SPOILERS AHEAD (or, um be-head?), so duck and cover, Sleepy Hollow fans!
Season One, Episode Eight: “Necromancer”
Written by: Mark Goffman & Phillip Iscove; Directed by: Paul Edwards
With the Headless Horseman captured, what next? Of course, they intend to torture him for information. This week, we get even more forward momentum as we learn more of Crane and the Horseman’s backstory. Sleep Hollow seems to have taken a page from Scandal and is just firing on all oscillators.
Quick Breakdown
Abbie, Crane, and Irving stare at the captive Horseman through their protective Plexiglas. To get farther with him, they’ll need to talk to him; and since he has no head, they’ll need Brooks, who they know can communicate with the dead. While Abbie and Crane hunt him down, she tells Irving she wants Jenny to know what’s up since she’s out of the mental institution now.
In the tunnels, Abbie and Crane track down Brooks’ hidey-hole. Whilst snooping, Crane discovers some Egyptian writing, realizing that Brooks is a necromancer — one appointed to speak for the dead. Brooks shows up, and Abbie enlists him to help them. He wants to but also warns them Moloch has his soul, and thus he must answer to him first and foremost. He all but tells her that he will betray them, but Crane really wants to chat with Death so he can get some answers.
Irving talks with Jenny, filling her in on what her sister is up to. Jenny, obviously, wants to see the Horseman. Some random officer busts in to tell Irving about a theft at Adams Iniquities. Jenny weasels her way into this investigation since she used to work there (presumably while hunting down artifacts for Corbin). Nothing seems to have been stolen, but Jenny opens the secret door in the wall and finds an injured Adams a missing Druid spell-caster called a Thracian Phiale.
While questioning Death, he throws a necklace at Crane to unsettle him. The necklace belonged to Katrina, he tells Abbie, as they confer. The necklace was given to her by her betrothed, a guy named Abraham who just so happened to be Crane’s BFF. Katrina loves the necklace but knows that Crane picked it out. She is going to dump Abraham so she can be with the man she loves, Crane. In the present, Crane wants more answers about how the Horseman snagged the necklace.
Knowing they have the Phiale, Jenny tells Irving that they’ll probably head to the power plant to knock out those pesky UV lights that are weakening the Horseman’s powers. They get there in time to capture all the Hessians lurking at the site. But Jenny deducts from their empty duffel bags that whatever they brought there was already planted. Sure enough, the power grid explodes.
The UV lights go out as the Horseman accuses Crane of murdering his best friend. With Crane fired up, Abbie pulls him back to their side room to calm him. He tells her what really happened with Abraham. They were delivering an important document with Abraham sulking about Katrina spurning him. Crane confesses that Katrina loves him. They duel. While sword fighting, an enemy soldier shoots down Abraham. Crane runs off with the document, watching Abraham die at the hands of the Hessians. He feels guilty about what happened, but Abbie tells him it wasn’t his fault.
Irving and Jenny arrive, updating them on the situation. With two hours before the power returns, they need to stop whatever Hessians remain from removing the hex around the room with that Thracian Phiale. They search the tunnels for intruders, but, lo and behold, the Phiale is imbedded in Brooks’ side. He pulls it out and summons some of Moloch’s minions to attack the others in the tunnels. He can’t say he didn’t warn them he would betray them.
Crane is too consumed with ire to search the tunnels and instead confronts Death. He breaks from his elaborate chains and challenges Crane to a duel. His mission in the Revolution was to kill Crane, and that remains his goal. While dueling, Crane realizes he fights just like Abraham. Turns out, he is Abraham. After getting shot by the Hessians, he sold his soul to Moloch to seek revenge on Crane and Katrina, wanting her soul.
With the Horseman’s identity revealed, Brooks takes this opportunity to summon Moloch’s minions and take them all away after first admonishing Death that he’s not allowed to kill Crane. Well, we didn’t really think the Horseman would remain chained up forever, did we? A defeated Crane and Abbie end the episode with a little chitchat recap. They realize that the Horseman’s weakness is his desire for Katrina’s soul. “Now more than ever, we need Katrina,” Crane says dramatically.
Rating
A+
More Crane backstory! More Katrina backstory! Also, the promise of more Katrina in the future. Finally, we can get to the witch of the matter. This season is moving along so quickly, already dumping the monster of the week structure to implement this serialized storytelling. Most series like this wait a season or two, but Fox and the writers seems confident in Sleepy Hollow’s sudden popularity and are running with it. I don’t have any real complaints about this episode, except why did it have to end?
Now for some random thoughts and my favorite moments of the night…
Wardrobe update: Crane is still wearing his uniform, but this week he didn’t really have time to change into anything else.
“A dead guy, a mental patient, and a time traveler from the Revolution.” – Irving. “That’s our team.” – Abbie.
Abbie teaches Crane to fist bump — naturally he finds it inane.
The 14-minute opening act was even longer than The Good Wife’s (a series notorious for long opening acts), but you could hardly tell since it was so jam-packed with action.
Jenny proved herself pretty helpful this week; I definitely want her on the team going forward. I also want some flashbacks to her missions with Corbin.
I’m very excited for more Katrina in the future, assuming they form her into a great character.
