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As Sleepy Hollow barrels towards its conclusion, Abbie and Ichabod are again confronted with the possibility that Ichabod will betray his partner in evil ass-kicking when they learn that Washington's Bible is meant to lead them to a map that will then lead them to purgatory. That's right: they've got a map… to another map.
But this week's journey isn't that simple. Andy Brooks has also returned and he begs Abbie to hand over the map so that they can sit up high somewhere in Moloch's new order and that Ichabod will betray her. She's not really down with the new order destroying the earth, so she declines and reconvenes with Ichabod, albeit with slight apprehension about the betrayal prophecy that keeps rearing its head.
At the rectory, Ichabod has solved a little riddle that's led him to Lazarus in the Bible, where he applies more secret ink decoding goo and reveals a letter to him from George Washington. Apparently, George did write "December 18" on December 18 because he was resurrected in order to draft a very useful map of the path from the living world to purgatory. Ichabod quickly realizes—because he's obsessed with the concept—that finding purgatory will let them bring Katrina back.
Rather quickly, Abbie and Ichabod put together the pieces and find that the Sleepy Hollow reverend, who was a Warlock, was the one to resurrect Washington with the beads he regularly wore. Naturally, they dig him up and have Henry Parish sin eat the beads, since only something dark could have created beads that could resurrect someone. The sin eating process burns his hand to a crisp and almost kills him in addition to bringing out more shatter-prone demons we saw in past episodes, but he does see a vision of the reverend ferrying something to a secret spot along a creek.
Abbie is convinced that they don't need this map and that it will create more problems instead of solving them, but Ichabod thinks that that is exactly why they need to find it. They continue on and realize, thanks to Ichabod's masonic knowledge, that the map would have been buried with Washington and that to avoid it being found, they would have placed Washington in a secret grave.
They find their way to the island in Henry's vision and while Ichabod finds the grave, Henry tells Abbie the prophecy about her and Ichabod could be real, but that they can avoid it coming true. Ichabod then finds the stone that leads to Washington's grave after a little expert twisting and a magical door just opens up in the floor and beckons them underground. Once there, Ichabod identifies booby traps to avoid and he and Abbie figure out the trues resting place of the president. His coffin—which looks like a U.S. senator's wet dream—appears and they grab the map from his skeleton hands just as Brooks closes off the entrance and descends upon them.
He's been made into some sort of slimy cone-head demon dressed like Neo from The Matrix and he grabs Abbie by the neck to attempt to get the map from her. She speaks to Andy and manages to get him to overpower the demon long enough to get away, but not before she "releases" Andy by poking a ridiculously easy hole in Demon Andy's head. They manage to escape with a minor hiccup when Demon Andy rises again, and once outside, Abbie begs Ichabod to destroy the map.
She knows that it's his way back to his wife, but she says that if it can help Moloch win the war, it's for the greater good that he destroys it. He does, but fails to remind her about his photographic memory, which he uses later to draw the map anew.
While all this is going on, Irving is forced to turn himself in for the murders possessed Macy committed in order to save Macy from being arrested since her DNA is everywhere. Of course this means that going into the final episode of the season, Team Ichabod is already down player. Odds of survival aren't looking so hot.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!As Sleepy Hollow barrels towards its conclusion, Abbie and Ichabod are again confronted with the possibility that Ichabod will betray his partner in evil ass-kicking and this time, Abbie's the one who gets the warning.
We open on Abbie's apartment—apparently she does actually have one and vegetables exist there—where she's cooking and leaving the most Ichabod voicemail she can possibly muster. He texts her back with an autocorrect flub fit for a Buzzfeed listicle (how topical! LOL! Sideways man's face!) and all that mirth comes crashing down when she realizes that Andy Brooks has found his way into her humble abode.
