The Breakdown
We start off in suspense as Lt. Abbie Mills gets called in by Captain Frank Irving. He explains that Ichabod Crane is already interrogating the suspect. He introduces Abbie, who is still in the dark about what is happening, to a forensic scientist as they are walking toward the interrogation room. As they get closer to the room, we hear Ichabod get louder as if disappointed by the answers he is getting from the suspect. As he moves around the room, we finally see the young girl he is interrogating and then he yells her name, “Abbie”. Abbie, the adult, asks what’s going on. The Captain tells her they brought in Abigail Mills for questioning. Of course Abbie (the adult) is even more confused about what is going on. As she tries to figure it out, she ends up locked in a room and a pale white figure approaches her right before she wakes up.
She gets called to a scene where a woman named Dr. Vega is standing on a ledge and has asked specifically for her. Abbie does not know this person, but she goes up to try to talk her down. Dr. Vega, looking away from Abbie, starts saying that it was her fault and that everything she saw was real. Dr. Vega continues to say that she had it coming, that we had it coming. She said they should have told the truth. Abbie asks who she is talking about. Dr. Vega says she is talking about Abbie’s sister Jenny. She says “We deserve it. It’s been a long time coming.” When she looks toward Abbie we see that her eyes are completely white. After her last sentence, she let’s go of the ledge and falls to her death.
Back on the ground, the Captain asks Abbie what happened. She tells about the white glazed looking eyes. He has the paramedic open an eye so he can see for himself. As the paramedic is diagnosing the eye as a cataract problem, a puff of sand poofs out of the eye and the socket turns dark. The Captain tells Abbie that Dr. Vega was a resident psych where her sister had been committed a few times. After the Captain walks away, Crane asks Abbie about what she isn’t telling the Captain. She tells him that although she had never met Dr. Vega and didn’t know who she was, she was in her dream as the forensic scientist. Crane tells her she has had a forewarning dream, but as usual, she is resistant to the idea. She tells him they should just do regular detective work for now.
Ichabod and Abbie watch a video of the interview with Jennie. The tape starts fast forwarding and then the speed is slowed way down as Ichabod handles the remote, not knowing what he is doing. Doing some research, Abbie discovers Dr. Vega knew that Jenny was telling the truth but kept her committed anyways. Crane suggests they go see Jenny but Abbie does not like the idea and thinks it’s pointless because she and her sister do not talk. She eventually gives in and they go to the institution.
As they walk into the institution, Abbie tells Crane her sister will also not talk to her because she is a cop and her sister is a criminal. Her sister stole four thousand dollars of stuff and told the cops she needed it to prepare for the end of the world. Abbie asks the nurse at the front desk, who didn’t know Jenny had a sister, if she could see her. She gets on the phone to call about room 49 and Abbie has a flashback to the Sheriff’s ghost telling her not to be afraid of 49 (Ep. 01.02).
Abbie finds out Jenny does not want to see her and she is ready to go. Crane gives it a try and Jenny allows him to come see her out of curiosity. Crane tells Jenny that he too has seen the demon in the woods and that she is not mentally insane. Crane tells Jenny about Dr. Vega and what she said to Abbie before jumping. He asks her what could have caused Dr. Vega to do that. He asks her to help them fight the horseman’s army. She bitterly tells him that her conscience is clear and to ask Abbie if she can say the same.
After leaving Jenny, Crane tries to find out what secrets Abbie is keeping. She tells him more of the story about when she and her sister saw the faceless creature in the woods. When they woke up it felt like it had been a few minutes but it had actually been four days and whole town was looking for them. Abbie didn’t want to say anything about what they saw and told Jenny not to but Jenny told the truth about the faceless figure they saw and that the rancher that found them also saw it.
The doctor asked Abbie if she saw what her sister saw and she denied it. They then took Jenny away as she begged Abbie to tell them she saw it too. Abbie ends the story by commenting that their parents were out of picture and they finally landed a decent foster home. She didn’t want to be put back in system. Crane inquires about her parents but she says that’s a story of another time. Crane tells her that she was just afraid back then (which is understandable) and that she is still afraid of telling the truth and of what has happened between her and her sister.
Abbie says that the rancher never told anyone what he saw so they decide to go talk to him. In the next scene we see the rancher chillen in a chair with a cold one. He hears a sound and gets up to investigate, calling out “Page” to see if it was someone he knew. He hits his leg on a nail sticking out and bends down to wipe the blood as we see the shadow of a figure pass window. The door slams closed and he pulls out a gun. He turns around and there is a pale white figure right in front of him. He aims the gun but the figure is gone.
We are brought back to the office as the Captain comes out angry because a sign of a headless horseman was put in his office. He asks out loud who put it there and Abbie’s ex-boyfriend confesses saying it was just a practical joke. The Captain approaches him and everyone fears his wrath is coming, but he just says “good one”. Right then he gets a call about gun shots being fired and he drives to the house and runs into Abbie and Ichabod as they are arriving to the same house to question the rancher.
