Sleepy Hollow: Blood Moon (1×02)
Synopsis: Abbie and Ichabod continue to unravel the secrets of Sleepy Hollow, a surprising foe reappears, and new dangers are introduced.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Four Horsemen chase Ichabod Crane through the woods, as he finds himself trapped the branches and roots of the trees come up around him and pull him underground into the cave he woke up in. His wife, Katrina, tells him they’re safe there, but that he’s been charged to a larger purpose. She warns him that an army of evil will make way for the arrival of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and tells him that the first dark spirit rises with the blood moon – she is one of us, you must stop her before she kills again. And then he wakes up from his dream.
Abbie is discussing the Headless Horseman with Captain Irving, who tells her that the other officers who witnessed the shootout have recanted their statements about the Horseman. She asks about Brooks, reminding him that something “snapped his head back like a pez dispenser.” Captain Irving allows her to watch a haunting video of Andy running his own head into the door and killing himself while he was the only one in the cell. Abbie remains unconvinced and says Crane agrees with her. Captain Irving explains to her that Crane has objective transference. Because the human brain is limitless in its ability to trick itself, Crane has been able to convince himself that his story is true.
Meanwhile, Crane is trying to figure out the shower and all of the other modern conveniences – with only moderate success. Abbie visits him and listens to some of his constitutional rights debate about being held prisoner as a witness. She brings him donut holes and he tells her about the dream. In the car, he complains about the food price and taxes. She asks him how he didn’t know his wife was a witch. He claims it was to protect everyone and they banter some more. They’re headed to August Corbin’s funeral and Abbie is remembering him while Crane stands off to the side in a weird Fabio way before going to visit Katrina’s grave and realizing her message referenced a witch.
Elsewhere, Brooks wakes up with his head bent backwards. The same demon shows up and fixes his head – kind of – there’s still too much neck skin because of how it stretched out. Andy coughs up a necklace and is told by the demon, who is speaking Greek, to release someone. In the cemetery, he puts the necklace on a gravestone. As the moon comes out, the necklace smokes and catches fire. When it goes out, a woman is in its place. Andy drives away from the cemetery and pulls a man over. The man asks the question we all want to know – what’s wrong with his neck??? Andy makes sure his name is Jeremy Steven Furth and then tells him to know that it wasn’t personal before leaving. When the man’s car won’t start, the witch jumps onto his vehicle and the whole car explodes on the inside.
Crane is explaining to Abbie that witches draw their power from the moon cycle as they’re trying to locate the witch. While they’re searching, Crane tries to comfort Abbie about Corbin’s death. She shares with Crane that he helped her turn her life around after the incident with the trees; he was the father figure she’d needed. They get a call for a suspicious vehicle and it ends up being Jeremy Furth, burned up in his vehicle. In another awesome bit of police protocol CRANE GOT TO POKE AT THE BODY. Because that’s legal.
He suddenly realizes that he knows who did this, sharing a story with Abbie. One night his regiment was returning to camp near Albany when they found bodies everywhere, huge destruction, men turned to ash. The strange murders became more frequent and Serilda of Abbadon, a high priestess was blamed. Washington thought that the Redcoats made a deal with her coven and Abbie tells him about Corbin’s files mentioning two covens in Sleepy Hollow.
They go back to search through Corbin’s files, only to find that his office has been cleaned out. Abbie goes to find where the files were moved to while Crane stays behind. He’s confronted by a man named Luke rather aggressively – he turns out to be Abbie’s ex. She questioned him about his wife, so Crane tries to wheedle some information out of her about Luke. It plays to their bantering relationship. Abbie tells him they can’t get to Corbin’s files in the Armory, but Crane knows another way in! Going into the basement of the police station, he breaks down a wall that leads to a secret tunnel. He remembers it from the war, it allowed them to resupply without being detected.
Going through the tunnel, they get to a part that is piled high with witches bones. He doesn’t think Katrina’s bones have ended up here, but he’s not sure. Inspecting the crates they come across, Crane finds man with gunpowder in them before they get to the files. Crane realizes that Abbadon is Romani Greek, revealing that he has a photographic memory for sights, sounds, and smells. The Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart coven weakened Serilda so that she could be captured and killed. As she was dying, she told the people who burned her at the stake that the ashes of their ancestors would be hers. The magistrate who sentenced her had the last name Furth – like the first victim. They also realize the magistrate had a son and daughter; the daughter marrying into the Hemmingtons.
As they’re busily searching through the files for answers, Cho finds a child on the playground who informs him, after questioning, that his father is dead. He asks the boy’s name, Kyle Hemmington, and he tells him, “It’s a nice name. I’m sorry it had to be yours.” He then tells the boy to go inside. Kyle wakes up later to a cat in his bed and begins searching for his mom in the house. Serilda grabs hold of him and he screams, waking up his mother just as Abbie and Crane show up. Kyle tells his mother about the witch and Crane asks if something was taken from their house. Kyle’s mom reveals that his dad’s ashes were taken and that Kyle is actually adopted, so the witch did not need him.
Because Serilda has the ashes, they leave the Hemmingtons’ house and try to figure out what to do next. Crane realizes that they have to kill her and that she’s going back to the tunnel to get her bones. Already there, Andy is digging up her bones for her as she prepares a ritual to get her body back. Serilda is resurrected in her body as they get there and begin a shoot-out. In a comical moment, Crane shoots one bullet and drops the gun – Abbie has to explain to him that there was more than one bullet in the gun and return it to him.
Serilda speaks to them, revealing that it was Katrina who bound her power – claiming that Katrina is now sealed in the world between worlds. Crane throws a torch onto the gunpowder boxes and Serlida explodes. He thinks that if Katrina is imprisoned somewhere, she can be freed. Abbie and Crane banter some more and are safe from Serilda, with no explanation given for you know – a giant tunnel explosion under the police station.
Later, Abbie re-opens Corbin’s empty office and hallucinates him sitting at his office desk. She tells him if he’s going to haunt her, he needs to be helpful. She accuses him of keeping secrets and he tells her not to be afraid of number 49 – that’s where she’ll find she’s not alone. Crane interrupts and she looks away, only to look back and find the empty office again. Elsewhere, her sister Jenny, is seen in a mental institution. She’s working out and only pretends to take the pills an orderly gives her. Going back to working out, a demon is seen coming up behind her and she startles, ending the episode.
Are you sold on Sleepy Hollow? We got more of John Cho and Clancy Brown than I thought we would, so anything that can keep them on the show keeps me interested. I’m still tuning in to get some of my questions answered and I’m actually pretty excited to meet Jenny (hopefully next week)!
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