Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Sleepy Hollow 1.04: "The Lesser Key of Solomon"

“Remember when I told you this town was going straight to hell? I hate being right.”
- Jenny

This week we find Ichabod participating in an altered version of the Boston Tea Party. Colonialists are indeed demolishing the tea as a distraction so Ichabod and some others can sneak aboard a ship and recover a crate. Back in the present, we’re still in the thick of things. Ichabod clearly got bored and pressed the show’s equivalent of OnStar and was recounting his ordeal of losing Katrina to the woman on the other end. Their conversation ends as Abbie runs out and informs him that Jenny is missing. We catch up with Jenny at a bar where she gets a bag she left with the bartender for safe keeping. Abbie also convinces Captain Irving to give her a twelve hour head starts to find Jenny. Unfortunately, there are other people after Jenny and something called Item 37. Her bartender buddy gets tortured for her locations by these guys. I have a feeling it has to do with a weird British soldier Ichabod encountered during the tea party.

Captain Irving and Luke (Abbie’s ex) get called to the bar and discover the bar tender’s decapitated head and strung up body. But it’s clear that it wasn’t the same killer as the reverend and the sheriff. Meanwhile, Abbie is trying to get any information on where Jenny could have disappeared to. Ichabod notes that Jenny’s last foster home lasted almost a year. So they make a trip to visit the woman. She’s one of those “take in as many kids for the money” types and Abbie threatens a visit from child services even though they get a hint of where to find Jenny. They check out the cabin of a friend who just happens to be the sheriff. Ichabod says that Jenny lied to him and out pops Jenny, gun drawn.

The sisters share barbs back and forth for a bit until Ichabod intervenes and rather crossly tells them to stop baiting each other and put their guns down. They listen (I would too). And then we get the bigger story. First of all, the sheriff was using Jenny to mass artifacts, like a sextant. It bears the same markings as a chest Ichabod once saw. He relates the rest of the “real” destruction of the tea, including the fact that the stone chest which Washington wanted was protected by a Hessian (like the Horseman). I know some people dislike the revisionist history but I really like to see how they change things up. Especially since I live in Boston, it’s nice to see the city getting some love! The trio has just determined that the sextant was designed by Washington to include a projectable map of Sleepy Hollow circa 1776 when the men who killed the bar tender show up and shoot the place up. Our heroes fire back but the guys get away with the sextant. But all is not lost. Our gang has a hostage. Something tells me Ichabod is going to get a little bad ass on this guy.

Our Hessian is rather quiet until Ichabod starts speaking to him in German. Their various interrogation efforts earn them a little history lessons about a book written by King Solomon which is said to contain black magic to raise 72 demons. Apparently that is what was in the box that Ichabod nabbed for Washington. It was discovered by the Knights Templar (another history myth that I enjoy) and it just sounds really bad. There’s plenty more where this guy came from and he doesn’t even know how many. The Hessian then gets creepy and calls them each by name saying the horned demon told him who they were and what their mission entails. Oh and we get the demon’s name; Moloch. Unfortunately, there’s nothing else they can get out of him because he commits suicide by cyanide pill. Bastard! Oh and while things were getting historical at the sheriff’s cabin, Irving and company discover the Hessian’s home with all kinds of skeevy torture devices in the basement. I have to say, when the Hessian told them that the demon resided in their hearts and minds it reminded me of some conversations between the First Evil and Caleb in season 7 of Buffy. Which is not a bad thing in my mind.

It’s now a race against time as the Hessians race off to locate the box while Jenny and Abbie argue some more. Ichabod gets crabby with them as he’s trying to redraw the map (thank you eidetic memory). They head off and we learn that during Abbie’s travels she learned a lot of fighting techniques. Guess that’s going to come in handy. They’re going to need all the skills they can because the Hessians have the Lesser Key of Solomon and have invoked Moloch. Shit’s getting real people!

I have to admit the special effects in this part of the scene were a little obvious and cheesy but that’s okay. The book unleashes some creepy skeletal demons trying to rise up but between Abbie, Jenny and Ichabod they destroy the book and kill both Hessians. Of course we know more are out there but things are improving a little bit. Jenny seems to be willing to give Abbie a shot at forgiveness and Abbie is willing to help Jenny get out of the nut house. After all, this seems to be a family affair and they’re the only family the other’s got. And Ichabod it would seem is more determined to find Moloch now that they know its name. Something tells me that armed with this knowledge, they might be closer to finding a way to rescue Katrina. I do hope we see more of their relationship soon.

I enjoyed this episode since we got some more character history as well as some advancement of the plot. We have some answers as to who is running the show and our leads are one step closer to averting the apocalypse (a few years down the road one would hope). I will be interested to see when we get some Captain Irving development. I want to trust him and believe he’s on Ichabod and Abbie’s side but I wouldn’t put it past the writers to make him linked somehow to the baddies. It was also nice to have normal human baddies this week (though can I just say, I miss zombie Andy).

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