Just like Dr. Vega, he asks to specifically speak to Abbie. She cautiously goes in with her gun drawn and a bullet proof vest on. She sees the disorderly house with a broken mirror and things on the floor. She keeps calling out for him and eventually finds him sitting on the floor in the kitchen holding a gun with who appears to be his wife sitting on the floor across from him. He has the same white glazed eyes that Dr. Vega had. The wife tells Abbie that he has lost his mind. We see the white figure pass behind Abbie and the rancher, seeing it as well, starts to fire. The cops prepare to go in but Abbie tells them to stand down. Crane has rushed to the backside of the house and she sees him through the window. She puts her hand up telling him to hold off as well. Abbie tells the rancher to let her help him. He tells her she can’t help him and says “he’s coming for you next.” He says the “he” is the Sandman. He tells her that the next time she falls asleep, she is dead, then he points the gun up under his chin and shoots himself.
Abbie laughs at crane as he asks what a Sandman is. After she tells him, they start to suspect that the pale figure from her dream is the Sandman. Abbie looks up dream spirits and sees something about a dream demon. Crane recognizes the symbol in the book and asks if he had black hollow eye sockets. He says it was a myth but apparently real now. He tells about a fairytale he heard from Native Americans back during war. Kids were told to be good to neighbors. Someone was killed by a dream demon for turning his back on a neighbor dealing with a difficulty. Abbie get concerned as she starts connecting this story to her, Dr. Vega, and the rancher all turning their backs on Jenny, knowing she was telling truth.
Crane asks if she knows a shaman and we are shifted over to a car dealership as the “Mr. Sandman” song plays and gets stuck in our heads. They ask the car salesman (who is Native American) for his help with the dream demon. His response was, “Seriously? You want me to go Kimosabe and cast a spell or do a rain dance?” He tells them he doesn’t know what talking about and that he can only help them if they want to buy car. They eventually convince him to help. He tells them that the demon taunts people first, eventually driving them to take their own lives. He gives Abbie a bright green substance he calls tea to drink. It is supposed to help her fall asleep and go to the dream world to deal with the dream demon.
When he tells her that if she dies in the dream, she will die in real life, Ichabod downs some of the tea so he can go in and help. After the tea, they were strapped down and had scorpions put on their bare bellies because the venom from being stung was supposed to allow them to control their actions in the dream world. They’re instantly drawn into the dream world in the forest and start looking for each other. Abbie first sees the Sandman who throws sand on her. We see her body that is strapped down to the table and notice her eyes have turned white. Meanwhile Crane sees a red door and goes in to see Dr. Vega and the rancher hung in the hallway as we hear their voices warn of the Sandman and how they deserve what’s coming.
Abbie is shooting the Sandman which does nothing and sends her back to the time when she and sister were getting interviewed by the doctor as young girls. She watches as Jenny tells truth and begs young Abbie to tell truth about what she saw. The doctor turns toward Abbie the adult who is standing behind the two-way mirror and asks in his language “did you see him?” Soon the white figures finger starts poking through the mirror and asks Abbie if she saw the monster while Jenny is still being taken away. Crane says something to the figure in another language and it turns toward him. It says “your sins aren’t mine to punish” and Crane falls to his knees as we see his eyes turn white in his body outside of the dream. It swings at Crane and we see sand spray out of his arm. Abbie stops him by starting to tell the truth. She looks at the figure and tells about how she saw the demon in the woods and lied to protect herself. She goes on to talk about turning her back on her sister. As she is saying these things, the Sandman starts turning into glass. When he is completed glass, she swings a chair and shatters him. After the glass shatters, they both wake up on the tables they are strapped to. Crane says, “No more scorpions, ever”.
Soon we see Abbie go back to the institution to take care of “unfinished business” and talk to her sister. The nurse says the visitor log still says Jenny does not want to see her but she brings her back there anyway. They go into the dark room and flip the lights on to discover that Jenny is gone. The nurse says there was no way out. Abbie tells her to get the administrator and lockdown the building. As the nurse does that, Abbie investigates the ceiling and sees that she can push a large piece inward. It was large enough for a person to climb through. The episode ends here leaving us in suspense, wondering where Jenny has gone.
The Analysis
I am glad they revealed a little more about Jenny and her knowledge of the end of the world, but I am anxious to understand how she fits into the whole thing.
I am also curious about the Captain, especially after he accepted the practical joke of the headless horseman sign. He seems like the typical mean Captain who does not want to hear any nonsense, only logical explanations. But I find myself wondering where he truly stands. Does he believe any of the strangeness, is he in denial, or is he just truly trying to stick to the facts until the “strangeness” is proven with hard evidence?
I like that they brought the Sandman into the story, connecting one childhood story to another. I figure we have not seen the last of him. It can’t be that easy, right? I am anxious to see more revealed about all of these characters that pop out a few lines or cameos in each episode.
