This one... kinda managed to be both. Though Macey’s endangerment was fairly self-contained, there was plenty of continuity/foreshadowing in both directions, tying things in reasonably well for the finale.
Endangering Macey was a good way of getting the audience’s attention considering we’re all invested in her wellbeing (I guess that’s what you get when you cast Rue) and Amandla Stenberg was fantastic as “possessed Macey”. Usually when an actor wears a lot of prosthetics the performance goes missing, simply because they struggle to act through all the muck on their face, but she managed both the vindictiveness of the demon and Macey’s struggle within her own body.
That said, I was kind of disappointed that she wasn’t more involved in her own exorcism. I mean, they didn’t half set up for it! Everyone from her parents to the demon itself kept talking about what a fighter she was, not to mention that scene in the hunting lodge where she was blatantly struggling for control of her own body, but in the end it all came down to the lantern MacGuffin.
That was certainly something of a disappointment, so I hope that the writers haven’t finished with this particular subplot just yet. It would be interesting to see what kind of effect demonic possession has had on Macey, particularly in regards to the fact that the demon’s presence gave her the ability to walk again. Does she remember that? (Okay, probably not since none of the other possessed people did, but perhaps it could come back to her on a subconscious level).
And seriously, you don’t introduce the line: “How strong is your daughter? Strong enough to fight for her soul?” without any plans to follow-up on it in some capacity. I like Macey, and I like that they’ve given her a clear personality of her own, but narratively speaking, her purpose in the story so far revolves entirely around her importance to her father.
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Which leads me to one of the problems I had with this episode, which is – a little strange to try and describe. Okay, like most people, I have a belief system, and I don’t want to go into it too much except to say that the idea of demonic possession really doesn’t sit comfortably with me. It’s not that I don’t like it because it’s too scary, but because (whether you believe it’s actually possible or entirely fictional) I strongly resist the idea of a human being’s autonomy over their own body being whisked so easily away by an evil outside force.
And again, I hear you say: “but it’s just fiction!” Well, think of a unicorn. That’s entirely fictional, right? Yet if you put more than one horn on its forehead, it ceases to be a unicorn. If you write about vampires, they have to drink the blood of the living, or else they’re not vampires. (Even Stephanie Meyer got THAT part right). A werewolf HAS to be a human that turns into a wolf under the full moon.
There are certain rules about certain fictional concepts that have to be in place in order for them to be said fictional concepts. And as someone who believes very strongly in the absolute control a human being has over the free will inherent in their bodies (not withstanding medical problems obviously; I’m talking about things on a metaphysical level here), I reject the idea that an evil demonic force can take away the free will of an innocent young girl and use her body to maim and kill other people – specifically a priest trying to perform an exorcism on her. I mean... there have got to be some limitations here!
I could have bought a demon taking over the body of a corrupt and vile person who was already susceptible to evil-doing, or of a demon subtly “tagging along” in a human body without taking control over them, or of someone willingly entering a contract with an evil spirit and gaining powers as a result of their lack of autonomy (as seems to be the case for Andy Brooks)... but this?
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(And that’s not even touching on the fact that Abbie/Ichabod discover that the same demon once possessed a group of Catholic nuns. No, just no!)
So basically, I can handle all the other supernatural shenanigans that go on – but this just felt wrong to me on a very deep level. It also leads into my other issue with the episode (last one, I promise). Here’s a frequent problem that arises when you’re dealing with demons, or in fact any scary creature of the supernatural: you have to have some idea of what they can and can’t do...while at the same time, keeping them extra-scary by not delineating what they can and can’t do. Yeah, it’s a bitch.
All the scariest movies (at least in my opinion) such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity are rooted in the understanding that what you don’t see, what you can’t fathom, it more terrifying than any reasonably structured ghost-story that’s based on cause-and-effect (for example, the vomiting ghost in The Sixth Sense is horrifying – at least until you learn how she died, which explains her appearance/behaviour, which makes her less scary). Whereas the two aforementioned films basically just involves a bunch of random shit happening without any clear understanding as to why.
But in a show like Sleepy Hollow, the Monster of the Week has to be defeated by the end of the forty-five minute mark – and that means establishing rules as to how it can be disposed of: in this case, a lantern.
So on the one hand, demons are scary because they’re fundamentally unknowable, endowed with supernatural powers that can’t easily be beaten. On the other hand, demons do in fact need to have limitations so that what they’re doing doesn’t threaten the inevitable victory of the good guys. Sleepy Hollow tries to have it both ways, and in doing so fumbles a little. As it turns out, this demon can not only make blood drip from the ceiling in the shape of creepy messages and have near-omniscient knowledge about the inner workings of Irving’s guilt complex, but can also possess anyone it wants just by touching them.
