Sleepy Hollow: The Lesser Key of Solomon (1×04)
Synopsis: Jenny escapes from the psychiatric institute and Abbie and Ichabod must track her down while fighting off a new threat from the Hessians, German soldiers loyal to the British crown.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Sleepy Hollow opens on a flashback of soldiers being ordered to bring back the crate and Crane alive. It’s a German soldier they’re after, who begins chanting or praying something and then there’s an explosion. Back in the present, Crane’s hilarious yesteryear time period is poked fun at while he’s on the phone with OnStar. Abbie interrupts to tell him that Jenny has escaped the institution she was in and she’s trying to get Captain Irving to let her have a head start on the search. It turns out that Jenny is far away in a bar, asking for her things from the bartender, Wendel, who takes them from a safe for her.
Elsewhere, a shadowy figure gets a phone call from a disguised voice telling him about Item 37. It informs the man that she has escaped and she knows where said Item is. He’s tasked with getting her and the item and told that a “clean-up crew” would assist him. Soon after, the man shows up in the bar to threaten Wendel Clark, who takes out a gun to defend himself, but is easily tossed over the bar. The men hold Wendel down and proceed to torture him for the information they are seeking. Eventually, Captain Irving and the police are called when poor Wendel’s tortured body is found – his head was cut off and his body hung up on the wall.
Meanwhile, Crane and Abbie are still trying to track down Jenny. She’s still on the move, being shown at a truck stop with a big bag of guns. Abbie and Crane visit one of Jenny’s foster moms. When she is less than helpful, Abbie threatens legal action against the woman, who is obviously not caring for the multiple children she has living with her for the state money she receives. The woman finally relents, telling Abbie about Trout Lake, where Jenny used to go. On their way out, Abbie tells the woman to expect a call from Family Services.
Up at the cabin, Abbie showcases some of her less than legal skills by picking the lock on the cabin. When they begin to look around, Abbie realizes that Corbin stayed in Jenny’s life as well from the pictures around. Jenny comes out of hiding and points a gun at Abbie, with Abbie pointing one right back at her and Crane stuck in the middle of their arguing. Jenny tells them that the night before Corbin died, he visited her and explained to her that he felt Death coming for him and that if that turned out to be true, she had to come to the cabin and get something out of the safe. When things cool down between them, they all work together to get a sextant out of the wall.
Crane recognizes it as something from the past. He explained that the Redcoats had acquired a weapon that would have turned the war in their favor. In the past, Crane had started the Boston Tea Party in an attempt to get the device. But there was a Hessian soldier – the same kind of soldier as the Horseman – guarding it and he took his own life to save the weapon. Only Ichabod survived and he went to make sure the crate was safely restored. When they set up the sextant as a projector, it shows an old map of Sleepy Hollow on the wall.
Before they can study the map too long, a laser pointer appears on the map and someone begins shooting at them. It’s the same man from earlier, who had tortured and killed Wendel. In the fire fight, someone steals the project from them, but not before Jenny stops one man from leaving with the rest. Disarming him, she notes it an Uzi pistol with military specs. When he doesn’t answer Abbie’s questions, Jenny wants to torture the answers from him and they argue about methods. Crane checks the man and finds a tattoo on him.
He recognizes the symbol and the man as being part of the Reinhesses, of the 5th Batallion, better known as a Shadow Warrior. Crane reveals another talent of his – an ability to speak German – and speaks to the man about The Lesser Key of Solomon. It’s a book of black magic, filled with rituals to conjure up 72 demons, that was found by the Knights Templar of the Crusades. He’s explaining to them that they ingratiated themselves into Sleepy Hollow – he himself is a music teacher.
Elsewhere, Irving identified the man and is searching through his home. Down in the basement, Irving and his men find all sorts of strange things around, but obviously he’s not there. He tells Crane that he’s unsure about how many there are, being a part of a sleeper cell, but that he knows who Abbie, Jenny, and Crane are. His name is Gunther and he talks about the demon that Abbie and Jenny saw in the woods. He tells them that his brothers have the map; that the doorway will open now that he’s completed his task. He speaks a last bit of German and then takes the cyanide pill concealed in his mouth, killing him. Before he dies, he tells them, “Moloch shall rise.”
At odds once more, Jenny wants to follow this lead alone, while Abbie wants to tell everyone and get help. Crane is busy drawing a crude map of what they briefly saw earlier. The Hessians are hunting down The Lesser Key of Solomon while armoring up and going to the same location as Jenny, Abbie, and Crane. In the car, Crane asks Jenny where she learned to fight. She explains that she was a traveling freedom fighter of sorts and Crane is pretty impressed. Abbie isn’t the only Mills sister he likes.
The Hessians begin the process of summoning Moloch when Abbie, Jenny, and Crane find them. When Abbie makes herself known, the men try to kill her and Jenny jumps to her defense. They begin shooting back and forth as the summoned demons are trying to get out of the molten portal spilling over onto the floor. Crane saves Jenny from being thrown to the demons and then is attacked by a Hessian. When Jenny is threatened with death again, Abbie closes The Lesser Key of Solomon and throws the book into the demon pit, destroying it. The pit closes and the men have no choice but to leave, they’ve lost.
Later, Jenny is sitting in an empty room at a table, with handcuffs on. Abbie comes into the room and uncuffs her as Jenny questions her relationship with Ichabod. Abbie explains to her about the two Witnesses from the Bible as she’s trying to make amends. Jenny says she’s going to continue to punish Abbie forever because of how Abbie turned her back on her. Trying to undo past mistakes, Abbie tells her that they lost everything that day in the forest, but that she sees Jenny for who she really is and she’s proud of her. She offers Jenny a conservatorship, where they might be able to get Jenny out of the psychiatric facility in less than six months. Abbie thinks that together they can find answers. Jenny explains to her that Corbin said she’d be back when she was ready and looking for forgiveness.
English