Sleepy Hollow - Episode 12 - Recap - The Indispensable Man
Sleepy Hollow - Episode 12 - Recap - The Indispensable Man
This is it! The first of hopefully many season finales for FOX's wonderful new show, Sleepy Hollow! This show has pretty much nothing to do with the source material aside from the town and main character names, and that a headless dude rides a horse, but it was been just superb. Check out the recap for the first of tonight's double-feature season finale!
More "fish out of water" comedy with Ichabod and cell phones! Some voicemail humor, some SMS slang humor. Good stuff, good stuff. Anyway, the laughs are quickly interrupted by dead guy Andy (returning guest star John Cho), delivering a message from Moloch. Moloch wants Washington's Bible, but Abbie says no go. Even after Andy reminds Abbie that prophecy foretells Ichabod will betray her, she's still stubborn about it, forcing Brooks to run away. Andy heads back to the sewer to let Moloch know he's failed in his diplomacy check. Moloch is displeased, and has some hellbugs wrap Andy up in webs. Once Brooks hatches from the cocoon, he's a weird, alien-head demon monster, no trace of the kind Andy Brooks remaining. Bummer!
Meanwhile, Ichabod searches for clues in the old Bible. Ichabod remembers a time where George Washington mentioned Lazarus to him, so he checks in the chapters where that story is located and uses the invisible ink reveal methos they cooked up last episode to find a message from ol' Georgey. Man, this part is just... just nuts. I love it. So, George Washington had Masonic mystics revive his body a few days after death so he could draw a map from Purgatory to Earth, so Ichabod would have this weapon for the battle against Hell. Like, what?? That's some inspired wackiness! So good! There's some prayer beads involved in Washington's resurrection, and they were buried with the preacher that done got beheaded back at the beginning of the season. Ichabod and Abbie go find Henry Parrish, the Sin Eater, to help them determine what was up with them beads. Touching the beads burns his hand, but he tries again. It send Parrish flying backward and he tells Ichabod of his visions. Nothing too concrete, but the team is soon assaulted by Moloch's cronies, so they must be on the right path, eh?
One important thing does come from Parrish's vision: The hidden location of George Washington's secret grave! They arrive, open the secret tomb's secret door in the ground, and heads down the steps to visit the President. It's full of secrets and symbology, including a door that opens when Ichabod inserts his Freemason ring. The inner tomb with Washington's casket opens, and the team lifts the lid from the casket. Clutched there in George Washington's desiccated hand is a map to Purgatory! Just in time for the newly-transformed Andy Brooks to show up, collapsing the exit. Abbie still hold out hope that Andy can be reasoned with, but nope! That is, until Parrish eats some of his sin and holds back the demon briefly. Long enough for Brooks to tell them that the map must be destroyed, and for him to beg Abbie to kill him. She obliges, and the team of heroes now must search for an escape. They find an exit, but Brooks's most recent death also didn't take, so Abbie has to activate a booby trap in the tomb, collapsing the whole thing just in time. Ichabod follows Abbie's instinct and Brooks's advice, destroying the map and closing his path to Katrina Crane, his long-lost wife. Unfortunately, Abbie seems to have totally forgotten that Ichabod has perfect memory, and we see him redrawing the map with his eyes full of tears. Looks like the betrayer and the betrayed got a bit mixed up.
During all of this, Captain Frank Irving (Orlando Jones) is having a bad time in the police investigation into the events of last episode. They can clearly tell Irving is hiding some facts, but since those facts sound like fiction, it's reasonable. Unfortunately, the investigation has no leads, so they're taking DNA samples from Irving's family to test against some skin samples found on the murder victims. Before they get a chance to run the investigation further in this direction, Frank confesses and is taken into custody. This character's arc over this first season has been just dynamite. From a background character played by a washed-up, B-list 1990s comedy actor to probably the show's most interesting and complex person, Captain Frank Irving is really a success I never expected.
This is just the first part in tonight's season finale, so I'll save most of my thoughts for after the second part. This first part, though, is excellent. The interaction between Abbie and Ichabod remains awesome, and the addition of Henry Parrish to the Scooby Gang is very welcome. Unfortunately, Jenny sits this episode out, which is a bummer because I like her a lot! I like this show so much, and the set-up for the finale here is great. I'm really hoping the second part doesn't end on a cliffhanger! Waiting until autumn for resolution would kill me! Here's a preview below, for both episodes.