So ... why can’t it just retrieve the Bible itself? Why go through Irving instead of going straight to the Witnesses? Why set-up an elaborate cat-and-mouse game involving Macey when it could have just walked into the police station and starting taking hostages? It obviously had no problem killing people when the need arose. How is it that it knew enough to taunt Irving about his presumed failings as a father, but had no idea that Abbie and Ichabod were off finding something that could entrap it? And why did it bother with a time limit? Irving had access to the Bible in seconds, so why make everyone wait until sundown?
Basically, there are no boundaries in place to understand what it’s capable of, and too much of what happened was clearly down to “because of plot” reasons.
My advice: if you’re going to write about creepy supernatural stuff that is frightening precisely because it’s so random and uncontrollable, then don’t make up arbitrary rules that your demon adversary has to follow. Otherwise, if you want a supernatural threat that can be defeated by the end of your tale, be sure to put certain rules in place that both demon and hero have to follow – this doesn’t necessary mean that the demon can’t be scary... only that you can’t have the demon do a bunch of random stuff for the sake of scariness.
Okay, I’ve already given this way too much thought. It’s Sleepy Hollow!
Miscellaneous Observations:
I was surprised that Frank actually brought that hot-dog vender into the station for questioning (though it was great continuity), which led to me being even further impressed when the death of the cop and the priest at the hunting lodge was not only carried into the next episode, but made up a fairly crucial part of the storyline. And okay, it was rather silly that Irving decided to take the fall for his daughter by falsely confessing to a double-murder (seriously Frank, they were NOT going be able to pin those deaths on your paraplegic daughter) but a lesser show would have simply forgotten about those deaths the moment they happened.
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It was nice to see Clancy Brown again, and a great twist with Jenny’s involvement in the possession, putting a new spin on her relationship with Abbie. Apparently it wasn’t just anger and resentment that put a wedge between them, but also Jenny’s desire to protect her sister. I actually had Jenny pegged as the older sister (not sure why), but apparently she’s the younger, which makes her protectiveness of Abbie a nice role-reversal.
I liked that Ichabod and Abbie asked Jenny’s permission before watching the exorcism, and that they established a reason for Jenny to get on board with their mission by showing that she had already made friends with Macey.
By this point, the use of salt as a deterrent for demons/witches/other nasties is so well known, featured in everything from Supernatural to Hocus Pocus, that it seemed rather silly when the gang reacted with such wide-eyed realization at its discovery. What the writers could have done was actually explore WHY salt is considered such a powerful magical substance. A short-lived show of a few years ago called The Others (not to be confessed with the Nicole Kidman movie) did exactly this. To quote one of the characters:
Salt preserves food, it represents absence of decay and incorruptibility. It was once so important it was used as currency. Salary is derived from the Latin word for “salt allowance”. Salt that came from the sea, from the sea came life. Demons will not cross a threshold that’s lined with or repelled by the symbol of an incorruptible life. That’s because they exist only to create decay and death.
See? This stuff is interesting. You shouldn’t just throw “salt” into your story and have it just work. Likewise, the idea of the demon speaking backwards is a very old concept, but again they passed up the chance to explain its roots. Talking backwards isn’t just for the creep-factor, but because it distorts and twists that which is beautiful: language, which we use to communicate with each other. To corrupt that is very much along the lines of hanging a cross upside down, or of witches dancing in widdershins (ie, anti-clockwise, or to the left).
Yeesh, that must have been an awkward car ride back to Sleepy Hollow for Irving and his wife. Was the demon just chilling out in the back seat the whole time?
Finally, the Bible reveal was not only a bit anticlimactic, but also rather daft, in which Abbie and Ichabod gasp in shock at the thought of Washington writing down a date that occurred after the day on which he died:
“According to the history books George Washington died December 14th.”
“Four days before he wrote this.”
“That’s impossible, how could Washington have written it after he died?”
Okay, prepare yourself because I’m about to blow your mind.
20th December, 2954
OMG! HOW DID I DO THAT? I TOTALLY WROTE DOWN A DATE I COULD NOT POSSIBLY LIVE TO SEE.
So yeah, I guess in hindsight I wasn’t that fond of this episode? I enjoyed it while watching it, but looking back there was a lot of iffy stuff that didn’t really appeal to me. I haven’t even mentioned the odd redneck cult and the rather clumsy way the writing dealt with them (“we’re taking this lantern!” “No!” “I have a gun!” “NO!” “I’m Jenny and I have two guns!” *shrug* “Okay then.”)
