Doctor Who: Time Heist

1. Surprisingly, this may well be my favourite episode so far. It’s clever without getting convoluted and straightforward without being stupid.

2. The emancipation of Clara continues! She and Danny continue to cutely date/date cutely, demonstrating that there are in fact some things more interesting than adventures with the Doctor (not that the Doctor would agree). For the first time in a long time (heck, perhaps even the first time), the Doctor is vying for his Companion’s attention, and I suspect that Clara is going to be our first Companion since Martha to leave his company of her own volition.

And again, I know some aren’t fond of the current system that Clara/the Doctor have going, with the latter popping in on Clara at arbitrary times during her routine life, but I think it makes a nice change of pace than the continual travelling loop. (Plus, it looks like they’re addressing the strain of this lifestyle in the next episode).

3. The setup was a lot of fun. The Doctor is about to lure Clara away on another adventure when they hear the Tardis phone ringing. Since only a handful of people have that telephone number, the Doctor is expectant as he lifts the receiver – and a second later he and Clara are sitting at a table with two complete strangers, each touching a memory worm.

A recording on the table plays back their own voices, each one agreeing to a memory wipe of their own free will, and a computer screen introduces them to the Bank of Karabraxos, a high-security facility that they’ve all agreed to rob. As premises go, it’s pretty rock solid.

4. Keeley Hawes! Love this lady, and here she fulfils the grand Doctor Who tradition of bringing in well-respected British actors to chew on the scenery for an episode or so. As Miss Delphox she’s brisk and precise and crisp, even whilst ordering the execution of a client, whilst still hinting at a modicum of fear behind her perfect façade.

 

 As Director Karabraxos she oozes entitlement and superiority, but with a sense of self-satisfaction and calm that’s wholly missing from her clone. It’s difficult to pin-point exactly where in the body language and general demeanour these differences lie – but then that’s what an accomplish actor does.

5. The Teller – get it? Because it’s a play on bank teller and a teller of the truth? Yes, that's a Moffatism if ever there was one, but the design of this alien was beautifully realized. I’m guessing elaborate prosthetics as opposed to CGI (though it’s hard to tell these days), which gave it a sense of really being there, free to threaten and interact with the other characters.

And of course, this only heightened the poignancy when it came to the true reason behind the bank heist. It doesn’t even matter that the whole thing was a retelling of Hide (there a ghost story became a love story in which an alien couple were reunited, here it’s a bank heist becoming a rescue mission for another alien couple to reunite) as by the end of the episode we’re oddly invested in what happens to the dangerous monster whose abilities are clearly being used against its will.   

6. The heist itself. Any good heist story relies on making overwhelming obstacles surmountable in ways that are cleverer than the obstacles themselves. In this case Team Not-Dead’s biggest challenge was the Teller, a creature that could sniff out guilt – thus requiring the memory wipe that starts the whole adventure. (But what if a sociopath broke in?)

There are other clever gadgets to be utilized, such as a dimensional shift bomb and “exit strategy” vials (presumed to be futuristic suicide pills; actually teleporters, begging the question of why there aren’t bank security measures in place to prevent the use of them) as well as a final twist when a massive storm short-circuits the computer system and the Doctor realizes that the Architect must be a time-traveller, scheduling the heist at the exact moment a storm hits (though surely there’s enough futuristic technology out there to actually generate a storm like this at will).

Okay, so as you can see there are a couple of plot holes, but justification can be inferred and there’s only so far you’re allowed to go with nit-picking. It hangs together, with exposition delivered as we go and swift pacing that slides over any bad logistics.

7. The guest stars, Psi and Saibra. Granted, there’s simply not enough time to make them truly memorable, but they are given nifty abilities and strong motivation to participate in the heist, with incentives that are revealed over the course of the episode. For Psi it’s getting his memories back – apparently he was arrested at some point in his past and deleted everything he knew about his family to protect them. All he knows now is: “I suppose I must have loved them.”

Meanwhile, Saibra can transform her body into anyone she touches, making her a master of disguise but preventing her from forming any permanent attachments. Basically she's an amalgamation of Rogue and Mystique from X-Men, and according to her: “could you trust someone who looked at you out of your own eyes?” Personally I’d have thought intimacy issues would be the bigger problem here, but her lonely introspection plugs  neatly into the episode’s denouement.

