Sleepy Hollow gave me tons of good vibes with the latest episode, “This Red Lady of Caribee.” It was a black woman extravaganza—Abbie kicking butt, Jenny tag-teaming with Joe, and a powerful black villain who was part fashionista woman, part bug. This episode was also written by a black woman, Shernold Edwards (kudos to her). I also received my fair share of bad or annoying vibes, but we’ll get to that when we get to it. Let’s get to the recap, and then some bullet points.
Pandora has finally gotten to the end of her meandering plot of evil by releasing the last of her minions, the Red Lady of Caribee. The Red Lady has been summoned to collect enough of the townsfolk’s “fear of fear itself” via her poisonous wasps. To me, it seemed like another way of collecting paranoia, since all of the victims were more paranoid than just afraid out of their wits of everything and everyone, which is what “fear of fear itself” means (at least to me). In any event, one of the victims is Daniel, who flips out on Abbie with a rant about her quick rise to the top of the FBI, his fear of never reaching his own goals, his paranoia about her “roommate” Ichabod, and his sadness at why they aren’t still together. On the one hand, poor Daniel, because I get how he feels. On the other hand, who knew his paranoia about Ichabod ran that deep.
Daniel doesn’t have to worry about Ichabod too much, since Ichabod has finally released some of his relationship angst by going out with Zoe on an actual date. Well, technically, two dates, but the one that happened at the Japanese steakhouse was a bomb of the highest order. Ichabod’s such a curmudgeon, he can’t even sit back and enjoy the majesty of a hibachi grill master cutting and slicing in mid-air. Even Zoe seemed like she was about to say “It’s been real,” and bail. You could see her thinking, “This is who I’ve wasted my time stalking on my Instagram?”
Unfortunately, they powered through to another date, a basic (but romantic?) walk in the park, with Ichabod giving roses and Zoe giving some type of lilies or whatever. First of all—after all of the BS Ichabod went through the day prior, shouldn’t he be tired of seeing roses? He should be having rose PTSD by now. Second of all—what woman gives a man flowers on a date? Call me old-fashioned, but in my southern world, women don’t give men flowers on a date. I’m surprised Ichabod didn’t call her out on that, since in his 18th century world, women didn’t give men bouquets. However, Ichabod’s also a man who doesn’t mind when a woman takes charge. In fact, it seems like that’s a big turn-on for him. But I could see him getting hot under the collar if it were Abbie or Betsy propositioning him with flowers, not meek and mild Zoe. BUT, though, we do have to remember that Zoe’s “meek and mild” demeanor is probably because she’s evil. Ain’t no normal people in Sleepy Hollow—even the good guys and girls aren’t normal. And, if Ichabod’s record of dating and marrying crazy women is anything to go by, Zoe’s probably crazy and evil.
To get off of the Zoe tangent and back on to the main story, why should Ichabod be tired of roses? Because in the scene prior, Abbie and Ichabod had battled Pandora and the Red Lady! During the melee, Pandora was busy cutting her evil roses for whatever she’s got up her sleeve. Even though Abbie and Ichabod defeat the Red Lady, they’re too late to deal with Pandora before she disappears into her tree! She was dressed as if she was in Ancient Greece; is she about to turn the world into a Hades-esque horrorscape? (If so, that’d actually be really cool. Perhaps she’d use the Horseman as the riverman and the Hudson River as the River Styx.)
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Joe and Jenny finally get the shard of Anubis after Joe confronts his father’s old friend (or frenemy, whatever the case may be). The friend means no good; all he wants is power and told Joe that Papa Corbin wanted power just the same. The mystery of the true nature of Papa Corbin is still developing, but Jenny and Joe get the bad guys at gunpoint, get the shard, and head out. But before the duo had even set foot on enemy ground, an obeah man had given Jenny a warning; her soul was going to be claimed soon! It would seem that the obeah man was right; the shard disappeared into Jenny’s hand, and later on that night, gave her a wild set of dreams and an orange glowing markings on certain parts of her body. Looks like we’re headed to Ancient Egypt next.
Time for some bulleted points:
ENOUGH WITH BETSY! I get that they have to make the most of Nikki Reed since she’s a series regular, but dogggonit, is there another way she could be integrated into the plot? I was with her in the beginning, but now she’s become expendable in my eyes. She’s actually beginning to slow down the plot when she appears, which is bad. But, it also saves Ichabod from having been everywhere at all times, so that’s a plus, right? As a sidebar—was it just me, or did anyone else recoil when Betsy told Grace Dixon “Come”? There was some force in that command, according to my ears. Maybe I’m just sensitive to the fact that we were watching a flashback from colonial times, but I felt like yelling at Betsy, “F*** YOU! YOU BETTER SAY ‘COME, PLEASE,’ B****!” (I don’t actually curse like that, but I feel like doing that a lot.)
• MORE GRACE DIXON! Thank you, Shernold, for bringing back Grace Dixon! We’ve just heard her through her diary, and it’s great to finally hear her diary and see her in the flesh. This brings me to a gripe some fans have had from the beginning of the season. Why are we focusing so much on Betsy when we’ve got a perfectly good 18th century character in Grace? Grace did a lot of things too before doggone Henry killed her! Let’s focus on her adventures some more and less of Betsy. Betsy’s fine, but Grace is better.
• Zoe Corinth is fascinating: Look, I’ll say this about Zoe—she’s being played pretty well. It’s clear there’s something bigger in store for the character, since, as I wrote in the last recap, the name “Zoe Corinth” is pretty telling of bigger, scarier things. I’m ready to see who or what she really is. They’d better not Katrina her, though, as in giving her a lead-up with no payoff.
• Is Ichabod a damsel-in-distress? Ichabod is always falling into love plots with women and then needs rescuing. Is Ichabod subverting the male lead role in a very subtle way? If Zoe’s evil (which I think she is), then Ichabod’s going to need saving, just like how he needed to save himself from Katrina. Normally, it’s women who always need saving from lovelorn relationships, but this time around, Ichabod’s the one that’s defined by the women he’s with. In fact, he defines himself by the women he’s with. The only reason he’s in a relationship with Zoe is because he feels he needs a woman to define himself by. His wife is dead and the only other woman he would be interested in doesn’t want to be in a relationship at this precarious moment in time. Ichabod needs to have his dependency nurtured by a willing woman, which opens him up to all sorts of trouble. Ichabod’s way too blinded by his need for companionship, whereas Abbie seems to be too gun-shy (although she did tell Daniel that she’ll always care about him).
With that said, will Ichabod ever overcome his Achilles’ heel? Is Zoe the big test for him? Because until he gets his need for a woman’s attention out of his system, he’ll always have his blinders on. You’d think after Katrina’s betrayal, he’d have taken his blinders off by now. Once again, Ichabod is holding us back in the fight against the Apocalypse. He’s playing right into someone’s evil plan to keep the Witnesses separated and distracted, and he doesn’t even know it yet.
Despite some character gripes, I loved the episode! What did you think? Give your opinions below!