Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Sleepy Hollow 1.08: "Necromancer"

“Now, more than ever, we need Katrina.”
- Ichabod

Things are really kicking into high gear this week. Ichabod, Abbie and Irving have the Horseman locked in a cell under UV lights surrounded by a hex to keep him trapped. Ichabod wants to interrogate him and suggests he and Abbie go find Andy to use for information. They find his hidey hole underground and wait for him. After finding some Egyptian hieroglyphs, Ichabod deduces that Andy is the Horseman’s necromancer, he speaks for the dead. Andy admits it but says he can’t be trusted because he sold his soul to Moloch. It would appear Ichabod is willing to take that risk to get some answers. Elsewhere, Irving has Jenny brought in and they quickly respond to a robbery in progress at an antiques dealer where Jenny used to work. They find the owner with a gunshot wound and missing artifact that is used to break hex spells. So it would seem our heroes are going to have some Hessian visitors shortly. Oh and Abbie teaches Ichabod the first bump. It’s adorable.

Abbie and Ichabod tie up Andy (well more like they duct tape him to a chair) and he invites the Horseman to let him be his voice. The Horseman says nothing at first until Ichabod begins to goad him. Taunting him that they will get all the answers they seek and the Horseman will remain imprisoned, a failure to his cause. Andy then starts speaking and as the Horseman sort of loses balance, Ichabod spots a necklace. He’s rather upset by the find and ends up telling Abbie more of his history. It seems a short time after Ichabod turned traitor to the Crown, Katrina became engaged to Ichabod’s best friend Abraham. Ichabod picks out a necklace for Katrina and at a lavish party, they steal a private moment where Katrina says she’s going to break off the engagement because she wants to marry for love (aka Ichabod). Abbie points out that he’s got game if Katrina ditched her prior honey for him. But he’s more focused on why the Horseman has her necklace and what all that entails. Abbie tries to keep him on point, reminding him that they need to find the Horseman’s weakness, not reveal Ichabod’s. She has a point and it’s a little jarring to see Ichabod so unhinged and emotional. He’s always so stoic and calm.

While Ichabod tries to ascertain more information from the Horseman (like what he knows about Katrina’s fate and why he had the necklace), Jenny and Irving have a tack team backing them up. They find five Hessians ready to blow the power. They take the suckers down but it’s too little too late. As Ichabod demands to know why the Horseman was targeting him during the war and the Horseman begins to taunt him about Ichabod killing Abraham, there’s an explosion, the power goes out and the Horseman releases Andy from his hold. Shit just got very, very real. It would appear that Ichabod has some secrets he has yet to share with Abbie, even if he believes them to be a different version of events. I mean come on, first he steals his bestie’s fiancée. Then said bestie dies?

Abbie won’t let Ichabod back into talk to Headless until she gets the story about Abraham. We quickly learn the real truth about Abraham’s death. He was distraught over Katrina leaving him and as he and Ichabod are off to deliver the precursor to the Declaration of Independence, Ichabod admits that Katrina professed her love to him the day before. This sends Abraham into a rage and demands that Ichabod fight him. Ichabod does all he can to not fight his best friend but in the end he has no choice and Abraham bests him. Unfortunately, Hessians arrive and shoot Abraham. Ichabod takes a few down but has no choice but to abandon his dying comrade to complete his mission.

Irving and Jenny join up with our Witnesses and things are not looking good. They haven’t found the artifact yet on any of the Hessians they arrested at the DWP (Ichabod by the way, not a fan of acronyms). Irving then makes the decision to get heavier artillery distributed with Abbie and Jenny while Ichabod remains with Headless. Abbie wants to stay with Ichabod and I can see why. This whole experience is really throwing our time traveler for an emotional loop and he needs someone there to keep him focused. But Abbie goes off with Jenny to clear the tunnels. Not a surprise to anyone (but Ichabod), Andy had the artifact hidden in his body (slightly gross) and he gets rid of the spell and frees the Horseman. This of course leads to a duel between Ichabod and Headless which is exactly the same fight he had with Abraham and it all clicks for Ichabod. The Horseman is his fallen friend. I have to say I did not see that twist coming. I like that the writers are willing to give the big bad (or at least a mid-level baddie) a decent back story and purpose other than just being evil.

As the fight continues, Abbie, Jenny and Irving fight off Moloch’s minions. And Andy becomes a puppet again, gloating about the fact that Katrina’s soul is his prize. Creepy. And we also get to see how Moloch chose Abraham to be Death. The transformation is rather alarming. It seems Ichabod is going to be beaten finally when Andy reverses the hex spell and Moloch’s minions sweep in to whisk Death and Andy away. It seems Moloch has other plans for Ichabod’s demise. Having survived to fight another day, Ichabod still feels responsible for turning his best friend into Death. Abbie points out that he’s being rather arrogant. But on the plus side, they seem to have determined what the Horseman’s weakness is. Since Death said Katrina’s soul will be his, it means she’s not his yet and they have a chance at saving her. I have to say, I’m glad that Ichabod is now fighting to get his wife back. In the earlier episodes it seemed more an afterthought but maybe that was because he was still trying to adjust to this century. Either way, the next episode is going to be intense. I’ll be sad to see the season end but I am having a hell of a good time on this ride while we have it.

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