Here's hoping this show lives up to my own hype!
So the show opens during a battle in the Revolutionary War. We see Ichabod Crane fighting the British and out of the mist comes a creepy Brit on a white horse with iron mask and giant battleaxe. Crane is injured but lops the baddie's head off during the fight and the scene ends with them both lying on the field. Cut to Crane crawling out of the ground in a cave into present day and almost gets hit by a semi. Good morning, sunshine!
Now we're in a dine with a sheriff and his lieutenant, Abby, talking about all the unsolved deaths in the area (of course) and how she is leaving town in a couple weeks for an FBI job. They get a call to a local farm. And of course a big ol' storm rolls in. They find the farmer's head has been cut off, and the sheriff in the barn meets Horseman and then subsequently loses his head. Well that was fast.
**Sidebar: wtf, it's Harold (aka John Cho) as a cop in Sleepy Hollow. Fine, his character's name is Andy, but it'll be hard not to call him Harold. ever.
Anyway, Harold/Andy brings in Crane thinking he's the killer and when he hears Abby describe the killer, he drops the headless bomb on them. Premise has been set, now let's get on with it. Crane is set up to a polygraph and sounds all kinds of cray b/c he's from the past. Aww he brings up Katrina and she was his wife! "Welcome to the 21st century Mr. Crane."
**Sidebar: wtf, it's Harold (aka John Cho) as a cop in Sleepy Hollow. Fine, his character's name is Andy, but it'll be hard not to call him Harold. ever.
Anyway, Harold/Andy brings in Crane thinking he's the killer and when he hears Abby describe the killer, he drops the headless bomb on them. Premise has been set, now let's get on with it. Crane is set up to a polygraph and sounds all kinds of cray b/c he's from the past. Aww he brings up Katrina and she was his wife! "Welcome to the 21st century Mr. Crane."
Abby and Crane have a witty banter about slavery - awkward. So far I'm worried I could get bored really quick with the past jokes but watching his fascination with the car window made me giggle. And they pass a creepy-ish priest who had been in the diner, he must be part of the mystery somehow. Abby has Crane show her the cave. Cue a joke about the flashlight.
So the horseman might be one of the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in fact, death himself. Interesting. Uh oh. Horseman comes to visit the priest. Who tries to snare him in a trap and then of course... Swoosh... Buh bye priest.
Abby and Crane show up to the scene, nice touch with the crow, makes me think of Stephen King in a good way (shout out to the Stand). The bird leads him to Katrina's grave which reads "burned for witchcraft" :(
So no big surprise here, Abby has some past that links her to the Horseman somehow. In high school, she and her sister walked through the woods, saw four white trees, heard a scary voice and saw "something" and blacked out. Her sister went crazy from it, literally.
Later, Abby sneaks into her dearly departed sheriff's office and finds a key that opens his secret supernatural files about witchcraft, including her case. Bum bum bum, the trees represent the Four Horsemen. At the same time, Crane "dreams" a discussion with Katrina about the location of his head. Turns out, Crane and the horseman are bound by blood which is why he came back when the Horseman was awaken, too. So if the horseman gets his skull, the apocalypse begins. Some creepy demon thing almost gets him when he wakes up. Got all that? sheesh.
**Sidebar #2: Hahahahaha the chief is named Irving. As in the author of the original book, Washington Irving. Cute.
Abby pulls Crane from the loony bin and warns Harold/Andy to watch out. He then comes home to find his house open and the horseman chilling in a chair waiting, as one does when they're 250 years old and headless. Andy tells him he "knows where it is" and the horseman puts away the axe and they get in a car to get some White Castle. Sorry I can't help it. Needless to say Harold/Andy is an idiot but he still has a head so that's something, I guess.
Ew, Crane digs up the grave site and pulls out "the" head. The eyes start glowing, announcing Headless is there. Bad Andy, baaaad Andy, tries to knock out Abby. He's obviously been lured to the dark side. Lucky for all, the sun comes up and the horseman gallops off for the day. Without his pickled head.
More backstory. Crane and Abby are apparently the two witnesses of the apocalypse described in George Washington's copy of the Bible. While rotting in a cell, Harold/Andy gets paid a visit by the demon and swoosh goes his noggin for failing. Crane and Abby show up seconds later to see the demon creeping off in the mirror. That was kinda cool.
Okay, to summarize, so far so good, the history jokes are funny as long as they don't overdo it too much. And please do not make this a Bones or Castle-type show where these two hook up later. Just don't. It's been done. A lot.
