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Despite Moloch's threats at the end of the last episode of Sleepy Hollow, Abbie's soul is still intact when we find ourselves back in the small town horror story. In fact, she's feeling well enough to hold Ichabod to his New Year's resolution she chose for him, which apparently involves wearing skinny jeans. And while she's safe, Irving's daughter Macy is the one in grave danger.
Irving is reviewing the tape of a police interview with the hot chocolate salesman he threatened in the park. The man says he has no recollection of speaking ominously about Macy (because he was possessed by a demon when he said it), so Morales and Devon bring in the woman the vendor bumped into directly after the vendor spoke to Irving. Unfortunately, before they can speak to the woman, she bumps into one of the Sleepy Hollow PD officers and transfers the demon to him. Irving gets a call from the police department and on the other end is a demonic voice demanding George Washington's Bible on pain of Irving losing Macy. And just as Irving figures out which officer is possessed, the demon hops into Devon's body before he can take notice.
Naturally, Irving takes this problem to Ichabod and Abbie, who he hopes can sift through the Bible for spells or tricks they can use against the demon, but of course it can't be that simple. They search through their supernatural library to find that Corbin once dealt with demon possession and because this series exists in an impossibly small world, it turns out the vessel for that demon was Jenny, Abbie's sister.
That brings Jenny back onto the team, where she watches the video of her possession and then refuses to help Abbie and Ichabod figure out how this whole thing works. Ichabod, being the sensitive guy he is, follows Jenny to get more of the story and as it turns out, Jenny was tormented by this demon for a while before finding out she was "marked" as its vessel. The biggest problem for Jenny, however, is that the demon planted the thought that she wanted to kill her sister Abbie. This is apparently why she acts out and gets busted so often: she thought if she was locked up, she wouldn't be able to act on her anti-Abbie thoughts.
Later, they review the footage again and Ichabod realizes there's a salt line keeping the demon trapped, but they have no idea how to expel the demon. This leads the gang to go all overprotective 1980s parent and claim demons love to speak backwards: they play the tape of Demon Jenny backwards to find the message "Ansitif cannot be defeated." A little studying tells them Ansitif is the body-hopping demon (and Moloch's assistant) they're dealing with and that he can be defeated with a French lamp once owned by Benjamin Franklin. Jenny knows where to get one: they should definitely steal it from fanatical, heavily-armed "Believers" because there simply aren't enough ways to potentially get shot on this show right now.
Meanwhile, Irving has taken his family to the safe house with Morales and the still-possessed Devon and to keep Irving from catching on, Devon transfers the demon to Morales—the more trusted of his two de facto sidekicks—and Irving Is none the wiser. Later, he leaves Macy with Morales only to come back to find that the possessed officer transferred the demon into Macy. She becomes contorted and kills Irving's pastor before threatening his ex-wife too as an incentive to retrieve George Washington's Bible, which Irving left with Ichabod and Abbie.
Irving calls them, knowing that if he says he's coming for the Bible, they'll be forced to find a solution that stops the demon from possessing it. And since Ichabod and Abbie don't fail, that's exactly what they do, stolen Ben Franklin lamp and all. They trick the demon into a salt circle before extracting him with the lamp and rubbing the strength of their familial bond despite the demon's great attempts to break them apart.
Sure, it's another case that's open and shut rather simply and quickly, but how much longer could most of us have endured poor little Macy gone all demonic?
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Despite Moloch’s threats at the end of the last episode of Sleepy Hollow, Abbie’s soul is still intact when we find ourselves back in the small town horror story. In fact, she’s feeling well enough to hold Ichabod to his New Year’s resolution she chose for him, which apparently involves wearing skinny jeans -- Ichabod’s least favorite "sign of the impending apocalypse." And while Abbie’s safe despite Moloch instilling fear in Ichabod that he’s "never known," Irving’s daughter Macy is in grave danger.
At the station, Irving is watching interview tapes of the hot chocolate salesman who threatened his daughter. The man has no knowledge of the incident because he was possessed by a demon who jumped bodies immediately after the incident with the captain. Because Irving is so determined, Devon and Morales offer to bring in the woman they saw the man bump into in the impossibly crisp park surveillance video. I’m sorry, but what sort of public park has its own video surveillance? Anyway, they pull in the second possessed person, only to have her transfer the demon to one of Irving’s officers' moments before her interview.
