat of this episode..

Abbie, awake now, answers a phone call. She's been called into an emergency. So races over...after stopping to pick up Ichabod. Not sure why she needed to do that. Though to be fair maybe she wanted to know about the weird dream she had...She doesn't tell him anything pertinent at it.

Instead she chooses to be evasive and get to work (Sound plan, seeing as this is an emergency call.). Abbie gets the facts from Irving. There's a woman on a ledge, and she will only talk to Abbie.

Oh. Looks like she's got
sand in her eyes. ..You'll
get the joke n a minute.

So Abbie heads up to try and talk the woman down. What she finds, she isn't ready for.

The woman is the psychologist from her dream, Dr. Vega. And her eyes are clear white like Ichabod's eyes were in the dream.

She tells Abbie that it's all her fault. She had believed, but lied about it. She knew Jennifer Mills, and treated her. But when she started believing her, she denied it.

She then tells Abbie that she has it coming. She tells her that they all do.

And with that, she jumps to her death.

And with that, they cut to a shot of the city from the sky. And, honestly, I thought they were going to the opening credits now.

But then they cut back to paramedics putting the body in an ambulance. I guess unless you have something, like a pithy line from Ichabod, we aren't going to the title sequence.

"Looks like someone's got sand in their eyes." - The line
a CSI show would have used to go to the opening credits.

Abbie describes the state the doctor was in before she died, and Irving and Ichabod want to see her eyes. Taking a look, no one has any idea why her eyes are the way they are.

Then one of them pops.

And it sprays sand around.

Well, that is a sight to see. And that sight sends us to opening credits. (Take that Horatio Caine. Actually don't. You'd only ruin it.)




The opening credits are much like last time. If you read my last review you may remember that I noted that the creature from this week's show shows up in the middle up it for a split second. I had wondered if this was a choice to use a cool monster in the opening credits, or if it was meant to be an easter egg for the show.

This time around, it's gone from the credits. In it's place we have...

Hate to tell you this credits, but Orlando Jones being in this show
isn't a revelation. I've been talking about that for weeks. Unless
you mean "Orlando Jones is a revelation."

Is this a new clue for next week? Or are they tweaking the credits due to production mandate? Or am I spending to much time watching the opening credits of this show?

I guess I'll have to keep rewatching them to find out.

Once we are back from commercials, Irving is in clamp down mode. He wants answers, but he also doesn't want this getting out. (Fair enough.)

As they head off, Ichabod tell Abbie that he can tell she is hiding something, and she admits all the parts of her dream that emerged in this suicide.

He wants to bolster her, telling that she's had a prophetic vision and should take heed of it. And he mentions Washington again. (That's it! Drinking game time. Every time Ichabod mentions Washington, take a drink.)

Aw. He looks like your dog
when you catch it breaking
something.

They start going through the Doctor Vega's files and videos for answers. They focus in on her treating of Jennifer Mills (I'm calling her Jenny from here on out.). Through this she confirms that Vega was beginning to believe Jenny, But Vega never revealed her professional opinion. And this left Jennifer locked up.

As Abbie is going through this evidence, Ichabod is running the videos of her counseling. As he does this he bumps the VCR control, screwing up the playing. (Hey kids. Enjoying the VCR? I wasted a lot money buying tapes and recording show. Result: The future is better.) This leaves him fumbling, as Abbie is talking.

See? This is not particularly annoying bit man out of time shtick. It lasts a few seconds, it's secondary to the plot and scene, and goes quickly. I approve. And I was amused.

Ichabod wants to meet Jenny, see if she has any idea what has come to Sleepy Hollow. Abbie isn't thrilled with this. She sees it as pointless. (She is desperate to not go. But we've all been there, in regards to family.)

"You think Arkham can hold me?"

When they get to the hospital Jennifer is held at, Abbie realizes the connection to her vision from the last episode (with the dead sheriff) and Jenny's patient number. He wanted her to reconnect with her sister. (But even with this, she is hostile to all of this.)

When asked, Jenny refuses to talk to her sister. So Ichabod tries and is allowed an audience.

Jenny tries to toy with and poke Ichabod. She calls him Abbie's boyfriend, and jokes about his name. Ichabod responds honestly and in a friendly manner.

"What do you mean, the Breaking
Bad finale was already on?"

He then explains that he believes her story of the demon in the woods, as he's seen it to. She dismisses him. And she tells him to talk to her sister about why she's stuck in the hospital.

Then he tells her about the death of Vega. This does hit her. He explains that what came after the doctor is one of many threats, including the Four Horsemen, that are coming. to Sleepy Hollow

Jennifer ponders this, and then tells him that there is no hope, that she can't do anything.

"It's all over, but the crying. My conscious is clear."