8. Somewhere between the Doctor’s claim that he hates the Architect and Director Karabraxos’s tendency to incinerate her own clones, lies the conclusion that it’s the self-loathing Doctor himself who is the Architect. He gives Karabraxos his phone number as she makes a hasty exit, thus kick-starting a good old time-travelling loop.

In her old age she becomes filled with regret, calls the Doctor with a plea for help in righting an old wrong: to free the Teller’s mate from her vault. From there it’s simple work for a time traveller to gather a team, organise the necessary tools, and decide on the most advantageous time to slip inside the bank.

9. Although it’s never explicit, the “good man” question lingers over this episode. The Doctor throwing Saibra what he thought was a suicide pill was a dark turn, as was tricking a soldier a few episodes ago into swallowing a tracking device in the hope that it would protect him when the Doctor knew he was doomed anyway.

And yet this season’s theme of whether or not the Doctor is a good man seems to be based on Moffat’s fundamental inability to differentiate between goodness and niceness. Much like Moffat’s Sherlock, this Doctor is not a particularly nice man, specifically in regards to his lack of empathy and his dislike of hugs.

But anyone can be nice, even cold-blooded serial killers. All that involves is outward inoffensiveness. It’s the reason the trope Affably Evil exists. “Niceness” is not that big a deal, though its existence in villainous characters has no doubt led to more than one impassioned on-line manifesto that insists any murderer, rapist, drug-dealer or other unsavoury individual who contains a hint of charisma is just misunderstood.

It’s goodness that is the rare quality in a human being, and even this comes in varying degrees. In this case, Saibra identifies the Doctor as a good man when he refuses to promise her that he’ll kill the Architect, rather annoyingly giving him credit for the most rudimentary of all principles upon which we collectively base our understanding of “goodness”: the refusal to take a life.

And yet, we are told that everyone involved in the heist is doing so to get what they truly want out of it, and for the Doctor this is saving a species from extinction and helping a thoroughly unpleasant woman achieve some degree of redemption. There is a grace and nobility in that, as both a goal and a motivation, that answers the Doctor’s question for him.

But since he regularly insults Clara I guess we’re going to have to ruminate over whether rudeness jeopardises the inherent goodness of a man for a while longer.

10. Speaking of goals and motivations, The Wizard of Oz ending in which everyone gets what they were longing for was incredibly sweet, whether it’s Psi’s memories or Saibra’s antidote or the Doctor’s wish to repopulate a species or Clara’s satisfaction at a job well done.

11. “Shuttity up.” I knew they’d get a Malcolm Tucker reference in there somewhere.

12. One irritating plot-hole lingers. If the Doctor wants to know who this mysterious “woman in the shop” is, why doesn’t he – you know – just ask Clara what shop she was in??

Photography

Do you know what I love? Open-air markets. Do you know what I especially love? Open-air market food. I went to Riccarton Farmer’s Market yesterday and was surrounded by all the sights and smells of what you see under the cut...

Sleepy Hollow: Vessel

The penultimate episode of any season (I’m calling this one penultimate since the final two were broadcast as a single episode) can either be one of two things: awesome setup for the finale, or a slightly low-key place-holder.

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.

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?

(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.

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 14^th.”

“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.

20^th 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! 

Interview: Laini Taylor

It’s been three weeks since I interviewed Laini Taylor on her Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, which means I can finally post it here. (I was giving Fantasy.Lit exclusivity for a few weeks). I hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

 

(Sorry about the coffee cup).

Sleepy Hollow: The Golem

Good episode, but – wow, the overarching plot of this show (and its mythology) really is getting convoluted, isn’t it. There’s just so much stuff going on, elements getting introduced and then dropped, only to be picked up several episodes later, so many new characters that are both important and yet dispensable at the same time, so many balls in the air that are (so far) getting juggled reasonably well, though I fear it’s only a matter of time before a couple are dropped. But still, good episode.

Following on from last week’s revelation that Katrina gave birth to a son, we get some more details on the chronology of his birth. Apparently it was after Ichabod’s death that she realized she was pregnant (though I was under the false impression that she was scoping out Frederick Manor as a place of sanctuary because she already knew) and transported herself there after her coven turned on her, angry that she cast the spell to preserve Ichabod’s life. More of the puzzle pieces are put into place: that she gave up her son Jeremy to Abbie’s ancestors, that he was a witch just like her, that it was her coven that sent her into Purgatory, and that she never saw him after that.

