Originally posted on mythicramblings.com on Feb 4, 2015.

When I started this site, I had a list of all these bigger, larger posts in mind to talk about the general state of affairs in visual media today. But I also knew I wanted to incorporate some timely reactions to the movies and shows I watch. I settled down today to catch up on my shows, as I do most every Tuesday. I was slightly blown away by the comparisons and lines of thought popping up. And so here I am, with a nice long list in my pocket, about to make a post on how Elementary and Sleepy Hollow recently wrote off a new character. Spoilers for both shows after the jump.

I’ve loved Elementary from the beginning because of its gender bending of Dr. Joan Watson and the overall steadfastness with which the show has refused to fall into more predictable procedural tropes, most notably sexual tension between the co-protagonists. The show is going on three seasons now and I really don’t foresee them hooking up Holmes and Watson, as I believe it should be. There is deep mutual respect and love between these friends, but that doesn’t mean their relationship is anything other than platonic. I respect the show for doing that.

We got, in this most recent episode The One That Got Away, an extension of that deep, loving, and platonic relationship in the way of Holmes and his protogé-turned-partner, Kitty Winter. As the main story line of the episode follows Sherlock, Joan, Kitty, and the NYPD try to pin down Kitty’s captor/rapist from 5 years ago, a parallel narrative shows how Sherlock and Kitty met in London roughly eight months ago. We have the typical struggling back and forth for Kitty, as she must decide whether or not she is going to seek physical retribution against her rapist. This wasn’t so much as a struggle as, a series of scenes where Kitty is preparing to straight up torture and murder this dude. There is an interesting interaction between Joan and the rapist, Del Gruner, where we get to see real ferocity from Joan that we haven’t seen in a while. And we see, in the flashback sequences, Kitty and Sherlock struggle with their new dynamic. They are each people who have difficulties with opening up and being close with another person, so they had some rough patches at the beginning. But they ultimately “save” each other from their destructive paths in order to focus on something bigger than themselves: training Kitty.

So after all this exposition I’ve given, I have to say that I really liked the emotion and sentiment that these characters displayed for each other. Between Detective Bell, Captain Gregson, Kitty, Sherlock, and Joan, we have a wonderful family of people who will do anything to catch the monster who hurt one of their own. When Kitty’s character was first introduced at the beginning of this season, I was skeptical. I didn’t want Joan and Sherlock to stop working together on every case. I didn’t want a “new kid on the block.” But I was impressed with the way the writers really made a spot for Kitty during this season.

For one thing, it made sense, from a narrative perspective, to move Joan fully into a position of equality with Sherlock. The best way to do this would be to introduce an apprentice for Sherlock. The story couldn’t really continue with Joan as Sherlock’s inferior. Secondly, it made drama as the graduate and current student of Holmes’ School of Hard Knocks (and Tobacco Specialists) confront each other and try to show each other up.And, for a few episodes, they did butt heads. But then these two women came together in a wonderful way. On multiple occasions we saw them support each other on issues outside of Holmes. Kitty was the first to know about Joan getting a new job. Joan championed for Kitty to go to rape survivor meetings. They juggled Holmes and took turns babysitting him. And Holmes and Watson took turns caring for and nurturing Kitty. The three of them were growing into a beautiful family.

Therefore, when Kitty decided to leave Sherlock and Joan at the end of the most recent episode (’cause she had acid burned her rapist’s face and that shiz is illegal), it was a shock. I had really been looking forward to the continuation of this new family’s dynamic. Kitty and Sherlock have a heart-wrenching conversation over the phone where he says he’ll always be available for her and she tearfully confesses her love for him. I choose to interpret this love as platonic. Sometimes it is scary to tell a friend that you love them for the first time, especially when they are of the opposite gender. Kitty was leaving the only family she knew and wanted to let them know how much they mattered. I loved this scene and was so sad to see that this would be the last we see of Kitty (until, I’m predicting, she comes back mid next season for a two episode arc).

Meanwhile, in Sleepy Hollow, the past two episodes have seen an attempt by its writers to regain traction of the amazing trajectory of season 1. Season 2 brought us Nick Hawley, a Nathan Drake/Mal Reynolds/Indiana Jones wannabe who serves only to fulfill the same character archetype as Abbie Mills’ sister, Jenny. He has all the lowdown on cool demon killing items and is a great back up in a battle. Once he came on the scene, we saw significantly less of Jenny.

