'Sleepy Hollow' Review/Recap: "Go Where I Send Thee"

Maria Millage ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

During its first season, Sleepy Hollow proved that it could rewrite twisted fairy tales and urban legends into something even creepier.  This week, the show did it again with the all-too-familiar legend of the Pied Piper.
The writers gave the show’s dedicated viewers a brief break from biting their nails off over Henry’s (John Noble) grand evil plan for world domination and instead delivered what in Sleepy Hollow terms could be considered a light episode. With the exception of a few scenes with Captain Irving (Orlando Jones) and Henry pushing forward the season’s overarching plot, it was mainly a filler episode but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t entertaining nonetheless.
The episode opened with the kidnapping of a ten-year old girl who was lured away from her house in the middle of the night by a mysterious figure playing a flute made out of bone. Ichabod (Tom Mison) produced the name of said instrument but as far as most of the fandom was concerned, it was a jumble of consonants with a vowel or two thrown in that didn’t actually sound like a word. When Ichabod plays a few notes on the flute, it becomes evident that it also holds some sway over Abbie (Nicole Beharie), sending her headlong into a trance.  The two use the power it has over Abbie to lead them to the lair of the Piper, happening across an injured Hawley (Matt Barr) who claims to have seen the Piper capture the girl the night before.

Hawley offers his services in exchange for the flute and Ichabod calls him a privateer. Then, Abbie agrees and breaks the flute in half and gives it to Hawley. The three manage to free the kidnapped girl and return her to her family but shortly after they realize that the girl’s family is cursed: if the Piper isn’t allowed to take a ten-year-old girl every generation then all of the family’s children will be sacrificed. The dream team catches up to the girl’s mother before she’s able to effectively deliver her daughter to the Piper and after an intense forested fight scene, Abbie kills it.
The episode was not without the dry humor that has come to characterize Ichabod Crane, and the “privateer” comment was just the beginning.  Much to Tumblr’s delight, the episode began with Ichabod learning how to drive: a heart-wrenching sequence that consisted of Ichabod hauling Abbie’s Jeep around a parking lot at about 65 miles per hour.  It’s safe to say that he will probably never be getting her keys again. The episode also closed with a particularly fantastic tidbit of Ichabod humor in which he discovers cappuccinos. Watch it. Seriously.
Even though the episode generally contained only filler material, there were a few scenes that moved the season’s plot arc forward. Irving finally wised up to the fact that several episodes ago he signed away his soul in his own blood and Henry Parrish is not in fact a lawyer.  Surely this will be coming back in an episode or two as Abbie and Crane add Irving to their list of people to save from the clutches of evil.

Speaking of people in the clutches of evil, Katrina (Katia Winter) was absent from the episode entirely with the exception of her name in the title sequence. This writer is choosing to hope that this means Ichabod is on his way to finding himself a new love interest, though all of that will remain to be seen.
The episode was entertaining and dark in true Sleepy Hollow fashion and the reworking of a classic urban legend added some nice flair to an episode that otherwise could have been boring.  The Pied Piper was also as suitably terrifying as one would expect a demon that steals ten-year-old girls to be.
Overall Episode Grade: A-