Daddy’s Little Girl – Sleepy Hollow Recap

Sleepy Hollow
Season 1, Episode 11: Vessel
Posted by Sage

Screw you, winter hiatus. We’re sending you back to the hell you came from! Sleepy is back, with one of what’s sure to be three totes cray and totes brilliant episodes to close out its breakthrough first season. I was warned to watch “Vessel” with all of my lights on, and I’m glad I took that advice. Because WHAT. WAS. THAT.

As per usual, we’ll be recapping the episode by exploring its additions to the #Sassy, #Shippy, and #CreepyHollow canons. Why do I feel like this week’s #Creepy section is going to kick the ass of all the others? Hmm. Let’s get to it.

#SassyHollow

Sleepy takes gleeful pride in giving the people what they want. And in “Vessel,” Abbie was included in the happy camper pile as she finally got Ichabod out of his britches….and into the skinniest pair of jeans in New England. (“Think of it as camouflage.”) Bless the cameraman for that pan up Tom Mison’s precious chicken legs. Fans have been salivating over the idea of Crane in modern clothing since the pilot. But though he’d give them a try for Abbie, Ichabod was back in his colonial garb in a matter of seconds. It was worth it to just to see his discomfort juxtaposed with Abbie’s squee. Baby steps, we think. Abbie may get him into that distressed striped tee someday.

The rest of this episode’s sass came from certified bad-ass-bitch Jenny Mills and, interestingly enough, her former possessor, the demon Ancitif. I mean, really, Ancitif. We get it. You’re a demon. You’re really great and scary and powerful and your only weaknesses are SALT and AN OLD LAMP. But maaaaaybe your evil plan would have been more successful if you’d laid off some of the theatrics and just done the job.

Obviously, he (she? it?) was no match for the crack team of Crane and the Mills Sisters (plus some post-mortem assistance from Corbin). But it was Jenny who took the lead on this one, knowing exactly where to find Benny Franklin’s aforementioned old lamp and talking a bunch of crazy anarchists out of shooting her and her friends WHO WERE STEALING FROM THEM by exploiting the fact that the two alternating thoughts they have about her are, “I really don’t want to see how far this girl will go,” and “I wonder if she’ll let me smell her hair.”

For dem legs and Crane’s fashion shade, I give this episode 4/10 Donut Holes for Sass.

#ShippyHollow

If you had never seen the show and decided to try to figure out what it was about solely via the recent entries on its Tumblr tag, you might assume it’s the story of a courtly-looking butt fetishist. I know you shippers are feeling starved right now, but let’s have some perspective. YES, Crane had to give Abbie boosties so she could reach the lantern. And yes, her butt was pressed squarely onto the side of his face. And yes, it was a giggly moment in what was otherwise an EXTREMELY harrowing episode. But that’s all that I read it as. I hope y’all have better fan art fuel after next week’s finale.

I should have mentioned Crane’s wounded pride at being shorter than the average modern man in the #Sassy section – but WHAT MODERN MAN? Tom Mison is a tall drink of water and regularly towers over his scene partners on this show. Blood-filled trees and purgatory-bound wives, I accept. But this is too great a suspension of disbelief.

Over at Frank/Jenny headquarters, we were missing the UST we’ve come to expect from the Captain and the crazy girl. Frank sort of had his hands full though, so we’ll forgive them.

For the purposes of this episode, I’m expanding #ShippyHollow to also include the general fuzzy and feelsy moments between non-romantic characters. And in this sense, it was the Mills sisters who warmed our cold hearts the most this week. Ancitif did us all a favor in terms of justifying Jenny’s history of erratic behavior. The troublemaking that seemed to be Abbie to be selfish was really just Abbie’s sister protecting her from the demon who was attempting to use her body to MURDER her. To steal Kim’s pet name for Mellie Grant: Jenny, my sad, sad queen. (Her FACE as she let go of her confusion and melted into Abbie’s hug!) The sisters are growing closer and closer as they come to understand each other. And this makes me very, VERY worried that Jenny is gonna die.

For non-incestuous sisterly love, I give this episode 2/10 Cups of Dream Tea for Shippiness.

#CreepyHollow

I have scoured the internet, and no one has gif-ed either Macey or Jenny’s possessions because they’re just too damn terrifying.

We’ve had close calls in recent episodes, but it does seem like it’s been a while since anyone DIED on Sleepy Hollow. Who’d have thought that the uber-dramatic demon with the frou-frou name would be the first to get back to snapping necks. RIP Frank’s priest, who was totally right about that salt thing. (Where my Supernatural fans at?) RIP hot blond detective who must have a name and I just looked it up and it’s Devon Jones. I doubt RIP Luke Morales, though he wasn’t in such good shape after Ancitif jumped out of him. But definitely RIP all the potential slash shipping potential here.

Moloch is getting closer and closer, and he’s bringing out the bigger guns to get to the witnesses. Though, you’d assume that Ancitif could have offed Abbie easily when she was a teenager – Jenny was locked up, but he could have body-hopped until he got close. There was something about Jenny killing Abbie herself. Could JENNY be one of the two witnesses? We’ve always assumed that the prophesied witnesses are Abbie and Crane, but have had no confirmation. Jenny is as involved in this fight against darkness now as our leads and she’ll continue to be vitally important as we hurtle towards the finale.

But yeah, back to the blood-curdling demon-people. The taste we got last episode with the whitened eyes and the deepened voices were nothing to prepare us for a possessed Macey. How do they get away with this stuff on network TV? Not only was it completely horrifying, but it was a pretty decent strategy there, Lord of Darkness. There’s no one Abbie and Crane can trust more confidently than Irving, but Crane rightfully (and without judgement) assumes that there’s nothing Frank wouldn’t do to protect his daughter.

In the final scene, Crane (after adorably squeezing lemon juice into his beautiful eye) does a number on the invisible ink in the Bible that Moloch wants so badly. I can barely recognize my own handwriting, yet Crane recognizes Washington’s, who wrote the date, December 18th, 1799 on one of its pages. BUT WASHINGTON DIED ON DECEMBER 14TH. And everyone knoooows, duh doy, that no one can write down a date beyond one’s own death. Your hand will become a claw. All writing instruments will run of out ink. It’s that scene in Liar, Liar. (“The goddamn pen is bluuuuuue!”) So basically, George Washington was a zombie. And Sleepy Hollow‘s about to blow history wide open.

10/10 for Creepy. SHUT IT DOWN.

Random Observations

• “Seven years ago, I invaded you.” This line stood out to me because it drove home the violation that Jenny experienced. That her life was stolen from her and exerting the only control she could only made it worse. Please, please don’t be the martyr of this show, Jenny. I cannot take it.
• Crane held a braaaaaaa. #dies
• Kim gave me permission to publicly shame her here for not getting her recap of the Golem episode up yet. So please feel free to join me in virtually yelling at her.
• I keep imagining a teen reality show called The Hollow where young Abbie, Jenny, Luke, and Irving hang out around pools and in coffeeshops, playing with straws and staring blankly at each other until the mysterious and handsome new kid Ichabod comes to town.

How you livin’, Sleepy Heads? Leave your thoughts on “Vessel” below and we’ll see you back here after the two-hour season finale!

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