Sleepy Hollow
Season 1, Episode 7 – “The Midnight Ride”
This episode was NOT messing around, fellow SleepyHeads. With episode 7, we are officially in the back half of Sleepy Hollow‘s inaugural season and the action is now hurtling towards the inevitable cliffhanger in episode 13. When we interviewed Alex Kurtzman at New York Comic Con, he said the benefit of doing a 13 episode season is that there is no room for any sort of filler stories. I have a feeling the rest of the season will be just as breathlessly paced as this one.
Our favorite baddie The Headless Horseman returns in this episode to wreak havoc on Sleepy Hollow as he attempts to reclaim his skull in order to unleash the apocalypse. Will Abbie and Ichabod be able to thwart him? And more importantly will they be able to do it in the most Sassy way possible? Let’s get right to the rankings and find out!
#SassyHollow
“Were you charged a fee for that water? My God, it should be an inalienable right! Where do the courts fall on this?”
This episode came damn near close to giving me 42 minutes of Ichabod railing against the modern world, and I loved it. Ichabod was in RARE form in this episode from his disgust at Costco and buying in bulk to his puzzlement over why people BUY water to his sassy slurping of a straw to annoy Abbie (you can NOT tell me he wasn’t doing that on purpose. Just look at his rude rude rude face). Just those three moments of snark would have been enough to give the episode a high sass rating, but NO! We got more. I loved how Frank and Abbie put Ichabod in his place in regards to Thomas Jefferson and his history with slaves. Ichabod gets very snooty in regards to how he KNOWS our Founding Fathers (hello all the George Washington name dropping), but he tends to forget that he “died” and doesn’t know how they are now viewed in history. Ichabod’s outrage at Jefferson’s infidelity delighted me to NO END.
Then we had the Ichabod and the laptop sequence. He’s trying you guys…he really is, and I think that is what had him in such a snit this episode. Ichabod is a smart man and is clearly not used to feeling like an idiot, so he gets frustrated and sassy…which is just how we love him. And really…who HASN’T wanted to throw their laptop out the window when it has frustrated you? We’ve ALL been there, Ich.
Don’t get me started on how Mison played the online porn scene. I nearly fell off my couch laughing. Also let’s all give Ichabod props for always treating ladies with the respect they deserve. Even cybersex hotline ladies. Swoon.
But the crown jewel of this sass packed episode was Ichabod’s rant at the Colonial History museum. The gifs above are really all I need to say about that. In a perfect world, Tom Mison would get some sort of award nomination for his performance, but since this show defies Awards Show genre definitions, I doubt that will ever happen.
For Ichabod’s rant in the museum ALONE, I give the Sass in this episode 9/10 Donut Holes
#CreepyHollow
As I said in the intro, the scares in this episode were all courtesy of the Headless Horseman. The fact that Sleepy Hollow has fully committed to having the Horseman tote both a giant battle-axe AND a machine gun proves how bat-shit crazy this show is. It is perfectly walking the line of being ridiculous and genuinely terrifying. I lost count of how many beheadings there were in this episode from the (head attached) Horseman chasing down Paul Revere’s compatriots to the murder of all of the Masons (James Frain, we hardly knew ye). I genuinely screamed when the Horseman’s skull seemed to blink when it knew that its body had arrived at the lab. I shuddered at the lanterns made out of the heads of Ichabod’s Mason brothers. And I gasped at the truly stunning final shot of the Horseman captured in his cell of light. Well DONE cinematography department.
The most important thing about the Horseman’s killing spree was that it FINALLY led to an encounter with Irving, who proved to be a BAMF as they faced off in the lab. I still think there is more going on with him than meets the eye, but for the moment it seems that Irving is firmly entrenched on the side of our heroes, as he can no longer deny that they are telling the truth. Hopefully it stays that way, as I am getting some serious OT3 vibes from them after the horror movie-esque plot to lure the Horseman to his cell.
Honorable mention to the return of John Cho’s Andy Brooks. He claims he has returned to protect Abbie…but can we genuinely trust a zombie who has aligned with the Devil? Me thinks not.
Beheadings Galore? I give the Creepiness in this episode 7/10 Sandmen
#ShippyHollow
“The Midnight Ride” wasn’t nearly as shippy feels heavy as “The Sin Eater” was…but what episode COULD be after that Feels Fest? The dynamic between Abbie and Ichabod felt more like a bickering old married couple than a OMG WILL YOU PLEASE RIP EACH OTHERS CLOTHES OFF kind of couple. I very much enjoyed their teasing in the episode though, and if you view it through the right shipper goggle lens, you COULD say that Ichabod’s response to Abbie possibly having coffee with Morales as jealousy.
But, being Sleepy Hollow, the episode DID have one swoony Ichabbie conversation, as they both pondered what could be their solitary lives as the witnesses chosen to stop the Apocalypse. Their burden is one that no one but the other will be able to understand…so really all they have is each other. CUE THE LINGERING LOOKS AND ME FLAILING ON THE COUCH.
AND NO THAT CONVERSATION DID NOT AT ALL REMIND ME OF THIS:
I was happy to go on Twitter after I was done watching the episode to find that several friends made this parallel as well, which proves that I am NOT just an insane fangirl. I’m an insane and intelligent fangirl who clearly follows all the right people on Twitter.
Also Ichabod Crane continues to raise the standard for what we ladies should expect from men with his voicemail to Abbie. Ladies…we deserve to have a man end his voicemails with “I remain most respectfully yours” and that is the end of the story.
Despite all my Rose and Ten Ichabbie Feels, I give the shippiness in this episode 4/10 Dream Teas.
Random Observations:
– The montage of Abbie and Ichabod trying to destroy the skull was priceless, especially as they took more extreme measures to do so. Mison’s flummoxed look as the sledgehammer broke against the skull was priceless.
– Irving’s ridiculous back-bend to avoid the Horseman’s axe proves he is a huge fan of The Matrix, no?
– Yes, Shawn, I DID catch how the episode got very National Treasure as Ichabod worked on discovering the key to the cipher and saw the sun glistening through the skull’s teeth. And being that I LOVE National Treasure you can all guess how I felt about it.
That’s it for this week, SleepyHeads! General critical response to “The Midnight Ride” was that it was Sleepy‘s strongest episode yet. What say you?
[…] and so much gravitas to what could very easily be a silly role and show. Like I have said in our Sleepy recaps, I would be completely willing to watch an entire episode of Abbie explaining the modern world to […]