We also get explanations for some of the visions Abbie saw in the old Crane house, namely the creepy doll in the baby pram and the four veiled women chanting around the table, for these two elements come into play later on. To get more answers Abbie suggests the Historical Society Library, only to find that one of the librarians is very close-lipped about the information they seek – and before they can confront her, they discover her dead body out in the car-park, still inside her mangled car.

"Surprise, bitch. Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me."

Turns out that the doll Katrina gave her son while he was just a baby had its own powers, and the mingling of her promise to protect him with Jeremy’s anger and blood makes a golem, who follows Ichabod back from Purgatory and continues its mission to protect Jeremy by killing the descendants of the remaining coven. That was a fairly nice conceit, one that managed to be quite touching in the golem’s tenderness toward Jeremy compared with its violence at his oppressors (though you really have to question why Katrina would give her newborn son such a terrifying-looking doll. Seriously, that thing looked like a Satanic Patrick from Spongebob).

This baby's face says it all.

Still, it was lovely when Ichabod held its hand while it died, and that it reverted back into its
doll-form by the end. Sniffle.

In a subplot that was interesting, yet a bit disjointed from the main action, Captain Irving is doing his own digging whilst spending Thanksgiving in New York with his ex-wife and daughter. There we get another creepy run-in with the powers of darkness. After establishing that the First Witnesses are destined to die, and that their allies will probably end up as martyrs too, an ice-cream vender threatens Macey.

Only the audience is privy to the change that comes over his eyes, and its presence shifts from one person to another when physical contact is made (hey, wasn’t there a Denzel Washington movie about a demon that did this?) Threats to children is a near-triggering experience for me, so this scene was suitably horrifying, though I was intrigued by his words: “how strong is your daughter; strong enough to fight for her soul?” So was this a threat directed at Irving, or is something planned specifically for Macey? They’ve already established her as something of a fighter given her post-accident attitude, so I’m wondering if she has her own significance in the events to come.

And it was nice to see John Noble as the Sin Eater again, though his role was pretty much over after he helped Ichabod communicate with Katrina. However, the writers compensated nicely by giving him some interesting exposition in the library (I liked that he could smell the lie of the librarian and feel the pain of the book in the box) and a very sweet interlude with Ichabod on the subject of fathers. Let’s hope he’ll be back again soon.

Miscellaneous Observations:

Why did the coven want to punish Katrina for saving Ichabod’s life? Was it forbidden magic? Did they know what affect it would have on the Horseman? Are they not the “good” coven after all? Since the very beginning I’ve seen intrigued by this talk of two covens at work in Sleepy Hollow, yet it’s a plot-point that has been somewhat lost along the way. I hope we learn more about them in episodes to come (they’re more interesting to me than, say, the Hessian sleepers).

Tease us with the mistletoe, why don’t you.

Washington’s Bible returns! I laughed when Parrish’s gentle fatherly advice to Ichabod ended with him yelling: “Washington’s Bible!” That came the heck out of nowhere.

This is the second time in as many weeks that Abbie has had to stay behind while Ichabod goes off because he “has to do this alone.” Last week I suppose it was okay, but here? There was nothing to stop Abbie from going with him into the tent, and there was nothing in the scene that would have been lost if Abbie had been with him. Irritating. They’re meant to be a team, people!

Fantastic character design for the Four Who Speak as One: the dark veils, the pointed teeth, the blue eyes, the synchronised voices: all compelling, evocative stuff. It’s just annoying that they’ve apparently been killed off so quickly. I do wonder if they were inspired by Miranda Richardson’s performance as the Witch of the Western Woods in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow: she had the same dark veil and scratchy voice. Hey, and didn’t Christopher Walken’s Horseman have teeth that were filed into points? Nice touch with the hookah that was inhaled by one and exhaled by another.

And yet I don’t think Jeremy is dead. The words of the Four were specifically worded as “we stopped his heart”, which doesn’t necessarily translate as “dead and never coming back”. That, and I find it hard to believe that this much set-up would lead to a dead-end so quickly. Perhaps he’s under the same sort of spell that Katrina put Ichabod under. If so, can we expect his reunion with his father at a later point?

If Ichabod and Abbie are Witnesses, then why were the Four in One saying that Katrina disrupted fate and broke the rules, and so on? Surely if Ichabod is mentioned in the Bible, then she was doing the right thing in preserving his life. I mean, the man technically works for God.

“You embroidered my name on some oversized hosiery.” HAH! The delivery on that one was perfect: utterly bewildered yet immensely pleased. You could tell that he knew the sentiment it had significance even though he couldn’t fathom it.

