Sleepy Hollow – Columbia

By: Stacy Miller

Sleepy Hollow begins a new season in a new setting: Washington, DC. And as the episode opens, Ichabod (Tom Mison) is detained and being questioned by the authorities. He explains how he was wounded in battle in 1781 and then put into a mystical slumber where he awoke three years ago in Sleepy Hollow and became partners with Abbie Mills and how the two of them fought evil together. The scene is reminiscent of the one from the pilot. But then his interrogator comments how he is now alone “Which means no one is going to miss you.” Hmm, that sounds like a threat. “Why should I continue with these questions, you’ve not told me what I’m doing here,” Ichabod says. He’s been there two weeks and wants to know where Director Walters is. When Ichabod doesn’t get an answer, he uses the “oldest trick in the book” and tells the man that his shoes are untied. As the man bends down to tie them, Ichabod knocks him out. He runs down the hall and finds a room in which there are photos of he and Abbie on the wall, strange old books about supernatural/mythic creatures and a diagram that indicates the Lincoln Memorial. “Who are these people?” Ichabod wonders. He climbs a ladder and opens a grate and is finally outside. He runs out onto the street where an airplane is overhead and turns around to see a sign that reads Ronald Reagan National Airport. Ichabod sees the Lincoln Memorial across the way.

Special Agent Diana Thomas (Janina Gavankar) is talking with her partner Eric Cortez (Ace Marrero) about a recent date she had with a judgmental vegan who hummed Katy Perry. “No good music was written after 1984. ‘Purple Rain,’ even my daughter knows that,” she says. Diana doesn’t like new people or change. They get a call about a disruption at the Lincoln Memorial. When they get there, Diana and Eric find a headless Lincoln Memorial and a green substance at its marble base.

They separate to look around. Eric comes across a man and questions who he is and what he is doing there. When the man turns around, he shows a monster-like face then kills Eric. Her partner’s screams alert Diana who comes face-to-face with evil. Fortunately for her, Ichabod’s arrival prevents her from meeting the same fate as Eric. Ichabod fights the creature and shouts to Diana “Are you armed? Shoot it!” Diana shoots at the creature but it disappears. Then she demands, “Who are you?” Ichabod explains that he is a historian who worked for the Sleepy Hollow Police Department and the FBI and is a friend of law enforcement. However, he must now take his leave to go after that demon before more innocent souls meet the same fate as her partner. Welcome to Ichabod’s world Diana!

Diana is telling her supervisor Mark Wong (James Kyson) that something not human killed Eric, but Wong thinks that Diana is in shock and needs to go home and get some rest. But the agent doesn’t listen and Diana ends up in the same place where Ichabod was being question. And what should she find there? The FBI agent killing demon? No, Ichabod Crane. Diana tells Ichabod that he left a trail behind when he fled the Lincoln Memorial that she followed him there. Well that’s good, Ichabod could use her assistance in tracking the demon. He tells her that he too loss his partner and is searching for a person that will inherit a special legacy.

Meanwhile, billionaire Malcolm Dreyfuss (Jeremy Davies) is performing a ritual when he is interrupted by a phone call about Mizuyama the owner of a company he wants to buy, but who is refusing to sell. Dreyfuss also has men waiting for him in his office to tell him that “The entity has a confirmed kill. More will come.” “Is our English friend causing any more trouble?” Dreyfuss asks. What is this man’s interest in Ichabod? At that moment, the demon makes another kill.

Ichabod leaves a voicemail message for Jenny in which he tells her that he’s found new allies. He hangs up when Diana returns to the car in which she has handcuffed him to. Ichabod says her trust issues doesn’t help their partnership, but Diana doesn’t view their temporary alliance as a partnership. She does tell Ichabod about a place called The Vault which houses information on unexplained phenomena. Ichabod recalls Mr. Mills sharing with him George Washington’s letter about the secret supernatural organization. He tells Diana that The Vault may contain the answers to which they seek.

Diana and Ichabod arrive at The Vault, which appears to be a clustered room. “What has become of Washington’s dream?” Ichabod laments. The man there, Jake (Jerry Mackinnon), asks whether he can help them but soon recognizes “Captain Brownbeard” (the name he calls Ichabod) as he is a follower of sites in his monitoring of supernatural activity. “Sleepy Hollow comes up a lot,” says Jake, whose job is to catalogue his findings. Suddenly, there is a small explosion coming from the back of the office. Jake reminds Alex (Rachel Melvin) that she promised not to blow things up anymore. Alex corrects that she promised not to blow things up while he was in the room. Ichabod gazes at the collection of material. Jake tells Diana and Ichabod that it’s just the two of them who work there. He does news and information while Alex handles artifacts and machines. Ichabod finds a book that he indicates is the history of America. The text says that the creature is a demon summoned in 1865 by an occultist named John Wilkes Booth to kill President Abraham Lincoln. Booth performed a ritual and summoned the demon inside his own body. Then, Booth took a form to conceal himself from Mary Todd Lincoln’s supernatural safeguards to protect the president. Mary Todd Lincoln was able to seal the demon away under a totem (The Lincoln Memorial) where it remained until it was recently released. Jake can’t believe that everything they’ve read about in The Vault is real. He shows Diana and Ichabod a secret passageway. While inside, Diana and Ichabod talk. Diana tells him how she was in the military, but left because she had a daughter, Molly (Oona Yaffe), who’s going through some things now. They find an American Flag there and Ichabod realizes that the demon was summoned on a mission against the Union so its hatred of the American flag is the creature’s focal point. Bad news as there is an upcoming parade and attendees are encouraged to wear their stars and stripes to show their patriotism. Unless they can stop the demon, it will be a massacre. Fortunately, Ichabod discovers that copper is the demon’s weakness. They’ll need to build some weapons. Although Alex is not sure about all the demon talk, she’s totally cool with trying out some of the artifacts in The Vault as they assemble their weapons. “Now, someone get me a whole mess of pennies,” Alex says goggles and blowtorch at the ready.

Diana and Ichabod attend the parade to watch out for the demon. Some guys comment on Crane’s attire saying that his clothes are so 2000. “It’s all about Hamilton.” “There were other people in the American Revolution you know,” is Ichabod’s annoyed response. He spots the demon, pulls out an American Flag and begins singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Meanwhile, Alex and Jake are getting the weapon ready. Alex still is skeptical about this demon business, preferring to believe in things she can see, touch and take apart. Diana and Ichabod arrive, but at first it doesn’t look like the demon followed. But soon, it attacks Jake! “Hey, you are the best dressed demon I’ve ever seen.” It’s Jenny Mills (Lyndie Greenwood) to the rescue, blowtorch in hand. “Allow me to introduce Ms. Jenny Mills. Soldier, Scholar, Gentlewoman and all around bad ass,” Ichabod says in way of an introduction. “Actually, I prefer Miss Badass,” Jenny says then hugs Ichabod. Jenny tells Ichabod about her travels to Tibet, but unfortunately she uncovered nothing that will lead them to the next witness. She assures Ichabod that he and the Witness will eventually find their way to each other.

Dreyfuss is pleased that the merger will go through when he hears a news report of Mizuyama’s death by an alleged animal attack. He thanks his associate for a job well done and even though Crane dispatched of the demon, the demon wasn’t the point. Dreyfuss finished a ritual with the Lincoln Memorial head and takes out a sundial looking object.

Diana tells Ichabod that their temporary partnership may last longer as there will probably be more demons and she owes it to Eric to stop them. Diana returns home and after greeting her daughter goes to finish dinner. Molly pulls out a drawing of Ichabod and continues sketching.