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With Sleepy Hollow's big bad sealed up in a cell built by Thomas Jefferson himself, it would seem that all of Abbie's and Ichabod's troubles are at a standstill. Of course, that would be very, very wrong. Our duo knows that since they can't kill the Horseman, the other evils will keep on coming, so Ichabod has the harebrained idea to interrogate the man with no head (and thus no mouth from which to speak). Irving sees the issue, but Ichabod is fixated.
Luckily, they determine that Andy Brooks' guilt and feelings for Abbie will make him an ally, then they learn that Andy can act as the Horseman's voice (hence the necromancer episode title). Well, isn't that handy. Andy warns them this will only bring madness – which is perfect because that's exactly what they need to do after last week's epic victory.
When the Horseman makes use of Handy Andy as his voice, he taps into Ichabod's weakness: Katrina. The Horseman carries Katrina's necklace – the one that the fiancé her parents arranged gave her. Ichabod, who's always incredibly fond of telling tales of the Revolution, resists telling Abbie about Abraham, his best friend and the fiancé in question. As it turns out, Katrina fell in love with the handsome, sensitive Ichabod while she was engaged to Abe. Of course, Katrina is also passionate about making sure that the ideals of freedom driving the Revolution apply to her romantic choices as well. Clearly, this is why Ichabod is so enraptured by her.
Meanwhile, Irving has made contact with Jenny, who's just been released from the mental hospital. He wants to make sure she's worthy of helping Abbie and Ichabod, and when she visits a crime scene with him and proves her worth, they immediately launch into their own side mission. At a break-in, Jenny sees that a precious artifact is missing and notes that it lifts hexes. Thank God Irving was suspicious of her because this triggers his puzzle piece of knowledge: there's a hex keeping the Horseman in his cell. It takes them a minute, but they make the connection: the Hessians are planning to free the Horseman, which means they'll go after the power grid so they can take down the U.V. lights before they take down the hex.
Dressed like cast members in a SWAT team movie, Jenny and Irving stakeout the power plant with plenty of police backup. The only problem is that the artifact isn't on site and there are already explosives set to take down the power plant. The power goes out, and phase one of the Free the Horseman plan is complete.
Meanwhile, Ichabod is stewing. The Horseman has accused him of killing Abraham and stealing Katrina, when the truth is that while delivering the Declaration of Resolves, Abraham accused Ichabod of deliberately wooing Katrina and then tried to duel him. When they finished their fair fight, a Hessian soldier shot Abraham, forcing Ichabod to continue on alone and deliver the document. The Horseman's false accusation riles Ichabod more than ever – he literally screams that he's keeping his cool – but Abbie still agrees to leave him alone with the prisoner.
When that happens, Andy rips open his own stomach to retrieve the missing artifact. He recites a chant as the artifact undulates and demons begin to jump out of the tunnels where Abbie, Jenny, and Irving are searching (don't worry, they disintegrate with bullets, people). The real problem is that Ichabod is in the chamber taunting the free Horseman as he figures out that he's actually Abraham, who sold his soul to the devil after Ichabod left him. Luckily, Moloch won't let the Horseman kill Ichabod, yet. So he's safe for now. (But it was pretty obvious something would save him.)
But he does walk away with valuable information: Moloch promised Abraham Katrina's soul when he completed his mission (bringing back the other horsemen), so they now know his weakness. The only problem is that, as Ichabod pointed out last week, it's not as if he hasn't been wracking his brain to find a way to bring her back since the day he awoke. They've certainly got their work cut out for them – which is all we've been asking for all season. So, thank you for listening, Sleepy Hollow.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Now that Abbie and Ichabod have captured the main villain of Sleepy Hollow, it’s a little difficult to see where they could go . So after Abbie teaches Ichabod a fist-bump (to commemorate the capture) they deduce that since they can’t kill the Horseman, because Ichabod did behead the guy, after all. They decide to interrogate him -- you know, the guy with no head or mouth from which to speak. Irving sees the issue, but Ichabod is dead set. They decide they’ll seek help from the Horseman’s minion: crooked Andy Brooks. Andy regrets his past actions and Ichabod suspects that he’s got feelings for Abbie. (Is there a young cop on the force who doesn’t?).
