SLEEPY HOLLOW 1.08 Recap: Necromancer

We commence with Ichabod and Abbie standing in front of Headless Hal (or Death), who is chained to the center of the Jefferson-designed Masonic cell.  They’re satisfied with their super-duper amazing progress on the Horseman front, so Abbie teaches Ichabod the fist bump.  He thinks it makes no sense, but he rolls with it.

Irving stands in the cell’s observation room, watching the Horseman sit under the UV lights.  He’s still reeling from the fact that all this occult stuff is real, but he presses forward and discusses what to do next—ideally, call NORAD and nuke the cell.  Abbie and Ichabod insist that Headless Hal is unkillable, as we’ve already seen.  They also suggest bringing Brooks in to talk to the Horseman, even though they’re not sure if Brooks is trustworthy.  So they head to the tunnels to look for him; Abbie requests that Irving fetch Jenny.  He notes that Jenny just got out of a psychiatric hospital, but leaves the tunnels to get her.

Meanwhile, two dudes, one black and one white, are deer-hunting in the woods when Evil!Shadowfax gallops their way.  The white dude speaks German into a cell phone and shoots his black hunting partner.  The Hessians are baaaaaaack.

Jenny is pissed when she’s summoned to the station, but Irving asks for her help because he can barely get a handle on all of this.  She’s reluctant to help until Irving receives a call about a robbery at a store owned by someone named Adams (meaningful name ahoy?).  Jenny knows the owner, having procured artifacts for him, so she goes to the store with Irving.  They find the place torn apart, but decide it looks staged.  Then Jenny shows Irving a secret room triggered by twisting a bust of Benjamin Franklin; that’s where they find an

While in the tunnels, Abbie and Ichabod find Brooks’ “closet,” but Brooks is nowhere to be found, so they wait for him.  They find a copy of The Metamorphosis in the closet, which leads Ichabod to namedropping Twain and Faulkner, whom he has read since waking up, and my inner English major goes wild, despite disliking Faulkner (dense =/= enjoyable).  Eventually, Brooks comes back just as Ichabod finds some sort of stone-ish chunk with Egyptian hieroglyphics on it.  Turns out that Brooks is Headless Hal’s Necromancer–the person who called him up and therefore the person who can speak for him.  Brooks says that confronting Death will haunt them forever, but agrees to serve as the Horseman’s voice.

Brooks sits in a chair in front of the Horseman, who refuses to speak.  Ichabod goads him while Abbie watches from the observation room.  Eventually the Horseman speaks briefly through Brooks in an unnaturally deep voice.  A necklace with a green stone drops from Headless Hal’s hand, taking Ichabod aback.  The necklace was Katrina’s given to her by her first fiancé, Abraham, Ichabod’s best friend after he joined the Revolutionary cause.  We then watch flashbacks of Ichabod helps Abraham choose the necklace, and then of Katrina receiving it, after which she confides to Ichabod that’s she’s breaking the engagement because she wishes to marry for love.  This isn’t about her love for Ichabod, it’s about her life.  Suuuuuuure, Katrina.  Ichabod tries to dissuade from this action, but she refuses.  Ichabod is still upset about this, evidently, and the Horseman is just beginning to take advantage of that.  Abbie does her best to keep Ichabod focused.

Meanwhile, Jenny and Irving have headed to the west end of Sleepy Hollow’s power grid.  Irving leaves to knock someone out, telling Jenny to stay put, but she runs off to tie up a few more guys.  Four more Hessians show up, claiming they have the four-to-two advantage.  Irving calls the head Hessian “Adolf” and tells him to count again; on that note, backup arrives!  Shortly after the tactical team shows up, the power grid explodes and the town’s power goes out.  This includes the Masonic cell’s UV lights.

Right around the time the power goes out, the Horseman begins to speak again, and he and Ichabod both gloat about which one “took” whom.  Ichabod gets a bit more unhinged during this exchange, and then Headless Hal accuses him of betraying and killing Abraham.  Ichabod informs Abbie that that is not what happened: he and Abraham were assigned to deliver the precursor to the Declaration of Independence, but Abraham was devastated about Katrina jilting him the night before.  Ichabod eventually confesses that Katrina admitted her love for him, and Abraham draws his swords.  Ichabod fights, though he clearly doesn’t want to.  When Ichabod is on the ground, someone shoots Abraham in the gut three times.  It’s Headless Hal!  Or someone in his mask, at least.  Other Hessians follow.  Abraham screams “LEAVE ME!”, so Ichabod runs deeper into the woods, Declaration-precursor in his hands, though he’s still worried about his friend.  Abbie believes Ichabod’s story, but asserts that he is “raw” and in no state to interrogate Headless Hal.  Ichabod insists that he’s “in control.”

Jenny and Irving arrive in the tunnels and convince Abbie to leave and head to the precinct while they deal with the power outage.  Abbie doesn’t want to leave Ichabod with the Horseman (who’s regaining his strength), but she eventually goes with them, telling Ichabod to decapitate Brooks if he has to.  As she leaves, Brooks pulls a medallion out of his body and summons a demon into the tunnels to attack Abbie, Jenny, and Irving; they vanquish it, though.  Brooks tells Ichabod he didn’t have a choice in summoning the demon; the actual scene left this point ambiguous.

After the demon incident, the Horseman breaks free from his chains and swordfights with Ichabod.  During the fight, Ichabod thinks of Abraham, who saw Moloch just before he died.  The Hessians gather around Abraham’s body, shave his head, brand him, and mask him, making Ichabod’s best friend into good ol’ Headless Hal.  Ichabod realizes this with horror, and the Horseman says that Moloch put Katrina’s soul in Purgatory/the Phantom Zone-Narnia Woods so that her soul will be his forever.  The Horseman moves forward to kill Ichabod, but Brooks jumps in and magics himself and the Horseman away.

Ichabod relates all of this to Abbie in the Archives, and he goes on about how he created his own nemesis and how Abraham’s arrogance was a mirror of his own; Abbie thinks Ichabod is being to hard on himself and claims that all his talk about ruining Abraham’s honor is “so eighteenth century.”  Then they realize that Brooks summoned Headless Hal away because Moloch doesn’t want the Horseman to kill Ichabod (not at this point, anyway).  They also realize the Horseman’s weakness: Katrina.  Ichabod says they need her now more than ever.  Roll credits.

*

This episode didn’t feel as involving as the last two, to me.  Perhaps this is because I never wanted a backstory for the Horseman; when I saw this episode’s promo, I wondered what they would interrogate him about, since he’s a looming figure with no inner self or emotions.  I wish we’d met Abraham in a previous episode, so that we could become invested in his friendship with Ichabod.  When it’s shown in just one episode, it feels like the writers were scrambling to think up explanations for how the Horseman got that way.  I’d prefer him to just be Death and that’s that.  Oh, well.

And this revelation make Katrina even more of an object.  She’s the object of both of their affections, which is true to the original story, but also limits her character severely.

Good things in this episode: Abbie, Jenny, Irving, Brooks, and fist bumping.  All of those are excellent, and Abbie remains one of the most watchable and dynamic female characters on network television.

Sleepy Hollow airs on Monday nights on FOX.