Sleepy Hollow: The Shipping Report
by Adrea Scheidler
Sleepy Hollow, the show about Ichabod Crane joining forces in the present with police officer (now agent) Abbie Mills to stop evil, is an odd case for the Shipper. Since Crane showed up in the present mourning and eventually reunited with his witch wife, you would think Crane/Katrina would be the main ship. But at the start of season three, Katrina has betrayed both of the main characters and is presumably gone forever. So that leaves us where?
A Shipper’s fertile ground is usually between partners – but is Abbie/Crane a good idea to get attached to? Considering the whole time travel thing and the seemingly luscious wife thing I had always assumed we’d eventually discover that Abbie is a descendent of Crane’s. But that seems less likely now. While I wonder if we’re heading for an X-files relationship or a Blacklist one, Sleepy Hollow is merrily carrying on bringing side relationships around for everyone so that there’s no chance to focus too narrowly on Abbie/Crane. 
The fact that the show has a steady run of relationships for the main two makes me think that this is actually a traditional ship that they are just trying to make a slow burn. This season we have Abbie’s ex – boyfriend now… current boss as her ship we’re supposed to be distracted by and Ichabod has two! Betsy Ross from the past and Zoe (?), sorry I’m just not going to pay much attention to her. She’s clearly just a foil to illustrate either that anyone Crane cares about will be hurt or that he needs to be more suspicious. Honestly, since the side relationships in Sleepy Hollow (and most shows) are like the redshirts in Star Trek, the only relationship I would feel kinda safe following this season would be Abbie’s sister Jenny and their dead mentor’s newly introduced son Joe Corbin. Poor Jenny was misused greatly in shipper terms last season with the introduction of Nick Hawley as her past love interest/current will they/won’t they only to have him shift his attention to her Sister and then back to Jenny. It was not a good shipper storyline. So I’m hopeful for Jenny in this season – Joe might be doomed (always remember genre) but whatever happens it will hopefully be way more satisfying than Jenny/Nick/Abbie/Jenny!
What about everyone else? Is there a huge Abbie/Crane shipping war going on out there? Just promise me they arn’t related and I’ll happily buy a ticket.*Special Note: In the Bones/Sleepy Hollow crossover several major characters from Bones commented on how similar the relationship between Abbie and Crane was to Brennan on Booth. Bones herself went so far as to encourage Crane to have sex with Abbie. Hodgens and Angela seemed to be speaking straight to their audience basically saying “hey guys, we give our seal of approval to Abbie/Crane shippers as your next big ship to support since we seem to be on our way out!” I really really doubt that the writers would put that in (especially the sex argument) if Crane & Abbie end up related. So I think that was a MAJOR win for Abbie/Crane shippers out there. Count me in (cautiously)!