Sleepy Hollow: “The Sisters Mills” — Oct. 22, 2015

Sleepy Hollow Season 3 continues to bear gifts; each episode has delivered some element of what fans asked for, and this was no different. We didn’t get the extended 20-minute Outlander-style love scene I requested. It is network TV, so that’s probably for the best. I won’t give away any Poldark spoilers, but if you want to see a ship move full-speed ahead, check it out. In any case, the Mills sisters relationship also deserves the spotlight, and the episode delivered that and continued to increase Jenny’s prominence. Ichabod and Abbie each spent more time with Jenny than they did with each other, so Lyndie Greenwood had another well-deserved chance to shine. Let’s go!

First Appearance: Saffron Paynter  (Alana Cavanaugh), Gregory (Lawton Denis) Paul Revere (Dustin Lewis) The Tooth Fairy/Abyzou (Samantha Ann)

Ichabod plants himself on the sofa watching video games (which he picked up from Joe Corbin, by the way) consuming salty carbs and sugary carbonated drinks. He is pretty close to being American. Final test: Does Ichabod get irrationally angry about having to press 1 for English? It goes like this:

Abbie: What are you doing?
Ichabod: Refusing to learn by rote.
Abbie: You have an eidetic memory. If you could reconstruct Washington’s map, you can just look at the book and take the test. I see that random extra keeps trying to ship herself with you.
Ichabod: Yes, #Crextra is quite the texta. How do you know so much about my texts?
Abbie: “We share a roof, Crane. I know a lot of things I cannot unknow.”
Ichabod: Like what?
Abbie: I know you are writing “Simply Ichabbie” under the assumed name, sleepyheadfan20. You are going to have to prove yourself before you get to do anything with whipped cream, buddy.
Ichabbie: “You will make the right decision at the right time, Leftenant.” I’ll go get the Windex.
Abbie: Solid plan.

Hey, Joe! Corbin’s occupation as an EMT is handy; he phones Abbie to report that a little girl claims a monster attacked her sister. Oh, look, Pandora is up to her monkeyshines, she’s in a hospital uniform, tragically we won’t get to enjoy her fashion show this week. Little Miss Crazy Pants skedaddles before the Mills sisters arrive. Jenny coaxes Saffron to open up about the creature that hurt her sister and tells the girl they believe her. Bravo Sleepy Writers for mining the show’s mythology.

While Jenny and Agent Mills search the girls’ bedroom, Ichabod questions Saffron in her treehouse. It goes like this:
Saffron: Who are you?
Ichabod: My name is Ichabod Crane. I’m a damn sexy hobo and illegal immigrant who was a suspect in the murder of Sheriff Corbin, I escaped a psychiatric facility and recently wound up at a detention center when I re-entered the country. I shivved my first wife; nobody can prove it was deliberate. Now that I have you cornered, want to see me perform a magic trick and act like a loon?
Saffron: My parents suck.

Crane persuades the girl to draw a picture of the monstrous visitor, the Tooth Fairy. Flashback! Twistory! Paul Revere! It’s not the actor who played, Paul Revere of “The Midnight Ride” episode. Ichabod does not indicate that this is the lovable “Rum Beggar,” maybe that develops later on in the revolution. Upshot: The Abyzou is only visible to children, not unlike Der Kindestod in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode “Killed by Death,” but the Tooth Fairy is nightmare-inducing and joins the ranks of the Pied Piper and the Sandman. (And this episode kicks the ass of “Killed by Death.”) The Tooth Fairy also terrorizes Gregory, a moppet with a loose tooth. Spoiler: He’ll be fine, so will Saffron’s sister.

Agent Doe Eyes is trying to take care of some Tooth Fairy business on the phone when Crane rushes over and yanks the phone out of her hand. It goes like this:
Ichabod: Let me do it! I told you I’d do it. I know how to order pizza!
Abbie: First off, stop flailing your fingers about. Secondly, I wanted thin-crust, and you ordered Chicago-style last time. Oh, and you forgot the pepperoni, you know I like pepperoni.

