I give Sleepy Hollow a lot of leeway on its “monster of the week” episodes, because even when they don’t play into the larger narrative – which “The Weeping Lady” doesn’t, for the most part – they’re still fun and inventive, and sometimes pretty damn creepy. I mean, this is a show that managed to turn the Pied Piper into some kind of Assassin’s Creed parkour mercenary, so at the very least it’s going to be interesting.
“The Weeping Lady” centers around the titular specter, a local urban legend that’s long been a part of Sleepy Hollow’s folklore. I really liked this aspect of the episode, and wish the show had just left it at that, instead of doing what it always does: connecting everything back to Ichabod or Abbie. In this case, it’s Ichabod, as it is discovered that the Weeping Lady was once Mary Wells (Heather Lind, Turn), a woman to whom Ichabod was promised before he met Katrina.
Mary has a bit of a jealousy problem, which leads her to kill Caroline, Ichabod’s friend from a reenactment society, who, as Abbie puts it, has “Crane on the brain.” No shit, Abbie, have you seen Ichabod? He’s literally the most handsome man in the world. I’m not crazy about Mary’s motivation, because it just boils down to “If I can’t have him no one can!” which is the same problem that Cursed had, but I shouldn’t even speak of the two in the same breath, because Cursed is a sexist atrocity and Sleepy Hollow has some of the strongest female characters on TV right now. What I’m trying to say is, the Weeping Lady (to me at least) works better as a folk-tale boogieman who happens to be real, not as a jilted ex.
Where this episode really succeeds in its presentation of the Weeping Lady – tattered black shawl, crazed green eyes, in a self-contained pool of her own tears. It’s a deeply unsettling image, and I give a lot of credit to director Larry Teng (Medium, Hawaii Five-O) for essentially putting part of a horror movie in primetime.
Naturally, Mary gets disposed of, but it happens rather humanely. She and Ichabod have a very tender scene where he cradles her head in his lap as she dies, and Sleepy Hollow is smart enough to use her death to begin to drive a wedge between Ichabod and Katrina. Mary blames Katrina for her death, and Ichabod grows angry at the amount of secrets that his wife has kept from him. Which is actually pretty fair. (Also, Tom Mison has always had better chemistry with Nicole Beharie than Katia Winter anyway. What’s the name we use to ‘ship Ichabod and Abbie? Help me out, Tumblr morons.)
So as I said, “The Weeping Lady” very lightly touches on Sleeply Hollow‘s overall mythology. It’s definitely a monster of the week episode, but it has some narrative heft to it, as the threat of Ichabod and Katrina being at odds with each other could really screw things up for this whole apocalypse preventing plan they have. I don’t mind episodes like this – come on, it’s Sleepy Hollow, this show is awesome – but this is the second week in a row that the show has taken a break from a very interesting narrative. Time to jump back in, guys.
A Few Thoughts
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How great is it that the Horseman has a head when he’s out Katrina? Being able to see and hear Abraham is a great way to add depth and dimension to one of the most iconic monsters in American literature. And I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually feeling sympathy towards the Headless Horseman
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Hawley lives like Owen Wilson in The Big Bounce. Probably. I didn’t see that movie. Nobody did
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Speaking of Hawley, someone must owe Matt Barr a favor, because he’s been showing up constantly for the last three weeks. It beggared belief until I realized what’s happening: he’s Ichabod and Abbie’s Q
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