Yolapukka

I think it can work if we fan-wank that a Witness (initially Ichabod) along with a second Witness partner to-be-named-later (likely a Dixon/Fredericks by blood) were fated to deal with the tribulations in Colonial times and because Katrina placed Ichabod into suspended animation, no other witness could take his place so the tribulations were deferred until he either died or awoke. If that's a starting point, then perhaps some of the antagonists and their minions were active in Colonial times.

Maybe they could position an aquarium between the camera and some walkers on a pile of sand.

I do think at this point that the Betsy scenes are meant to be funny alternating with action, but the humour is falling flat, they need to tighten that up. In fact humour is something that is not so much missing as diminished on this season's Sleepy Hollow and it's a necessary ingredient for what makes this show work. There is still some present, so they can write to it. The Betsy scenes seem to have a similar intent to the Katrina scenes from season one; tying the present day to clues or events from the colonial past and enabling the Witnesses to identify the monster. They need to be better conceived and be fun to watch, not merely have the intent of fun. I agree with those who've posted that Betsy being a modern woman trapped in the past would be a good twist and allow us to hand-wave the many anachronisms clinging to her. (Also, bring on Ashburn, just saying) I don't think we'll ever quite recover the insane magic of season 1, because Sleepy Hollow was fresh and new then, even if it had maintained a consistent tone it would no longer be so at this point. Still they could be a little more audacious at defying expectation. I think this week's MOW was scarier than last week's, (which was silly-looking except for the shots of it's slavering jaws), but there was very little that startled or amazed me, maybe the monster in the rearview mirror gave me a bit of a jump, that's it. There are two main problems with the monsters so far; One, we haven't been given enough opportunity to identify with the victims and fear for them as a consequence, after doing a nice job casting Abbie's doomed boss with C. Thomas Howell, they killed him off too quickly, that woman this week was kind of annoying and the other victims have verged on blink and you missed it. Two, we have no idea what Pandora's agenda is, other than gardening. It's not so much a mystery as an absence. There should be more that is worrying about her than her demon box. Shannon Sossamyn is doing a wonderful job making the character sinister without moustache-twirling, but the character also needs writing that gives her a stronger persona. She needs to be more than the designated provider of tribulation simply because she can unleash destructive entities, she needs purpose. Even though the writing last season was often stupid and inconsistent, I at least felt Moloch and Henry had purpose.

I loved the episode. Loved it. I am almost giddy over it. It was much smoother than last week's, it managed to pack in a lot of plot and character building without awkward pacing, which was an issue for me with the premiere. Reynolds is not a dick!!! In fact he seems like a lovely, warm, grounded man. And he wasn't shooting sour looks at anyone, which was my number one fear about the character. The Joe and Jenny scenes were good, they brought him back into the fold nicely. I liked her concern for his welfare. Ichabod and Abbie were so delightful in their at-home scenes that I could forgive the eye-rolling cheesiness of a failed dinner puffing forth smoke like a tiny peevish dragon. The end scenes were especially appreciated, not only because of Ichabod's genuinely respectful and solicitous behaviour but also because he was a bit more like the self-assured Captain Crane of history and less like the arrogant Ichabod who put his interest in his faithless family of smug, threatening crackpots above his duty as a witness, mistakenly hoping he could juggle both. Betsy Ross? I just don't get it. I assume it's meant to be purely comedic and the humour is flying over my head or beneath my notice. Or something. As Phoenics said "she's so forced with Ichabod - are we supposed to be seeing romance there? LOL - cause all I see is the female version of Urkel trying to push up on Ichabod and failing." I suspect she's supposed to be goofy, mostly because that's the only explanation that works for me. Also, I don't think it's just her modern sounding manner of speaking that's a problem, her whole cadence was just really off, especially when she was flirting with Howe. Was she supposed to be clumsy? That's certainly how it came off to me and yet that flirting somehow led to her running around in colonial underwear, go figure. Her line delivery when she yelled at the wraith was in the same camp of awfulness as Erika Kane telling off a bothersome bear. (Maybe someone spiteful recommended she use Charity Rahmer as an acting coach)

