Sleepy Hollow

Were you one of the 10 million Americans who watched the premiere of this creepy new show on Fox? I’ll admit I have to watch since it’s filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, my birthplace and setting for most of my books. 😉 The pilot was filmed in Salisbury, NC, but the series is in Wilmington. Anyway, I’ve always been somewhat fascinated with the Sleepy Hollow legend. Loved the Johnny Depp-Christina Ricci movie. You just have to love that “Heads will roll” tagline, which the series also borrows. Brilliant. **some spoilers**

The new show stars Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane and Nicole Beharie as Abbie Mills, a local cop.

Good looking cast so far, I must say. We begin in Hudson Valley, NY in 1781 during a battle with the British. A redcoat rides in and at first I didn’t think he had a face so I’m already a little freaked out. Then I realized as he begins to fight with Ichabod, he’s wearing an iron faceplate kinda thing. He’s creepy already.

Ichabod is injured by creepy faceless guy but then lops his head off. Way to go, Icky!

Hmm…yeah I think I might like anything Icky does. (Icahbod is just so long to write out. I realize Icky is definitely NOT Icky but my nickname is already sticking. Sticky Icky) He passes out after he’s injured and wakes up in this weird cave in the ground with bottled…stuff. He breaks out of the cave and runs through the woods to a highway.

Wait, there aren’t highways in 1781. Icky has somehow come into the future, or the present if you will. He’s almost hit by an 18-wheeler and a car that runs off the road. A bird lands on a road sign for Sleepy Hollow population 144,000. The bird seems significant.

Cut to Abbie and her partner/boss, the sheriff at a diner. They’re discussing unsolved cases. It seems Abbie is thinking about leaving for the FBI. They’re called to a farm where something has spooked the horses. This seems to be a regular event. It’s not coyotes, it’s the frickin’ Headless Horseman. He attacks and kills the sheriff. Abbie sees him — and the strange brand on his hand — but he lets her live.

Icky is arrested as a suspect in the sheriff’s murder. He tells the cops he came from England to fight the patriots but had a change of heart and fought on the other side. Love that. Abbie notices that Icky’s description of the Headless Horseman matches hers.

She makes sure that she is the one to transport Icky to a mental institution since he’s clearly insane, thinking he’s from 250 years ago and all. There are jokes about a Starbucks on every corner and he tells her he opposed slavery and is glad to see her free. Adorbs.

Here is one problem with the show for me: Abbie turns her back on Icky several times when he’s handcuffed and I think it would be ingrained in a cop not to do that. It is cute how he’s fascinated by the automatic window controls of the car, though. Can we talk about how hot this man is?

Instead of going to the mental institution, Abbie asks Icky to take her to the cave.

He does and finds a bible that was buried with him. A passage is marked from Revelations: “And there before me stood a white horse and its rider held a bow. And its name was Death.” *gasp!* The Headless Horseman is one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Icky tells Abbie that Washington gave him the mission to kill a mercenary who had the mark of a bow on his hand. The man he killed was no man, but Death himself “and he’s returned to Sleepy Hollow to finish what he started.”

Another thing I like: characters you think will be recurring get their heads chopped off. Not going to say who, but just saying. The bird shows up again and leads Icky to his wife’s grave. She was “burnt” for witchcraft, as the too-new looking tombstone says. (It should’ve been more crumbly and hard to read IMO) Oh and yes he did manage to get out of the cop car. Abbie probably wouldn’t have put him up front where he could get out by himself.

The police captain has warned her to take Icky to St. Gregory’s or she’s suspended so she takes him. She then shares with him that after a weird experience as teenagers, her sister is “in and out of places like this.” She and her sister saw four white trees and a strange creature and then they woke up by the side of the road.

Abbie looks through the sheriff’s case files and discovers he’d found out hundreds of witches were put to death in Sleepy Hollow back in the day. Some of the witches managed to escape and branch out in other cities. Two covens: one good and one evil. Reports said the four white trees, which Abbie described seeing, represent The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  A demon-like creature has also been reported in the area by separate groups of teenagers, including Abbie and her sister. It is believed the demon raises the Four Horsemen.

Icky’s wife, Katrina, appears to Icky in a dream sort of sequence (although I’m not sure it was a dream) and tells him she was a witch, yes, but in a protective coven. The Horseman’s skull is buried at her grave and his body was thrown to the bottom of the river. If the Horseman finds his skull, he will be whole again. “The other three will follow and it will begin.” This is SO. COOL.  Katrina tells him “the answers are in Washington’s bible.” Something (the demon) raised the Horseman.

It turns out one of the other cops is in on this, working for the Horseman. He agrees to plea bargain and will only talk to Abbie and Icky. On their way to question him, Icky tells Abbie he read in Revelations that there are two witnesses who will band together to fight the coming war for a seven-year period. Katrina called him the first witness.

So, now we know how this can last past one season because I wondered. 😉

When they go into the rogue cop’s cell, he’s been murdered by the demon, which came through the mirror. Abbie and Icky see it through the mirror, leaving. Creepy!!

The Horseman is not the only baddie and there are definite Biblical elements, which ensures that I will watch again. How about you? Did you watch Sleepy Hollow? If not, I think you should, especially if you’re a fan of Biblical FanFic. I didn’t give all the spoilers away but it’s badass enough to watch even with these spoilers. Trust me. 😉