The Breakdown
It’s been so long since our last Sleepy Hollow adventure. I am glad it’s back although I wish we could have seen the final episodes closer to the rest of the season. It feels like those schools that have final exams after the holiday break.
The episode begins in Corbin’s cabin. Abbie makes a comment about hell freezing over. Why? Because Ichabod comes out in skinny jeans! Apparently, he told her she could update his wardrobe if they survived the New Year. The skinny jeans lasted less than five minutes.
Next we’re in the police station watching a man get interrogated as Captain Irving stands behind the glass looking murderous. Recall that in the last episode, the Captain and his daughter were in the park and a vendor (whose eyes suddenly turned glazy white), asked him if his daughter was strong enough to fight for her soul. Of course, the man currently under interrogation has normal eyes and has no clue what the cops are asking him about. They call in the woman the vendor bumped into last episode before the cops took him in. The Captain didn’t notice it but we saw her eyes turn white as the entity passed into her.
When she gets to the station, she passes it into one of the officers. Using one of the office phones, he calls Captain Irving on his cell and demands the Bible of the two witnesses (which belonged to George Washington) by nightfall or the Captain’s daughter will be taken. “The Bible” temporarily appears on the ceiling in dripping blood (of course only the Captain sees it). Right before the Captain figures out who is calling him and pins him on the desk with his gun, the entity passes into someone else, making the Captain look like a fool when the officer has no clue why he’s being pinned down at gun point. The Captain calls his pastor and tells him the issue of possible possession. They agree to meet.
Captain Irving talks to Ichabod and Abbie about the Bible and they research to figure out the secrets it holds as he takes his family to a safe house. Abbie finds some accounts about a spirit that jumps from body to body. She puts in a video of Corbin describing a nineteen year-old woman who is possessed on and off. He turns the camera to the woman who is tied to a chair. When she lifts up her head with those white glazy eyes, Abbie recognizes her sister, Jenny. They call Jenny over and she reluctantly permits them to continue watching the video. She has never seen it herself and doesn’t remember anything.
Corbin interviews the spirit in her and it foretells that he will be one of the earliest casualties in the war; killed by Headless (we know that to be true). It also says that it has marked its current vessel (Jenny) and it will kill Abbie. The chair flies up and toward Corbin and Jenny runs to shut the tape off not being able to take anymore. Abbie tries to convince her to stay and help them figure out how to stop it to help Macey, the Captain’s daughter, but she walks out apologizing. Eventually, Ichabod goes outside and sees that she is sitting in the car. She wasn’t able to bring herself to leave. She tells Ichabod that even after the spirit left her, she still sometimes has bad thoughts about hurting her sister, which is why she started breaking laws and getting herself locked up. She was trying to protect Abbie. Ichabod says they tried watching the rest of Corbin’s video but it ends abruptly and they still need Jenny to help them figure out how to help Macey.
Meanwhile, the Captain is unloading his daughter and her mother at the “safe house” (which is a cabin in the woods). He doesn’t know it yet but the entity is already there with him jumping between the two cops he brought with him, one being Morales (Abbie’s ex). The priest is there salting the door and blessing it with holy water. Morales sees this and when the priest goes inside, he gets the other guy (who appears to be cynical and a non-believer) to wipe it away so he can enter. After he wipes it, Morales promptly breaks his back and disposes off him.
Abbie, Ichabod, and Jenny re-watch the video looking for clues. They figure out Jenny was surrounded by a circle of salt when Corbin was interrogating it. They play the video backwards and Ichabod understands the ancient speak coming out of Jenny’s mouth. They look up the name she is saying, Ancitif, which turns out to be the name of the demon that jumps from body to body through contact. It’s a leader of a legion of Moloch’s minions sent to destroy disciples. It was defeated in the past by a blessed French lantern. Ichabod recalls several being given to Benjamin Franklin. Jenny has seen it before too.
Back at the safe house, Abbie calls to update the Captain. He takes the call outside a few steps from the house so the family won’t hear. After demanding Abbie do what she has to do to help his daughter, he gets a call from Morales who he thought was keeping his daughter safe inside. The dark voice tells him his time is up. He runs inside the house busting through the doors that have just slammed shut just in time to see Morales out cold on the floor and his daughter suspended in the air with the dark voice coming out of her calling him dad. The priest holds up his cross and throws holy water on Macey. It burns the entity’s face and it becomes more demonic looking in the face. It holds up its hand toward the priest. Before we know it, his neck is in its hand and his head is twisted 180 degrees.
The demon opens a door that was holding Cynthia hostage in a room. She rushes out toward what she thinks is her daughter and gets in its reaching distance. It grabs her and demands the Bible. The Captain calls the trio who is on their way to a group of vigilantes that Jenny knows has a French lantern. He tells them he’s out of time and that has to give the Bible to the demon. They realize he didn’t have to call because he knew where the Bible was. He was trying to let them know so hopefully they could get there in time.
Abbie decides to break into the shed where the lantern should be just in case they get caught so Jenny doesn’t end up in prison (or shot). While in there, Ichabod tells Abbie how Jenny was getting locked up on purpose to protect her. She realizes that she saved her life in doing that. Abbie and Ichabod find the lantern but when they come out of the shed, there are several lights and guns pointed at them. One man quotes part of a sermon and Ichabod thinks he can appeal to him by describing the situation of the war against evil and Macey. It doesn’t work but Jenny comes into the picture with guns pointed at the bad guys and they know her and know she’s a good shot so they let them go.
At the archives storage place, the Captain is confused when the Bible isn’t in its container (we find out later that Ichabod removed in just in case this happened). Ancitif gets angry and it occurs to the Captain that his daughter is still in there somewhere. He tries talking to her, telling her how strong he realizes she is. Cynthia cuts in still trying to figure out what’s going on and the demon grabs her. The Captain tries to interfere and gets batted across the room. Jenny comes in and Ancitif immediately starts taunting her about the dark thoughts she has about her sister since he was in her seven years ago. He demands the Bible from Abbie, who he simply calls Witness. Abbie sees that Ancitif’s taunts are getting to her sister and she steps up telling him he’ll never torment her sister again.
She starts taunting the demon and Ichabod finishes a circle (more like an oval) of salt around it while it’s distracted. He holds the lantern toward the demon and speaks the necessary words to pull it out of Macey and send it back to hell. While it’s getting pulled out it says that the plan is already in action and the “witnesses” cannot stop them. Macey’s parents embrace her and Abbie hugs her tearful sister when she sees how vulnerable she is. Slowly, Jenny wraps her arms around Abbie completing the long-time awaited embrace of the two sisters.
The cliffhanger leaves us with a date and more questions. Ichabod mixes together an ancient concoction used to reveal invisible ink. He paints it across a page in the Bible and a glowing date of December 18th, 1799 is revealed. Ichabod recognizes it as Washington’s handwriting but Abbie tells him that Washington died on December 14th. The two stare at the date wondering how he could have written it four days after his supposed death.
Next week is the two-hour season finale, starting at 8 EST / 7 CST!
The Sin Eater will be there, Katrina will be there, there are talks about a door to purgatory and who knows what else!
The Analysis
This was a pretty good episode. I mentioned a while ago that I was hoping there would be more point to Jenny Mills’s character and we definitely saw it tonight. My only complaint is that the demon looked pretty silly after it got burned because they clearly were using a different person. It was taller than Macey and the face was shaped differently, beyond the make-up that was meant to make it look deformed when it was burned by the holy water. Now I’m interested in seeing how they’re going to give us a good season finale while leaving room for an equally exciting second season.