Brought over from the Gender and race thread; I'm now wondering if this is part of the reason why the character of Daniel Reynolds is being introduced, as an unavoidable distraction for Abbie, in order for Crane to be in a position similar to the one he placed Abbie in last season. Not only do they have a past personal relationship, but as the representative of her duty to her job, he has a claim on her time and attention that can not easily be deferred. Abbie's job in law enforcement is important to the witnesses' mission it allows them access to needed resources and a blind for their activities. Not to mention that it's been a source of the income that supported both of them. The possibility makes Abbie's comment to Crane about supernatural evil not being the only kind seem a bit more significant. I would like this to force him to acknowledge how badly he treated her in the past, compromised their duty and for him to put his awareness into words in the form of an apology. I do not want to see Abbie's job be seen to balance his behaviour so that it negates that need for apology. I hope Reynolds is going to be written as a dimensional character and I hope their past is given a little depth. I'm not interested in someone who is only there to to disapprove of Abbie, shoot Ichabod the stink-eye and be this seasons man-pain whiner.

CC could have something happen to Crane that is analogous to what he put Abbie through and have it be the prompt for him to pointedly apologize for his behaviour towards her. It doesn't matter what the something is as long as it's not anything that makes Abbie look bad. She put up with a lot of inconvenience, tragedy, sacrifice and risk for their shared mission, to say nothing of his frequent pettishness and did so because she saw clear to her sense of duty (and liked him). His sense of duty was compromised by his distraction with his rotten family. The times that words like "Katrina was right" had to pass Abbie's lips made it worse for me as a viewer, because to my ears it seemed like she was implicitly apologizing for distracting from the attention that must be paid to the fabulousness of the sleepy wigstand.

IIRC, Maddie was ready, but refused to leave the city until Travis returned, despite his urging of her to leave. I'll argue that the confinement to their neighbourhood worked out in their favour in the short term, given the massive disruption that was spreading due to the riots and undead they may not have made it out of the city at all, never mind alive and further that had they not stopped to warn Patrick, they could have been caught outside their safe zone at the mercy of a martial law situation that seemingly went badly for those who were on the other side of the boundary. Anything bad that happened after that was mostly their own doing: Nick getting taken in because of his active addiction, Daniel torturing Andy, Liza choosing to leave the family for the base and so on. One bad thing thing that didn't happen to them is they weren't stuck in the desert with insufficient food and water that stopped flowing. The most heinous thing we saw anyone do in this show was their stupid and evil plan to free thousands of of walkers in order to bring them to the perimeter of the quarantine compound and distract the military. It says something that the only people I find likeable are a pair of generic teens because they aren't as obviously awful as everyone else around them or that the two characters for whom I have the slightest active interest are a pathetic junkie and a manipulative "master of the universe" who talks a load of pompous shit.

I'm happy to hear this news. I enjoy the show. I don't always like the characters, but I love watching them.

I was open to viewing season 2, but now considerably less so. -They killed off the only character, Liza, whom I felt invested in. -We're going on a boat! ....... so instead of Maddie clutching a coffee-cup in a house, she'll be griping about Gravol at sea. Woot. -Everything these people did to rescue their own was so callous towards the living and made things so much worse. I suppose there is an argument to be made that none of those people at the base other than the medical and military personnel were actually going to be evacuated but would be purged instead, so at least some were given a chance thanks to Travis and Liza. Furthermore, most of the walkers from the Staples centre(?) had died after they were locked in by men stationed at the very same compound that was overrun thanks to Daniel. Still, it didn't sit well with me. There are a lot more walkers wandering the streets now and they are in a herd which can overwhelm structures that would keep people safe from smaller numbers. I hated the sloppiness with the gate to the safe zone being left open. All we needed was a clear suggestion that someone closed it. I think the dynamics of the cast would be lot more interesting if Travis or Madison had been bit, leaving Liza to try to hold things together in an alliance with someone for whom she feels both ties and antipathy. I was dreading the possibility that the soldiers would kidnap Alicia and she'd be a season two Maguffin.

