He fills Katrina in on the second horseman and needing her to help stop him. She says that her soul can’t leave without forgiveness because it will break down the walls of purgatory. She says the only other way for her to leave is if another soul stays. Ichabod decides it should be him until Abbie insists that she stays. He tries to argue, saying that would be fulfilling the prophecy, but she says she needs to do this and she is tired of running. She has to face Moloch. Sensing that they are running out of time, Katrina puts a protective amulet around Abbie’s neck and tells her she will come back to set her free. Ichabod and Abbie squeeze tightly as he vows to come back for her and she assure her faith that he will as tears fall from her eyes. Ichabod reminds her to remember their bond. We see Moloch’s silhouette through the church glass windows and Katrina and Ichabod quickly say the appropriate words to open the gate and leave.
They’re thrown out of the gate where Henry is waiting. Abbie gets her wish as Moloch approaches. She swings a stick at him and he lifts her up by her throat. She jabs the amulet into his skin and it singes as he roars and yells as she runs away. On the outside, Katrina celebrates being out and Henry humbly introduces himself to her. She immediately realizes he is the Sin Eater. Katrina’s powers are weak but she performs a path finding spell to figure out where they need to go. Reality dawns on Ichabod and he exclaims, “I married a witch, how cool!” Katrina looks at him, puzzled by the expression “how cool”.
He explains it to be a figure of speech as they rush off trying to beat the eclipse. Jenny drives up to the church, still following Corbin’s clues from his tapes. She grabs something she finds on the ground with a hole in the shape of a cross. She gets back in the car and rushes down the street trying to contact Abbie. She is leaving a voicemail telling her that the Saint’s name was a sign and that Moloch’s riddle was literal. She starts to say “whatever you do don’t…..” but is interrupted by shots at her car. She looks up to find Headless shooting at her. He shoots a few more times and her car flips over. He rides off as she lays unconscious and upside down in the turned over car.
Abbie is still running from Moloch and suddenly falls through the ground and lands against a wall inside of a building. The wall says “DON’T GET SCARED” in large letters scribbled on the wall. She walks into another room and sees the young teen versions of her and her sister. Young Abbie tells her they are the memory that Moloch took from their heads thirteen years ago. They are in the place they always felt safe, their dollhouse.
The eclipse is almost complete but Katrina’s binding spell is not working. She can’t feel anything beneath the ground and thinks the second horseman must be gone. Henry chimes in with a dark tone, saying that it’s here. He asks Ichabod if he knows the etymology of the word “apocalypse”. Ichabod replies, “To disclose or reveal.” Henry says, “That time has come” and with a brisk movement of his head, Ichabod and Katrina fly up and get pinned to the trees behind them.
He tells Katrina his power is stronger than hers as the branches surrounding them squeeze tighter. He laughs at their idea of faith, saying he gave it to them with their desire to be reunited and Abbie’s desperation to believe that there is a purpose for her pain. He tells them about how he played them all this time, giving them cryptic clues about things being right in front of them. Katrina asks who he is and he says her binding spell had no effect because there was nothing to bind. The second horseman was released over a decade ago on this day.
At this time, Young Abbie puts her hand to Abbie’s head to reveal the memory Moloch stripped from her. It is of him raising the creature, Henry, out of the ground.
Katrina realizes he is the second horseman, just like Abraham was mortal before becoming Death. He corrects her saying half-mortal because he is what she made him. And then he calls her Mother and Ichabod Father (wait…what?!!??!?!). They painfully realize he is Jeremy, their son. His anger grows as he says he was murdered by his own mother’s coven. He cuts himself and let’s his blood drip on the ground as he says that their blood was strong enough to breathe life back into his lungs. When the blood hits the ground, it opens up where he was buried. We see flashes of him being buried in it when he was younger and of him urging Ichabod to kill his golem. He tells about laying down there for two centuries, crying out, and finally his true father Moloch took him out of the earth. He tells that God sent a witness to stop them but she was not yet strong enough and they defeated her.
Meanwhile, Abbie is trying to get out, telling her young self that she has to find a way home. Abbie looks out the window seeing the woods where her dollhouse is. Henry continues his story, that once resurrected, the first place he saw was the Trinity Church where Katrina abandoned him (as he tells it) and a sign that said “St. Henry’s Parish” so he took the name just to spite the saint. We briefly flash to the banged up sign in the back of Jenny’s car still turned over. He tells his parents that now that the witnesses are separated they can break the second seal and fulfill a promise to an old friend (Headless). Headless rides up, gives the seal to Henry, and takes Katrina away. Henry uses his power to bind Ichabod in his old grave in the ground and he breaks the second seal where Ichabod can watch, helpless. He tells Ichabod that war has been in Sleepy Hollow waiting and now it begins. He says, “Goodnight Father,” and closes the coffin.
The Analysis
How do I feel about this finale? Fan-freaking-tastic is what I say! I have to admit, that was a pretty good one. In hindsight, I recall how eager Henry was to unveil clues despite the danger to him with the hex on the prayer beads. And he also made a point to say he looked forward to meeting Katrina, his Mother! Man, they were all totally played. I’m already excited about Season 2.