Not sure what to make of that final scene, particularly since I find it difficult to understand what Moloch was even saying, but by the sound of it, war is coming (presumably the Horseman of War) followed by Ichabod somehow bringing Abbie’s soul to Moloch. I love the way he uses mirrors to communicate, and that the four white trees made another reappearance. And what did Moloch mean when he said: “I touched her soul once”? I’m more than ready to find out what happened to Abbie and Jenny in those missing hours. And how interesting that the Headless Horseman is after Ichabod, whilst Moloch seems far more interested in Abbie. Come to think of it, it’s been that way since the beginning.

So I really liked this episode, despite the glurge of exposition. This show runs the risk of becoming Mythology Bound, but for now it’s keeping its myriad of plot-lines flowing at a break-neck speed to compensate. I understand that we’re heading into a hiatus now, but let’s hope they can sustain this level of suspense for the final stretch. And hopefully the final scene suggests we're heading back toward an Abbie arc. The show is infinitely stronger when she's the focus.

In Hindsight:

Along with The Sin Eater, this was the episode I was most looking forward to re-watching, especially in regards to Henry Parrish’s true identity. And the second time around, it’s pretty clear that the writers were quietly tee-heeing to themselves the whole time. So many snippets of dialogue and reaction shots are given extra depth when watched with foreknowledge of Jeremy Crane’s fate.

There’s poignancy to be had when Ichabod says: “My head is swimming with questions – what was he like? What did he know of me? How did he live?”; not to mention the excruciating irony of him reaching out to Henry for answers to his son’s life, never knowing that Jeremy is right in front of him the whole time.

And John Noble knew. He had to know. Just check out some of these expressions:

"Hee hee."

"Ho ho."

"Hah hah."

"GONNA KILL YOU ALL."

It all illustrates just how insidious Moloch’s plan really was. Whatever the heck really went down with Arthur Baynard in The Sin Eater (and honestly, I think the whole thing was just smoke and mirrors), what remains is that Ichabod believes he can reach Katrina through Henry. It puts Henry in a position of trust and expertise that he uses to exploit the Witnesses effortlessly in the season finale, and that barest trace of amusement lingering in Noble’s eyes subtly telegraphs what’s to come.

Consider Henry’s line: “We never bury the dead, son. We take them with us” in light of his true identity. Chilling. Or this little gem: “It is a father’s task to impart wisdom. Mine told me not to fear my power.” HE’S TALKING ABOUT MOLOCH!!

Then there’s the scene in which Abbie appeals for Henry’s help on familial grounds, citing his (obviously fabricated) files that record a dead mother and a sick father, telling him that none of them have much family. Henry lets himself be convinced, but it's all just a set-up to make the Witnesses believe they’re in charge.

By the time Moloch shows up to announce: “I offer this warning. The saint’s name is a sign. When you know my meaning, war will take form,” it’s obvious that the bad guys are just screwing with them.

There are a few pieces that don’t quite fit. Henry explicitly tells Ichabod: “[Leaving your son] was not a choice you were given, my friend,” making his seething resentment in the finale a bit bewildering, and he has a strangely non-emotional reaction to the Golem’s death considering it was his only companion and protector for so many years (he even tells Ichabod how to defeat it).

And perhaps it’s because the Golem simply didn’t see him, but it seems a missed opportunity that it didn’t recognise and react to Henry in some way (or perhaps the writers thought that would give the game away too soon).

There’s more Katrina backstory which I understood a little better this time around. She’s back in witch mode for this episode and again we’re told that her coven attempted to punish her after she performs the spell on Ichabod, that she didn’t know she was pregnant when she did so, and that she fled to Europe afterwards to find an answer to how to separate Ichabod from the Horseman, only for her coven to hunt her down. THEN she went to Frederick’s manor to give birth.

Whew. I mean, it all hangs together, but damn it’s convoluted.

And Ichabod rather randomly remarks that it was Katrina’s coven that put her in Purgatory. I don’t know how he stumbles to this conclusion, but since Katrina doesn’t contradict it, I suppose we’ll have to accept that’s what happened.

These covens interest me though. There’s still virtually nothing on the evil coven, and it’s difficult to imagine what they’re like if these guys are the “good” ones. Yet in saying that, the Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart is the only morally ambiguous organization we've seen on the show. All the others are either wholly good or wholly bad, yet these women (despite their creepy teeth) essentially contained a threat and punished someone who made a decision that endangered the world.

