Sleepy Hollow: The Kindred
September 29, 2014 9:04 PM - Season 2, Episode 2 - Subscribe

A daring plan to rescue Katrina involves everyone taking some risks. Oh, and there's a new sheriff in town.
posted by PussKillian (27 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Let's hope this new plotline for Katrina makes her marginally more interesting.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:12 PM on September 29, 2014 [4 favorites]


I live in the Philadelphia area and to say Ben Franklin is kind of a big deal here is a massive understatement. I think my favorite incarnation of Franklin's legend has to be Ben happily stitching together human parts to make a Kindred after having lustfully winked at the coven/Katrina.

Also, Orlando Jones livetweets the show for east and west coast viewers. It's a treat.
posted by kimberussell at 3:24 AM on September 30, 2014


The thunderclap that rolled forth from the Writer's Room high-fives upon the coining of "Franklinstein's Monster" must have broken windows and set off car alarms.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:29 AM on September 30, 2014 [16 favorites]


So, I really enjoyed the whole Franklinstein's Monster bit, and Ichabod raving out in the bank about credit cards was, as always, really fun. But I have to say that the new hard-ass sheriff's tactics made me really uncomfortable, especially if she's going to develop into a hardnosed-but-ultimately-on-the-side-of-good character. She decided to either make an attempt to punish Irving for being involved in the death of two cops by having him subjected to sedation, medication, and ECT, or she was going to use the threat of them (or the reality of them) to torture him into confessing. That's super-creepy and it really bugged me. If she's going to be full-on EVIL, that's one thing, but that just didn't feel like where she was being positioned as a character.
posted by PussKillian at 6:28 AM on September 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


I feel the exact same way, but am, for now, comforted by the fact that if she knew Abby and Jenny when they were younger, she's probably got to be full-on EVIL.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 6:45 AM on September 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


It drug near the middle, but I am really, really pleased with this show. I love that in the spots where they would typically assign a white man to do the map-pointing and strategizing, Abby's there instead. And Jenny isn't some goofball who knows nothing and has to be led around by white characters - she's smart and capable and knows her shit, from relics to guns. But she's still vulnerable, her own character, believable and lovable.

Reyes upset me too, but I like that the show is not afraid to have you feeling tension in some or all of the relationships. It's a believable tension too.

"Don't wait 13 years to come get me this time". Man...speaking of the writers, perhaps somebody in that room has felt the pain of having a family member not be there for them, cause damn. That hit just the right note of a really piercing thing to say, said matter of factly in that way that cuts so deep with the truth, belied by the tone it is said in. Tossed like a cotton ball and caught like a brick.
posted by cashman at 7:05 AM on September 30, 2014 [8 favorites]


I think the sheriff is going to be a very chillingly evil character. Based on her mention of Abbie's mom's insanity, I'm spitballing that she's going to try to send Abbie to Tarrytown as well. Or at the very least get Abbie suspended from the force due to mental instability.

I jumped an inch out of my seat when Irving's new attorney arrived and it was Henry/Jeremy.
posted by kimberussell at 7:06 AM on September 30, 2014 [2 favorites]


I think the sheriff is going to be a very chillingly evil character.

Horseman of Pestilence. $5 bet down.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:51 AM on September 30, 2014 [2 favorites]


I'll be glad to get more Orlando Jones. But it looks like I'll also have to endure more Katrina nonsense.

And I totally want the Kindred to become some part of the team and maybe be a bit of a goofball. I mean, obviously he's a kick-ass killing machine, but maybe he learns about television and starts to do impressions (William Shatner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.) as he goes about his killing business.
posted by MsVader at 9:24 AM on September 30, 2014 [3 favorites]


I want the Kindred to have a sort of existential crisis due to having been constructed from revolutionary war corpses but alive in 2014, in the same sense that Ichabod has been having various daily crises, except since the Kindred can't speak (apparently, who knows) he will have to act out this angst via comedic gestures.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:00 AM on September 30, 2014


And yes I am HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS of Reyes, which surely we are meant to be so she will probably end up being the tooth fairy or something innocuous.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:00 AM on September 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


Well before anyone on the show said the word, I theorized that someone on the writing staff had come up with the name "Franklinstein" and they'd decided to build an entire storyline around that. Which is stupid, but gloriously, brilliantly stupid in the fashion that makes this show so much fun to watch.

Also, I look forward to the day when I don't feel the need to congratulate a show for adding another woman of color to it's regular cast and once again casually breezing through the Bechdel test and its racial equivalent. Until that day comes, though, congratulations once again to Sleepy Hollow.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 10:53 AM on September 30, 2014 [5 favorites]


maybe he learns about television and starts to do impressions (William Shatner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.) as he goes about his killing business.

Or maybe he and Ichabod start their own cabaret act.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:30 PM on September 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


Am I the only one who doesn't think Reyes is evil? I got the impression that she's there to give Abbie and Ichabod a second chance at the sneaking-around-behind-authority's-back / hiding-things-from-the-muggles trope that was subverted last year by them coming clean to Captain Irving so quickly. Reyes even apologized to Abbie as soon as she realized she'd inadvertently made a potentially insensitive remark about "sanity"!

