On what was supposed to be their night off, Ichabod and Katrina find themselves on the case of a serial killer making his escape from his prison portrait. Meanwhile, Abbie and the rest of the precinct deal with Irving’s return. Here is a recap of the Sleepy Hollow episode “Pittura Infamante.”
A painter notices his portrait in progress is spilling blood, only for it to soon cease and show no signs of damage. He assumed it was a hallucination from the paint thinner – you’re in Sleepy Hollow, buddy. Ichabod, clad in business casj for his and Katrina’s date night at a historical society event, gets Abbie’s rules to impress, which boil down to not name dropping his revolutionary friends. At the event, Katrina learns about PDA and senses a dark presence when she touches a desk that belonged to her dear friend Abigail Adams. Things get weird when the painter is killed and strung upside down from a chandelier.
Katrina gets a flash of a taro card displaying a body in the same position; it’s a ritual. Reyes introduces herself and invites Katrina to stick around until they wrap up at the crime scene. Chatting with Ichabod, Katrina reveals this death is identical to a 1781 series of murders that Abigail Adams was investigating. Looking into the portrait, the Cranes discover it’s a prison world holding James Colby, who’s now trying to escape by draining victims’ blood to complete the image. Because that’s not creepy enough, they return to the portrait to find it missing the painted man.
Also having a weird night is Abbie when Irving walks into the precinct. Thinking his presence is a sign of War’s return, Abbie fills in Irving’s memory gaps with what happened during and after his fight. Jenny learns of Irving’s resurrection and, per Abbie’s request, retrieves special creature killing bullets from a killed creature that Hawley told her about. Abbie meets with Mrs. Irving, now in the loop about the supernatural, but won’t let her see Frank until they know he’s not dangerous. After a doctor clears Irving, Jenny suggests they have Katrina do a supernatural physical to see how is soul is doing these days.
While Ichabod fails to protect the curator from being sucked into the painting, Katrina, guided by a flash from the past, retrieves files from Abigail’s old desk and spots Colby, all bloody, passing by. The files explain that Abigail solved the murders and had Katrina’s coven imprison Colby in the portrait. Ichabod suggests going in voluntarily, but Katrina won’t let him go alone. Her spell sends them both inside. A little snooping later, they save the hanging curator and watch Colby rise from the blood pool. Katrina gets the three of them out of there ASAP. The only problem is that Colby phases through the portrait and into the real world again. Worried because Ichabod wasn’t answer his cell, Abbie arrives just in time to shoot the portrait with the special bullets, killing Colby. Later, Reyes informs Abbie that the DA has evidence to clear Irving.
Comments:
– “Pittura Infamante” contained a stand-alone case that was more captivating than the serialized B-story, which is something I usually enjoy the other way around when it comes to Sleepy Hollow. The episode took the opportunity to change up the partnership dynamics, giving the families the bonding time they deserve.
– It’s interesting to note that Ichabod and Katrina having to remain in the historical society building to solve the case contributed to a feeling of entrapment so well paralleled with Colby being trapped in the portrait.
– We finally got to spend a significant portion of an episode with Katrina and explore her talent as a sleuth, but her personality seemed inconsistent with what we’ve seen before. She definitely had her moments of intelligence – using her newfound knowledge of PDA to keep a woman away from the portrait – and distress – how sad she would look upon remembering her past and realizing it was gone. Overall, she was pretty bland. Given all she’s gone through, it’s understandable that she’s not a ray of sunshine, but her usual fire was dulled.
– The precinct’s and Abbie’s reactions to Irving walking in there were much tamer than I expected. Whether because this storyline was contrasted with such a bizarre case of the week or because of the interactions with Irving, this aspect of the episode felt like an unamusing distraction from the fascinating parts, with the exception of Jenny’s scenes.
– In an unforeseen turn of events, Jenny and her dig for the special bullets provided most of the humor this episode instead of it coming from Ichabod. Even though she did not have many scenes in “Pittura Infamante,” she had an important purpose in the narrative that fit with who her character was. She was utilized incredibly well here.
– Some of the flashbacks in this episode were more like flashes rather than of flashbacks. Since Katrina’s friendship with Abigail Adams was such an important one to her, I would have liked to see more interactions between the two of them. Abigail Adams was more characterized by what Katrina said about her than what we saw of her.
– The scene with Ichabod and Katrina figuring out what was happening with the portrait and Colby was a good way to show them working together and working off one another, but it was way too expositional to hold my interest for as long as it was. Having said that, I do wish we received more information on who Colby was and why he committed the murders in the past. He was a fairly underdeveloped antagonist.
– Nice to see you again, Reverend Knapp, although you’re not the first person I think of when Katrina’s coven – the Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart – is mentioned.
– Inside the painting, the lightning causing the look to flicker between a black and white display and a color one provided a cool and ominous touch to the world. I wonder what kind of effect would have been created if it had flickered between the normal look and one that made the world appear as a painting itself.
– Was I the only one bothered when Ichabod called Abbie “Lieutenant,” not “Leftenant”?
– How did we not get a Dorian Gray reference in this episode? That sounds like a literary classic Ichabod would have caught up on since awakening.
– “I have deciphered every code from Caesar shift to Morse, yet one that will always elude me is modern dress. How can one be both business and casual?” – Ichabod
– Oh, how they love to name drop.
Katrina: You had a dalliance with Betsy Ross?
Ichabod: Betsy who?
Abbie: Good answer.
