SLEEPY HOLLOW Does Little Red Riding Hood

Season 4, Episode 7 “Loco Parentis”
Written by Zoe Green
Directed by Russell Fine

Werewolves and demons, oh my. This could have been an episode of Grimm, as Ichabod Crane and Diana and Molly step into a story straight out of Grimm’s fairy tales.

We see Dreyfuss (Jeremy Davies) emerge from the wreckage of the philosopher’s stone. We also see a young lady get killed in a graveyard by a slashing, toothy beast with fur. A werewolf.

Crane (Tom Mison) and Diana (Janina Gavankar) are shopping for kid’s toys. Molly (Oona Yaffe) is going to turn 11. Diana gets called away because of the body.

Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) returns to the scene of the explosion but she doesn’t find Dreyfuss. She finds the lantern with Jobe (Kamar De Los Reyes) in it. She takes it back to the tunnels and makes a devil’s trap to keep Jobe in. It works. A very angry and very naked Jobe comes out of the lantern but he can’t get to her. Although Jobe looks really good with no clothes, I very badly want her to give him some pants. It’s just humiliating. We see later that she’s given him a towel to wear.

We get to meet Molly’s father, Mitch Talbot (Bill Heck) who has come home from Afghanistan for his daughter’s eleventh birthday. Molly and Diana haven’t seen him for two years. He’s not very interesting in any way. His hair is long and his facial hair doesn’t seem right for a soldier, to me. He says all the right things to make Diana feel like he regrets not taking the two of them more seriously.

The werewolf takes another victim. He’s a traditional werewolf who would fit in well on Supernatural. He likes to eat hearts. Crane thinks he may be Dreyfuss, thinking the same way I did, that Dreyfuss may need some kind of fuel for his immortality.

They find that there was a werewolf victim near Plymouth, well before the philosopher’s stone exploded,which makes Dreyfuss an unlikely suspect.Through reading the Mayflower Chronicles, they find that the beast disguises himself as someone the victim knows, which is something like a skinwalker. It accounts for disguising itself as the grandmother in the story. The pilgrims kill it and bury it under Plymouth Rock, which is enchanted.

Jenny lets Jobe go in exchange for Molly’s precise location.

It should be no surprise that the werewolf is Molly’s father, especially since his name is Mitch Talbot. It is pretty heartbreaking. Diana confirms this by calling Afghanistan (because she’s Homeland Security and can do that) to find out that he is still there.

Werewolf dad hauls Molly into the forest and chases her around for a bit. She is wearing a red hoodie. Molly acquits herself well in the art of surviving and gets saved by her mom and Crane. Crane has brought darts tipped with Plymouth Rock rock. I don’t know where he got them. Molly gives both her mom AND Crane a hug when she is saved.

Jobe and Dreyfuss have a touching reunion. Dreyfuss fires all of his people and wants the world to be reborn.

It turns out that eleven is the age that young witnesses start attracting monsters. Happy Birthday to Molly. It may have been exacerbated by her own research into arcane symbols. The entire point of this episode is that Molly is a Witness, whether Crane is in her life or not, and her chances of survival are greater if she has all the information she needs. Her mom, Diana, apologizes to her for trying to shield her from the truth.

The monster was pretty scary. We never see it in broad daylight and there are lots of silhouettes with fangs and fur. Werewolves are a fairly basic monster that’s been around for a long time, symbolizing the animal within. It’s worse because it goes after little girls. Little Red Riding Hood is a warning tale about sexual predators. And yes, information is the best defense against wolves in the woods.

I also enjoyed Jenny against Jobe, holding him there like a circus animal. He is so much more powerful than Dreyfuss, although Dreyfuss’ weakness is probably why he’s dangerous. Jenny is portrayed as so badass that usually she just comes in and saves the day. It was nice to see her up against so formidable and naked a foe.

This episode also does a good job of portraying Molly’s dad as an absentee and disinterested father and no threat to a romance between Crane and Diana. Crane is bonding with Molly in a very paternal fashion.

 

Sleepy Hollow airs on FOX on Fridays at 9/8c.