Captain Reyes is tough and no-nonsense but it seems to me like she's just trying to get the job done. So far the worst thing she's done is threaten Irving with electroshock therapy, but she did that in the context of thinking he murdered two police officers and is now faking being crazy to get into a cushier cell.
posted by Jacqueline at 2:18 PM on September 30, 2014


It's possibly just a tone-deaf thing on the part of the writers (or I'm possibly oversensitive because of personal reasons) but if she's a no-nonsense but good person, threatening someone with unwanted and unnecessary sedation and ECT is a really poor way to show it, because even if Irving is delusional, he's clearly not unresponsive or presenting an active danger to anybody. And when she saw Irving in the hospital, she asked if he wanted another sedative, implying he'd already been sedated...on her orders? (Which shouldn't actually be a thing that could happen, but who knows. What we saw on the show was someone who was so sensitive to Abby's history that she made sure to clarify a tricky word choice, but who was also apparently willing to torture a man either to punish him (he got away from the jail so now I will ensure that he is punished in a medical setting) or to get him to talk (in Jack Bauer fashion).

It's possible that her history battling drug cartels means that she's going to be almost more of a vigilante type - a lawbringer who bends or breaks the law at will in order to get results and is therefore more of a corrupting (or corruptible) influence. Or maybe she and Henry were working together to push him into a position where he'd be more willing to sign the forms quickly. I'd buy that. If she turns out to be another Horseman or just a minion of darkness or whatever, I'm fine with all this. But if she goes on to be an ally, I'm going to side-eye the heck out of the writers.
posted by PussKillian at 3:05 PM on September 30, 2014


The Reyes thing didn't bother me so much; Irving is a cop who killed other cops, he confessed to it, then suddenly, while still acting sane, said it was a demon who did it to punish him. The threats are in the context of another captain who also knows how one lies to suspects to get them to talk.

At this point Reyes seems like she's the adult figure who is good but boring because she keeps trying to prevent shenanigans, which is a character I generally find poorly done, but who knows, she's probably the descendant of someone important and has a family recipe book with ideas for both excellent pies and also demons.

I did like how the headless horseman pointed out that Ichabod took an entire season to save Katrina but about 14 seconds to save Abbie.
posted by jeather at 7:00 PM on September 30, 2014 [4 favorites]


I did not like that kiss and will pretend it never happened.
posted by jeather at 7:00 PM on September 30, 2014


Also Irving! You know there are demons around and you are willing to sign a contract with blood? Have you no sense?
posted by jeather at 7:01 PM on September 30, 2014


I don't think he realized he was "signing in blood". The pen just has "sharp edges". He might not even realize he's bleeding.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:22 PM on September 30, 2014 [1 favorite]


This is such a wonderfully silly show with such absurdly pretty people. I love that there is no attempt to be rational or sardonically distant about the ridiculous plot. Instead, they commit to it: Founding fathers, Illuminati, well-preserved underground hydraulics - go!

I'm hoping against hope that this show stays on for as long as possible, in part so I can continue to stare lustfully at the two leads, in part because I want them to see them go deep into Constitutional history after they run through the usual suspects. We need a search for the lost diaries of Button Gwinnett, Georgia Representative at the Continental Congress and secret disciple of the Elder Gods, including a scene where Ichabod realizes too late that the incantation in Gwinnett's last entry - "Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!" - was not written in Romani Greek after all.
posted by bibliowench at 10:00 PM on September 30, 2014 [4 favorites]


I really hope the spy angle will get something of interest out of Katrina (but I am skeptical).
posted by Julnyes at 8:08 AM on October 1, 2014


I don't think he realized he was "signing in blood". The pen just has "sharp edges". He might not even realize he's bleeding.

IAAL, and like 70% of the time, clients make a "signing in blood" comment whenever you ask them to sign a retainer. It's like the most obvious joke ever.

George Washington, Witch-King of America, sure; Headless bandolier-wearing Horseman, no problem; surprisingly modern racial attitudes from Icabod, okay. For these things, I can set aside my disbelief, but Irving not making a joke about signing in blood after pricking his finger on the pen actually took me out the show.
posted by gauche at 9:32 AM on October 1, 2014 [1 favorite]


I will say, though, that evil Henry/Jeremy, especially in that last scene, is one of the most delightful things I've ever seen an actor get to do. John Noble is just killing it, these last few years.
posted by gauche at 9:37 AM on October 1, 2014 [3 favorites]


It was scenery chewing at its finest, reminiscent of Gary Oldman's Dracula ecstatically licking the razor after nicking Harker.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:51 AM on October 1, 2014 [2 favorites]


Gosh my husband and I love this show.

It's so weird that there's amazing creature design and fight scenes and of course John Noble being SUPER creepy, but then there's also super cheesy stuff and "meh" acting.

We laughed that they were resurrecting "Frankenstein" like 50 feet away from the house. They couldn't like, go down the block a ways? I mean, you could throw a rock and hit that house they're trying to "hide" from. That was too much.

Also the Katrina story line is getting similar to the Twilight syndrome. Two men fighting for a woman who seems whiney and kinda useless. Hopefully that improves. I'd rather see her go evil.
posted by Crystalinne at 7:55 PM on October 1, 2014


The kindred's coffin being deposited like that looked very much like a corpse vending machine. I hope it coughs up more.
posted by coriolisdave at 8:15 PM on October 1, 2014 [1 favorite]


Corpse pez dispenser!

It was an enjoyable episode, and it's definitely interesting to have two parents concerned for a son who looks to have at least 20 years on them.

I really could watch one hour long episode of Icabod ranting about a variety of topics.
posted by Atreides at 2:55 PM on October 5, 2014 [3 favorites]


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