Jenny was fine as being the provider of mystical, ancient weapons. She also served a dual narrative purpose as Abbie Mills’ sister. Hawley? Hawley literally came out of nowhere. We get a throw away intro from Abbie along the lines of, “Jenny’s out of town, but she said we can get stuff from this guy.” He has no history with the occult (though, with all the exposition we get from the Crane family, do we really need anymore?) and only really was there to be a romantic interest for Abbie and rival for Ichabod Crane.

Sure, Ichabod needed a male counterpart after Captain Irving was detained by police at the end of season 1. Buuut we could have just used Captain Irving in another way. Or we could have just developed the relationship between Ichabod and his son, Henry Parish. Oh, what about Ichabod and his old friend/ex-fiancé of his wife, Abraham Van Brunt. Nevermind, there was plenty of men for Ichabod to interact with.The petty rivalry between he and Hawley was just distracting.

Regarding Hawley and Abbie, it seemed like she was very much ambivalent about getting together with him. This created weird scenes where you couldn’t tell if she was just humoring his flirtatious dialogue or if she was actually into it. This was doubly odd because the writers literally could have written any sort of sincere emotion from her.

In the end, I’m glad Hawley and Abbie never get together. With all of the Crane marriage drama between Ichabod and Katrina this season, the show didn’t need more romantic drama. But then, in the past few episodes, we get a bizarre twist where Hawley and Jenny resume their hinted relationship of the past. It honestly felt like Sleepy Hollow came back from the midseason break and was hoping we’d forget the budding romance between Hawley and Abbie or, worse yet, mistake one black sister for the other. I can’t imagine the conversation the Mills sisters must have had about that. This all comes to a head, however, when we get an episode centering on the past of Nick Hawley. That’s when I knew this character was going and I was so excited.

Hawley’s legal guardian from when he was an orphan, Carmilla Pines, shows up and is now a creature of the goddess Kali from Hindu mythology, a vetala. She needs Hawley for one last heist. Really, she wants to turn Hawley into a vetala in a weird Phaedra turn of events. Abbie and Co. rescue him, but not before Carmilla escapes. Now Hawley has a convenient excuse to leave Sleepy Hollow, saying he can’t rest until he finds her. He kisses Jenny, then literally crawls away through a hole in the wall. Classy.

I think Hawley being written out was the Sleepy Hollow writers realizing just how much the character didn’t resonate with the audience. He was an entirely redundant character and filled a role that other characters filled better and with more relevance to the overall narrative plot. But his departure got me thinking about the comparisons between him and Kitty Winter. They were both characters who filled previously occupied roles and newcomers to their respective gangs. Why was I so happy to see Hawley gone and sad to say goodbye to Kitty?

For one thing, there was a gender imbalance on Elementary that Kitty was filling out. With three guys in her group, Joan needed a female friend. Contrasting, Hawley went into a show that had three main male characters (debatably more) and three main female characters. Hawley pushed out one of those female characters, Jenny, whereas Kitty filled a void that Joan’s character had vacated.

Secondly, Kitty’s character interacted with people outside of the one who brought her into the group. Kitty even developed a support base through her rape survivor group. Hawley mostly talked to Abbie and, towards the end, Jenny. He didn’t create lasting bonds with anyone outside those two.

Kitty also brought skills and new insight to the table, while Hawley brought guns and muscle. While that’s handy in a battle with a demon, Jenny’s got guns and Abbie has muscles for days. So again, Hawley’s flaw is that he is redundant.

In the end, what we saw was how one narrative failed to incorporate and expand a new character (ahem, Sleepy Hollow) while another succeeded (Elementary, duh). When a story is bringing in a new character, it is imperative to substantiate that character and to have them grow. While I am usually all for realism and we all can’t be special snowflakes in real life, in stories there is only room for important characters. In some shows the new characters work. I wish Elementary had kept Kitty, but maybe her departure will precipitate more angst for Sherlock. And hopefully Sleepy Hollow  will follow on its path to showcasing the full potential of its kick ass team. We’ll see.

As an aside, I know very little about the more meta reasons for why these characters could have been written off (the actors got pregnant, got a new gig, clashed with the writers, etc.). If there are reasons like this, I would argue that good writers should be able to write around that and still leave the viewer satisfied.

That’s it for this post. I’m sorry for it being a long one! I’d love to hear from you all about new characters you thought worked and/or characters that were written off that you feel deserved (or didn’t!) it. Till next time.