And sure, the way they went about doing those things hardly makes them nice people, but it once more feeds into my intense interest in these women: what they do, whose side they’re on, and how they relate to the supposed evil coven - which may in turn make Katrina more than just a plot device.

Likewise, the Golem is our first monster that we’re expected to feel pity for when it meets its unhappy end. There are shades of grey (damn E.L. James for ruining that phrase) that I didn’t appreciate the first time around. More of this, please!

Other stuff can only be inferred at this point. I like the idea that Moloch targeted Katrina and Jeremy because he was pissed at Ichabod killing his Horseman and Katrina for binding them together – thus making Death unusable for several hundred years. I mean, that motivation makes perfect sense, right? It would be remiss if the writers didn’t make this explicit.

And I still feel mildly annoyed that Abbie didn’t accompany Ichabod into the tent of the Four Who Speak as One. Doylistically, it was perhaps to allow Ichabod to repeat the exposition on how to defeat the Golem (thus reminding the audience how to do it), but they could have just as easily mentioned it out loud to Henry – and it would have been a nice little clue to see him refuse to enter the tent, knowing that the witches might well have recognised them.

Ooh, but I've just realized - there may well be another appearance of the Golem in season two. After all, he didn't actually "die", he just reverted back into his doll-form. And since it was blood and magic that brought him to life the first time, there's nothing to stop Henry/Jeremy from calling it back up when most convenient.

Short Story: The Miscellaneous Room

A few weeks ago I was wandering through one of my favourite haunts, the Canterbury Museum, when I fell prey to the “thinking the manikin was a real person” mistake. Once my heart resumed its normal pace, I took some photographs, jotted down a few impressions of the room and those passing through it, and ended up with this:

The Miscellaneous Room

 

Among the various advantages of existence as a museum manikin, the greatest had to be the sudden jolts and sharp breaths from those who caught him out the corner of their eye.

The plethora of smells was another benefit; a mingling of well-preserved antiquities (polish), diligent upkeep (glass cleaner) and the enduring pervasion of the human condition (sweat).

But it was that flash of horror which brought such job satisfaction: the realization that they were no longer alone; the blush of having been watched for some time without knowing it.

There was the usual litany of sounds; snatches of conversation, coos of discovery, the screams of terminally devastated children. They cried over untied shoelaces or the speed of older siblings with all the despair usually reserved for those witnessing loved ones perish before their eyes.

But few wandered through the miscellaneous room. It was caught between the gift shop and the vintage street, filled with old science equipment, the bones of an elk, and the taxidermied remains of animals deemed too unappealing for the children’s area.

Only occasionally came the squeaky clomp of footsteps on the shiny floor; the sideways glance into his cabinet room of glass and polished wood. Then the gasp, the jolt, the embarrassed laughter: “I thought he was real!”

The very old and the very young needed clarification. “Is he real?” They were the ones more heard than seen: the slow shuffle of feet past the doorway; hedged voices turning the names of their offspring into curses: “KATIE. Get OFF. We are LEAVING.”

And coughs. Someone was always coughing.

Such an existence supplied a perfect view of them all: tattoos and piercings, tutus and boots, ponytails on men and women with shaved heads; each filing through the still space between and beneath the door frame. They entered, looked and left.

He sat. To be seen was his purpose; to observe was a bonus, and in those fragments of time when passers-by believed him real, he was alive.

Sleepy Hollow: Sanctuary

This episode was one of those stories that is fabulous in so many ways, and yet kinda clunky in others.

First off, I like the idea of Ichabod and Abbie being trapped in a haunted house, as well as the clever conceit that Moloch managed to trick his way past its protective charms by planting one of his demons inside the perimeter and waiting for it to grow. That said, the demon itself was fairly silly: a tree monster that lurched around like something out of The Wizard of Oz and whose "bleeding roots" gimmick was swiped from the Tim Burton movie. And for some reason it was inexplicably credited as a "Scarecrow" in the credits.

Plenty of the chase scenes were suitably creepy, particularly the ones that took place behind the walls (triggering my claustrophobia, so you know they're effective) and Abbie being the only one able to see her own great-great-something grandmother was a lovely touch, especially as that was what got them all safely out.

But still, there was just something missing.

