Sleepy Hollow was all about betrayal this week. “Root of All Evil” centered around some ancient coins not unlike the ones used to pay Judas Iscariot for betraying Jesus; these same coins played a role in corrupting Benedict Arnold. Also, Jenny flips out when she thinks Abbie is siding with Sheriff Reyes, but Jenny flips out about a lot of things.
The coin story is strictly “case of the week,” which doesn’t bother me because in addition to being one of the most entertaining shows on TV, Sleepy Hollow is also one of the most competently made. The only reason the business with the coins annoyed me at all was that it took away from the main storyline, of which we saw very little. The thrust of the story is that possessing one of these coins (there are 30 in all) causes your darkest impulses to manifest, like when a sweet bank teller holds up the bank and gets shot for her trouble, or when a mild-mannered florist blows his dad to hell with a pipe bomb. (The bomb building sequence was actually pretty eerie.)
Naturally, Henry is behind the whole thing, and naturally he gets one of the coins in the hands of Jenny Mills, who’s out of the slammer and only sentenced to community service for having a bag full of what must have been 20 guns. The lesson here is: if you have a sibling in law enforcement, they will get you the most lenient punishment possible for a crime that would land most people in jail for ten years or more. I kid; Sleepy Hollow just needed Jenny back out on the streets so she could steal a sniper rifle from her antiquities expert friend Hawley (Matt Barr) and go after Reyes.
Also, I find myself getting more and more paranoid about all these new characters: is Reyes a Horseman? Is Hawley? Shit, am I a Horseman? Way to go, Sleepy Hollow, you built a world and you’ve got me thinking about it.
If it sounds like I’m not discussing the B-story, it’s because there really wasn’t one. We check in on Katrina – still held captive by the Horseman, but confident in her ability to win Henry over – and on Frank, who Ichabod and Abbie aren’t allowed to visit, as per his lawyer (Henry, remember).
Henry’s plan with the coins was to sow chaos in Sleepy Hollow, but it only works to a degree. (John Noble continues to be fantastic, especially when he dryly asks Ichabod, “Are you going to take me to the fishing hole?” which makes more sense in context.) Jenny is subdued and the coin trapped between two pieces of stained glass; I don’t know if the coins will pop back up, but I suspect we’ll be seeing Hawley again. It’s always good to have someone who knows ancient folklore and can get you a fake ID and can supply you with high-powered weaponry.
I’m more forgiving of Sleepy Hollow than I am of other shows, mainly because it’s so damn fun. “Root of All Evil” was a little more serious, though, as it served to illustrate the importance of trust between Ichabod, Abbie, Jenny, et al. It’ll be nice to get Frank back into the fray – Henry is working on his release, certainly with some fell notion in mind – but I can’t stress enough how confident and engaging this season is so far.
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