‘Sleepy Hollow’ Review ‘Go Where I Send Thee'

This week’s Sleepy Hollow was a shout out to the classic tale “Pied Piper of Hamelin.” I remember this tale quite vividly from my youth and it’s always creeped me out a little. It’s one of the few children’s stories in which the bad guy was never stopped by the hero because there wasn’t a hero. The adults refused to pay the Piper and the children of the town paid the price (unless you really believe that the Piper lead them to a magical, beautiful land as his song promised). I was never quite sure what the moral lesson was other than sometimes grown-ups can be jerks.

The Pied Piper of Sleepy Hollow sold his soul to the devil in order to gain some wicked ninja-like skills. An old acquaintance of Ichabod’s named Daniel Forbes Lancaster had hired the Piper to kill some redcoats but then he turned on the Piper setting off a curse on his family. As payment for their ancestor’s betrayal the oldest daughter of every generation is sacrificed on her tenth birthday. Ichabod and Abbie respond to the Amber Alert when Sara Lancaster-Weiss goes missing.

Nick Just Doesn’t Get It

Ichabod and Abbie get some help again from Nick. This time they happen upon the scoundrel after he has been attacked but the Piper. He agrees to help save the girl in return for the Piper’s bone flute. With his help, and more importantly the help of his explosives, the team is able to rescue Sara from the piper’s well-like lair.

After all the fisticuffs with the demon you would think that money would be the last thing on Nick’s mind but he still demands his payment. Abbie obliges but snaps the bone flute in half first. “There is no way we were giving you a weapon that powerful intact.”

Nick doesn’t really seem very compassionate. He looks out for himself only. Perhaps there is a story to that. Maybe he decided not to care for a reason. Right now though his selfish behavior serves as a good plot point.

Sophie’s Choice

The episode had a bit of Sophie’s Choice moment when Sara’s mom Beth decides to sacrifice her in order to save her brothers. Turns out if the sacrifice is rescued, the punishment is for all the other children to die of a mysterious illness.

Knowing this Beth is left with the choice of having her two son’s parish or giving Sara back to the piper. This sounds awful but I believe Beth’s intention was to not have any of her children die. She adopted her two sons and then to her surprise had Sara afterwords. Her intention was to avoid the curse altogether.

Abbie and Ichabod show up in time to talk some sense into Beth. “Abbie, haven’t you ever just prayed for something from your past to just go away? Refuse to believe that it’s true?” Beth asks a knowing Abbie.

Other notable moments