SLEEPY HOLLOW Recap: 1.13 Bad Blood

FINALE TIME!

This half of the two-parter begins with Irving walking slowly to be arrested for Jones’ and the priest’s respective murders, and that’s the last we see of Irving this season.  Ta-ta for now, Irving!  You shall be missed!

Meanwhile, Ichabod sits in Corbin’s cabin and meditates on Katrina.  This leads him to draw a map that he and Abbie burned in a previous episode.  He does this from memory because he’s a genius like that. You go, Ichabod!  Four for you, Ichabod!

Speaking of fours, Moloch raises something or someone in the woods, between the four trees where Abbie and Jenny first saw him.  We catch a glimpse of a fiery night, who shall henceforth be christened Fiery Frank.  Then Henry Parrish wakes up looking alarmed.

Then Ichabod decides to take a walk.  He enters…some sort of time-bending distention of a Revolutionary War battle, like the Roanoke situation?  Nope, it’s simply a reenactment*, where he meets a cute young woman whom he mistakes for Katrina, since she’s about the right size.  This girl thinks Ichabod is part of the reenactment, like she is, and she compliments his clothes; he returns her flattery by pointing out that the battle they’re fighting a non-Revolutionary battle with the wrong regiment.  He’s also flummoxed by the idea of reenacting a war for fun.  The reenactment girl offers him a uniform, but then he gets a call from Parrish.

*This scene makes me flashback to middle school because my 7th grade social studies teacher was one of those reenactors.  Once, I walked into class a few minutes late and he was in his Revolutionary War garb.  The room fell silent and it was sooooo awkward.  That memory makes me want more of Ichabod’s thoughts on reenactments for some reason.  Ichabod should also visit a Renaissance Faire, just because.  It’s Ichabod.

Ichabod meets with Abbie, Jenny, and Parrish in the cabin and they talk about how Moloch is trying to raise Fiery Frank/War to start the apocalypse on the thirteenth anniversary of Abbie and Jenny witnessing Moloch in the woods.  Ichabod realizes that witchcraft is the only answer, which means they have to use the map to get to Katrina in Purgatory.  Abbie’s mad that Ichabod didn’t share his eidetic-memory-related map-recreation skills with her sooner, but she agrees that they should use the recreated map to find the spot in which they can enter purgatory.  Jenny is ambivalent about this plan because she fears Moloch, but Abbie reminds her that they once made themselves safe from their parents woes with a discarded dollhouse they found in a dumpster.  Believe it or not, that memory is relevant.  Abbie and Jenny bond and hug; then Abbie goes off to the woods with Ichabod and Parrish, while Jenny goes to search through Corbin’s tapes about meeting with Reverend Knapp (the decapitated reverend/warlock from the pilot episode).

In the woods, Parrish warns Abbie and Ichabod that Purgatory will tempt them with food and drink, which they must not eat.  Then he admits he’s come to care for both of them because they’ve given him reason to hope for the first time in years.  After that little moment, Abbie and Ichabod chant their way into purgatory.

Abbie wakes up in the cabin with a bandage on her head.  Corbin and Andy greet her.  She claims they’re dead, but they laugh it off, saying she got a concussion during a training exercise at Quantico.  They brought her home to recover, but she’ll go back soon and they’re both just really, really proud of her.  She hugs Corbin and says that there’s something she should remember.  Then Corbin breaks out the apple pie a la mode, his very favorite dessert.

Meanwhile, Ichabod stands outside somewhere calling “Lef-tenant.”  He’s in a black, Hogwartsian robe and a funky wig.  He enters a building, where he’s greeted with applause.  This is probably Oxford, then.  And holy crap, there’s Victor Garber!  Ichabod calls him “Father.”  Okay, then.  Victor Garber tells Ichabod that he was a great war hero for the triumphant British at the battle of Yorktown, with praise from General Cornwallis himself.  He also earned a full professorship, so his dad is just really, really proud of him.  Ichabod and the audience are both like, “Wait, WHAT?!”, but Victor Garber and the other dudes laugh it off.  Then they break out the drinks!

