SLEEPY HOLLOW Recap: ‘This is War’

Welcome back, SLEEPY HOLLOW fans! Summer is long to begin with (it’s hot and nothing is pumpkin spiced), but this one felt especially endless without Tom Mison’s left eyebrow to keep us company. No show left us with more cliffhangers last year than SLEEPY did. Henry is Katrina and Ichabod’s son — and the Horseman of War. Katrina is held by the Horseman of Death, who also happens to be her ex-fiancé. Crane is buried alive. Abbie is stuck in purgatory. What are we waiting for?

The War

We find Crane in the dark, calling out for his “leftenant,” when a light switches on and he’s back in his cabin with Abbie. She holds out a star-spangled 251st birthday cupcake, because after the year they’ve had, they could use a little celebration. So what happened in the past year, and how are they both here? No time for questions, or for eating birthday cupcakes; a professor needs them at the historical society.

Abbie and Crane find a cop beheaded at the door and ready themselves to battle the Horseman of Death. They’re too late to save the professor, but they find what Death was looking for: stacks of research on Benjamin Franklin. Death tries to reclaim the papers, but Abbie and Crane fight back with arrows and consecrated rounds. They really have been practicing. When the Horseman escapes, Crane wants to go after him, but Abbie holds him back. The Horseman killed his wife and her sister. They need to do this right.

Back at the archives room, Crane remembers his time as Franklin’s reluctant assistant. Franklin had just returned from England, where he infiltrated a group known as the Hellfire Club, bent on stamping out the American quest for independence. Crane found him one night with a key fixed to a kite, trying to destroy it with lightning. He was never doing an experiment on electricity; he just wanted the key to burn. The professor’s notes call it the Gehenna key, which Crane says is another term for purgatory. This key can break the rules of purgatory, releasing trapped souls without having to trade them for other lives.

Abbie and Ichabod go to Henry, who is now their prisoner, for insight on his fellow Horseman. Henry asks if Sheriff Corbin’s old files have anything on the key, which reminds Abbie that Corbin once sent Jenny to Philadelphia to retrieve Franklin’s sketch book. Ichabod suddenly realizes that he can’t recall any details of the past year. Neither one of them can say how they captured Henry — because they didn’t. Moloch crafted this reality so Henry could find out about the key. The past year was an illusion. They’re in purgatory.

As his coffin rebuilds itself around him, Crane promises Abbie that he’ll return for her. Out in the woods of purgatory, Abbie is met by Andy Brooks, the coworker whose soul now belongs to Moloch. Andy says that Moloch is building an army of every undead soul in purgatory. When he gets the key, he’ll take those souls and bring the end of days to earth. Abbie needs to warn Crane, so she asks Andy to show her how Katrina did it.

Meanwhile, Henry has captured Jenny, who’s still very much alive, to find out about the key. He reads her mind and then leaves her with a Hessian, but Jenny frees herself like it’s nothing and throws a knife into the Hessian’s heart. She texts Crane, who used gunpowder to blow his way out of the coffin, and tells him that she’s trapped in a warehouse by Route 9, so he drives an EMS van through the door to retrieve her (“Madam, care for a lift?”). Jenny shows Crane the journal, which is written in an alphabet that Franklin invented and forced Crane to learn. They find the key at the base of a local clock tower, behind a brick carved with Franklin’s initials.

Abbie follows Andy’s directions to a mirror in Moloch’s lair, which summons Crane to her. They embrace, and she tells him about Moloch’s plan. She worries that if Crane uses the key to save her, they’ll be giving Moloch exactly what he wants, but Crane refuses to leave her there. Back with Jenny, he instructs her to stay behind, so that she can continue the mission should anything happen to him. Jenny reminds him not to accept anything from anyone while he’s in there, and he recites the chant to open a portal to purgatory.

Crane finds Abbie looking for a medallion that Katrina gave her to keep her safe. He offers her water, and just as it’s about to touch her lips, the real Crane calls out to stop her. The two Cranes fight, and Abbie knows that the wrong one returns to her when he calls her “lieutenant.” She casually beheads him and fist bumps her partner. They open another portal, use the key to escape, and watch it close just before Moloch and his army reach them. As Abbie reunites with Jenny, the key falls apart.

In a mysterious candle-lit chamber, Henry apologizes for failing Moloch, who fashions him a suit of armor that he controls as the Horseman of War. Henry gives the suit a sword, which catches fire. War is coming, and he’s got gear now.

The Key Players

How great it is to have John Noble (Henry) and Lyndie Greenwood (Jenny) as series regulars? Henry didn’t literally eat any sins in this premiere, which is a shame, but he did break shackles, turn plants into metaphors, marvel at fire, and continue to make pullover sweaters look villainous. He’s very much in Moloch’s camp at the moment, but I get the sense that his only real loyalty is to himself, so it will be interesting to see what he does with his new suit of armor. As for Jenny, she continues to be hardcore. (“I’ve done a lot of sinning. I hope you choke on every one of them.”) Her relationship with Crane was great here, from their hasty seat change in the car to way he addressed her as “Miss Jenny.” Abbie’s family is Crane’s family.

Katrina is still being held by the Horseman of Death, but she’s holding her own. I loved that when he returned his necklace to her, allowing her to see his face as Abraham, she insisted that it wouldn’t trick her into seeing him as a human. I have to wonder if Andy is playing the same games with Abbie, or if she really is his link to the last bit of free will and humanity he has left.

No word from Irving yet. Stay strong, Captain.

The Witnesses

One of the best aspects of the fake-out beginning was that it allowed the season to open with Ichabod and Abbie together. Crane’s sass at modern society is as strong as ever (“A surprise party. And why must your era celebrate terror with dessert?”), but he also goes straight for his non-flip cell phone when he’s buried alive. Of course he wants Abbie to be the one to hear his last words. Fortunately, it doesn’t come to that.

The two lean on the idea of each other when they’re alone, but the most telling moments between them happen during their reunions. They really rush into that hug when Abbie projects Crane into purgatory. He refuses to leave her there; he just looks her in the eyes and insists that they’re in this together. (“Hold fast, Abigail Mills. I’m on my way.”) Sometimes Abbie leans on self-sacrifice because it’s easier, but Crane won’t let her see herself as any less important. Plus, they have so many more adorable fist bumps to do.

It’s so good to have this show back. What did you think of the premiere?

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