Sleepy Hollow Review: Episode 2×05 – “The Weeping Lady”

Sleepy Hollow’s Weeping Lady Brings Terror and Unveils Long Kept Secrets

This week on Sleepy Hollow the Witnesses find themselves under attack by yet another scary monster, the Weeping Lady, brought to life by Henry. A woman named Caroline, whom Ichabod knows from the local reenactment group, is the first victim. Next, Abbie is nearly claimed but thanks to Hawley’s CPR skills, she lives to fight another day. Then comes the revelation that Ichabod knows the Weeping Lady, or at least who she used to be, Mary Well. What and who is Mary after? And how will Moloch react when he learns that Henry took his own approach instead of doing what he was told? Let’s discuss!

Bring On The Terror, Bring On The Emotions

To begin with, the Weeping Lady may be some of Sleepy Hollow‘s finest work as far as weekly foes are concerned. The costuming was beautiful for Mary Wells, and the alterations to her outfit combined with the make-up, special effects, direction, and sound editing (for those bone-chilling shrieks) all made her entirely terrifying. It could have very easily gone wrong if any of those departments had overdone it but the final product had us shielding our eyes and shouting at Caroline and Abbie to not go anywhere near her when she began to lure them in. We appreciated the fact that Abbie had sense enough to draw her weapon upon drawing near, thus separating her from the stereotypical idiocy of horror victims, and guest actress Heather Lind brought just the right amount of instability to human Mary Wells while also managing to make us feel some compassion for her in her final moments.

“Whatever attacked me and killed Caroline was no sorrowful ghost.” ~ Abbie
“No, and it appears to have an inordinate interest in harming those for whom I most deeply care.” ~ Ichabod

In the most heart wrenching scene of the episode, Ichabod struggles to save Abbie from the Weeping Lady’s clutches, and manages to pull her out from the water but fears her to be dead. Tom Mison made us want to cry, as his broken voice changed from calling out “Leftenant” to “Abbie.” Then the range of expressions as Ichabod sees Abbie spasm after receiving CPR from Hawley, coughing up water, from shock to awe to relief pulled us right on board Ichabod’s emotional roller-coaster. The writers have delivered another plot point to further strengthen the bond of the Witnesses, as we see how deeply Ichabod cares for Abbie and just how greatly the loss of her would effect him. It makes their relationship all the more compelling; well done, Tom and Nicole!

Ichabod Is Finally Starting To See The Truth

Katrina manages to manoeuvre some magic up so she can get a message out to Ichabod. She could send any useful piece of information but instead sends a sappy whole lot of nothing about how she is always thinking of Ichabod. This is yet another moment that makes us wonder what the point of Katrina is. It would have made much more sense for her to have sent along something she has overheard from the conversations between Henry and Abraham. Her magical skills have been mediocre at best since she got out of Purgatory and we rarely get the sense that she has any wits at all. It feels very out of place to have such a weakly written character when Abbie and Jenny have been nothing short of brilliant throughout their entire run. Even Crane’s daughter Macy managed to be more compelling than this in her few episodes on the show. But we can take some comfort in the fact that the terrible love letter serves as a plot device to get the Weeping Lady hot on Katrina’s tail and finally make Ichabod begin to reach his limits for Katrina-nonsense.

“You are my wife, my wife Katrina, yet there is so much you have kept from me. You’re a spy for Washington, you’re a witch, you were pregnant with our son Henry, and now this.” ~ Ichabod

After Katrina completes a spell to release Mary’s spirit, which she couldn’t even complete on her own and had to have Abbie help her with, Ichabod holds a dying (again) Mary in his arms, ever the gentleman. It’s then he learns yet another one of Katrina’s lies: that she was with Mary when she died and then magically forged a letter to make Ichabod believe Mary left for England. Writer M. Raven Metzner gave us what we’ve been waiting for: Ichabod wising up. It seemed strange to have a man as smart as Ichabod, with both his technical and historical knowledge along with his ability to have adapted relatively well to the 21st century, to be so oblivious or perhaps just overly forgiving of the endless parade of Katrina’s lies. But perhaps now we can see whatever romantic inclinations are left in this relationship be put back into the ground where they belong.

