Sleepy Hollow - 'Blood and Fear' and 'The Sisters Mills'

"What did I do last n... oooh."

Pandora's latest attack comes in the form of a knife called up from the Box. Given to a Nice Guy (as distinct from, you know, a guy who is nice) called Nelson, it feeds on his resentment and drives him to expressions of violence and bloodlust. It happened in the time of the Norman Conquest, and has emerged all through history, including at Eton during Ichabod Crane's schooldays, and in Whitechapel about a century after that.

Yes, this killer is the latest in a long line of Rippers rendered virtually indestructible as the blade fuses with their flesh. Thankfully, the Witnesses are able to determine that it has a weakness: It is destroyed by sickness and can not withstand tainted blood. How it managed to last as long as it did cutting up the none-too-hygienic prostitutes of Olde London Town is a bit of a mystery, but Crane and Abbie acquire to vials of tainted blood as their weapons. The Ripper proves resistant, the knife extruding a metal skin to deflect Ichabod's dart, but when Nelson stabs Ichabod, our resourceful Witness infects himself with malaria - fatal to the knife, but something he has already weathered once.

Evil tree. Like, totally.

For the most part, the Witnesses did their job well this week, holding in the fear that Pandora is seeking to elicit. Back at Chez Evil, however, Abbie's fear for Ichabod's life does feed the tree a little more.

In Plot B, Jenny takes Joe under her wing as they pursue the Anubis Shard, finding bounty hunter Randall pantsless and shardless, before finally tracing it in the possession of Sophie Foster, a newer player who uses some of the tricks that Sheriff Corbin taught to Jenny.

Finally, in his quest to save the Archive, Ichabod decides to apply for American Citizenship, and finds an ally in Zoe, the representative of the historical conservation committee who was briefly in last week's episode and is so into Ichabod it hurts.

Nope! Nopenopenope!

In 'The Sisters Mills' a monster that only children can see is preying on Sleepy Hollow's young. Specifically, it hunts out those who have just lost a tooth, because the Abysou is the real tooth fairy. Enter dentist, silversmith and midnight rider Paul Revere to treat Betsy Ross's niece and temporarily cock-block colonial Ichabod.

As an aside, this demonstrates that Betsy Ross knew about the whole supernatural war thing. Apparently everyone except Ichabod and Colonel Dickhead was in on this secret, including British Major General Summons Shadow-Assassins. Gosh darn Ichabod must have been a rube. This time it's Abbie's turn to take a fall, and the Abysou puts the Leftenant in the hospital before Ichabod is able to get hold of Paul Revere's dentist bag and assemble his tools into a silver-nitrate projector used to render the tooth fairy visible so it can be stabbed up by Jenny.

While the monster of the week is a pretty stock effort - gruesome, but stock - there is some interesting action surrounding it. The Witnesses have worked out that Pandora is after fear, and go to some lengths to keep panic from spreading when a child is struck down. Pandora, on the other hand, is working overtime to spread fear, even encouraging the first victim's sister to try to go toe to toe with the Abysou and so ensure more victims. She also engages in a little psyops against Abbie, dropping by her hospital bed for a villain speech and dropping the word 'destroyer' in Sumerian.

Conclusions: Pandora is not the Greek first woman, but a Sumerian occupying a similar archetype, perhaps choosing the name Pandora because of the box (after all, the original Pandora would have a jar, right?)

Despite their efforts, a rose blooms on the evil tree, and the Mills sisters have sussed that there is a little more than citizenship betwixt Ichabod and Zoe. Given a) Pandora's tendency to spy on the Witnesses via magic pool and b) the historical averages for Ichabod's other women, I'm worried about Zoe's long term chances. I think she'd feel safer if she had more personality traits.

Season 3 continues its arcisodic path, with discreet episodes each concluding with a arc-related wrap-up. I am curious to see where it goes once the tree is finished; whether it will up the stakes or drop the ball.