Of course, Brooks is never just there to do Moloch's bidding. His messages are always tinged with his undying love for Abbie and so he tells her why Moloch is after Washington's Bible—the artifact Ichabod is presently pouring over in their secret hideout—but rather the map that the bible serves as a map towards. Hey, redundancy. Sitting cuffed to the radiator, Brooks tries desperately to convince Abbie that if she gets him the bible she'll have a seat in the new order. He fails to mention the part where the new order means the destruction of civilization, so Abbie says no dice. His last ditch effort is to bring up the prophecy once more: Ichabod will betray her (and oh, by the way, no one will ever love her like Brooks does, he adds). Clearly rattled, Abbie stupidly turns her back to call Ichabod. The part where undead Brooks has jelly bones comes in handy and he escapes the handcuffs while she's talking to Ichabod's voicemail.
With no Brooks and Ichabod's inability to answer phone calls, Abbie heads to their secret lair where Ichabod is pouring over Washington's bible, trying to understand his meaning. He remembers back to a meeting with Washington when he said "Good will always rise like Lazarus." Clearly, he wants Ichabod to check out the Lazarus portion of the bible.
By the time Abbie gets there, Ichabod first manages to blame his phone for his inability to answer her calls (see: the trick played by every spoiled teenager the world over) and demands a new one. She offers to switch temporarily so that Ichabod can attempt impossible conversation with a Siri clone. But then, they get to the real reason for her visit: Brooks said Ichabod would betray her and he knew everything about her early family life. She swears her fear surrounding the encounter is Brooks' level of knowledge, but it's clear she's starting to worry about her fellow Witness.
With Ichabod's new Lazaraus discovery, they flip to that section of the bible and douse it in more secret ink elixir to reveal yet another message from George Washington. As it turns out, Washington did write "December 18" on December 18, four days after his death because he was brought back to life that day (let's spare ourselves the complicated, witchy details of how) to fulfill a mission to draft a map from the world of the living to purgatory. This piques Ichabod's interest because as it just so happens, the wife he's been trying to retrieve all season is in purgatory. Now isn't that swell and totally uncomplicated?
Nope. It's actually sort of complicated. Abbie fears that Katrina's fate will cloud his judgment and cause him to betray her, but he swears it's not possible and warns her not to let her fear of his betrayal cloud her judgment. After their clarity pact, they realize that the reverend/ warlock who died in episode one was present at Washington's resurrection. Through a speedy "logical" puzzle, they realize that his beads were part of the resurrection and that to perform such a dark art, the beads must be full of sin. Naturally, they'll need their handy sin eater to pull all that darkness out and tell them whatever random information they seek so that they can find the map. So basically, it's a totally fool proof plan.
Meanwhile, trouble is brewing at the station and under the station. Irving is being interrogated by his superiors about the deaths of Morales and his priest, and he can't give them answers because most cops don't take "a demon did it" as a valid confession. Irving simply tells his boss the culprit was "evil," but he's looking rather trapped.
In the tunnels, Brooks is prepared to turn fully against Abbie now that she rejected his help. He bags to be made Moloch's weapon and apparently the answer is a swarm of flying creatures not seen in nature picking him and spinning him into a cocoon so that later, he can emerge a slimy, angry, naked conehead with a mission.
In the park, Abbie and Ichabod meet Henry Parish so that they can dig up the reverend and steal his beads. Unfortunately, the beads are rather resistant to Henry's touch and they burn his hand while Henry notes that the beads were clearly used for something unnatural—yeah, resurrecting a dead president is pretty unnatural. Abbie is convinced the beads are fighting them for good reason and begs Henry to stop, but he says that this is a way and that it clearly can't be easy to gain secrets on the other side. He reaches back in for another burn and this time holds on until it expels him and almost kills him. Unfortunately, he barely saw anything Ichabod didn't already know, except that after Washington returned, the reverend can be seen on a boat heading down a river.
