Sleepy Hollow ‘The Midnight Ride’ Recap – Episode 01.07

The Breakdown

We begin the show in Boston.  It is April 18, 1775, the night of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride.  The town’s people are passing the word along throughout the village that the Regulars are coming.  Soon we see men riding on horses fiercely through the forest and then we see Headless enter the picture behind them.  At this point in time, he still has his head.  One by one he slices at each man with his axe.  When he gets to the second man from the front, the man yells “Paul, he’s here!”  The front man, who we can assume is Paul Revere, turns back just in time to see his comrade’s head sliced off.

We zoom back to present time in Corbin’s cabin as Ichabod stares in awe at the stacks of food that Abbie bought in bulk from a supermarket.  He makes a comment that if they had these supplies back in his time, they could have taken Lexington in a day.  He is also perplexed that she pays for water and does not get it from tap or the lake.

In the next scene, Abbie is getting out of her car as Luke, her ex-boyfriend, approaches her.  He wants to be at least friends and get some coffee.  She says they can meet up the following afternoon.  As they part, we see someone watching them from afar but we don’t know who it is yet.  Later that night, Luke is walking and someone yells his name.  We found out that the lurker is the supposedly dead officer Andy Brooks (played by John Cho).  Luke immediately pulls out his gun.  Luke is confused by seeing Andy Brooks alive.  Andy tells him that he is not.  He warns him away from Abbie and says he’s the only one who can protect her from the end.  He says everyone will die except the chosen few.  With super speed, Andy grabs the gun and points it up in Luke’s chin.  He tells him there is a war coming that he won’t see or hear until it is upon him.  He said there are others in Sleepy Hollow like him that are watching and waiting.  He tells Luke that the time is coming soon for him to pick a side.  Luke gets distracted when he hears people talking on the street.  When he turns back, Andy is gone.

Abbie is in her car driving and listens to a voicemail from Ichabod.  He starts off saying he is still trying to fathom the idea of his voice being recorded for her to listen to.  He tells her he will try to get the Masons to allow her to strategize with them about Headless.  Since she is a woman, she is not allowed to.  Ichabod walks into the house where he is to meet the Masons and hears some banging and glass breaking noises.  He pulls out a sword he sees.  About this time Abbie pulls up and sees Ichabod through the window with a sword in his hand.  She also sees Headless at another part of the house.  Ichabod walks into a room to see several nicely dressed headless bodies.  While he and Abbie are still inside, they hear Headless’s horse neigh.  They go out just in time to see him and his horse rising up and then riding off.  During the crime scene investigation, the grumpy Captain Irving tells them not to describe the perp as headless in their description of the events.  Ichabod tells the Captain about the Freemasons and that for 500 years they have been secretly fighting a war between good and evil.  After Abbie informs him that Headless took the heads with him, he says for now their working theory will be Cult Ritual Suicide.  Captain Irving says there is still no proof of a Headless Horseman.  Crane starts digging through the Masons’ stuff to find information about Headless.

He finds a book that says “Horseman of Death” and quickly becomes agitated when he sees a large chunk of pages are missing.  He vows that he will not leave the Earth with Headless still on it.  While trying to calm himself, he looks at a ripped piece of artwork of George Washington and realizes why Headless came there.  He was looking for his skull.  Abbie recalls Katrina warning them if Headless got his skull, the other three horsemen would rise.  They decide to get the skull and destroy it but wouldn’t you know it, the Captain doesn’t have the skull.  He sent it out to a lab.  Even if he did, he wouldn’t be thrilled about them destroying evidence.  We get a glimpse that the Captain has a human side when they are interrupted by someone giving him his messages.  His daughter called to remind him of someone’s birthday.  His response was, “she kept the damn dog. Do I really need to call her on her birthday?”  The officer replies, “Mother of your child”.

Ichabod tries to appeal to the Captain’s humanity by talking about how he knows what it’s like to have to inform families of their lost ones and if Headless is allowed to continue, the Captain will have to inform many more families of their losses.  The Captain goes to the lab to get the skull.  While he is there, Headless walks in and starts shooting at him and the lab tech with a machine gun.  He kills the lab tech with his gun and throws his axe at Captain Irving, who pulls a matrix move and barely gets away with his head.  He grabs the skull and bolts out of there while ducking and dodging more bullets.  It’s hilarious to see the bewildered emotions on his face as he tries to perceive what is happening; that the stories of the headless horseman are true.  As he drives out of there he has to swerve past Headless’s white horse.  Still trying to come to terms with his experience, he tells Abbie and Ichabod about what happened.  He admits that he had hoped it was all a lie.

Ichabod pulls the skull out of the box so they can go destroy it.  He can’t ignore the strangeness of literally staring into the face of death.  We then watch as Ichabod and Abbie try several methods to destroy the skull.  They try beating on it with a sledge hammer, putting it in a bucket of what looks to be acid, and even attaching it to an explosive.  Nothing works so Abbie suggests a car compactor.  As they head toward the car, Ichabod notices four lanterns lit up in a garage that weren’t there before.   He brings up the system by Paul Revere of One lantern if by land, two if by sea, etc.  They go up to the top floor of the garage to find the lanterns are actually the heads of the Masons with candles in them.   Abbie inspects the heads and sees that they are lined the heads with silver.

