Sleepy Hollow: Abbie Mills & Ichabod Crane, Revisited

The new season of Sleepy Hollow has aired two episodes so far, and I’m a bit surprised that my stance on Crane and Abbie has changed.  While I’ve always loved them as friends, compatriots, and witnesses, the third-season premiere marked the first time I’ve really wanted to view them in a will-they won’t-they light, leaning heavily on the will-they.  (Some Crane family spoilers.)

Don’t get me wrong – platonic friendships are my jam.  When I began the show, I was all-too-happy to see Abbie and Crane as such and hoped they’d stay that way.  I was fine with Katrina’s rescue from purgatory in season 2, but as her screentime increased, Abbie’s diminished, which was not okay.  And yet, I didn’t resent Katrina for being Crane’s wife or blocking any potential Crane/Abbie romance.  I was only annoyed because Abbie ≥ The Bomb, which is not true of Katrina, and I’d rather watch Abbie being amazing than Katrina doing her thing.  While I didn’t like Katrina’s presence upsetting the Crane-Abbie dynamic, it was the friendship I was missing.  Fast-forward to season 3, and I’m cautiously, happily dipping my toes in the shipper pool where Crane and Abbie are concerned.  In the most recent episode, as they have roommate adjustment issues (Crane is currently without a residence, and Abbie offered to let him stay with her) and open up about secret regrets… Well, I didn’t squee, but let’s just say I could have.

The Katrina-heaviness of season 2 is part of it, I think.  Seeing the Cranes together in the present shows how ill-suited they are for each other, and how simpatico Abbie and Crane are by comparison.  Not that I think a relationship is automatically better if it involves romance – far from it – or that two people of corresponding orientations belong “together” if there’s a bond between them.  Nor does Crane “deserve” Abbie on the grounds that she’s better than Katrina, like Abbie is something to bestow on him.  Not at all.  But… I don’t know.  I see the way he desires the love of someone who understands him, someone he can trust implicitly, and in many ways, I think he and Abbie already are that for each other. 

And as for Abbie, I mentioned before that I like how romance is a non-issue for her.  I still like that she’s not defined by her relationship status and that she has pursuits that are all about her.  However, I’ve tried to think more closely about her character and the intersectionality between her race and her gender.  It feels progressive to me that the female lead in a series isn’t instantly paired with or earmarked for a male partner, but does the same hold true when that female lead is Black?  We’ve seen a couple of Abbie’s exes and others expressing interest, but we’ve never seen her with a boyfriend, or even on a date.  When this dynamic plays out with a Black woman, is there an unconscious underpinning that she isn’t desirable in that way?  There’s also a tendency to think of female characters without romantic attachments as stronger or more feminist (a trap I’ve fallen into before,) but that’s just one narrative.  A strong woman doesn’t “need” a man (or woman or otherwise-gendered person, obviously,) but does that mean she can’t be with one if she wants to?  An unexpected side effect of attempts to highlight a woman’s independence and capability can be to imply that men aren’t interested, not really interested, in being with a woman like that.  In Abbie’s case, it’s not as clear-cut, since she’s definitely had guys interested in her, but it’s getting conspicuous that we’ve still never seen her in a romantic situation.

But back to the specific pairing at hand.  The biggest thing preventing me from whole-heartedly shipping these two is concerns about the writing – the show doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to romance, and I’d hate for a) Abbie’s character to be assassinated in the process of an Abbie/Crane pairing, and b) the lovely relationship Crane and Abbie have now to be sacrificed for something more typical and not as good.  If, however, they can be written as lovers the same way they’ve been written as friends and witnesses, it could be spectacular.  Their trust, their confidences, the way each relies on the strength of the other, the way they bounce ideas off each other, the way they share both the demon-researching and the demon-fighting, Abbie’s teasing, Crane’s regard – that could look fantastic as a romance.  

Lastly, to be really honest?  I think a tiny part of it is the hair.  In the season 3 premiere, I noticed Abbie’s new, shorter haircut and thought it looked good on her.  But when Crane make his first appearance (after the two have been apart for months) and his hair is cropped, too?  I dunno.  It just clicked.  There’s something endearing about it, a nice little “in-sync” note that, for whatever reason, finally cemented it for me:  Abbie/Crane?  I think I want it.