It's an interesting line. It could mean she is sitting the war against evil out. It could mean something else is already in motion that we don't know about.

And the point about her conscious is an interesting one. We can talk about it after we how the episode ends.

Leaving the hospital, Ichabod wants to know what the riff between the Mills sister is about.

Abbie opens to Ichabod about what when her and her sister's disappeared as kids. They had awaken in the woods, and  four days had passed. The big bad was walking off into the woods, when a local rancher found them (as part of a search party). And he to saw the big bad walking off.

"Okay, you two. We know you're the masterminds
of this organization."

Then the police questioned them.

Abbie told Jenny to keep quiet about what they saw. But Jenny leapt into the story of the big bad appearing.

The police asked Abbie what she saw. Abbie denied it all, and Jenny faced hospitalized.

Well, that makes it clear why there's bad blood in that family. Abbie's choice to not admit the truth caused the sisters to be separated and Jenny to be institutionalized.

As Abbie explains, she was scared. They had lost their parents and were in the foster care system. She didn't want to lose the good home that they were in then. (Though what happen to their parents? Will that fit in to the sisters' destiny?)

Abbie just wanted Jennifer to keep quiet about it all. She wanted them to stay in a nice safe home.

And Ichabod gives her sympathy. She was afraid, of the weirdness and of losing their stability. And she was a child. We can give her some understanding for decisions made then.

But he makes it clear that she is still grappling with a massive fear. That she'll need to face what she did, and the heavy guilt she still carries deep inside for not standing with her sister.

But Abbie can't/won't deal with this now.

Thinking on events up to this point, they realize that one person that knew about the big bad is dead. And another is having visions of the creature coming. So they decide to check on the only other person with knowledge of the big bad. Gillespie, the man who found the girls the day they were recovered (And never admitted to seeing the big bad.).

Just then, that man is sitting in his wood shop, drinking a beer and nodding off. Hearing a noise he gets up and walks to the house. And manages to gash his leg on a nail sticking out of a table he made. (Man that is lousy workmanship.) But when he wipes the blood up, it leaves a weird pattern behind on the cloth. (Wonder if this is clue?) Behind him, in a window, the Sandman, is moving about. He goes about the house and...my god, he does A LOT of wood work. Really, get a h...another hobby, okay?

When he gets locked in, he goes for a gun. And when the Sandman comes, it doesn't help.

Not at all.

Sandman's tagline: "hmph! hmph! hmph! hmph! hmph!"

Irving now gets to  meet Abbie's ex-fiance. Or, as I call him, Abbie's ex-fiance...Honestly he leaves no imprint on me. It is a mix of dull and dickish.

Apparently he left a defaced horse crossing sign in the captain's office as a joke (Is he a captain still? He didn't get promoted to sheriff, did he? Man, I got to start paying attention to this show.). Irving laughs it off, and talks to him for a minute, telling him that he knows about his history with Abbie. (So he's a friendly guy, bonding with his detectives, and connecting with Abbie's ex...Now I don't trust him.)

Then Irving hears about an incident at the home of the Gillespie. Bye, Abbie's ex-fiance. (Don't come back.)

Either the Sandman has struck,
or he's turning into the Hulk.

Everyone is surprised when they meet up at Gillespie's home. And then they hear word he will only speak to Abbie. (Déjà vu.)

So Abbie heads in, and finds Gillespie on the floor of his kitchen holding his wife hostage. His eyes have gone all white, and he tells her that no one can help him.

He then tell Abbie that she's next. The next time she sleeps, he will come for her. (And Gillespie finally names our creature the Sandman. Yeah!)

And then Gillespie kills himself. (Boo!)

Abbie finally is seeing the pattern with Jenny's life. No one believed her. And those that did, kept their mouths shut. And worst, Abbie, her own sister abandoned her. The fact is eating at Abbie.

Now Ichabod is curious about the Sandman, having no reference to the name in his own time.

Stifle it, Sandy. You already have a franchise.

They realize that now that they have a sense of what the Sandman looks like and how it operates. Maybe the sheriff's records could finally be of use? Quick! To the Archive!

I do love the set and lighting. But is it day or night? How does that relate to the last scene?

Abbie reads up on dream spirits, but can't find much on bad ones, except one Iroquois legend. Is this our clue from earlier?

Actually it isn't much of a clue. It happen in a dream. The person in the dream didn't see it. So there's no revelation. But it's there for us.

Is this your evil dream spirit card?

Seeing the symbol, Ichabod realizes what they are dealing with.

Ro'kenhrontyes.

And don't blame me for that. That came from my TV's captioning. It, at least, reads right. (Also it seems a wholly mad up thing, though it is similar to some concepts in that culture.)

"I really shouldn't have smoked this if we're going to
be talking dream spirits."

