Sleepy Hollow Review/Recap: "John Doe"
Alysha Boynton ‘17/Emertainment Monthly Staff
This week’s episode of Sleepy Hollow opens on what appears to be yet another eerie dream sequence set in the woods, and the scene seems to be of our heroes, Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) and Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) as children, being chased by an unfamiliar horseman. When the “dream” shatters and we’re brought back to the real world, Abbie and Ichabod are settling into the dearly departed Sheriff Corbin’s (Clancy Brown) old cabin by the lake, exchanging their usual fond banter and jokes about Ichabod’s lack of modern-day knowledge.
When Abbie receives a routine call from Captain Irving (Orlando Jones), she and Ichabod go straight to the crime scene. They arrive only to find the boy from the opening sequence, showing us in just one of the many twists of the episode that it was not a dream sequence at all, but very real. The boy, dressed in Colonial style clothing, is laid out on a stretcher, muttering in what Ichabod identifies as being Middle English, and clearly suffering from a strange disease that has him covered in black veins.
It becomes clear that Thomas’ ( Matthew Lintz ) disease, later classified as a plague, needs a cure, and Abbie and Ichabod are the only ones who can find out what it is. They venture out into the woods, only to discover that the entire colony, in some sort of time lock, has been relocated to Sleepy Hollow, and is still very much stuck as a 17th century colony.
The episode is fast paced, but not overly so. There’s just enough suspense to keep the viewer engaged, but it never feels rushed. This newbie supernatural drama continues to get everything right, from refreshingly new and interesting creatures and plotlines to the racially diverse cast, Sleepy Hollow seems as if it can do no wrong.