The way Castle keeps coming up in reference to Abbie/Crane is interesting to me because I remember thinking at the end of season one of that show that they needed to cut their losses and bring in a replacement leading lady. Much as I otherwise appreciated Stana Katic, I thought she had absolutely nonexistent romantic chemistry with Nathan Fillion and given that the pairing seemed a large part of the backbone of that show, it was no small thing to overlook. That lack did improve somewhat, but not much, at least not for me. Clearly a lot of people not only saw something in them, but saw a lot of that something. I've always seen something between Abbie & Crane, even if it hasn't been as heavily underlined as the intent of the writing as it has been for Beckett & Castle or Booth & Bones. What I like best about it, is their chemistry is not just romantic, it is a dynamic thing that evolves according to their personal situations. The romantic chemistry was there as a subtext as they got to know each other in season one, but went into a bit of a fade by the midpoint as Crane pursued the possibility that Katrina could return to the mortal world. I've never once felt that either of them were pining for each other and I liked that. Crane had emotional ties to his witch wife and Abbie has more sense than to open herself to those sorts of complications. I think what the actors are putting into their parts comes into play, Mison has always portrayed Crane as being drawn to Abbie's company and rather awed by her, whereas he made it seem as though he loved Katrina, but did not always like or even trust her. Nicole has made it appear like Abbie not only friend-zones Crane, but increasingly, pointedly, consciously does so, while having a great deal of fun with him outside of demon-slaying duty. I've always seen a lot of potential for romantic chemistry between them which the writing has not openly played with, but the actors at the same time portrayed them as people who regardless of romance, increasingly love each other. I think they have a better base than many TV pairings which begin and end with putting two pretty people next to each other, then adding sparring and some longing looks. I think they are a more credible, organic couple than many other pairings I've seen, with none of the contrivances necessary to make them fit into a preconceived path.

I'm inclined to think Crane's trimmed hair had more to do with getting rid of the wig than an expression of grief, though the show (or fans fanwanking) are free to use grief as a reason. Personally, as much as I loved the length, the pony-tail and even the man-bun on him, his real hair is much nicer to look at than the wig.

Major BuffyTVS vibe for me. Almost self consciously so, to the extent that the closure of the archives felt like they were trying to pull back from that vibe. That bothered me. All they needed was a shot of Jenny yelling at Crane to duck or something to show she was largely unharmed before he went down. It did take me out of the Abbie/Ichabod hug, I'm glad I first saw that as an out-of context clip. Yep, the episode had a few laugh out loud moments for me and that was one. I enjoyed Pandora, no over the top vamping. I liked how she tried to seem a bit geeky in her encounter with Abbie. Betsy seems like a character made for flashbacks, I'll just leave it at that. Your feeling is correct, they are two different actresses, but both have dark, flowing hair, olive skin and pretty eyes, so if they aren't familiar to you from other things, the initial confusion is not outlandish. I'd be with you on the "just... no. NO" I wondered if that comment hinted that she was looking for her groom and he was not anyone or anything good.

Maybe Joe? He's not rich but maybe he's been busy flipping real-estate since he didn't go to Quantico as per his plans the last time we saw him.

I hugely enjoyed the episode, and although I found much to love about it, my overall feeling was like rather than love. I loved how much plot was crammed into one episode, I loved the way Ichabod and Abbie picked up with a nod to the intervening months, I loved that Ichabod and Jenny had a genuine bonding moment together instead of just being connected though Abbie and their shared mission, I loved the action, there was the right kind of batshit crazy happening, I thought the MOW was sufficiently scary, I loved the mythology, I loved the humour and I loved seeing again how much fun these two (three!) are as a team. The scenes with Betsy and Pandora were good, they introduced the characters effectively without either of them running roughshod over the episode. The kiss was odd, any shipper-blinders aside, it didn't appear as though Ichabod was into it. (Bless Mison for something I wont refer to as tanking.) Also if I recall the titles correctly, Ichabod was acting as Betsy's Uber driver to the Battle Of Bunker Hill, which I think took place before the death of her mister no.1, in which case not only is she acting oddly for a recent widow, she's not even a recent widow but a woman whose short marriage has been interrupted due to her husband going off to war, though I suppose it's all so much handwavium twistory anyway. I thought there was a lot of verbal exposition, a lot of talk re-establishing the relationships and accounting for what occurred between seasons, although I think overall, it's all good and it consisted of things I wanted to hear, this would be a hard episode for someone to enjoy as a newcomer. There was a lot of fan-service going on, combined with attention to establishing the season's myth-arc. It was less an episode to be enjoyed on it's own merits than one for established fans. As someone who wants the show to do well, I want to see episodes that are easier to just drop in and watch. I want to see and I believe we'll get standalones that are enjoyable even if a viewer isn't familiar with this particular fictional universe.

Love the shenanigans. I'd rather be teased. I'd love to see that ship come in eventually but what I really want right now is the season one partnership and the crazy adventures those partners had. The disappointment will come if that's been lost, but I don't think it has.

