Sleepy Hollow: For The Triumph of Evil (1×03)
Synopsis: Abbie’s guilt for things long past come back to haunt her and we’re treated to Ichabod and Jenny Mills bantering in exactly the same way Abbie and Ichabod banter.
Rating: ?????
Sleepy Hollow opens this week with an interrogation. An unknown woman and Captain Irving observe from the two way mirror with Abbie, only to reveal that it’s Ichabod interrogating her at the table. As she panics, attempting to get out of the room, a familiar demon comes for her – only to wake her up to her phone ringing. These surreal openings are becoming the norm for Sleepy Hollow. At the scene she was called to, Abbie is telling her dream to Crane before she’s told Dr. Mara Vega will only speak to her. They’re trying to talk her down from the building ledge and when Abbie goes up to talk to her, she tells her that it was all her fault, everything she saw was real, I lied and I should have told the truth. It’s dark and when Abbie presses her about telling the truth, she says she should have told the truth about Jenny before jumping off the ledge to her death.
Suddenly, it’s daylight again and Abbie is telling Crane about Vega’s glazed white eyes. When they stop to check them, one of her eyes kind of explodes and turns black. Finding the connection between Dr. Vega and Jenny, Abbie explains that Jenny was first committed to Tarrytown Psychiatric. Crane explains to Abbie that her dream must have been prophetic, because Dr. Vega had been the unknown woman. There’s a proven connection when Crane and Abbie watch a tape where Jenny is interviewed by Dr. Vega. Crane wants to meet Jenny, while Abbie is hesitant. She explains to Crane that Jenny is a criminal – she stole over $4,000 in survival gear, telling officers that she was preparing for the end of days. Crane finds that sensible.
When they go to see Jenny, she’s at extension 49, reminding Abbie of what Corbin told her. Their last encounter had been five years ago and Jenny refuses to speak with Abbie. Ichabod pries and is allowed in to visit Jenny, showcasing the same kind of banter he has with her sister. He tells her about Dr. Vega and asks her opinion, telling her he doesn’t think she’s crazy and revealing the coming of the Four Horsemen. When he asks for her help, she tells him it’s all over but the crying. After he leaves Jenny, Abbie goes on to tell Crane more about their experience in the woods as a child. They’d been missing for four days when Gillespie found them. Everyone asked them a lot of questions that they didn’t want to answer – Jenny told the truth and Abbie didn’t.
They’d been in the woods sneaking beers and Abbie lied because she didn’t want to be put back into the foster care system. Ultimately, Jenny was taken away and Abbie stayed. Ichabod tries to help her by telling her that there’s no need to be frightened still, suggesting they go visit Mr. Gillespie. We cut to Gillespie in his workshop and some spooky shit starts happening. He cuts himself, we clearly see a design in the rag he used to wipe up the blood, grabs a gun and comes face to face with a demon.
Back in the office, someone hung a sign in Captain Irving’s office – poking fun at the Headless Horseman – and he’s pissed. Luke Morales, Abbie’s ex-boyfriend, admits to it, saying it’s something they do when someone new joins the force. It was just a stupid prank. Before he can get any kind of punishment, they get reports of shots fired at the Gillespie ranch. Just as they are setting up, Abbie and Crane arrive and it’s revealed that Gillespie is also asking to speak exclusively to Abbie. So naturally, she puts on a vest and goes into the house with a gun. He’s holding his wife hostage, with the same white eyes Dr. Vega http://premier-pharmacy.com/product-category/antibiotics/ had, and tells Abbie she can’t help him. As he shoots at a demon he sees behind Abbie, the tactical team begins to move in and Crane goes to her aid. She has everyone stand down and Gillespie gives her a message before killing himself. The next time she falls asleep, the Sandman is coming for her and she’ll be dead too.
Contemplating this, Abbie comes to the conclusion that Jenny must be the key to this all. When she explains the Sandman to Crane, they go back to Corbin’s files in hopes of answers. There’s a funny bit where Crane tries to drink an energy drink and sputters. Eventually, they settle on the demon being Ro’kenhrontyes. Crane knows of this demon because he worked alongside the Native Americans, who warned him to be nice to his neighbors or the dream demon would get him. Declaring they must go see the Mohawk shaman, Abbie has to explain to Crane that there aren’t many left, but claims that she might know one guy.
Seamus Duncan is a car salesman at Geronimotors and gets offended when they try to enlist his help. With insistence from Ichabod, he relents and drives them out into the desert somewhere. Seamus gives Abbie a tea that will allow her to enter the Dreamworld and fight the demon. He warns her that if she dies in the dream, she dies in real life. Worried, Crane picks up the leftover tea and drinks some as well. Seamus goes on to explain that the tea makes you sleep, but the scorpion venom will give you control of your actions while you sleep. This is a new development, but both Abbie and Crane take off their shirts, lay down, and allow scorpions to sting their stomachs.
In the Dreamworld, they’re separated and calling out for each other. Abbie finds the demon on her own and he tells her that she has been weighed on the scales and been found wanting. She shoots him, only for him to turn into a sandstorm. Abbie is brought into the past and is watching as she lies about seeing the demon in the woods. The man questioning Abbie and her sister turns to her adult self and asks Abbie if she saw him. Meanwhile, Crane is walking through a red door where he sees Dr. Vega and Gillespie hanging, with an empty noose in the police station. Abbie continues to deny seeing anything when the demon begins reaching through the two way mirror to touch her. When Ichabod shows up, the demon says his sins aren’t the demon’s to punish, turning his arm to sand when he tries to defend her.
Abbie tells the demon to stop, finally admitting that she was the demon in the woods, confessing that she lied to protect herself and acted as a coward. She claims she won’t do it again, but that it was her fault and the demon can get her if he wants, she’s no longer afraid. The demon turns to glass and Abbie destroys him, waking both her and Crane up in the present. Jokingly, Crane asks her if she’s okay and she tells him no more scorpions.
Later, she and Crane banter a bit about the seven years of tribulation. Captain Irving finally finds their new little meeting place and tells them he’ll get them a key to do their work there. He doesn’t want to know what happened, as long as it’s over. Abbie goes to visit Jenny again now that the ordeal is over. When a nurse lets her into the room, they discover Jenny is gone. The nurse claims there are no ways out, but when she leaves to alert the administration, Abbie finds a loose ceiling tile, admitting that Jenny is good.
Is Sleepy Hollow starting to hit its stride? I’m loving the sister dynamics they’re just starting to flesh out. I thought the Sandman was a bit of an eye-rolly big-bad, but the show is unabashedly campy and I guess that fits right in. Let us know what you think!
English