I’m trying to catch up on a few shows – okay, a bunch of shows – that are stored up on my dvr. Just never enough time during the semester to keep up with these things! And not enough space/capability to record all the shows I want to see, let alone those I have a passing interest in perusing.

 

This week I caught up on the third season of Sleepy Hollow, and I found myself thinking, “What just happened?” In the penultimate episode, Joe gets killed off. Never mind that Pandora supposedly cured him of the wendigo infection a mere two episodes earlier. But I was annoyed at the death for two reasons.

 

One, the couple (Joe and Jenny) were finally making it work. I know, however, that a moment of happiness is the sweet spot to tv writers. Is the couple happy? Then kill one to underscore that life is tragedy and misery. Honestly, it’s like every television show gives its reins over to the ghost of Kafka or Nietzsche.

 

Two, I thought it was a cheap way to undercut an interracial relationship without killing off the black partner. I admit I missed some of season 2, but the relationship between Jenny and Joe never struck me as a big deal; they were just together. I liked that the couple seemed to be more about being a couple than about being an emblematic pairing that “proved” something. But as Joe died, I realized, “Hey, there goes the interracial couple.”

 

(And yes, I’m one of those people who think that the latest FF movie wimped out by not making Sue and Johnny both black. I get the idea of the “it’s a blended family, and there are lots of those, why should we have to explain it?” argument. But I still think it was a wimpy choice. Just cast them both as black – don’t tell me there aren’t some fantastic actresses who could have played that part. They might not have wanted to, considering the script, but I digress.)

 

The death of Joe Corbin (which also seems cheap – now that I think about it – since his father was killed off in the first episode – did he even make it past the second commercial break?) quickly became overshadowed (or maybe I was one of the only ones who felt it didn’t work well) by the death of Abbie Mills in the final episode of the season.

 

This death is problematic is multiple ways, too. Killing off a lead is a risky proposition. Like many people on social media, I agree that the chemistry between the leads – Abbie and Ichabod Crane – was a large part of what made the show worth watching. Mysteries to be solved, bad guys to be caught (or defeated in the supernatural sense) – that can be found on a myriad of programs. I know; I watch some of them. But the mystery of the week will not carry viewers through. It’s the characters that we care about.

 

Ichabod Crane: That building used to be a livery stables.

Abbie Mills: Yeah? Well, now it’s a Starbucks. Where they make coffee.

Ichabod Crane: And that building is also a Starbucks?

Abbie Mills: Yep.

Ichabod Crane: Well, how many are there?

Abbie Mills: Per block?

Ichabod Crane: Is there a law?

 

The interplay of the two witnesses (as they discover they are) was the main draw. Yes, I also like freaky supernatural stuff (I’m a mythology and folklore buff – yes, I’ve watched Supernatural since the beginning), but I like the actors and the characters. The story lines are not always so great, but I kept coming back to the show because of the people.

 

Abbie Mills: You dropped your gun.

Ichabod Crane: It was empty.

Abbie Mills: You only fired one shot.

Ichabod Crane: There are more?

 

And I especially enjoyed the fact that they were a team and yet not love interests. (So maybe I should be thankful one got killed before the writers could go down that road?)

 

A number of viewers have already taken to the internet to proclaim that without Abbie, the show is not worth watching any more. (To be fair, a fourth season has not been announced yet. Perhaps we won’t get one.)

 

But the larger problem that is also being discussed on social media is the significance of killing off the black female lead, not the white male lead. One fan even pointed out that reducing the character’s purpose to having been a guide for Crane further robs her of identity and agency. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/04/12/after-a-shocking-death-on-sleepy-hollow-fans-are-questioning-how-the-show-treats-characters-of-color/)

 

Fans are still talking about how Captain Irving (Orlando Jones) was treated poorly before he left. And that both endings for both characters were tepid at best. I have to go with that; for a show that had some great writing over the seasons, Abbie’s death was kind of uninteresting and anti-climactic. I was surprised that she actually died because the tension level seemed so meh at that point.

 

My reaction could also be colored by decades of reading comics, knowing that a character is only as dead as the current writer wants him/her to be. A new writer can retcon anything.

 

The furor over her death seems amplified by some other recent deaths of lesbian characters on shows like The 100, Vampire Diaries, Jane the Virgin, and The Walking Dead. I don’t watch all these shows, so I don’t have firsthand knowledge, but apparently there have been 10 lesbian/bisexual deaths so far in 2016.

 

This stands out mainly because there are so few of these characters on television. A report by GLAAD in 2015 says that there were 35 regular characters who were LGB – out of around 881 characters total. That’s four percent. (http://www.glaad.org/whereweareontv15)

 

So when 10 of those characters get killed off, there goes nearly a third of the group.

 

While these numbers are focusing on sexual orientation, I don’t imagine it’s that far off from racial minorities. As Viola Davis pointed out when winning her Emmy, there aren’t many roles to choose from. Maybe a dozen leading parts for minority women? Two dozen? How big does a part need to be to be considered a “lead”?   Does Cam on Bones count as a lead? I’m not sure on the specifics of that.

 

Now I’m starting to wander over new territory that I should probably read up on more before I begin spouting off about it. So I’ll wrap up.

 

I can understand the impulse to kill a core character. What Joss Whedon fan doesn’t? But the death needs to be well written and earned. Abbie’s departure seemed more about shock value (and maybe contract negotiations) than any profound moment of storytelling. As I say, though, I’m a comics fan. My brain immediately started working on possible ways to bring her back.

 

Hey, if it worked for Jean Grey, why not Abbie Mills? Where’s Kurt Busiek when you need him?