“Sleepy Hollow” Recap: Jack the Ripper and Pandora’s Pumps

First, before getting into this recap of the latest episode of Sleepy Hollow, “Blood and Fear,” let me throw a bit of worry into the Sleepy Hollow fandom. The ratings are not the greatest, to be conservative about it, even with the gains the show makes in the +3 and +7 rating measurements. We need to get the people who sloughed off after Season 1 and in the middle of Season 2 to come back. Hopefully with the improvements the new season has, they will slowly return, but if you know someone who quit during the last two seasons, try to convince them to come back, because I want to see some more Sleepy Hollow on my screen. I have a gut feeling about Sleepy Hollow, but I won’t share it since I don’t want to jinx it. (But if it helps—or not—my gut feeling about TV has been right more often than not.)

Now, onto the recap.

This episode, “Blood and Fear,” was a lot of fun to watch since, unlike the first three episodes this season, I wasn’t watching it alone! Of course, I’m never virtually alone, since I’m always live-tweeting the episodes, but this time around, I had the company of my sisters. Together, we watched it in classic stereotypical “black folks in the theater” style, making jokes and talking smack about everyone in the show. Fun times.

The mystery of Jack the Ripper was an interesting one, and it was neat to make the killer a demonic knife instead of an actual person. It’s also virulent, like the black ooze in Prometheus. Triply interesting was that young Ichabod had encountered the knife-being before in his past, while he was in school at Eton College. Now, the knife is in the possession of a mousy man who can’t get the girl he likes at work. Enter Pandora, who presents him with the knife after posing as a goth raver at the club.

Along with Pandora’s interference in mousy dude’s life, we get more Ichabbie drama. This season really just feels like an uphill walk towards Ichabbie-as-endgame. There’s a reason Aaron Baiers, the K/O Productions VP of TV Development, tweeted this particular photo, with Ichabod making serious bedroom eyes at a not-having-it Abbie  during the online Sleepy Hollow sleepover party a few months ago:

#TeamWitness LETS BRING IT #sleepyheads #SleepySlumberParty So many feels here. Sneak Peak!! S3 here we come! pic.twitter.com/BJQJHCMCG1

— Aaron Baiers (@abaiers) August 30, 2015

It’s also poignant to note that in nearly every interview, there’s specific, measured, but fandom-centric talk from folks on the show that there’s going to be a lot of Ichabbie interaction this season. There’s also a point to state that any and every distraction Abbie and Ichabod could have won’t be that big of a distraction because the Witnesses have got to stick together, whatever “stick together” ends up meaning. It seems like all of this talk and behind-the-scenes planning is beginning to really show itself, seeing how Ichabod and Abbie both had dinner dates, and both of them ended up cancelling. Of course, it’s not because they realized their undying love for each other or something (we’re only a few episodes into this season), but because Ichabod purposely gave himself malaria to kill the knife demon. The demon draws its power from the blood of its victims, but the last time it became lost to time, the victim had a disease. Ichabod realized that if he got slashed by the knife from his youth, it’d die from the syringe of malaria-infested blood he injected into himself.

Even still, while them setting up dates give the impression that they aren’t about to be exchanging spit anytime soon, Ichabod still goes the extra mile by saying that his relationship with Abbie is the most important thing to him. It also seems to affect Abbie harder than usual, which is really surprising. If Ichabod is still saying things like this even though he was happy about going out with a woman who actually wanted to give him more than just friendship (whom I call”New Caroline”), then must not really be down with New Caroline like that. His fever-tinged mind is giving way to stuff that he, admittedly, still would have said if he were healthy, but his emotions are less in check since his consciousness is slippery. I wonder what’s inside Abbie that really has her nearly tearing up at Ichabod’s words. What’s going on, Grace Abigail Mills?

By the way, I don’t hate New Caroline. She’s plucky. And she’s going to help Ichabod become a U.S. citizen through some backdoor politics (her relative works in Congress). Perhaps the writing team knew that Caroline had a fanbase and there needed to be a new mousy, yet risk-taking, girl to shake up the dynamic a bit. In any case, I welcome New Caroline. I just hope she doesn’t get killed and/or is the one that will turn to the Dark Side (because someone’s supposed to go evil this season).

Meanwhile, Jenny finally lets Joe accompany her on the mission to find the Shard of Anubis. First of all, I hope this shard is actually necessary to the overall mystery. Second, it’s good to see Randall, the black guy who nearly killed Joe, again. I didn’t realize he’d be a recurring character, but I hope we see him some more on this wild road to the Shard. Third, it’s fun to see Jenny have her own partner-in-crime. She’s lived this life by herself so long that I’m sure it’s weird for her to share it, even with someone like Joe.

Speaking of Joe, last week and this week’s episodes are making it a point of saying that Jenny and Joe are “family.” Joe said it last time, saying that Corbin was just as much as Jenny’s father as he was his, and this week, Jenny’s telling Abbie that Joe’s “family.” This might dampen some Joe/Jenny shippers. Personally, I hope they don’t get together, because they were raised together. I know they aren’t related, but what a turnaround it’d be to date someone you consider a sister. Just my opinions on that, you can like them together if you want.

Something that doesn’t really add to anything, but is just something I want to point out, is that Pandora’s purple pumps are so cool. I want some, but something tells me that shade of purple would be a tough shade to find in the stores. Last points: • Did the writer of this episode recently watch Good Times or something? Because Jenny and Abbie’s “damn” moments were very Florida Evans. Especially when Jenny literally said, “Damn, damn, damn!” All she needed to do was add “James” to the end. • Teenage Ichabod really looked like the literary version of Ichabod Crane (what I think he’d look like, anyways). • My sister really cracked up at Jack the Ripper of the 1700s having sunken cheekbones and looking off into the distance like a Edward Cullen. She said he looked “highly contoured.” Just a sampling of the smack-talking we were doing during this episode.  • How did Abbie heal Ichabod from malaria?!?!?! Should she be working at the CDC as well? How did she have an IV at her home?

Damn. Oh damn! #SleepyHollow pic.twitter.com/waxveaynQ3 — Sleepy Hollow (@SleepyHollowFOX) October 16, 2015

Enough from me. What did you think? Give your opinions in the comments section below!

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Header photo credit: Tina Rowden/FOX