While our heroes are setting up a plan, one drops right into the Hessian cell’s lap. While hunting in the forest, two hunters come across the Horseman’s rider-less demon horse. While one of the hunters looks confused, the other makes a call in German, demanding a team assembles, and shoots his confused hunting buddy.
Back in the tunnels, Ichabod and Abbie are searching for Andy, who’s been living in what amounts to a cave. While they ransack his "home," they realize that Andy must be the Horseman’s necromancer (a.k.a. his mouth piece) and that’s when Andy waltzes in to confirm their suspicions. They hit him with the plan: Andy speaks for the Horseman and Abbie and Ichabod get a road map for all the evil that’s on its way. But Andy doesn’t want to act as a translator because how knows the Horseman will make him do something he doesn’t want to do, but Abbie begs him with her best googly eyes and he gives in. Hellfire, be damned… or something.
At that exact moment, an alternate duo is forming. Upon Abbie’s mention of Jenny’s release from the mental hospital, Irving calls in the younger Mills sister to bully her into helping out with their secret mission. (He doesn’t know that she’s already willing since she and Abbie made up, but good game face, Irving). As he’s wagging his finger at Jenny, he gets a call to respond to a break-in. Jenny knows the owner of the shop because he hired her to find special artifacts once, so Irving insists she start that helpful streak of hers now.
On the scene, it’s obvious that the break-in was staged because they didn’t take any valuable jewels. (If you’re going to be a criminal, can’t you at least put some effort into it, dudes?). This leads Jenny and Irving to the super-secret back room, where the owner is lying on the floor with a gunshot wound. He directs them to a particular box, which they find is empty. The missing item is a relic that lifts hexes; Irving realizes the Hessians are out to lift the curse on the hexed Mason cell holding the Horseman. And while it takes them a while, the second string duo also realizes the Hessians will aim to take out the power grid too, in order to take out the U.V. lights.
Back in the cell, all is well for now, so Ichabod pokes the bear. (The bear is the Horseman, in this confusing mammal-based metaphor). The Horseman won’t use his Brooks mouthpiece, but once Ichabod calls him a failure, he comes around. After his neck snaps backward yet again, Andy begins to speak with a deep tone and coal-black eyes as the Horseman drops a necklace. All Andy says is “Death will not be silenced,” but the interaction yields an important result: the dropped necklace is Katrina’s. Ichabod must figure out how the Horseman, of all people, wound up with something that belonged to Katrina. Ten points to anyone who guessed "romantic rivalry," but more on that later.
Ichabod doesn’t get very far, but he does tell Abbie (with an unusual level of regret for someone who loves regaling us with his own personal history) about the time his best friend and Katrina’s then-fiancé, Abraham Van Brunt, gave Katrina the emerald necklace. Ichabod is the one who actually picked out the necklace, because as it turns out, he understood Katrina better than her fiancé. That’s what led her reveal her love for Ichabod and her plan to break off the engagement, and when Ichabod refused to betray his friend, she did not back down. She was unwilling to agree to a loveless, arranged marriage while in the midst of a revolution for freedom from the crown (smart lady, that one). She wanted freedom too. Naturally, Ichabod fell a little more in love with her right then and there.
While Ichabod thinks he may have just realized Moloch’s weakness after telling his little story, Abbie points out that, in actuality, the Horseman just helped point out Ichabod’s own soft spot. And big surprise: it involves Katrina. Thank you, Lt. Obvious.
When Ichabod goes back into the cell, he gets some more answers. The Horseman thinks Katrina is his destiny, not Ichabod’s, and says that everything he’s done up until this point was as revenge against Ichabod. Essentially, he’s gone rogue from Moloch’s plan in order to get his revenge. For what, we’re not totally clear yet (though the hints are being dropped rather perfectly here, folks). Then, the Horseman breaks Ichabod completely when he blames the time-traveler for killing Abraham. Ichabod, of course, says he didn’t -- and we believe ol’ Ichy because he is good and the Horseman is evil.
Over at the power plant, Irving and Jenny are dressed like they’re in a SWAT team movie starring Colin Farrell, and that’s probably what leads each of them to think they can take on the legions of evil-doers protecting the power plant plan, but neither of them can, so it’s a good thing they brought an actual SWAT team as back up. Still, it’s not quite enough. The hex-lifting relic is already gone and the power plant experiences an explosion seconds after Jenny notices that fact. The power goes out throughout the town, and Team Save The World From Demons is screwed. Somehow, after that explosion, Irving estimates two hours until the power comes back on. Right. Most power plants totally come back online after a triggered explosion.