Ichabod tells the story of Paul Revere doing the same thing.  He lined the lanterns with silver to enhance the illumination.  Ichabod was guarding the safe house where Sam Adams and John Hancock were evading arrest.  He recalls seeing Adams hand Paul Revere a manuscript that was kept by the Masons and contained enemy secrets.  He described the symbol on it, a star within a star, and Abbie recalled reading about it.  It’s called Devil’s Trap and is used to trap and defeat demons.  As his mind works through all the details, Ichabod realizes that Death (Headless with his head) must have been the man Paul Revere said was chasing him as he rode to Lexington.  He thought it was a mercenary for the Crown.  They figure the manuscript must contain information about a flaw or weakness Headless has and that’s probably what the Masons were going to tell them before they were killed.  As the scene ends, we see Abbie blowing out one of the heads (that’s just weird).

They go to the Tarrytown Museum of Colonial History where the manuscript is.  Ichabod is offended by the historical account he hears a tour guide give a bunch of children.  Abbie tells him to let it go but he can’t help himself and interrupts the guide to correct him.  Apparently, all the riders discreetly spread that “the Regulars” are coming, not yelled “the British are coming!”.  Abbie has to drag him out of there.  She found out that the manuscript is on loan in London but it has been uploaded online.  So of course we get to see a very confused Ichabod punching random buttons on a laptop.  He printed the manuscript five times in case it disappeared from the screen again (he he).  Ichabod tries to decipher it as Abbie goes to call Luke and cancel their coffee date.  Luke is still freaked out about his rendezvous with Andy and rejects her call.

After she hangs up the phone, she turns around and there is Andy.  She holds a gun up just like Luke did because she also expected Andy to be dead.  As she figures out he sold his soul, he tells her he’s trying to protect her.  Meanwhile, Ichabod is back to punching buttons on the laptop and somehow a “Hot Chixxs” site comes up and a barely-dressed lady is talking to him through video chat.  He tells her he is taken and as she makes those forbidden sounds, he slams the laptop closed.  After a few uncomfortable seconds, he opens it back up and she is still there so he quickly recloses it.   Pondering for a minute, he goes to look at the skull and realizes that the password he needs to decipher the manuscript is written on the back of the teeth.  It is “Cicero”.

Andy tells Abbie that she can’t kill death but she can trap him.  Abbie questions if she can believe him and he says he cares about her.  Ichabod walks in with the same quizzicality about Andy being dead.  He tells Andy to tell Headless if he wants his head then to meet Ichabod at the cemetery when night falls.  Andy agrees to tell him.  Ichabod threatens Andy that if he (Andy) returns there will be consequences.  Andy says not to threaten him and they both look at Abbie to see her opinion on the matter and she doesn’t quite know what to say.

Andy disappears again and Ichabod and Abbie go back to the manuscript.  It echoes what Andy said, “Death cannot be slain.  It can be captured and caged against its fiery will.”  Since sunlight is its only weakness, they would need a witch to turn the moon into a sun while Death (Headless) is exposed.  Abbie tells Ichabod that they can simulate the sun using UV light.  Ichabod says he’s good with the idea as long as it doesn’t include using the internet.  They get Captain Irving to help them create the trap.  Ichabod explains that the Masons have a cell that is protected by a supernatural barrier and was designed by Thomas Jefferson.  As they work, Ichabod defends Jefferson when they tell him he strayed with one of the slaves, Sally Hemings and Abbie shows him the text on her phone where Jefferson took credit for something Ichabod told him.  Ichabod looking hurt saying “we never really know people do we?”  As they wait for the sun to set, Ichabod and Abbie have a little heart-to-heart about the sacrifices of the two witnesses, how there is so much they are unable to share with loved ones.

Headless enters the cemetery and Crane entices him by showing his skull.  Headless chases him, missing his head with the axe and hitting a tree instead.  He grabs his axe and continues to chase Crane.  Crane uncovers the opening to the tunnel and jumps down in it.  He leaves a fake glowing skull to slow the horseman down.  It chuckles when he picks it up.  He continues to find fake skulls as he searches for Crane.  Abbie and Crane taunt him, each holding a skull in a box.  Headless decides to go after Abbie.  Not too long after, she yells to Crane that she broke her ankle and Headless starts walking toward her.  As she crawls, she lures him into the trap.  Captain Irving turns the UV light on and the triumphant music plays as Ichabod puts clasps on his legs and he is stuck there on his knees.  All three of them stare at Headless with evident emotion on their faces of their feat.  And you know, of course, that this is the end of the episode.

The previews show that next week Headless might get interrogated.  Can’t wait!

Sleepy Hollow plays Mondays on Fox; 9pm EST / 8pm CST.

The Analysis

I thought this was a pretty good episode.  It’s always nice to see the good guys finally catch a break….although we know this is nowhere near the end of their troubles.  I couldn’t help but to laugh during the shootout scene with the Captain and Headless because throughout the series he’s been saying there wasn’t enough proof that Headless existed.  Well, it was all up in his face this time and he couldn’t help but to accept that they were telling the truth.  To his credit though, he isn’t some cynical coward that backs down once faced with reality.  He defended himself, shot back at Headless, and still made sure he got the skull out of there.  I’m glad he finally saw Headless but now I’m in suspense wondering what’s going to happen now that they have him trapped.  Can you imagine if you finally caught up with your worst enemy after over 200 years?  What would you say?

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