The officer calls Irving almost immediately from a phone in the station and threatens to harm Macy unless Irving gets him the Bible of George Washington. Naturally, the demon also reiterates this demand with CGI blood from the 90s on the department ceiling, as you do. But because Irving has been around the block a few times, so he skedaddles into the main room, where he figures out that, duh, the guy with the evil glare is the one calling him. He tackles the cop, but not before the demon hops to another host: Irving’s buddy Devon. Irving misses this and winds up practically struggling an innocent, no longer possessed man.
Armed with reignited anger, Irving calls up his pastor friend who basically says, "Yeah, that thing that looks like demon possession is probably demon possession." For his trick, Irving decides to defy the demon and instead seek anti-demon magic through the coveted Bible. He’s not brave enough to risk a migraine figuring it out though, so he has Ichabod and Abbie do it for him.
As part of their research, they find a tape Corbin recorded with evidence of demon possession. Unfortunately for Abbie, the possessed woman in the video turns out to be her baby sister Jenny. It’s a little convenient, but the video forces Ichabod and Abbie to bring Jenny back into the fold where they make her watch the video of her possession and then, hopefully, help them figure out how to banish the demon.
Unfortunately, this whole ordeal is just a tab traumatic for Jenny (having someone occupy your entire being does that to a person ) and she refuses to participate. Not even the knowledge that Irving’s daughter is the one in trouble can convince her to stay and when the remaining minutes of the video play, it’s clear why. Demon Jenny threatens to kill Abbie, and while Abbie is infuriated that Jenny never told her, the little sister has a point: they didn’t talk and Corbin banished the demon. Done deal.
Jenny storms out and Ichabod and Abbie are sure that Jenny can be of help, so the kinder, gentler person of the duo follows her outside to get to the bottom of the ordeal. The possession was especially traumatic for Jenny because what she didn’t tell Abbie was that after her strange behavior and the demon left her system, the thoughts about killing Abbie remained. She says that her years of acting out and getting herself arrested were a conscious effort to be locked up and keep her sister safe from the demon’s remnants. She thinks it’s because the demon said she was "marked" and she’s afraid he will return to possess her and take out Abbie once and for all. (I know, sometimes I’m afraid this doesn’t sound like English either.)
Meanwhile, at the Sleepy Hollow PD safe house, Irving has entrusted one of his possessed officers to protect his family. But before Irving can catch on, Devon transfers the demon to Morales (Abbie’s ex and a generally questionable guy) who then surveys the property with his wobbly demon vision. It's understandable as a story-telling device, but does it have to make it so hard to actually see what’s going on?
Clearly, it doesn’t actually hinder the demon-possessed person though. As a measure of keeping evil out, Irving has his "Duh" Master and local pastor create a salt line to keep the demons out of the safe house, but Demon Morales sees this and puts a plan to remove it into action. All he has to do is ask Devon to move it and the dim cop does, allowing Demon Morales access to the house, but not before the demon cop has a chance to break Devon’s back as a thank-you. (Demons are pretty terrible friends, it turns out.)
In case we weren’t paying attention, Ichabod repeats the salt-line lesson when he pours over the video and realizes Corbin used the same technique to trap Demon Jenny in a circle. There’s just one small problem: the salt line traps the demon, but it doesn’t expel it. Basically, they’re looking at a really violent, annoying, terrifying thing trapped in a life-size invisible jar. Naturally, this is no good.
To further their research, Jenny suggests they listen to the video of her demon self backwards so they might understand the demon’s language. "Demons love to speak backwards," Jenny announces like the Jacob Aranza of Sleepy Hollow. With an unrealistically quick flip of her wrist, Abbie reverses the audio and Ichabod identifies the Latin phrase. Demon Jenny repeats, "Antisif cannot be defeated." And since these folks are allergic to Google, they take the demon’s name, Antisif, and search through their wares (including the Washington Bible) and find his history. He’s a body-hopping demon (really?) and he’s the leader of the legion of Moloch’s minions (they need an acronym so, so badly.) The LMM (there, I did it myself) is charged with defeating disciples and because Irving is helping fight evil, he likely counts.
But because knowing details about Antisif’s particular brand of being a terrifying demon won’t actually help them stop him, they also find a drawing that suggests a French lantern -- one of which belonged to Benjamin Franklin -- could be the thing that extracts Antisif from his host. Jenny says she knows of one nearby, but she fails to mention up front that its nearby possessors are also heavily-armed, jumpy, distrusting "believers," or "end of days fanatics" preparing themselves for post-apocalyptic survival.