Marriage, ladies and gentlemen.

Stakeout! Ichabod and Joe are in one car, and the Mills sisters are in the other with the Conflict Fairy. It goes like this:

Corbin says that the Mills Sisters love to play matchmaker. We have seen no evidence of this so disregard that bit of dialogue. Do, however, focus on the way Corbin shades Crextra and her many messages and emojis.

The men have a conversation about relationships; it goes like this:

Ichabod: “Master. Corbin… in my experience, obfuscating a working relationship by indulging in auxiliary feelings can become rather… complicated.”
Joe: “I don’t know. Sounds like you’re overthinking it.”

In “Heartless,” When Ichabod was alarmed by Hawley’s attraction to Abbie, and she said: “You, of all people, know that there’s no room in our lives for complications.” He replied: “And since when has opening our hearts to new possibilities been a complication?”

I found the conversation with Joe a bit contradictory. Maybe I’m overthinking it, or maybe the writers forgot, what do you think?

In the other car, it goes like this:

Abbie: So about dad. He’s alive.
The Conflict Fairy: Here it comes! They were getting on so well, but now they will have a falling out.
Jenny: You are just finding this out now? I knew five years ago. He remarried and has a new family and I want nothing to do with him.
The Conflict Fairy: Wait, what? No fighting? Well-played, writers. You got me.

It’s a perfect scene, Nicole Beharie and Lyndie Greenwood exude an authentic sisterly vibe. When the battle with the Tooth Fairy leaves Abbie wounded. Jenny looks distraught at her unconscious sister’s bedside. A Crane kiss on the cheek or forehead would be welcome, the scene is really about Jenny. Greenwood got to portray the evolution of the sisters’ relationship. Despite being a decorated officer on the SS Ichabbie, I think it’s essential to show Abbie’s other significant relationships.

As soon as Crane and Jenny went to kick the Tooth Fairy’s ass, which they accomplished, Pandora came along. Who is Pandora? What is she? When Miss Crazypants enters Abbie’s room the electricity crackles, that’s usually associated with ghosts. She seems particularly interested in Abbie, doesn’t she? She’s always slinking up to her when she’s vulnerable and trying to throw her off her game. Pandora speaks in riddles, saying: “You’re not like the others, are you? And you don’t crave mortality. Not your own or your sister’s or even your fellow Napalutu…. And yet you fight. You fight like you have something to lose. So what is it, my brave one? What is the one pesky thing that you cannot accept to lose? It can’t be your mother. We know what happened to her. Then what about your father?” Whatever Pandora’s story, she had a horrific childhood. She’s misunderstood.

OMG you guys, Tom Mison is in a commercial. He’s dressed like flashback Ichabod. I don’t know what they are selling. Maybe Colonial Penn Life Insurance or Colonial Williamsburg Vacation Packages. It’s not as good as that Apple commercial with Kerry Washington, Taraji P. Henson and Mary J. Blige. I love that one! Anyhoo, back to Sleepy Hollow.

Quotable Ichabbie:

Ichabod wakes up woozy in the dentist chair and admires his teeth.

Crane is comfortably numb and gets a little handsy with the dental assistant who is just trying to give him his free dental kit, it’s an amusing scene. He has way more chemistry with her than the girl from that weird Colonial Williamsburg commercial. And unlike Crextra, the assistant realizes he’s under the influence and leaves the scene.

Cliffhanger: Crane figures out that Little Miss Crazypants is not the Pandora of Greek mythology, she’s some kind of other Pandora. The word she spoke to Abbie, “Napalutu,” is Sumerian for “destroyers.” She also might be green and scaly. Pandora is no joke.

We love witty comments from Sleepyheads. They don’t appear right away, but we promise we’ll get to them.

Sleepy Hollow airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Fox.