'The Vessel' -- SH 1x11

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Skinny jeans!!!!!!!! Skinny jeans!!!!!! Skinny jeans!!!!!!!! Oh, how I loved that whole thing with Ichabod trying on clothes and cursing the very idea of skinny jeans (especially when he was completely unable to figure out how to sit down in them). It made me all kinds of amused. It also makes me wonder if the writers were kind of teasing him, since he's tall and skinny ... and he seems to only wear skinny jeans in interviews and stills that I've seen of him (and I swear that I've seen him in a shirt similar to the one that Abbie was holding ... the one that was horizontally striped, and which he refused to even try. See? He does wear horizontal stripes ... cuz he's a fucking hipster, or some such nonsense). But I loved the way he looked all manner of uncomfortable and awkward in the clothes that she had picked out for him. I could almost hear him thinking, "Bother the whole world. Moloch can have everyone if I have to continue wearing these 'skinny' jeans. PINCHING!! THERE'S PINCHING!! THAT ISN'T SUPPOSED TO GO THERE!!"

You know what else I completely loved about this episode (but which had noting really to do with the plot)? The fact that there were so many people of color in the episode (and so many women), and only really one person died. Hizzah! for so many women and POC finishing out the episode!! Also fun? Having the female lead and the secondary female lead talk to each other without talking about ZOMG!boys. SPN, I'm putting you on notice. Pay attention to what the writers of this show are doing with women and POC. You'll benefit from it if you do even a quarter of what this show is doing.

That being said ... how did the Scooby Gang get through so much of the fighting with demons that they've already done and never come across anything about salt? Really? A white belt in Google Fu would have found out about the one thing that should be common knowledge by now (kind of like you need Holy Water, garlic, and crosses for vampires, or silver for werewolves). I would have at least thought that Ichabod would have come across something about that in his research (even if he wasn't altogether fond of using the interwebs); there would have had to've been something in Corbin's research that would have made him think that going down to Sam's Club, looking at the isle with the salt, and asking an associate if that was all the salt they had would have been a smart thing to do.

I'm also wondering how it is that they are only just now trying to figure out what might be in Washington's Bible that might be important (for them to defeat all of the demonic horde, and for which said demonic horde would like to burn the Bible). And if it was really all that easy for Ichabod to figure out which page there was a secret message on after he actually sat down and tried to get the messages, how is it that he's only found it now? Wouldn't he have been able to (at some time before now) think, "You know ... this Bible smells funny. I know!! I'll use some of my salt supply (since I have ALL of the salt that Sam had available), and I'll make invisible ink revealer. Brilliant!!"

Also, I'm wondering if we're being led up to get some kind of Immortal Washington in the mix. That seemed to be what they were leading us toward with the "ZOMG! The date in the bible is four days after Washington died!" There certainly seems to be some sort of significance to the date, even if it doesn't have anything to do with Washington. But it also made me wonder if there was supposed to be some kind of meeting on that date, and he got killed on his way to it (that the demons or evil witches were trying to stop something important happening on that day (maybe the handoff of the Bible to Ichabod?), and they killed him before Washington could have done whatever he planned to do on that day. That seems like it might be a bit more likely, even if it does seem like we're being led to believe that Washington is still alive (if only cuz I think that it's likely that we would have seen or heard about Washington at some point if he were still alive ... from Katrina at the least, or maybe from one of Moloch's cronies).

I was also rather glad to get a bit more backstory on Jenny, and a reason as to why she was in prison and psych wards all the time. If she's really as good as all that, it didn't seem likely that she would have been caught as often as she seemed to have been, but now we know that she was doing it on purpose, cuz she was trying to protect Abbie. Rather interesting as well that she was so intent on protecting Abbie from herself but that she also was so angry (almost hating her) with Abbie for saying that she had never seen Moloch in the woods when they were kids. Rather tormented, no?

And I want to know what they plan on doing with the lantern. Sure, Jenny promised that they would bring it back to the survivalist nuts, but if there is a demon trapped inside of it now (which there seemed to be at the end of the episode), why would they give it to some random people who they can't be sure will do whatever they can to keep the blasted thing safe. It would make more sense for them to find a corner in their Batcave, draw a Devil's Trap, stick the lantern inside of it, and make sure that no one is able to get to it. But that's me.