Sleepy Hollow "Pilot": Bring On The Headless Horseman

Sleepy Hollow, at first seemed like a knock off of it's predecessors, but after watching the trailer I was hooked and early awaited the Pilot. To me, it looked like Sleepy Hollow was going to be a man out of time story, tied in with a mystery solving plot with a touch of the supernatural. Sleepy Hollow's Pilot was all this and more. It was a pair of people, who had supernatural experiences thrown together, in an situation of that could very mark the beginning of the apocalypse. Although the Pilot was not without it's faults as there were times where I was wondering what was going on and why some characters were doing these things. Although lucky for me, Sleepy Hollow explained most of it within the Pilot. There are some questions unanswered though, but hey, Sleepy Hollow has the rest of the season to explain it. Or that little 7 year plan they pointed out to us.

So Sleepy Hollow wasted no time in diving into Pilot with kicking off with Ichabod on the battlefield where he runs into a red coat wearing a mask. Seeing the bow scar on the man's hand, Ichabod engages him only to be mortally wounded. Ichabod uses his final effort to cut off the man's head. Moving to present day, Ichabod wakes up from his "nap", "rest", or whatever you call you it, in a strange cave. When Ichabod emerges from the cave, to find himself on a roadway and almost hit by a truck and a car. Nothing says "welcome" like getting hit by a truck or car. Anyways in another part of town, Abby and the sheriff are at a dinner discussing Abby's departure to the FBI (it needs to seem like shes doing something with her life right?). As they are leaving the diner they get a call about some horse trouble, and they go to check it out. When they arrive on scene, Abby finds a headless body and calls in and moments later, the headless horseman shows his, no face, and chops the sheriff's head off. Abby calls in the sheriff's death and this is when in another part of town, Andy (John Cho's character), almost hits Ichabod and decides to arrest Ichabod for the murder. At the station, Abbie meets Ichabod and he asks her about the killer. The police eventually decide that Ichabod is crazy with his whole, I used to fight on the American side of the civil war and was there blurp and decide to ship him off to a mental institution. Abbie believes there is more to this and decides to talk to Ichabod some more and do some investigating.

Sleepy Hollow does seem a bit crazy on the outside, but there is some good things about it that help the crazy make sense. Pilot doesn't waste any time as it has a lot to get through and keep it at a good pace. This way it doesn't seem like the Pilot is forcing everything down your throat. I like how Sleepy Hollow quickly explained why a British dude was on the American side and didn't simply just push that to the side and hope the viewer didn't notice. I also love the use of John Cho's character in the Pilot. What is going to be fun to watch is the situation with Ichabod being stuck in present day and discovering new things. My favorite Ichabod verses Modern day is Ichabod's fascination with the car window. Someone really needs to gif that moment. But there is more than Ichabod's discovery of modern day, there is snappy come backs, and little jokes that keeps Sleepy Hollow alive. There is also the mythology that the Pilot sets up in the beginning that explains why Ichabod is alive and whats happening. What is also great is that the main character of Abby is no damsel in distress as the Pilot showed her kicking SPOILER's butt and getting the upper hand. Finally to tie it all together is the headless horseman and how Sleepy Hollow is not just about him, but created a disaster coming around him.

Now Sleepy Hollow's Pilot was by all means interesting, there are some things that were confusing and weird. Sure a lot of it was explained like Abby's willingness to believe Ichabod about being transported to the future and the headless horseman. Although when Ichabod was in jail, I wonder why she didn't check his hand for the tattoo if she wasn't sure by the fact that Ichabod still had his head. I am going to believe though that there has been some other strange things happening in Sleepy Hollow that made her do these things. With the Ichabod character I am beginning to wonder how open he is to magic. On one hand Ichabod is open to it, but on the other, he seems to dislike it slightly which we saw when he discovered his wife was a witch. Next I would like to point out is how much guns that one house that the headless horseman broke in to had. Seriously, how much guns do you need? Also really wondering how Ichabod knew how to get back to the cave, but then again he could have remembered landmarks.

I really enjoyed watching the Pilot of Sleepy Hollow and will defiantly be tuning in next week. Sure it might be a little crazy, but its a fun kind that we all can jump into. We have two interesting characters with Ichabod and Abby as they are thrown together against the beginnings of the possible apocalypse. Does help that Ichabod Crane is easy on the eyes too. What I found funny though was at the end of the Pilot, Sleepy Hollow took the chance of telling us that it plans to be around for 7 years. Is this a 7 year plan I'm smelling? Is it going to be something like Eric Kripke's plan for Supernatural? Does this mean the writers have an end goal in mind in order to play ball with FOX? I look forward to seeing if the series can pull it off.

What did you think of the Pilot? What was your favorite Ichabod verses modern day thing?