The spirit of a jilted woman from Ichabod’s past returns to wreak havoc on the women now in his life. With Hawley’s help, Ichabod and Abbie discover the truth about her past and put her to rest. Here is a recap of the Sleepy Hollow episode “The Weeping Lady.”
Recap:
Miss Caroline, a seamstress and colonial enthusiast, provides Ichabod with some new clothes and wastes no time hitting on him. He drops the married bomb right before Abbie enters, so Caroline excuses herself. Ichabod is concerned about Katrina, but Abbie’s confident she can handle herself. Meanwhile, Katrina enchants a crow to bring a message to her love. Abraham informs Henry that Katrina’s working around their anti-magic spell. Two teenagers’ alone time by the river is interrupted when they hear weeping and something crashes into their car window. In person, Ichabod apologizes to Caroline for the misunderstanding, only to find her drowned in the river the next day.
Abbie and Ichabod search the crime scene, but the evidence doesn’t make sense. There are no footprints and no reason for Caroline having been here. They do see tire tracks, leading them to the high school, where the young lovers mention the “weeping lady.” Abbie and Ichabod discover that she’s the legendary ghost of a drowned and scorned lover. To cover more ground, they split up at the library. Ichabod receives Katrina’s message, while Abbie runs into Hawley, who’s researching what goes bump in the night. He offers to make amends by helping next time she encounters a creature. Then, Abbie hears weeping and gets sucked through the floor into a pool of water connected to the river. Hawley saves her and claims his offer has been fulfilled.
Ichabod notices the lady is harming those closest to him, and after examining a piece of the lady’s shawl that Abbie tore, he realizes the lady is Mary Wells, the woman he was promised to marry. Flashback to her finding Ichabod in America. Her presence confuses him since they mutually broke off the promise. She loves him and scolds him for being in love with Katrina. Ichabod denies it since she’s engaged to his friend. Mary suggests they meet at the docks, but the next day, Ichabod receives a letter releasing him. Back in the present, Ichabod has lost Katrina’s letter. She’s the next target.
Abbie and Ichabod visit Hawley for a weapon. He gives them a special crossbow free of charge since he’s curious to know if it actually works. After Headless speeds away from his cabin, Abbie and Ichabod enter to spot a puddle and no Katrina. They race to the river, where Katrina magically frees herself. Wandering through the forest, Abbie and Ichabod encounter Katrina, who knows how to solve this. Since Henry raised Mary with dark magic, she can use the same to stop her. While Abbie anchors Katrina, Ichabod faces off with Mary. Once the spell works, Ichabod cradles Mary and asks why she’s still in America. She answers with a simple point to Katrina. Katrina reveals she met with Mary back in the day, and Mary accidentally fell to her death. Katrina defends her secret by saying Ichabod was too important as a Witness to go back to Britain for feeling guilty about Mary’s death. Headless rides in and takes Katrina home.
Jenny shows up at Hawley’s place looking for a little romance, while Ichabod and Abbie attend Caroline’s funeral. Ichabod questions his marriage because they’re losing honesty and trust. Katrina blames Abraham for conjuring Mary to shake Ichabod’s faith in her, but he denies it. Moloch death grips Henry for putting Katrina in danger. She’s one of the Hellfire Shards, a chosen vessel, and it’s not Henry’s duty to plan things.
Comments:
– Following last week’s mediocre episode, “The Weeping Lady” stepped it up and presented a solid case that tied into the emotional states of the characters. It blended procedural with character development in a natural way and utilized the established characters well. The staggered reveal of information about Ichabod’s past with Mary kept the audience intrigued without the feeling of being strung along for the sake of drama.
– R.I.P. Caroline. A character we barely knew managed to capture our attention. She tapped into the essence of Ichabod’s personality, his chivalry, and brought out a lighter side more often seen in flashbacks. While it’s no surprise that she met her end given the obvious way they were focusing on her character for no immediately apparent reason, it was nice while it lasted.
– This episode contained the first instance of Ichabod and Katrina’s marriage truly being on the rocks. In all of their past drama and dilemmas, they’ve always remained strong and committed, but now Ichabod has lost faith, albeit justifiably. I’ve always supported Katrina as a character and enjoyed watching her relationship with Ichabod, so this concerns me for their future. Regardless, I enjoyed seeing more of strong Katrina in this episode and look forward to more of that.
– One thing that has always bothered me in television shows and movies is when characters read aloud to themselves, like Ichabod did with Katrina’s letter. Sure, it’s the easiest way to get the information across in a scene when the character is alone, but it’s awkward and unrealistic. Perhaps having Katrina read the letter via voice over would have been more suitable. On the bright side, we did finally get an explanation as to why it has taken her so long to utilize her magic.
– It seems that most everything on Sleepy Hollow has repercussions, so I’m curious to see if anything comes from Mary having passed her spirit through Ichabod’s body.
– Hawley is shaping up to be a secret weapon of a character whose specialty has fit in well with the stories without being too convenient. The possibility of him providing more weapons to Abbie and Ichabod to defeat future antagonists looks like a mark in the win column for the Witnesses, but it also forewarns of the chance for him to be turned against them.
– Moloch mentioned a new piece of the mythology: Katrina is a hellfire shard. It made me curious to know how much of the character’s destinies are predetermined. Was Katrina chosen as a vessel since birth or only because of her relationship to Henry or Ichabod? If Katrina was predetermined as this vessel and Ichabod was predetermined as a Witness, then how much of their relationship was their personal choosing and how much was fate outside of their control? Is she still able to be used as a vessel in the future, or was her time as a vessel contained to carrying Henry?