Before Abbie and her crew can reach the lantern, Demon Morales ups the ante. Irving has one final picturesque moment with his daughter, talking about her getting into a prestigious science program. It takes mere seconds for his ex-wife to read the anguish on his face and they both step outside to discuss it, leaving the demon alone with Macy while the ex Mrs. Irving complains that they’re being treated as if they’re broken.
It’s a valid point, but it doesn’t stop Irving from getting a call and giving Demon Morales even more time to make his move with Macy. When Irving reenters the house, he finds Morales potentially dead to Macy’s chair and in a panic, he runs into the living room to find his darling daughter possessed and floating in the middle of the room. Unlike the demon’s other hosts, Macy is thoroughly possessed, with the same extremely altered appearance Jenny had when she was possessed, likely meaning that Macy was also "marked."
And while Irving seems ill-equipped to hand seeing Macy even slightly possessed, the situation escalates when Demon Macy begins to contort her hands and body before killing the pastor and threatening to kill her mom. Antisif demands the Washington Bible in order to free Macy, so Irving calls Abbie and Ichabod to tell them he’s out of time and to warn them to stay away from the rectory, where Irving plans to take the demon. Because they have the Bible, they know that Irving likely meant for them to know so they can beat him there and keep the demon from actually taking hold of the Bible, which is basically and anti-apocalyptic demon handbook.
Before they can show up and play hero, however, our team has to get its hands on a demon-expelling lantern. Because Jenny has a record, Abbie insists that she be the one to steal the lantern from the end of days fanatics, and it all goes well at first. Abbie and Ichabod slip right into the bunker and it’s so easy, Ichabod has time to tell Abbie about Jenny’s self-sacrifice in order to protect her and share a moment with Abbie when their biggest obstacle to obtaining the weapon seems to be their lack of height. They cavort and grab the lantern only to walk right into a wall of Believers armed with guns and preposterously bright lights as soon as they exit the bunker.
And while these guys are very concerned with their own survival, they are not keen on helping others and demand their lantern back immediately. Abbie and Ichabod try to explain that they need the lantern to save a little girl’s life, but the believers argue that they’re all likely to lose their lives at any moment. Just as Ichabod expends his last plea, Jenny shows up like an action hero wielding matching Tomb Raider guns and demands they hand over the lantern. The leader laments the fact that Jenny is apparently the best shot in the group (bravo, Jenny) and allows them to take the lamp as long as they swear they’ll return it.
At the rectory, the demon is getting fed up because Irving can’t find the Bible. As a last ditch effort, Irving thinks sweet talk will help his young, handicapped daughter overpower the demon inside her. But that only works in fairy tales, and this is resolutely not one of those. Instead, the demon knocks both him and his ex out cold, just in time for Jenny and Abbie to arrive.
Antisif immediately recognizes his old mark and threatens to take her down when he’s done with Macy because he still hasn’t managed to kill Abbie. Now armed with the knowledge that her sister loves her so much, she was willing to go to jail over and over again to keep her safe, Abbie steps up with pent up rage. She demands the demon stop preying on children and takes her on instead -- a request Antisif is only too happy to comply with. However, the salt line has reared its head again and it’s keeping the demon away from Abbie and Jenny while Ichabod completes the circle behind the villain’s back. At this point, all Ichabod has to do is raise the lantern and say the right words and the demon is gone in less than 60 seconds.
But, of course, Abbie and Ichabod still have more supernatural problems to worry about. At Ichabod’s cabin, he’s determined that the Washington Bible was laid with 17th century invisible ink because of its smell, so he makes a concoction and paints it onto the pages. In the most heinous computer-added "glowing" letters, the Bible reveals a date: December 18, 1799. Ichabod notes that it’s in Washington’s handwriting -- because he just knew the guy that well -- but Abbie notes that Washington died four days before that on Dec. 14, 1799. No one seems to think of the notion that Washington simply wrote the date before he died and instead they both jump to the conclusion that he wrote the date after the history books say he died. He must have! Only a person who understands how calendars work could have written a future date in a book! Oh wait.
Still, that’s where the series leaves us for the week, so we’re expected to anticipate the reveal of some major conspiracy featuring Washington, the secret demon hunter. It would just be nice if this little discovery of theirs wasn’t so easy to poke a giant hole in.