Episode Title: “The Midnight Ride”
Writer: Heather V. Regnier
Director: Doug Aarniokoski
Previously on “Sleepy Hollow”:
It was very refreshing to see that this week’s “Sleepy Hollow” addressed almost all of my previously stated concerns about the series and it was pretty much all that I could have hoped for. The Headless Horseman came off as a legitimately dangerous threat, John Cho came back to the show, Captain Frank Irving (Orlando Jones) finally has a larger role to play and that ending was very compelling.
The only major misstep in the episode is that all of the Freemasons introduced in the previous episode were unceremoniously killed off without even getting their own death scenes. That seems like a huge waste after bringing in James Frain to play the lead Mason, James Rutledge. Although the head lanterns were a nice touch.
The primary strength of “Sleepy Hollow” remains Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison), thanks in large part to Mison’s impeccable comic timing. For once, Crane’s man out of time moments actually played into the primary story. Crane’s throwaway line about Paul Revere not being someone who should be plying the dentistry trade got a callback when Crane realized where Revere had hidden a critical clue.
It was hard to pick my favorite Crane moment in this episode. There were so many to choose from, including Crane’s incredibly polite voice mail for Abbie, Crane’s incredibility about paying for water and his frustrations about the historical inaccuracies surrounding Revere as well as some unfortunate facts about his old friend, Thomas Jefferson. All comic gold, but the best was Crane’s newfound fear of “the ninninet” and his hilarious reaction to the live pop-up ad featuring a scantily clad woman.
There are full spoilers ahead for “The Midnight Ride,” so if you missed last night’s episode of “Sleepy Hollow” then you should probably skip this review or else you’ll have to find a witch to turn the moon into the sun.
Besides the premature death of the Masons, my only problem with this episode was a minor subplot in which Dead Andy Dunn (John Cho) confronted Luke Morales (Nicholas Gonzalez), the ex-boyfriend of Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie). Morales has already been saddled with being the unnecessarily antagonistic supporting character and his introduction to Sleepy Hollow’s supernatural elements felt forced. Morales was suitably freaked out by his encounter with Andy, but it didn’t make him any more interesting than he already was.
However, Irving’s close call with the Headless Horseman did wonders for his character. Rather than pull his customary disappearing act, Irving stuck around as a new clandestine partner for Crane and Abbie. I also enjoyed Irving’s admission that he hoped Crane’s story about the Horseman was simply a lie. That would have been easier for him.
But rather than turn into a basket case like Morales, Irving pulled his weight in the team up with Crane and Abbie. Consequently, Irving was a lot more fun than he has been in the past. He even contributed to Crane’s reluctant realization that he didn’t know Thomas Jefferson as well as he thought.
Another comedic highlight of the episode was Abbie and Crane’s fruitless attempts to crush the skull of the Headless Horseman. I’m less sold on Andy’s creepy crush on Abbie, but at least he didn’t betray Abbie or Crane.
I was skeptical that “Sleepy Hollow” could wrap up this episode with only a few minutes before the end of the hour. However, the trap for the Horseman was well staged and it was easily the most exciting sequence that “Sleepy Hollow” has had to date. Amazingly, the UV trap worked and the Horseman was defeated and immobilized… for now.
That was a great ending. The Headless Horseman as a captive of Team Crane has all sorts of dramatic and comedic potential. I don’t expect it to be the status quo for too long, but next week’s episode should at the very least be interesting.
Long term, I think that the Horseman won’t work as a villain if he always comes back every few episodes. “Sleepy Hollow” needs more variety with its monsters, but this was the most effective use of the Horseman. “Sleepy Hollow” is finally coming together. The only question I have is whether it can maintain this level of quality in the remaining episodes of the season.
