Sleepy Hollow season 3, episode 10 gave us a bit of everything: There was a monster of the week, there was Witness drama, supernatural monsters and demons taking over the world; it was great. But… there was one thing just bringing it all down — it was way too focused on the men in the show.

You’d think that with Abbie Mills stuck in the underworld, Jenny and Sophie duking it out over how to deal with a killer gargoyle, and Pandora plotting her revenge on Ichabod and Abbie that this episode would have shown us some bad-ass women taking names and getting shit done. And yeah it maybe it did…but only before (or occasionally after) they each went to focus on the men in their lives.

You might be reading this thinking, “What is this, some feminist article about Sleepy Hollow?” And yes, you’re absolutely right it is!

I believe in equal rights and opportunities for every woman (fictional and non-fictional) and think that they are under represented in Hollywood. And when women are represented their characters are often times not nearly as well rounded or independent as they could and should be. With this episode I’m finding that Sleepy Hollow is not the exception to the rule.

The over-all story? It was pretty entertaining! Abbie was returned to us, she and Ichabod can now fight against Pandora who’s now apparently lost her power to the Hidden One (her BFF), and we saw some epic Gargoyle action with Joe, Jenny and Sophie. But the insane amount of male favoritism was also insanely upsetting.

I’d have liked this episode to be all about Abbie figuring out how to get out of the Underworld on her own. It would’ve been far more enjoyable seeing her use the tools she’s created and the brain she’s born with to do what Betsy Ross did on her own: Escape without Ichabod’s interference.

But no, of course Ichabod felt compelled to help her escape. I mean, who could blame the guy? That’s fine, she is his partner in saving the world and all. But then Pandora went and cut his tie to Abbie, and suddenly Abbie’s entire motive for escaping no longer becomes about saving the world or saving herself, but saving Ichabod Crane.

We’ve seen these two struggle like this for so long, constantly having to save each other, that I just hoped for an episode where it was all about self-empowerment for once. It would’ve been cool to get an episode where we saw Abbie’s ability to save herself and surprise everyone with how incredibly adept she was at figuring out the Underworld. Why? Because what was supposed to be a story about Abbie’s survival then turned into a story about her and Ichabod’s — and that’s where my issues lie. Why couldn’t this just have been Abbie’s moment to shine?

Like I’ve stated, I’ve no problem that Ichabod wanted to help. And yes, we did get to see Abbie learn and adapt and save herself…but only after Ichabod was taken away from her. I wish her motivation didn’t change, and it wasn’t to save Ichabod. Yes, she was fighting for both of them but let’s be honest – the second Pandora cut Ichabod’s tether it no longer became about Abbie Mills surviving, but about Abbie Mills saving the man in her life. It may be nitpicky to think this, but that’s all I was thinking as soon as that tether was cut. I just wanted to see Abbie kick some ass on her own, alright?! She don’t need no Ichabod Crane for once!

And the male superiority doesn’t end there, folks. Pandora, who was set up to be this season’s big bad villain has actually been surpassed by a bigger, badder villain named the Hidden One. Introduced to us as Pandora’s love interest, in this episode Pandora chooses to give up her remaining power and strength so that the Hidden One could rise again, or some shit like that.

They already established that this Pandora is actually Sumerian, and not the one from Greek mythology, so why bother creating a bigger, badder god when you could’ve made Pandora even more bad-ass than the Greek myths shaped her to be? There was this fantastic opportunity to replace Katrina as this insanely powerful witch/being who could truly rip Ichabod and Abbie apart…and it was wasted because a male figure decided to come along and be more powerful and more intimidating. Why? Literally, that’s the only question I have. Why did they decide that the epic story of Pandora and her box wasn’t enough, and that they needed yet another male antagonist? Out of every main antagonist the show has had, only two of them have been female… and one of them barely counts because she started as a protagonist.

It’s a little tiresome when you see these powerful, female figures stripped down to support their male counterparts. This episode could have been an entirely different story if the writers had given these women a chance to shine and actually overpower their male partners, but unfortunately we live in a world where men get the bigger spotlight.

I know the writers are doing their best to make sure that this show is as good as it can be, and the male favoritism probably (read: hopefully) wasn’t on purpose but it needed to be called out. I really do love this show, and I want to see it succeed but not at the price of lowering your female stars to be supporting characters for the men on the show. There are enough shows like that already, and I hope Sleepy Hollow can change the trend.

Do you think ‘Sleepy Hollow’ suffers from underdeveloped female characters?

Or am I just going crazy here?