My guess would be because those small time characters aren't around long enough to bore us or annoy just by showing their faces. I initially liked all the main cast, but that rapidly dwindled. If the show is going to try to make the characters "complex" by showing us their warts, they might also want to do a better job of making us invest in them by showing more of them being strong and less of them being stupid. We all have different takes on what actions and decisions are or aren't stupid, but I think most could agree that there has been too much that is stupid and definitely too much that is dull. For the record, all three of those named characters irritated me as much or more than they intrigued me.

What happened between then and now is a lot more interesting to me than who she was originally anyway. I want to like this show, but I'm having trouble maintaining interest. Dispensing of the mystery over 'who?" early on and going after the why and where is more interesting to me.

The show gets bonus points from me if Ichabod introduces Betsy to a mariner named Ashburn, since that was the name of her second husband.

Weller's hair looks like hell. That gelled-back look is unflattering and makes him look like a sleaze.

Spin off ass-kicking Betsy Ross into her own series for those that want Boobsy Romance. Seriously, they need to make a show for those that don't actually want to watch this one and keep fixating on minor characters they want to repurpose as stars. If Sleepy Hollow had stronger ratings, my assumption would be they were hoping to spin her off, given the flair they've infused into her introduction. Like all reviews, I'll be leaving this one unread til after I've actually watched.

Coffee Cup is afraid. Phlegmatic Lady is holding onto Coffee Cup for dear life, Coffee Cup is afraid Phlegmatic Lady will try to defend herself using Coffee Cup, oh wait she picked up a knife! ..and now she dropped the knife as if it were nothing, as if it were a fire extinguisher or a pry bar. Now Coffee Cup is more afraid than ever.

I'm guessing head for the mountains instead? I may be misremembering, but I think after epi 1 they started shooting in Vancouver except for some exterior shots, so for all we know they could remain trapped in LA, but escape their safe zone so we could get another season of Madison clutching a coffee cup in a house while she glares at and second guesses everybody, only this time they are squatting somewhere, hoarding supplies and hiding from the military and walkers. Sounds exciting.

Excellent point, I assumed they meant the entire safe zone, but it could have referred to the quarantine/ medical facility. That dialogue too was vague to say definitively what was being referenced.

They had the soldier's radio with him and the word "Cobalt" kept coming up. My guess would be that he knew what Cobalt meant, but the information that the particular safe zone that the cast was in was about to be given the "Cobalt" treatment wan't necessarily known to him when he helped Ofelia home. I think the squad going in the building was plot point so he wouldn't missed, Moyers apparently did not survive the experience and the rest of the squad seems to be planning to go AWOL. It's incoherent either way. I think they are rushing this, they are skipping over key parts of the fall with the result that the collapse of society and morality is too quick. Cobalt especially seems like it would have been better used to support a season two arc, rather than be the central conceit of a single episode. Like others, I have trouble with the idea that the military would turn into such a force of nihilistic destruction in such a short time. I don't have an issue with the concept that there would be a massive breakdown in leadership and bad orders that result in civilians being eliminated along with walkers, but the progression I've seen is hard to swallow, especially since apparently there were 9 days where a great deal happened, but none of it was experienced by those living in the Clark household, so we don't get to know any of it. At this point I don't feel like I can complain that they are telling rather than showing, because I don't think there is much telling going on either.

Especially since that quirk put Moyers into the past tense. He won't be missed around here. Well really, most of the characters would not be missed. I think that will probably work out well for Nick when things go sideways, but I doubt that man's intentions for Nick were anything other than an entirely expendable distraction. Liza continues to rise every week in my estimation, She is my favourite character in the cast. She's compelling, sympathetic and effective. She seems to be a quick study. I enjoy Dr. Exner too, she doesn't need to stick around forever, but I'd prefer that she's around for a while. I lost a lot of the esteem I'd formed for Daniel, but I thought Ruben Blades did excellent work in those scenes. He was terrifyingly persuasive, never once going over the top which would be a temptation for too many actors. Madison has me more disinterested in her fate every week. I went into this expecting her to be a favorite, given that I've often enjoyed Kim Dickens in the past and the character seemed to be getting the lead treatment in the promos. Now I'm hoping that was a bait and switch. It says something that I'm more interested in her sulky, generic teen daughter and degenerate drug addict son. The scenes in the rich, missing and dead people's house were fairly paint-by numbers but they did have a certain dark humour to them, the writers would do better if they'd inject more of that into the show and less angst, teen or otherwise. Especially Travis angst, ugh. I enjoyed this episode a lot more than what we sat through last week. I found more to appreciate and less to be irritated by.