Maybe it was that the backstory was a little messy? Let's see if I've got this straight: Katrina scoped out Fredericks' Manor because she wanted a safe place in order to give birth to her child. She received Ichabod's letter that informed her he had fallen on the battlefield, gave birth to a baby boy, smuggled him out of the house, left him somewhere (?), made it all the way back to Ichabod's bedside as he lay dying, and cast the spell on him that put him into his three hundred years sleep. Or was it that Ichabod died first and then Katrina went to Frederick's? If so, then how on earth did Ichabod not realize she was pregnant? And why'd she bother to put his letter in that book for him to find?

Well, I guess she's gradually becoming less of a plot-device and more of a character in her own right, but she's still damn confusing. I mean, how many things is she keeping from her husband?? First the fact that she's a witch and then that she was pregnant? It must have been a very strange marriage for her to keep so much from Ichabod, but hey - at least we know that her favourite book was Gulliver's Travels.

Then there was the little subplot of Jenny meeting Irving's ex-wife and daughter, and the domestic strife that's going on between the divorced couple. Now, it's not that I didn't like these scenes - but was it really a good idea to have these fairly mellow scenes intercut with Ichabod and Abbie fighting for their lives in a haunted house that's trying to kill them?

It was a bit jarring, which is a shame because there was a lot of stuff in here that I liked:
Irving/Jenny flirting. That wasn't just me, right? That was definitely flirting? Because I love opposites attract couples, and I especially love couples that take me by surprise. In amongst all the debate surrounding Abbie/Ichabod/Katrina, I honestly didn't see this one coming.
On a related note, it was so nice to see Jenny being laidback and friendly. She's been pretty gung-ho up until now and it was nice to see her connect with a little girl.

Speaking of whom: Amandla Stenber! Yay! It's so nice to see her again after The Hunger Games, and I hope that the rapport Macy struck up with Jenny means that she'll be recurring character. I did think that it was a little odd that a tween would open up so completely to a total stranger about her relationship to her dad, but as Diana Rigg once said: "it's plot exposition, it needs to go somewhere."

Also, Jenny said she wanted thanksgiving dinner in order to: "say thank you to Abbie for taking me in." Does that mean the sisters are living together? When are we going to see that??

And I liked that Irving's ex-wife was portrayed as a nice, caring women instead of the usual ex-wife = shrew stereotype. Time will tell though whether either of them will be incorporated into the supernatural goings-on in Sleepy Hollow. On a similar note, another post that was doing the rounds pointed out that although Lena Gilbert was a wealthy socialite, she was portrayed as brave, helpful and genuinely interested in her family history.

Basically: so many women! So many women of colour! Every time I think the show has met its quota, they bring in three more as though it's the most natural thing in the world. There was a GIF set floating around of the six women that appeared in this episode and only one of them was white (though on reflection, it didn't count Lena Gilbert). Still that's a 2/5 margin, and I honestly can't think of another fantasy/sci-fi show off the top of my head that has such odds. Amazing.

There's a lot of game-changing stuff here, most obviously the fact that Ichabod has a son, though he's found out a few hundred years after his wife gave birth. I suppose now the questions are:

Will Ichabod find out what happened to him?

Why didn't Katrina say anything?

Why did Moloch want the boy so badly that he would have the house attacked during his birth?

Obviously something is up with Ichabod Junior, presumably to do with the fact that his daddy is a Witness. I'm not entirely sure that I'm on board with this particular plot or wherever it may lead - but at least we got that lovely reveal that Grace the matron/midwife, the woman who helped bring Ichabod's son into the world, was also Abbie's ancestor. Saw it coming a mile away, but that made it all the more rewarding when it was confirmed.

Not a bad episode, but not my favourite either.

In Hindsight:

So this episode heralded the arrival of Jeremy Crane, a.k.a. Henry Parrish into the world, though we didn't know it yet. And it would seem that right from the beginning Moloch had a vested interest in Ichabod's son. Why? Not exactly sure, but by this point Abraham had been turned into the Horseman of Death, so perhaps he just wanted a Crane-themed set of Horsemen.

Watching it the second time around also clarified Katrina's time-line. As far as I can understand it, this was how it went down: Ichabod writes Katrina a letter to say goodbye in case of his death --> Ichabod is fatally injured by the Horseman --> Katrina receives the letter and rushes to his side --> she performs the spell to put Ichabod in stasis all whilst NOT telling him she was pregnant --> some time later she returns to Frederick's house to give birth, putting Ichabod's goodbye letter in her copy of Gulliver's Travels.