SH Fans: Pandora!

Abbie Kisses Someone Who Isn't Ichabod

He still couldn’t quite believe it was real.

His partner. His soulmate. His wife.

The evening breeze had picked up a chill, and he saw the goose pimples raise on her bare arms. She pressed further into his side and hummed, seeking his warmth.

“So,” she finally began, her voice low. “Ready to head inside, Mr. Mills?”

At age 23, Tina Fey was working at a YMCA. At age 23, Oprah was fired from her first reporting job.  At age 24, Stephen King was working as a janitor and living in a trailer. 

At age 27, Vincent Van Gogh failed as a missionary and decided to go to art school.   At age 28, J.K. Rowling was a suicidal single parent living on welfare.

At age 28, Wayne Coyne ( from The Flaming Lips) was a fry cook. At age 30, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.  At age 30, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker.  At age 37, Ang Lee was a stay-at-home-dad working odd jobs. Julia Child released her first cookbook at age 39, and got her own cooking show at age 51. Vera Wang failed to make the Olympic figure skating team, didn’t get the Editor-in-Chief position at Vogue, and designed her first dress at age 40. Stan Lee didn’t release his first big comic book until he was 40. Alan Rickman gave up his graphic design career to pursue acting at age 42. Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first movie role until he was 46.

Morgan Freeman landed his first movie role at age 52. Kathryn Bigelow only reached international success when she made The Hurt Locker at age 57. Grandma Moses didn’t begin her painting career until age 76. Louise Bourgeois didn’t become a famous artist until she was 78. Whatever your dream is, it is not too late to achieve it. You aren’t a failure because you haven’t found fame and fortune by the age of 21. Hell, it’s okay if you don’t even know what your dream is yet. Even if you’re flipping burgers, waiting tables or answering phones today, you never know where you’ll end up tomorrow. Never tell yourself you’re too old to make it. 

Never tell yourself you missed your chance. 

Never tell yourself that you aren’t good enough. 

You can do it. Whatever it is. 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/G-wVaQwrOU0

Emergency from “Dawn’s Early Light”

“I recently went to Comic-Con in London, I was invited without the white male counterpart of my cast. And it was packed. They knew it was just gonna be me. So that shook me. I went back to the green room and I was like… I’ve always been told, and I believed, that this doesn’t work without him.” (x)

Crane Cooks from “Kindred Spirits”

the reason this one feels different is because abbie had one trait that none of the others had. she was the hero of the story.

even if you don’t think there’s a vile strain of homophobia running through the industry at the moment, whether or not you believe women of color are woefully underrepresented on tv, no matter what your feelings about about misogyny as a motivator for people’s actions, you cannot deny a crap load of women have died on tv lately.

but abbie’s different, because she was the hero of the story and the story ends when the hero dies.

and for a show to kill its hero and go on without her, what they’re really telling people is she was never really the hero. it literally doesn’t matter why they did it. it just does. not. matter. because they’ve told us now that in the story they’re telling, abbie was so unimportant that they could do without her.

fuck you, sleepy hollow.

The Incident at Stone Manor

Last things first:

Do I want to see kisses and declarations of love? Obviously. I’ve written about a million of them. But if that never happens, if the writers continue to be the writers, I feel like I got what I needed. This episode so obviously confirmed that no matter what they say, this is a romantic relationship on the deepest, most spiritual level. They are halves of one whole, tethered through space and time.

Now, do I think the show is strongly telegraphing romance? I do. Granted, we’ve thought that before, but really the last two episodes were a series of love letters between Abbie and Crane, a clear declaration that there is no one without the other. Tom and Nicole have abandoned any pretense of acting platonically – if there is such a thing as “platonic handholding” between adults, that was assuredly not it. If the writers choose to ignore that, well, I can’t fix that and I’m tired of feeling angry.

But this gave me what I needed emotionally from this couple. For me, it was a confirmation of everything I’ve felt about them. So not that I don’t want the physical stuff and the declarations; I do. I do. But this fulfilled something for me. Your mileage may vary.

