Sleepy Hollow: The Sin Eater (S1: E6)

Oh boy. This was not my favorite episode, and I hope it’s not the beginning of the end.

Mills and Crane leave a baseball game together. Abbie’s attachment to Crane is becoming more and more obvious. He opts to walk and enjoy the air.

He visits Katrina’s grave, and gets hit in the neck with a tranquilizer dart and abducted.

As she’s driving home from the game, Abbie is lulled into a sort of dream world by Katrina. (I can’t help but ask if there wasn’t a safer time to do it, but I guess Katrina was more concerned with her husband’s fate than Abbie’s?)

Anyway, the gist of the message is: Ichabod and the Headless Horseman became linked as they died, and are still linked, and anything that happens to the Horseman happens to Crane. Katrina tells Abbie the Horseman will ride that very night. She delivers the bad news that Crane was kidnapped, and then tells Abbie to find the Sin Eater. She says the Sin Eater can take her to Crane and “sanctify” him, severing the link to the Horseman (so then they can kick his ass without hurting Crane).

Abbie immediately bails Jenny out of the asylum to enlist her help in finding the Sin Eater. They find the guy, and BOY was my imagination way off. He looks like a kindly old librarian:

Anyway, he refuses to help them. He says it SUCKS being the Sin Eater. He tells them after so many years of swallowing the pain and regrets of others, he quit because he was in danger of losing himself entirely. Before he kicks them out, he does tell Abbie that Crane is underground, behind a door with a Free Mason symbol.

Crane wakes up surrounded by a group of men. He recognizes his primary captor as Rutledge, a descendant of one of the Free Masons he knew before he died. They’re on the same side, but apparently there have been several impersonators over the years, and Rutledge wants proof that Crane is who he says he is. They have a diary they are certain is a reliable account of his life. They ask him about it.

There are a lot of flashbacks to when Katrina and Crane first meet. He’s ordered to torture a man, Arthur Bernard, to get information. He doesn’t want to, but it’s his job. Katrina tells him his eyes betray him. He’s too compassionate for torture. He does it anyway, not well, and is eventually ordered to take Bernard out to the woods and shoot him. He tries, but he can’t end it. Bernard is pleased, and tells him that when he sees Katrina he should say, “order from chaos” and she will know he is a good guy.

Bernard starts to leave but gets shot in the back by Ichabod’s Captain. Ichabod charges him, furious, and he is revealed as a demon. He knocks Crane back several feet, riders approach, and the Captain disappears using supernatural speed.

Rutledge is satisfied with Crane’s account, and puts a box on the table. The box contains a vial of poison, which he wants Crane to take - if he dies, so will the Horseman. Crane sees his point and plans to take the poison, but before he can Abbie and Jenny arrive.

Abbie begs him not to drink the poison. She wants to take him to the Sin Eater. Crane tells her his mind is made up, and it’s all very sad and dramatic (except NOT because it seems almost too early for this sort of hugely self-sacrificing scene). Everyone else leaves and he swallows it, and she holds his hand.

He’s starting to look sweaty and pale by the time the Sin Eater shows up, having had a change of heart. He tells Crane he can eat his sins and drain the poison before it reaches his heart. He pricks Crane’s hand and blood pools on the table.

We learn that Crane’s biggest sin was “letting” Arthur Bernard die, and the Sin Eater transforms into Bernard and tells Crane to forgive himself - if he hadn’t died, Crane would never have realized his destiny.

Super gross: the guy actually uses a sponge-like material to soak up and literally EAT Crane’s blood. Mmm, yummy!

Anyway, when it’s all over the Sin Eater is thrilled because he realizes this was his purpose all along, and everybody feels warm and fuzzy about who they are and their place in the world. Abbie rushes in to hug Ichabod, berating him for not listening to her. He promises his “ears will be eternally open to her admonitions.” She says she doesn’t know what he’s talking about. REALLY? A cop who was going to Quantico doesn’t comprehend that sentence? LET HER BE SMART, okay?

Night falls, and the Headless Horseman emerges from his watery grave to discover the pit where Crane was buried. He grabs a fistful of the dirt and manages to look thoughtful despite not having a face.

What does it mean? Will the dirt somehow prove to be a weakness for Crane? What about the Horseman’s horse? I mean, I know it has demonic red eyes but would I be able to pet it? Does it just need a carrot and a few sugar cubes? Okay I’m done.