The Breakdown
A woman named Lena and her body guard drive up to an old house that belonged to her family long ago. It is covered in roots and vines and the body guard fears it may not be structurally sound but she goes in anyways. She opens a closet door that is jam packed with branches and vines. As she tries to pull at them, one cuts her. While looking at the cut, suddenly her other hand is trapped within the vines then her whole body is.
At the police station, Ichabod is going off saying the pilgrims didn’t have any sugar to make pie and venison was served, not turkey. He is in a bad mood because he cannot be with Katrina at this time of families. Right as Abbie starts talking about a day off, the Captain calls them into the office about a missing person, Lena Gilbert. Her lineage dates back to the founding fathers. The senate majority leader contacted the Captain personally about her. She was last seen two days ago.
Abbie still doesn’t understand why they specifically have to take the case of finding this billionaire. A member of Lena’s staff faxed something written in her handwriting that has Katrina’s name on it. Her GPS signal was last in Sleepy Hollow then fell off the map. Abbie does an internet search and Ichabod recognizes a name: Fredericks. Lachlan Fredericks was a charter member of the Continental Congress. Ichabod realizes where Lena must have gone in Sleepy Hollow. They go to Frederick’s Manor to see if she is there.
When he sees the run down place, he recalls it looking so much better when he and Katrina visited. Everyone of all races was free and chose to work there for fair wages. They were under Lachlan’s protection. The place was a sanctuary. They go in the house and find Lena’s body guard sitting in a chair, dead. They see bloody prints on the floor by him that look like someone was dragged. Abbie gets on the radio to call for back-up and no one answers. She tries to go outside to get a signal and the door slams close before she gets to it. Soon all of the doors slam close. They realize they are in a haunted house. Abbie sees a black woman dressed like a house maid, briefly, but she disappears.
Ichabod finds Katrina’s favorite book, “Gulliver’s Travels”, with a note in it that he wrote her the day he fought Headless all those years ago. They hear a noise and go investigate but see nothing but crows. Ichabod says at the height of the war this was a place of hope and source of good. Ichabod says in retrospect, this place may have also been a refuge from something supernatural and evil. They find bloody prints on the top of the stairwell and go down the stairs to see if they can find Lena. Abbie opens a closet door and they see Lena trapped behind all the vines. Ichabod cuts one of the vines and blood pours out of it. Suddenly some vine-like creature outside starts walking toward the house. Lena tells them the house is alive.
Meanwhile, the Captain is at the station trying to contact Abbie with no luck. Her sister is there with him and he says on the voicemail “and I’m dealing with her B.S.”, obviously not thrilled that she is there. Jenny returns his gun and he tells her she stole it and he left her a voicemail five days ago. He tells her not to waste his time, knowing she still has another gun she took from him. She says she thought it was a gift. He is not smiling and once she gives the other gun back he kicks her out. She invites him to a Thanksgiving dinner she was thinking about doing to thank Abbie for taking her in. He suspiciously asks her if she can cook. He seems delighted by the idea of everyone being normal for a change, even if only for one night. She says after that one night she will go back to stealing from him. As they start to share a laugh with each other, his ex-wife walks in with his daughter. It is briefly one of those awkward moments but then Jenny leaves.
Back at the haunted house, the three are looking for an exit. Ichabod asks Lena about Katrina. She says she found her name in a registry from the late 1700s. She was the last person to come there for sanctuary before the manor was abandoned. Lena was trying to unlock the mystery of what happened back then. She says Lachlan was an abolitionist and may have practiced witchcraft. Ichabod starts to think that maybe he was a part of Katrina’s Coven.
While they are talking, the vine creature comes in and they hide. They find what looks like a secret opening to walk within the walls and they go in. Ichabod busts out through a wall into a room with Lena. When he goes to grab what he thinks is Abbie’s hand, the creature grabs his hand and comes into the room. They run through the dark house into a pack of crows. Abbie is still within the walls looking for Ichabod. She busts through a while and ends up in the bathroom. She turns around and sees the woman again. She tries to follow her but she disappears again.
