‘Sleepy Hollow’ Breakdown: ‘The Golem’

Sleepy Hollow The Golem

SPOILERS AHEAD (or, um be-head?), so duck and cover, Sleepy Hollow fans!

Season One, Episode 10: “The Golem”

Written by: Mark Goffman, Jose Molina, Alex Kurtzman; Directed by: J. Miller Tobin

After another week off, Sleepy Hollow is back for its Fall Finale. Jewish mysticism slips into the series as its witchiness ramps up. Plus, John Noble makes his return (finally)!

Quick Breakdown

Crane is outside his cabin, therapeutically chopping wood, when Abbie shows up chatting about Christmas. But before they celebrate the holidays, Crane is eager to do an experiment to find his son. He has summoned Henry Parrish, the Sin Eater, to help him communicate with Katrina. Henry shows up and warns him that to visit purgatory, he’ll have to be close to death. He then strangles Crane.

Crane finds himself in a chapel, where Katrina is lighting candles. She does this to pray for her son, whom she left with Grace. The coven the Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart was after her, so she sent baby Jeremy into hiding, with a small doll as a protective talisman. Their conversation is cut short when a beefy, bald monster bursts into the chapel.

Crane awakes, and wants more answers about his son. Abbie suggests a trip to the library. The librarian is wary of their inquiry into the past and gives a dramatic look after pointing them in the right direction. Henry finds the book that has an answer, tracing Jeremy’s journey from the care of Grace to an orphanage. He inherited some witchy powers from Katrina and burned down his house. This led the orphanage priest to whip the evil out of Jeremy. But Jeremy’s blood landed on the doll and turned him into a golem, hell-bent on protecting Jeremy from everything. And by “protect,” I do mean “slaughter everyone who gets near Jeremy.”

Over in New York City, Irving is taking a little day trip. He visits a priest friend, who tells him some encouraging words. He says that the word witness can be translated to martyr. He also adds that apostles of martyrs have a tendency to suffer the same fate. Irving then visits his ex and apologizes for being such a workaholic that their marriage crumbled. He takes his daughter to the park, where he is confronted by a white-eyed stranger who threatens his daughter. When Irving tries to shake the truth out of him, the man bumps into a woman, and the demonic spirit is transferred. She says something cryptic and threatening.

The golem that barged into the purgatorial chapel has slipped into the real world. He kills the librarian right after the gang realizes that she is a witch. They go through her personal effects and find a small box that reeks of evil, according to Henry. In it there are drawings of the golem. In the effects are also tickets to a carnival feature with fortunetelling witches. They figure out that those are the Four Witches Who Speak As One that Katrina mentioned and that Abbie saw in one of her visions.

Assuming the witches are the golem’s next target, they rush off to the carnival. Those witches were responsible for banishing Katrina to purgatory, so Crane assumes they can also release her. The witches reveal that to stop the golem they hexed Jeremy’s heart to stop and buried him. Crane gets pissed off. They also reveal that only Jeremy’s blood can stop the golem.

They’re interrupted by the golem’s arrival. During the ensuing fight, Crane gets a large shard of glass stuck in his stomach. At Henry’s behest, he uses the bloody glass as a shiv and stabs the golem, releasing him from his duties as protector.

Back at the station, Crane is visited by Moloch via a mirror (What is it with the mirrors?). He says some cryptic lines about War (one of the four horsemen, I presume), a saint, and Abbie’s soul. When Abbie finds Crane on the floor, he dramatically reveals that Moloch will soon have her soul and that it will be he, Crane, who delivers it to Moloch.

Rating

B

As far as Fall Finales go, this one didn’t feel terribly special. Most of the episode was spent setting up things that will presumably happen in the final episodes of the season in January. John Noble’s return, sadly, felt a bit forced, and his joining the team didn’t feel as glorious as it might have a few weeks ago when he was first introduced. This is definitely a series that needs weekly episodes to maintain momentum, and the mini-break it had recently hurt it. But the final episodes should pack plenty of punch.

Now for some random thoughts and my favorite moments of the night…

Wardrobe Update: Still no new clothes. Although Abbie does give Crane an early Christmas present. But instead of getting him a new sweater, she gives him an embroidered stocking.

“It’s not a good idea to touch me.” – Henry

“I can sense a sin a mile away.” – Henry

“It’s called a vine but it has absolutely nothing to do with shrubbery?” – Irving seems as clueless about the contemporary world as Crane

“When did irony become a national pastime?” – Crane

It was sad to see Jeremy buried in a box before he could have the “6,000 little Ichabods” that Abbie said could be roaming around the world. But since we didn’t actually see him take his last breath, could he still be alive? And, if he is alive, what are the chances that Henry is related to Crane?

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