So Ichabod explains his experience. He learned about the myth of Ro...the Sandman from Mohawks that he fought alongside in the Revolutionary War.

I'll look at this history at the bottom of the post.

The idea of the Sandman, as Ichabod was told, was to teach kids to be decent to each other. Always do right by your neighbor, don't turn your back on them. Otherwise, the Sandman will punish you.

After finishing the story, he tells Abbie that they need someone with the skills and understanding to help them handle the Sandman, on their own terms. They need a Mohawk shaman.

That's when he learns out about...everything that happen to Native Peoples over the centuries he was gone. It's a reality shock he struggles to grasp.

But there is one shaman in town. The local used car salesman. Well, at a minimum, that sounds interesting.

"What are you looking for? Used car? Gently used gold clubs?
I could put a Greek translation Necronomicon in your hands today?"

Ichabod is eager to get his support. But the shaman isn't anywhere near as eager. He tries to just walk away from the matter. That's when Ichabod asks him how he thinks the Sandman will treat his turning from them?

Ichabod also pulls out the quote from the title. Thankfully, he doesn't say that he personally knew Edmund Burke. (I think, as far as drinking games go, Ichabod mentioning an 18th century figure that he doesn't know deserves two drinks. Just for the shock.)

"To the left, the old Bonanza ranch,
and over the hill, the Batcave and
the place where Kirk fought the
Gorn."

This gives the shaman pause, and he takes them to the back of his lot. He tells Ichabod that he isn't interested in playing around with any "tribal" conventions. No pow wows.

Then he takes them in his truck out...to the Old West? Do parts of New York look this? Eh. (They film in the Carolinas, I think they still did after the pilot, so I am guessing it's footage from there.)

Once they get out there, the shaman takes them to his Batcave, where he keeps all his shamanic tools.

There he emphasizes that what Ichabod and Abbie want to do is dangerous. They will need to enter his realm, it is the place where he is vulnerable. They will have to put themselves in the path of this being. Then the Sandman will inflict a pain that will drive you to kill yourself.

But they are committed. So he gives Abbie a blue drink. It will put her to sleep and into the Sandman's dream world directly.

"Wow! Romulan Ale really is powerful stuff."

Ichabod then picks up the potion and swallows some. He explains that he won't let her do this alone.

That's when the shaman explains that there's a second part to the process. They need some venom.

"So...this is totally necessary, right?"

So they take their shirts off, and get strapped to tables. (Just like you do when you travel to a dream world.)

Then he takes out a couple of scorpions (magic scorpions?) and stings Abbie and Ichabod. (The venom acts to allow them agency in the dream world, so they can act against the Sandman.) This causes them to convulse and then shift into the land of dreams, which is full of trees (Funny, every dimension and world seems like that.).

So every dimensional world is trees? What is this, Stargate SG-1?

It's one thing to be a evil dream
spirit. But a rude one?

Luckily, once they enter the dream world, they get their shirts back. But even with the venom, they start out lost...in the woods. But before long the Sandman finds Abbie.

And taking some of his eye sand, he blasts her, beginning their fight.

Ichabod is still lost in the dream world, but comes across a door standing freely. He approaches and enters it.

Maybe he isn't speaking an
archaic language. Maybe the show
is just translating his mumbling."

The Sandman taunts her, telling her she is judged as wanting. (Though how does he talk without a mouth? And why am I challenging the logic of a dream world?) So she shoots a clip of bullets into him. But that doesn't do anything. (And it's a dream world. Abbie? Dream about infinite ammo. Just sayin'.)

Abbie suddenly finds herself back in the situation from the start of the episode, watching her younger self being questioned. Though now it is exactly like what happen in real life.

Meanwhile Ichabod finds that the door has taken him to the sheriff's station. In the hall he finds the suicides from the episode, hanging in nooses. And passed them is one more noose. Two down, one to go. But three intended victims.

With Abbie, the questioner becomes the Sandman, demanding to know if she saw the big bad. He asks the young version and adult Abbie, again and again.

This is the moment in time that most held Abbie in thrall for a decade now. And here she is repeatedly being asked to face it, and what she said.

Worst Pickup Line Ever.

This provokes Abbie to deny it yet again. And the Sandman does an interesting effect, pushing his fingers through a glass window, causing it to turn to sand.

"Sorry. You just have something on your face."

As his finger approaches, young Jenny is dragged away, again.

"I say. If I knew what Star Wars was, I'd think this
looked awfully familiar."

Then Ichabod comes up behind the Sandman, and challenges him.

The Sandman tells him that his sins aren't the Sandman's to punish. (Interesting.) But he causes Ichabod to start choking, and approaches him. When Ichabod reaches for him, the Sandman slices off his arm, which pumps out sand.