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With their limited time before the Horseman regains the strength the U.V. lights sapped him of, Ichabod fills Abbie in on the rest of the Abraham story. The day Abraham died, they were delivering the Declaration of Resolves to the Continental Congress (Professor Abbie reminds us this is the precursor to the Declaration of Independence). Abe’s just been dumped by Katrina, which he thinks must a symptom of not giving her enough luxurious items, and Ichabod makes the fatal mistake of telling his friend that Katrina fell in love with him by accident. Abe assumes that Ichabod wooed Katrina (and not that he’s actually the worst), so he challenges Ichabod to a duel. Ichabod is forced to defend himself, but manages to throw in a request for Abraham’s blessing before the fighting gets really messy. Thankfully, the duel ends peaceably, with Abraham simply standing over Ichabod and claiming dominance. But that’s when a red coat in a mask shoots Abraham and forces Ichabod to deliver the important document on his own. This is apparently the great betrayal the Horseman’s Andy spoke of.
However, non-demon-mouth-Andy’s warning has come true. Ichabod confronted Death and all hell broke loose, especially within Ichabod himself. Abbie has to take him aside because he’s losing control of his emotions and thus, the interrogation. Ichabod even screams at the top of his lungs that he’s fine, so you know, he definitely means it.
At that moment, Jenny and Ichabod deliver more bad news: the hex-lifter is still out there. Luckily, whoever wishes to use it has to break into the cell to accomplish the hex reversal. They think if they secure the tunnels, they’re home free, so they leave the fuming Ichabod with the bloodthirsty and near-unstoppable embodiment of Death, where he definitely won’t almost be killed.
Unfortunately, crazy Andy somehow has the relic stored inside his stomach – that’s probably why he tried to warn them about what the Horseman would make him do. He had to have had the relic when he first encountered Abbie and Ichabod. Andy pulls the skull-rimmed disk out of a black blood-covered gash in his stomach and begins lifting the hex, which brings incredibly easy-to-kill demons out of the tunnels to pester Jenny, Irving, and Abbie. Ichabod, unaware of Andy’s unwilling treachery (he’s still possessed by Death, after all), enters the chamber to verbally abuse the Horseman some more.
To Ichabod’s total surprise, the Horseman frees himself and throws Ichabod against the wall. No one comes to Ichabod’s rescue this time, so he’s forced to duel the Horseman – who’s surprisingly interested in a fair fight for being such a ruthless killer. They fight, and the duel goes down exactly as it did when Ichabod fought Abraham. As the Horseman looms over Ichabod, ready to strike, Andy stops it. In his demonic voice, he says that Moloch doesn’t want the Horseman to kill Ichabod and with that, they all disappear, leaving Ichabod in a cloud of dust. Andy says, "Tell Abbie I’m sorry" as he goes, so it appears he may be gone for a good long while.
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Finally, after all this, Ichabod realizes that Abraham became the Horseman. (Duh, smart guy). That’s why he sought him out on the battlefield and that’s why he was so keen to go after the Masons, who worshipped Ichabod. In a quick flashback, we see the red coats who killed Abraham turn him into a mercenary for evil, and of course, Moloch is there to put the finishing touches on the whole process. Essentially, Abraham made a deal with the devil in order to be reunited with "his fate" Katrina (which is why she’s being held in purgatory until the Horseman has earned her) and to exact his revenge on Ichabod. Unfortunately, it seems Moloch is not willing to let him exact his revenge until he does his duty – bringing back the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
This revelation makes Ichabod’s eyes wide and more sparkling than usual. This means that now they really need to find Katrina -- but wasn’t he the one who got upset last week when Abbie suggested the same thing, because he was certain that if it was possible to kind Katrina, he would have already figured out how with his hunka-hunka-burnin’ love? Either way, now that Ichabod knows Katrina is the Horseman’s weakness, he wants to bring her to Sleepy Hollow, where she’ll surely be in danger. Great idea, Romeo.
Then again, maybe having a witch around will come in handy. As long as having magic as a weapon doesn’t take Sleepy Hollow back into super-simple-mystery territory, this could really expand the territory of the series. Either that, or it will give Ichabod someone to direct his long, wistful gazes towards.
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