Sleepy Hollow: Necromancer (S1: E8)

The Horseman has been captured! Fist bump!

Irving wants to call in the troops, and Crane has to remind him they’re fighting a secret war. I mean, it’s likely no one has noticed the weird occurrences and the trail of bodies (sure they haven’t). Abbie suggests recruiting Jenny, who just got out of the asylum. Irving goes to get her, and Crane deems himself interrogator of their prisoner.

In the woods, the Horseman’s horse is clomping around, agitated and glowy-eyed. A couple of guys who are hunting notice her (I’m calling it, she looks feminine to me), and one of them immediately gets on the phone and starts speaking another language. His buddy unwisely asks if he was speaking German, and gets a bullet for his trouble. We see a tattoo, confirming his bad guy, Hessian nature. Seeing the horse by herself is apparently the only clue they need to know the Horseman is locked up and in need of rescue.

Jenny is reluctant to join the battle, which is annoying because all of her rage stems from Abbie lying about what happened to them. I would think she would relish the opportunity to fight back with support rather than stare at the asylum walls, but whatever. Irving gives her an ultimatum and she quickly decides to join him in investigating a break in.

Crane and Abbie want to question the Horseman, but he has no head. They go looking for Brooks, thinking he can help them since he did tell the truth about trapping the Horseman. They find his nest in the tunnels, and after uncovering some stone tablets Crane deduces that Brooks is the Horseman’s necromancer, which means he can speak for him. The plan is to get Brooks in the room with the Horseman and get answers that way. Brooks doesn’t want to help, and pleads with Abbie to trust him. He explains that he ultimately has no choice but to do Moloch’s bidding, because he sold his soul. Rather than scratching their heads and asking themselves where Brooks was, or what Moloch might make him do, they boss him right into the chamber with the Horseman.

Crane starts, of course, by flinging insults. Eventually Brooks gets another spine adjustment and his eyes bleed to black and he talks in the disembodied voice of the Horseman. His message is simple: Crane killed his best friend. The Horseman produces an emerald necklace, which Crane recognizes as Katrina’s. Crane storms back into observation, away from the Horseman, and Abbie asks WTF is going on.

Katrina was betrothed to his best friend, Abraham. Crane cared for Abraham, and gave him advice (such as what kind of jewelry to give her) without interfering. At the same party she received the emerald necklace from Abraham, she told Crane she intended to call off the engagement. She said she didn’t want an arranged marriage, and she loved Ichabod. Crane argued with her, but not effectively.

Irving and Jenny go to a little shop. The owner is in a secret room that Jenny knows about, and he’s been hurt. She immediately realizes they’ve taken some kind of powerful talisman.

In the present, the Hessians have successfully assembled at the Sleepy Hollow power plant and are all set to cut the electricity when Irving and Jenny show up to stop them. As they’re making multiple arrests, (these Hessians, they’re prolific) an explosions occurs and the chamber holding the Horseman goes dark. Not good.

Abbie and Crane argue about the best course of action as the Horseman grows stronger. As long as the Hessians don’t get into the chamber with the talisman and reverse the spell holding the Horseman captive, everything should be fine. I mean, it’s not like there’s already a bad guy in there with him.

Jenny and Irving show up as reinforcements, to keep the Hessians away. Abbie and Jenny go to patrol the tunnels, although Abbie makes it clear she doesn’t like leaving Crane alone with the prisoner.

Brooks claws his way into his own chest and pulls out the talisman, which is covered in glop from his insides, and starts chanting the reversal spell to set the Horseman free.

Crane goes back into the chamber and demands to know how the Horseman got Katrina’s necklace, and what she has to do with anything. Then he sees Brooks and he’s like, oh fuck.

In the tunnels, Abbie and Jenny encounter shadowy minions that luckily CAN be killed by bullets.

On Abraham and Crane’s trip through enemy territory all those years ago, Crane confessed that Katrina was in love with him. He insisted he didn’t invite the affection, and would never have purposefully hurt Abraham, but his friend was having NONE of it. Furious, he drew his sword and started dueling with Crane, who initially resisted but after almost getting hacked a couple of times drew his own sword in self-defense. Abraham knocked him down, and was ready to deliver a killing blow when he was shot by the enemy. Hessians were fast approaching on horseback. Crane tried to get Abraham to get up and move, but he screamed that he wanted to be left where he was. Crane ran for it.

AFTERWARD, Moloch joined the Hessians and Abraham sold his soul. He became the Headless Horseman, one of the four, in exchange for Katrina’s soul being trapped in purgatory to be eventually be claimed as his own. He had the necklace because she returned it to him when she refused his hand.

In the chamber, Crane is FREAKING OUT realizing that his dead friend is actually the Horseman, who is still holding a serious grudge after all this time. He has no intention of letting Crane live, and is about to kill him when Brooks jumps up and shouts that he’s disobeying the master! They swoop out of the room in a supernatural looking tornado and Crane is alone.

Later, Crane and Abbie are sharing their post-battle quiet time, and he says he thinks getting Katrina back from purgatory is the key. I’m sure it has NOTHING to do with any sexual repression. (COUGH.)

Thoughts: For whatever reason, Moloch wants Crane alive. This is far more ominous than Moloch wanting him dead. I know he sold his soul, but I feel a little sorry for Brooks. I don’t like Jenny. It would appear the Horseman’s mare is not a lover of carrots, or the company of others.

Questions: What DOES Moloch want with Crane?