This leads Abbie to finally break her cycle of denial and being locked in that moment. She tells the Sandman, "I saw a demon in the woods. And I lied to protect myself." She admits she had been a coward, that betrayed her sister. And that she wouldn't let it continue. She isn't afraid of the truth anymore.

This has an interesting affect on the Sandman. He seems to change form. I don't know to what...ice? Well, seeing as he's all sandy, and that can be transformed into glass...He's turning to glass.

Her new state of mind seems to stymie the...Do I call him the Glassman now?

So Abbie shatters him. And the duo awaken...shirtless again.

I think we can call this a win.

Back at the Archive, they take a breather, and Irving finds them. He asks them why they are there, and how. Ichabod admits he broke through a wall. And Abbie holds back the fact they have secret files here (She is a good liar.), and just says it's a good spot to work out of sight of people (Which is what Irving wants.). So, being really understanding all episode, he agrees. (So suspicious now.)

So, we have our Batcave! Our Sanctum Sanctorum! Our Hall of Justice! (No! I won't call it our Library. nyah!)

Also, Irving doesn't want to know about the Sandman. All he cares is that it's not a problem anymore. (And I suddenly trust him again.)

"Oh, I swear, if this takes me
to a faun and some fairies..."

Before getting some much needed sleep, Abbie decides to finally face her sister, to talk about things. But when she goes to the hospital, Jenny is gone. Passed locked doors, camera, guards, and alarms, she just slipped out.

Searching the room, she finds the path she made in the ceiling. She's a little impressed. But where is Jenny.


Looks like we'll find out next time!

More Jenny! More Headless Horseman (at last)! More...well, finally learning something about the horseman's origins!

But who is Jenny working with now? Is she aligned to try to stop things? Escape? Or submit?

Have to wait and see, hmm?


Also, the Boston Tea Party? Totally Ichabod's ideas. (Take a drink.)

____

The episode is pretty good. It again kept me engaged. But it is a switch from the last episode. This time the villain feels very disconnected to what has been going on. Really, this is more about understanding Abbie better. Also it's about getting her passed some of her emotional demons, so she can take on the rising threats in Sleepy Hollow.

But the Sandman is a curious threat. It is clearly a being that isn't killing everyone in the world that fails someone else. Heck it isn't even going after everyone in Sleepy Hollow like that. It seems very focused on the people surrounding the disappearance of the Mills sisters.

But why?

Is it the big bad sending a minion to tie up loose ends?

Or is it tied to Jenny's desire and belief that she had been so horribly wronged by many people?

When Ichabod talks to her, she makes it clear that she has a clear conscious. That could indicate that the Sandman came for her, and found nothing to destroy her. But, based on the three dream nooses, and the way the legend worked, it seems the Sandman went out for the perceived need for justice of Jenny.

But who sent it? OR, if this just a matter of the weirdness of Sleepy Hollow drew in/awoke the Sandman and he was inexorably drawn to Jenny's sense of being wronged?

Guess we'll have to see.

____

It is an interesting/sad piece of history, the efforts of Native people during the American Revolution. At first they were staying out of the war. Then some chiefs of the Iroquois decided they wanted to work with the British, and began aiding and raiding. These were members of the Mohawks, Senecas, Onondaga, and Cayugas. But the Oneidas and Tuscaroras choose to come of the aid of the colonists. And many battles did occur. And in many cases the fighting sent one group of Iroquois against another group. Eventually the British supporters began cutting off Western supply lines for the colonies. It got to the point that Washington (the one that knew Ichabod Crane) sent generals and thousand of troops to begin striking at the Iroquois. And they were indiscriminate (allies and enemies) in hitting villages.

So the Mohawk were allied, in general, against the colonies. But it wasn't all the Iroquois. And some Mohawk may have worked and supported the colonials, as their brethren were seen as British allies. So it seems to work.

____

And I feel the need to comment on the use of Iroquois, Mohicans, and Native shamanism.

Last review, I noted the use of witches and Romani in the episode. Most all of those points stand with this episode and Native peoples. In a horror tale it is common to use other groups as shorthand, either for good or ill.

But at least this time, he seems to be a decent enough person. Hopefully, he will be reoccurring. I'd like to some more reoccurring characters. And Ichabod could stand to start making some friends.

____

Also. You get a rare upside down scene shot from episode to episode. Like in this episode, when Abbie and Ichabod drive up to Gillespie's house. It starts upside down, then as the car passes, it flips around. It's creative. It's also annoying. Maybe it's just me.

____

And no Headless Horseman? No Undead Andy?

Did Undead Andy join the horseman at the spa?

____


Okay. In honor of the quote in post's title.

Ah! The Legless Horseman!!!
Wait? There's double meaning in this.

Why not? Sleeping Beauty in Sleepy Hollow.