Yet for all of that, it was decent setup for the two-part finale...
In Hindsight:
Not a whole lot to add here. On to the season finale!
That was certainly something of a disappointment, so I hope that the writers haven’t finished with this particular subplot just yet. It would be interesting to see what kind of effect demonic possession has had on Macey, particularly in regards to the fact that the demon’s presence gave her the ability to walk again. Does she remember that? (Okay, probably not since none of the other possessed people did, but perhaps it could come back to her on a subconscious level).
And seriously, you don’t introduce the line: “How strong is your daughter? Strong enough to fight for her soul?” without any plans to follow-up on it in some capacity. I like Macey, and I like that they’ve given her a clear personality of her own, but narratively speaking, her purpose in the story so far revolves entirely around her importance to her father.
Which leads me to one of the problems I had with this episode, which is – a little strange to try and describe. Okay, like most people, I have a belief system, and I don’t want to go into it too much except to say that the idea of demonic possession really doesn’t sit comfortably with me. It’s not that I don’t like it because it’s too scary, but because (whether you believe it’s actually possible or entirely fictional) I strongly resist the idea of a human being’s autonomy over their own body being whisked so easily away by an evil outside force.
And yeah, I know the immediate response to that is “it’s just fiction”. Yet it still bothers me. IF demonic possession (or something like it) exists, then I don’t believe that it would work like this. It bugs me in the same way a line of dialogue in Angel bugs me: after Fred is taken over by Illyria, Angel states that Fred’s soul has been entirely destroyed. No. IF souls exists, then they cannot be destroyed.
And again, I hear you say: “but it’s just fiction!” Well, think of a unicorn. That’s entirely fictional, right? Yet if you put more than one horn on its forehead, it ceases to be a unicorn. If you write about vampires, they have to drink the blood of the living, or else they’re not vampires. (Even Stephanie Meyer got THAT part right). A werewolf HAS to be a human that turns into a wolf under the full moon.
There are certain rules about certain fictional concepts that have to be in place in order for them to be said fictional concepts. And as someone who believes very strongly in the absolute control a human being has over the free will inherent in their bodies (not withstanding medical problems obviously; I’m talking about things on a metaphysical level here), I reject the idea that an evil demonic force can take away the free will of an innocent young girl and use her body to maim and kill other people – specifically a priest trying to perform an exorcism on her. I mean... there have got to be some limitations here!
I could have bought a demon taking over the body of a corrupt and vile person who was already susceptible to evil-doing, or of a demon subtly “tagging along” in a human body without taking control over them, or of someone willingly entering a contract with an evil spirit and gaining powers as a result of their lack of autonomy (as seems to be the case for Andy Brooks)... but this?
_595_slogo.jpg)
(And that’s not even touching on the fact that Abbie/Ichabod discover that the same demon once possessed a group of Catholic nuns. No, just no!)So basically, I can handle all the other supernatural shenanigans that go on – but this just felt wrong to me on a very deep level. It also leads into my other issue with the episode (last one, I promise). Here’s a frequent problem that arises when you’re dealing with demons, or in fact any scary creature of the supernatural: you have to have some idea of what they can and can’t do...while at the same time, keeping them extra-scary by not delineating what they can and can’t do. Yeah, it’s a bitch.
All the scariest movies (at least in my opinion) such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity are rooted in the understanding that what you don’t see, what you can’t fathom, it more terrifying than any reasonably structured ghost-story that’s based on cause-and-effect (for example, the vomiting ghost in The Sixth Sense is horrifying – at least until you learn how she died, which explains her appearance/behaviour, which makes her less scary). Whereas the two aforementioned films basically just involves a bunch of random shit happening without any clear understanding as to why.
But in a show like Sleepy Hollow, the Monster of the Week has to be defeated by the end of the forty-five minute mark – and that means establishing rules as to how it can be disposed of: in this case, a lantern.
So on the one hand, demons are scary because they’re fundamentally unknowable, endowed with supernatural powers that can’t easily be beaten. On the other hand, demons do in fact need to have limitations so that what they’re doing doesn’t threaten the inevitable victory of the good guys. Sleepy Hollow tries to have it both ways, and in doing so fumbles a little. As it turns out, this demon can not only make blood drip from the ceiling in the shape of creepy messages and have near-omniscient knowledge about the inner workings of Irving’s guilt complex, but can also possess anyone it wants just by touching them.