Finally, A Reason For Katrina To Be Here

Now that we’ve pointed out the many flaws in Katrina’s writing and overall character, we can say that this new development is actually quite intriguing. Whatever plans that the show runners have for her are now beginning to be made known to us and it actually seems like it could be good. Katrina’s apparently one of the Hellfire Shards, which not only has us asking what that means, but who the rest of them are. More witches, perhaps? Or other types of supernaturally inclined folks? Also, when Moloch was chiding Henry for thinking for himself and saying that as a soldier he needs to just do as he is told, we actually felt a twinge of sympathy of him. This is a testament to John Noble‘s abilities, as we never would have thought we’d feel for Henry after everything he has done. What would also be nice to see with the Katrina story is more scenes with Abraham. Katia Winter has far more chemistry with Neil Jackson than with Tom Mison and the writers would do well to capitalise on it more. We have to give another nod of appreciation to Neil Jackson, who gives so many more layers to Headless. It was fine to have Headless running around being menacing but now we get to learn more about the man behind the antics, and Neil Jackson is doing terrific work with his material.

“I want the witch turned. Not dead. She is one of the Hellfire Shards. A chosen vessel.” ~ Moloch

FINAL VERDICT

Director Larry Teng did his strongest work with the Weeping Lady scenes, delivering great artistry with quality horror flair. Of course it was a collaborative effort with all of the incredible crew on Sleepy Hollow, from the wardrobe, makeup, special effects, and sound editing team, all of whom made these sequences so terrifying but visually striking as well. Writer M. Raven Metzner maintained a good blend of strong dramatic dialogue with those little comedic moments, often between Ichabod and Abbie (such as the line where Abbie tells Ichabod that Caroline has a case of “Crane on the brain,” which Nichole Beharie absolute nailed!), that make Sleepy Hollow such a well-rounded and enjoyable viewing experience. One gripe we have is that there has been far too little of Orlando Jones as Captain Irving this season. Though Nick Hawley’s last interaction with Jenny was feisty enough to intrigue us into wanting to see more of that duo’s relationship, we can’t understand why Irving has been sidelined for so long, when he was such a fantastic part of the team last season. Even if it will take some time for him to break free from Henry’s soul-stealing blood-signed contract, it would be nice to see what sort of plotting or researching he’s up to in that psychiatric hospital. If no attention is paid to him by our main characters, it gives off the impression that they aren’t concerned for his well-being, which doesn’t make much sense since they went through all that trouble to ensure he’d be moved there from prison. Overall, there’s some terrific things going on in Sleepy Hollow, but it would be made all the better if Irving is brought back properly into the mix.

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• ICHABOD. YOU AND ABBIE ARE BASICALLY MARRIED ANYWAY DON’T FIGHT IT.
• A case of “Crane on the brain”! Abbie! Look at you getting all witty on us!
• Ichabod bowing… I don’t know whether to laugh or squirm… both… both is good…
• Caroline! Have you never seen a horror film? When you see a scary-looking lady making strange sounds, you turn and RUN!
• Nichole Beharie’s face always distracts me. I can’t handle all that beauty!
• What a useless message! You have opportunity to send some covert information and you waste it on sappy nonsense. Katrina, you’re a terrible spy.
• Abbie, I’ll forgive you for approaching the Weeping Lady because you at least had sense enough to draw your weapon out.
• Ichabod knows lace? … of course he does. I can’t deal with him and his endless array of trivia stowed away in that massive brain of his.
• Basilisk??? Don’t tell me the Witnesses are about to fight off Voldemort too!
• No really, Katrina, talk even faster so Abbie can recite this damn incantation. -_-
• Ichabod, maybe don’t tell the angry spirit what she’s done wrong… even if you’re right.
• There was far more worry in Ichabod’s tone when he said Abbie’s name… just saying… *sips tea*
• Katrina, why did Mary just point at you?! Damn liar, I don’t trust you for a second!
• Jenny, you are so baaaaaaad! ;D
• A Hellfire Shard??? What? Is? That???