Sleepy Holllow: Family Tree

I hope everyone is having or has had a Happy Thanksgiving.  Would I be typing away on a holiday?  Yea merrily I would'st!  (That was for Ichabod.)

Much like Almost Human, Sleepy Hollow followed it's last weeks effort with a rather average episode.  There was a lot of sturm und drang but not much of substance happened at least until the end that is!

Our fine feathered friends made a big show of themselves once again.  The featured bird was the crow.  Here's what the website "Shamanicjourney" says about the crow...


 "Many cultures consider crows to be the keepers of the Sacred Law, for nothing escapes their keen sight. To have a Crow as a power animal is extremely powerful stuff. When we meditate on the crow and align with it, we are instilled with the wisdom to know ourselves beyond the limitations of one-dimensional thinking and laws. We are taught to appreciate the many dimensions of both reality and ourselves, and to learn to trust our intuition and personal integrity."

The key parts of this statement, at least to us "Sleepy Heads",  (Yes, that's what they call us) would be the references to "Sacred Law" and the "Appreciation of the many dimensions of both reality and ourselves."  

There has been numerous, numerous allusions to the many religions of the world in Sleepy Hollow .  In fact, so many that you can virtually trip over a sacred law and break it without knowing it.  Does this over complicate things?  I don't think so but I do wish they would pay particular attention to the spiritualism of the American Indian.  Its mysticism would greatly serve this show and and distinguish itself as the religion that came before the white man and the battle between good and evil runs deeper than just the Colonials sense of worship.

When the quotation mentions "dimensions" it's clear we have seen several already.  Examples of which would be the "mirror world" or "Purgatory" that Katrina is trapped in.  Or the land of Sleep that the Sandman lords or over.  We even had the world of the  restless dead where the Roanoke colony drifted about.  These dimensions act as a contrast to the land of the living where Sleepy Hollow resides but that doesn't mean they are less important or vital.

Here's another nice entry from the "Shamnicjourney"....


"Throughout history there have been many (unnecessary) conflicts and wars between humans due to differing moral and religious beliefs. To truly create a new age of love, peace and harmony it is of high importance for us to be able to transcend our particular cultural limitations and to hold in our hearts and souls what we share as spiritual beings in human form. We are all connected, infinitely and composed of the same 'stuff'. We need to realize that hurting others only hurts ourselves. Crow is the bird which represents this transcendence"

Now that statement hits the nail on the head of this show.


We are certainly embroiled in conflict.  As to it being unnecessary,  I would wager the battle between good and evil is as necessary or imperative as it gets.  No getting around this battle.  They do refer to the battles between humans and this seems to be a battle that involves human versus the spiritual world.  However, when the forces of evil turn humanity against itself we are left with nothing but to fight against ourselves.

Crow representing "transcendence" is interesting for us.  This show reeks of the several players and groups seeking to make better of themselves.  And not always in a good way.  The paragraph states we are all connected and in hurting others we hurt ourselves.  This was never more true than for the characters of Ichabod Crane and the Horseman.  For a while one could not hurt the other or allow harm come to either without severe consequences for themselves.  Unfortunately. this link was broken. (A mistake on the part of the writers I feel.) 

You could even make the case this applies to the Mills sisters.  If Abbie had treated her sister better then they wouldn't have spent the rest of their lives separated, distrustful and alienated.  Jenny grew bitter and betrayed while Abbie was left lonely and guilt ridden.

The harm that we do to each other is felt across dimensions too I feel.  There seems to be a spiritual "Newton's Law" in effect.  "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."  For instance, this applied to the people of the Roanoke Colony.  When they reached across the spiritual world to Ichabod and Abbie, it was the actions of those two that allowed the Roanoke people to peacefully continue their spiritual journey. 

I feel as though I've spent too much time on "Brother Crow" and while the symbolism behind all the birds is rich and varied the title of this blog post is "Family Tree".

 

The biggest revelation to come out of this episode was that Ichabod has (had) a son.   This may provide us the biggest clue as to why Moloch has Katrina trapped in purgatory.  It may also explain why Brooks ordered the Horseman to stop attacking Ichabod.  Me thinks Moloch needs Ichabod and Katrina alive in order to discover the whereabouts of the Crane heir.  Let's examine a few questions this raises.

• Is the son in the land of the living or the dead?
• Has he fully matured or is he still a timeless child?
• What power does the boy hold and why is Moloch so interested?
• Does the Crane offspring offer the solution to forestalling the apocalypse?

If we consider the aforementioned points we may find ourselves in another "The Boy Must Live" scenario that was fully explored in the TV show, "Fringe".  To me, this would be tiresome.  Been there, done that!  It seems inevitable though.  I hope they put a clever twist on this revelation.

So, you may have guessed I named this post, Family Tree, because we have found out that Crane has a son and Ichabod ended up fighting a tree demon whose roots encompassed the house and trapped the long lost relative to the Fredericks line.  It also once housed Grace Dickinson that turns out to be a distant relative to Abbie Mills.  Now that is some home.  Family Tree indeed!

Do you think the Tree Demon is actually Crane's son rooted in this prison forever more?  And now, Ichabod has put a severe beating on what may be his son and hacked away at every bleeding root that was once the Crane family line?

Yeah, probably not.  Too twisted, too gruesome.  I'd like it but I don't think the writers are prepared to go there.  I hope the tree demon turns out to be some we know or will come to know.

So what are your thoughts on the episode "Sanctuary".  Any more family business I missed?

(Sorry this post was a bit late.  Darn the holidays!)