Just as Abbie’s about to eat and Ichabod’s about to drink, they remember each other.  Abbie states that this isn’t real, so Corbin freaks out and tells Abbie to “Eat the damn pie!”**  He carries his head in his hands and Andy’s neck snaps back before he fades away.  Ichabod says that his father “disavowed” him in real life when he joined the Revolution, so he refuses to drink, so his dad launches into the actual disownment speech and them becomes a frothing demon before he fades away.

**The first time anyone has had to command someone to eat pie in fiction or reality.

Then Ichabod wanders among the lost souls (including a crying faceless woman that will haunt my dreams) until he runs into Abbie.  They fist-bump to confirm their identities and then they make their way to Purgatory’s version of Trinity Church.  Katrina waits inside, but says they shouldn’t have returned.  She can’t leave because that will destroy the walls between Purgatory and Earth unless another soul would be willing to take her place.  Abbie volunteers.  Ichabod is against that, but Abbie insists, saying she’ll get back to Earth somehow, but right now, she needs to face Moloch.  Katrina gives Abbie a medallion blessed by her coven, the Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart***, that offers protection from Moloch.  Then Ichabod teaches Katrina the gateway chant and they exit purgatory.

***Best.  Coven Name.  Ever.

In Purgatory, Abbie runs into Moloch.  He attacks her, but the medallion burns him, so Abbie breaks free and runs into her younger self, who saw Moloch in the woods.  This younger self is Abbie’s memory of that day thirteen years ago.  She never actually blacked out, but saw something more than just Moloch.  She asks her younger self what it was.

Meanwhile, Jenny’s research into Corbin’s tapes leads her to an abandoned nameless church.  The sign and the most recent deed to the church are both missing, so its name is unknown.  This is part of Moloch’s riddle and one of the things Corbin met with Reverend Knapp about before they both lost their heads.  Jenny thinks it’s a dead end at first until she discovered the sign on the ground.  She leaves Abbie a message as she’s driving (someone didn’t take the Oprah pledge!), but Headless Hal shows up and shoot the truck, causing Jenny to crash mid-message.  Her fate is left unknown, as is the church’s name.

Back on Earth, Parrish greets Ichabod and Katrina and leads them to the four trees so that Katrina can perform a binding spell to trap Fiery Frank/War in his place.  When she tries, she realizes that there’s nothing to bind because he has moved on.  Parrish agrees and gets Ichabod to point out that the root apocalypse means “to reveal or make known.”  That’s when Parrish lashes Ichabod and Katrina to two of the white trees and reveals that he is not just War’s vessel.  He is Jeremy.  He lived in his grave for over two centuries until Moloch raised him from the ground, which is what Abbie and Jenny couldn’t remember seeing.  He took his alias from the church, St. Henry’s Parish, to mock the God that cast him into the ground and he eventually lead Abbie and Ichabod to answers in order to give them the faith that would lead them to this moment.  He calls Moloch his “true father.”  And he sacrificed Reginald the Golem because sometimes you have to sacrifice the things and people you love to get what you want in life.  Then he summons Headless Hal, who takes Katrina, and then Parrish casts Ichabod into the ground that was Jeremy’s tomb.  Parrish rips the second seal.  And so it begins.

Oh, and Abbie?  She’s still stuck in Purgatory, living with her younger self in a life-sized version of the dollhouse she and Jenny rescued from the dumpster.

*

Wow.  I was not expecting that twist.  I wanted Parrish to remain a kindly older fellow who showed up intermittently to help Ichabod and Abbie and just dispense advice, like Dumbledore or Gandalf or Giles.  I’m also not sure how much sense it makes—I’ll need rewatch his episodes to see if I catch the little things.

I loved Abbie’s and Jenny’s bonding scene in this episode.  It was so sweet and sisterly, but still weighty and really watchable.  Basically, I want Emmy noms for this entire cast and the guest stars because they make the most out of what can be, at times, rather ludicrous writing.  That has a slim chance of happening because this is a paranormal/fantasy show, but I can dream.

This was a tightly-paced, fascinating season finale with all the right kinds of cliffhangers, and I already can’t wait for next season.  See you next fall, guys!  Be careful out there—watch out for headless horsemen!

Sleepy Hollow airs on Mondays on FOX.