So ... why can’t it just retrieve the Bible itself? Why go through Irving instead of going straight to the Witnesses? Why set-up an elaborate cat-and-mouse game involving Macey when it could have just walked into the police station and starting taking hostages? It obviously had no problem killing people when the need arose. How is it that it knew enough to taunt Irving about his presumed failings as a father, but had no idea that Abbie and Ichabod were off finding something that could entrap it? And why did it bother with a time limit? Irving had access to the Bible in seconds, so why make everyone wait until sundown?
Basically, there are no boundaries in place to understand what it’s capable of, and too much of what happened was clearly down to “because of plot” reasons.
My advice: if you’re going to write about creepy supernatural stuff that is frightening precisely because it’s so random and uncontrollable, then don’t make up arbitrary rules that your demon adversary has to follow. Otherwise, if you want a supernatural threat that can be defeated by the end of your tale, be sure to put certain rules in place that both demon and hero have to follow – this doesn’t necessary mean that the demon can’t be scary... only that you can’t have the demon do a bunch of random stuff for the sake of scariness.
Okay, I’ve already given this way too much thought. It’s Sleepy Hollow!
Miscellaneous Observations:
I was surprised that Frank actually brought that hot-dog vender into the station for questioning (though it was great continuity), which led to me being even further impressed when the death of the cop and the priest at the hunting lodge was not only carried into the next episode, but made up a fairly crucial part of the storyline. And okay, it was rather silly that Irving decided to take the fall for his daughter by falsely confessing to a double-murder (seriously Frank, they were NOT going be able to pin those deaths on your paraplegic daughter) but a lesser show would have simply forgotten about those deaths the moment they happened.
_595_slogo.jpg)
It was nice to see Clancy Brown again, and a great twist with Jenny’s involvement in the possession, putting a new spin on her relationship with Abbie. Apparently it wasn’t just anger and resentment that put a wedge between them, but also Jenny’s desire to protect her sister. I actually had Jenny pegged as the older sister (not sure why), but apparently she’s the younger, which makes her protectiveness of Abbie a nice role-reversal.I liked that Ichabod and Abbie asked Jenny’s permission before watching the exorcism, and that they established a reason for Jenny to get on board with their mission by showing that she had already made friends with Macey.
By this point, the use of salt as a deterrent for demons/witches/other nasties is so well known, featured in everything from Supernatural to Hocus Pocus, that it seemed rather silly when the gang reacted with such wide-eyed realization at its discovery. What the writers could have done was actually explore WHY salt is considered such a powerful magical substance. A short-lived show of a few years ago called The Others (not to be confessed with the Nicole Kidman movie) did exactly this. To quote one of the characters:
Salt preserves food, it represents absence of decay and incorruptibility. It was once so important it was used as currency. Salary is derived from the Latin word for “salt allowance”. Salt that came from the sea, from the sea came life. Demons will not cross a threshold that’s lined with or repelled by the symbol of an incorruptible life. That’s because they exist only to create decay and death.
See? This stuff is interesting. You shouldn’t just throw “salt” into your story and have it just work. Likewise, the idea of the demon speaking backwards is a very old concept, but again they passed up the chance to explain its roots. Talking backwards isn’t just for the creep-factor, but because it distorts and twists that which is beautiful: language, which we use to communicate with each other. To corrupt that is very much along the lines of hanging a cross upside down, or of witches dancing in widdershins (ie, anti-clockwise, or to the left).
Yeesh, that must have been an awkward car ride back to Sleepy Hollow for Irving and his wife. Was the demon just chilling out in the back seat the whole time?
Finally, the Bible reveal was not only a bit anticlimactic, but also rather daft, in which Abbie and Ichabod gasp in shock at the thought of Washington writing down a date that occurred after the day on which he died:
“According to the history books George Washington died December 14th.”
“Four days before he wrote this.”
“That’s impossible, how could Washington have written it after he died?”
Okay, prepare yourself because I’m about to blow your mind.
20th December, 2954
OMG! HOW DID I DO THAT? I TOTALLY WROTE DOWN A DATE I COULD NOT POSSIBLY LIVE TO SEE.
So yeah, I guess in hindsight I wasn’t that fond of this episode? I enjoyed it while watching it, but looking back there was a lot of iffy stuff that didn’t really appeal to me. I haven’t even mentioned the odd redneck cult and the rather clumsy way the writing dealt with them (“we’re taking this lantern!” “No!” “I have a gun!” “NO!” “I’m Jenny and I have two guns!” *shrug* “Okay then.”)
Yet for all of that, it was decent setup for the two-part finale...
In Hindsight:
Not a whole lot to add here. On to the season finale!
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