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Now Abbie is really convinced they're going down the wrong path and she pleads with Ichabod, telling him that the plans may have shifted in the 200 years that Ichabod was buried. This map mission seems too dangerous—I'm sorry, what? This is the girl who carried a decoy Headless Horseman skull and almost let him trap her, but she's scared of some hexed beads? Then she says that the time may come when Ichabod might have to choose between Katrina's fate and the fate of the world and that she hopes he'll choose the greater good. She doesn't say it, but it's clear she's also worried he'll choose Katrina's fate over her. She doesn't totally get an answer and they're interrupted by the creepy dark easily-shattering shadow monsters that once showed up in the Sleepy Hollow tunnels. They defeat them and Ichabod says Abbie was right, the map is more dangerous than Washington imagined, but that that is exactly why they need to find it. And unfortunately for Abbie, Ichabod is probably right.
Back on track, they deduce that the map should have been buried with Washington. They see that there are various Washington burial sites including a tomb in Washington that's never been used and they realize that the reverend would have used a third, secret grave if he was burying something as precious as this map. Suddenly, the vision of the reverend in a boat is useful and they rather easily figure out the secret island where dead Washington was headed.
After Ichabod complains about the concept of Facebook now that he's seen it on Abbie's phone –again, with the ridiculous cell phone reception in typically reception barren places – Ichabod says he'll just need a bit to find the grave site. While he searches, Henry and Abbie chat and he tells her that there is a prophecy that says one witness will betray the other when peace is found and that afterward, both will die. He says it was rejected by many bible translators and that prophecies have a habit of becoming true "only if you let them." This eases her fears momentarily and just in time for Ichabod to declare he's already found the gravesite – so much for super secret.
The grave is marked with a stone rife with old Masonic clues. He knows to turn the rock and wait as the ground slowly begins to rumble and an automatic door opens in the ground. They've done it – and with almost no elbow grease or toiling over dusty books.
Back in semi-reality, Irving's bosses are taking DNA samples from Macy because DNA was found on the dead pastor's neck. Irving questions this decision considering Macy is 13 and handicapped, but his boss simply notes that it's a better lead than "evil." Touché. They'll get a warrant and arrest her as soon as the DNA comes back. Irving stands tough, but there's no real way around this, except to turn himself in. He does so by episode's end, meaning there's one less good guy left in the fight against evil that will surely rear its head episode.
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In the giant hole in the ground, Ichabod and Abbie search for Washington's actual coffin—the grave is something of a crypt, with marble walls and multiple carvings and statues. The pyramid is the decoy and Ichabod urges Abbie not to touch it for fear it will ignite with any tampering. A few clues lead them to a chamber with Washington's body in it, housed in a coffin that looks like a senator's wet dream. It opens on its own as torches automatically light and Ichabod sees the map curled up in Skeleton Washington's hands.
They're home free except that Brooks—in a fancy new outfit that must have been inspired by The Matrix's Neo—has blocked the entrance and is coming after Abbie to obtain the map for Moloch. He practically melts Abbie's gun, throws Ichabod against the wall, and somehow causes the wall torches to fall and ignite the marble floor. Right. This leaves Abbie to defeat Brooks herself, so she plays on his love for her as an attempt to draw the real Brooks out of his demon possession. She does it for a moment and he tells her to destroy the map because Moloch needs it to win the war. Then he asks if she ever felt anything for him, would she please release him. She pokes demon Brooks in the head with a pipe and somehow totally defeats him like so many party balloons. Way. Too. Easily.
With the exit still blocked, they find a back away out, but not before the Demon half of Demon Brooks rises and comes after them. Remembering the tampering equals booby trap rule, Abbie shoots the lever on the pyramid-shaped decoy grave and causes the cavern to cave in on Demon Brooks. She, Henry, and Ichabod escape and Abbie conveys Brooks' message: destroy the damn demon map.
Ichabod is wary—this is the only lead he's had on finding Katrina all season—but she promises she'll help him find another way to save Katrina and he burns the map. In turn, he promises that they will not betray each other as the prophecy says because they have free will.
The problem with that rosy solution and display of friendship is that Ichabod has that pesky photographic memory, so that when he's home alone, crying over Katrina, he just reaches into that well and draws the map he promised Abbie he'd destroyed. Could Ichabod really be as weak as Abbie fears?
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