The Captain’s daughter is rolling through the halls (in a wheel chair) and passes Jenny, asking if she is going to say hello since she is dating her dad. Jenny tells her she doesn’t even like her dad. She introduces herself. Her name is Macey. They have a heart-to-heart about having cop family members. Jenny tells Macey to give her dad a chance because he is not a completely terrible person. The Captain is talking to his ex and telling her there is nothing going on between him and Jenny.
She stops him and says it is none of her business. What is her business is how badly he is behaving as a parent. Macey has only seen him one weekend since he transferred to Sleepy Hollow. She says him moving there was supposed to be better for everyone but it is not working. He was supposed to be having an easier workload. She thinks it is a small town precinct and anyone can handle it. He tries to tell her it has to be him but of course she doesn’t understand. Who would? She says their daughter needs stability and she has had some papers drawn up. If he cancels one more weekend, she will file the papers demanding full custody.
Back at the haunted house, Abbie sees the woman again. She tells Abbie, “it’s coming, hurry”. Abbie goes into the bedroom and see women tending to a pregnant woman in labor. To Abbie’s surprise, the pregnant woman is Katrina. She watches Katrina give birth as the crows are tapping on the window. She gives birth to a boy. Abbie continues looking for Ichabod and Lena. Ichabod finds her but now the creature has Lena. Abbie tells him she saw Katrina giving birth. He doesn’t believe her. He thinks Katrina would have told him. Abbie figures Katrina came there hoping the protective hex on the property would keep them safe. Ichabod is trying to wrap his head around having a boy but Abbie continues her story. Immediately after the birth, the crows busted in the window and outside was the creature. It beat the hex by growing inside the property. The creature killed Lachlan. Abbie says that’s all she saw so she doesn’t know if the creature made it to Ichabod’s son.
They hear a scream and go find Lena. She is standing in the dark looking paralyzed. The creature snatches her up again. Abbie shoots at the roots on the ground. They start spraying blood and the creature let’s go of Lena. Abbie sees the woman again and a glimpse of her showing Katrina the way out. She leads Ichabod and Lena through a hidden brick door. Ichabod, filled with rage about the creature going after his family, grabs an ax out of the car and goes back into the house. He very seriously tells Abbie not to follow him. He starts chopping away at the roots telling the creature he knows who he serves (Moloch). With his final blow of the ax to the creature’s head, he tells it to give Moloch his regards. Covered in blood, he gets in Abbie’s car and they drive away. We see crows fleeing from the house.
Later on, Abbie tries to cheer Ichabod up and convince him to come to Jenny’s Thanksgiving dinner. He talks about dreams of having a relationship with his son the way his father did with him. He gives Abbie a package sent by Lena. There is several paraphernalia in it. Ichabod finds a family tree of the Frederick’s Manor’s House Matron, Grace Dickson. Abbie looks at it and sees that the last name at the bottom of the tree is Lori Roberts, her mother. Abbie’s ancestor brought Ichabod’s son into the world in the face of danger. Ichabod notices the resemblance. They reflect that their paths were always intertwined and they have a drink of rum to it. They toast to family and to finding family.
The Analysis
Wow, Ichabod has a child eh? I can’t wait to hear what happened to him. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that Ichabod and Abbie’s family ancestries are intertwined but it was a cool way of showing us. Every week we see more ways that Ichabod’s past is connected to the mystery but this is the first time we see Abbie’s connection, beyond her and her sister’s experience as kids.
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Sorry folks but we have to miss another week of Sleepy Hollow. But we can Give Thanks that a new episode will be back in two weeks! Along with guest stars John Noble (Fringe), Jill Marie Jones (Girlfriends), and Amanda Stenberg (The Hunger Games).
Sleepy Hollow – Mondays 9pm EST / 8pm CST on Fox.