Let’s do this thing:

The first thing – the first person – Abbie calls for is Crane. While this is thematically on point for the episode and hits me in my shipper zone, I don’t feel it’s in-character. Abbie just got herself blown up for Jenny, yet Jenny is the last person she calls for?

Our poor baby hurt, limping, so small in this huge, vast world. The water and rocks were such a huge change from our normal forests and caves and candlelit rooms. It gave the Catacombs a fantastic sense of space and otherworldliness and that sun that never moved. Really, superbly well scouted and filmed.

Current sexuality: Abbie Mills with a rusty, vicious cutlass. Shame she didn’t keep it. But of course, she’d leave it for the next poor soul who was stranded there. Might have left a note, though. To save time.

Good Lord, she looks so, so beautiful with her natural hair. And a great explanation for how it ended up that way. 10 months of complete isolation, complete stasis, not even the respite of sleep? They truly devised a cruel torture for her. And I hope they honor that pain and give it the attention it deserves. She couldn’t possibly come back OK.

Gargoyle: Kind of a cool idea for a monster, shockingly bad execution both in mythology and makeup. It looked like a bad Faceoff look. He couldn’t even move his mouth, and the actor was clearly trying!

Our first introduction to Papa Mills was a letdown. Obviously they’re going to develop it further, but seeing him so normal, in such a normal house, still using his same name, living in the same state but not giving a shit about his daughters? Left a bad taste in my mouth.

Jenny “Why Talk to Your Father When You Can Break into His House” Mills.

Both Lyndie and Zach were off their acting game today. Granted, they were given some real clunkers to say – “I hope you know you can trust me with what’s going on in here *gently taps chest*” is a real groaner – but this show is all about making awful lines sound good. Neither were up to the task this week.

Building a spirit cabinet is easier than raising a barn? When the everloving fuck did Gentleman/Professor/Soldier/Spy Crane have time to raise a barn?

Oh and also spirit cabinets were totally a thing, and a really cool thing! More an element of stage craft than a real way people tried to contact spirits, but I approve of their use, and that Jenny had to think of it, since it didn’t exist in Crane’s time.

How sad, how crushingly sad, that neither Jenny nor Abbie had *anything* of their father’s they could use in the ritual. And I love that Crane doesn’t press about her father; this boy knows daddy issues. He just nods and lets it go.

The bond of Witnesship being stronger than the bond of the sisters? Again, I get the theme they were building here, but not sure I buy it in either a magical sense – very few things stronger than related blood – or an internal show-logic sense. But that has never really been a strong suit.

Maybe the B-plot in this ep is awesome (pretty sure it wasn’t, but maybe), but it was impossible to care about anything besides Grace Abigail Mills.

Unlike Crane and Abbie imitating each other these last two eps, Jenny and Joe doing it felt too meta. Like, writers, if you’re aware of how formulaic the MotW scenes are, change them?

Abbie making her own chess board out of rocks and pretending to play with Crane. Because she knows him that well and misses him that much. And that’s who she turns to. No one else. Crane.

How many times do you think she imagined she heard his voice before she actually did? Ten months. Remember – even in our world, going mad is her greatest fear. How much would that be amplified in a world where it’s almost impossible to stay sane? How much would that fear have gnawed at her across day-lit nights when sleep did not exist? And then there it is and it’s real and he’s real but not quite real enough to touch and can she be sure? Can she really be sure?

Nicole’s acting was a true and absolute gift this episode. From the furtive way she moves, a woman hunted, eyes darting, quick movements, to how she talks to Pandora with steely resolve through her tears to her utter despair…she deserves so much. Thank you, Nicole.

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“Yeah that’s the thing about being trapped in a timeless dimension filled with sheer rock walls… you find your inner spider-man, real fast.”

Abbie x Jenny | Sleepy Hollow 3.14