PopWatch Matchmaker: Lady Mary and Ichabod Crane

Some of our favorite TV characters are often unlucky in love. They just can’t seem to find The One — but what if The One is on another show altogether?

It’s a dark and stormy night at Downton Abbey. The Crawleys and their servants have all gone to bed — everyone but Lady Mary. She doesn’t sleep much after her beloved husband Matthew’s fatal car accident. As she stares blankly across the grounds, she notices a figure emerge from the horizon. A tall, bearded man dressed in a threadbare uniform lumbers toward the Abbey. He is still far away, but Mary believes she has seen him before. The man seems to resemble a portrait she has always admired in her father’s study. It displays the visage of an earlier Lord Grantham’s infamous cousin, who defected from the British Army to join the Americans in their Revolution. His name was Ichabod Crane.

I know, I know, this isn’t AO3, but just imagine the witty banter and meaningful glances if Downton Abbey‘s Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) and Sleepy Hollow‘s Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) were ever to meet. What sparks would fly in all their arguments over propriety! Yes, this is a bit crack fanfic-lite, but it is indicative to what these two characters are missing on their respective shows.

Lady Mary has shut down from all emotion — devastated by Matthew’s untimely death. (Thanks, Dan Stevens! Just because I saw you twice on Broadway doesn’t mean I’ve fully forgiven you yet!) She was meant to have an epic love with him — their saga would have defied the convention that TV couples get boring once they get married. (You can’t say it isn’t true if it’s all in my head.) Now, Mary, essentially, needs to get her groove back. Why not with a time traveling, 1700s-era Englishman with ties to the supernatural?

Ichabod, on the other hand, is just starting out on his (series-long) destiny. His main personal goal is to reunite with his wife Katrina, a good witch stuck in the world between worlds. He also has that bit of business surrounding preventing Armageddon with modern-day cop Abbie to attend to. A sojourn back to the motherland may be a bit early for a character still in his first season, but there could be a season 2 premiere arc set in England (Elementary just did the same — minus the time travel, of course). What is Ichabod like when he isn’t battling demons and coffee makers? We have yet to see the romantic side to Ichabod. More importantly, we have yet to witness him interact with someone with a similar (English) mind-set. (Mary may be from the early 20th century, but her attitude and ideas have always been fairly old-fashioned.)

No, I don’t think that this pairing will ever happen. The closest thing to a Downton Abbey/Sleepy Hollow moment happening is if Abbie and Ichabod were transported to the early ’20s by apocalyptic flapper ghosts. (Hey, given what the show has already done in its first few episode — let alone the pilot — anything is possible.) But a TV fan can dream, can’t she?

What other crossover loves would you like to see — at least in your dreams? Let it be known in the comments below. No love between consenting adult TV characters is too outlandish!