Sleepy Hollow - S1E5 - John Doe
Previously, on Sleepy Hollow: “The Lesser Key of Solomon”
New Characters:
Thomas Grey – John Doe kid in period clothes who appears in Sleepy Hollow
Pestilence Horseman – The second of the Four Horseman. Dresses like a Samurai.
A little girl with long beautiful hair is humming as she picks flowers in the woods. If I know Sleepy Hollow, this is probably that same misty woods where the trouble always starts. A little boy peeps out at her from behind a tree-he’s not just any little boy, though; he’s wearing period clothing. Aha, the wood is starting to get misty! He chases her through the woods-they must not have Stranger Danger where he’s from-and she giggles and runs, the little vixen, making sure he can follow her.
But then she disappears into thin air and a horseman is coming after him-not everyone’s favorite Headless Horseman, but a new one with the two horns and a bow and arrow. The kid runs through the forest, hotly pursued, then comes out onto paved road. The road is misty, just in the middle, and as he runs into the mist the horseman vaporizes.
Abbie and Icky carry groceries into Corbin’s old cabin. Looks like this musty old cabin might be a better fit for him than a motel, even if it is riddled with bullet holes and blood. The Witnesses verbally spar in the adorable way that they do when Crane realizes that his old-timey clothing MIGHT make him stand out more than necessary. As he struggles with a clamshell package(don’t worry, Ichabod-no one else can open those, either), Abbie gets a call that a kid has been found collapsed by the side of the road. She walks out the door to head to the scene and, even though it seems like a nothing call, Crane follows behind closely. As he puts it, nothing in this town is routine anymore.
Ex Boyfriend Luke is watching over the scene. The found kid is being revived by the EMT; the perfect ambiance for Luke to do a little hitting on Abbie. He is, in an ironic twist, the only person who can seem to see the chemistry between our heroes. Crane is watching the emergency scene with interest and points out that boy has blackened veins and that his clothes are vintage as well. When the boy comes to, he groans out a word that no one can understand. Crane starts to speak to him in what he calls English, but means as Middle English-as in “from the Middle Ages”, not Middle Earth.
Abbie is using her police-issued username and password to look up any lost or missing boys in the area while Crane marvels at the modern miracle of scotch tape. She explains how, without a name, the kid will just become a John Doe, which apparently Ichabod knew to be a phrase of British origin, thank you very much. He also knows his Middle English from that semester of Chaucer that he took at Oxford, so he knows that the word little Johnny Doe said meant “evil girl”. Since he’s such an expert on all things old and British, the Cap’n tells Crane that he’ll be the one to question little Johnny.
Out of earshot, Ex Boyfriend Luke questions the Cap’n on why he trusts Crane so much; the whole town is talking about this crazy-dressed British guy. The Cap’n is wiley, though, turns the tables on Luke, implying that his ex-relationship with Det. Mills is really the problem.
Sleepy Hollow Hospital has a biohazard ward. Crane is being instructed how to communicate via video and microphone since Johnny Doe is quarantined, which he handles with the same expertise as a grandparent on an answering machine. Speaking in subtitled Middle English, he learns that Johnny’s name is actually Thomas Grey. He wasn’t supposed to leave his home or follow the “evil girl”. Abbie is having a hard time believing what she sees, because she sees things like ram-headed demons and Sandmen.
Thomas says he is from Roanoke, which Crane believes to be the lost colony. Somehow Abbie was accepted to train at Quantico but has never heard of the lost colony of Roanoke, so Crane fills her in on the mysterious history (except for Croatoan. Weird omission, Sleepy Hollow writers). Also, for seemingly no reason whatsoever, he thinks Roanoke, North Carolina, might be in Sleepy Hollow, New York! It doesn’t make much sense, but it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that’s happened in the last four weeks.
The Cap’n calls them to say that Grey’s disease is spreading; now the EMT who treated him has also been infected and all of the nurses are getting ill. It’s an outbreak!
Word has spread about the virus and people are getting out of dodge. Crane and Mills explore the woods near where Grey was found, and while he shows off his expert tracking skills they tease each other and toe the flirting line. They come upon a set of shoeprints that aren’t Grey’s (because Grey was barefooted) and follow the trail deeper into the woods.
Ex Boyfriend Luke and Blonde Buddy Cop dish about Crane like a couple of ladies—Luke is really starting to look like he’s obsessed! Buddy Cop isn’t convinced that Crane is all that bad. The Cap’n trusts him, so he must be okay, right?
The Sleepy Hollow Center for Disease Containment seems to have a leak, because more patients within the hospital are getting Grey’s plaguey disease. Back on the trail, Crane and Mills follow Grey’s tracks to a swampy pond; a tiny island appears to be hiding in the middle of it. They find a super-secret hidden underwater bridge and cross over to the island. The camerawork goes all wonky as they break through the brush on the island—they’ve found the lost colony of Roanoke! All the Roanokians, also in period dress, have the black vein disease, but everyone is walking around like it’s no big deal.
It’s really not that big of a deal—or it wasn’t, until Thomas Grey got out. When the Pestilence Horseman (the new one with the horns) infected Roanoke with the plague, the ghost of Viriginia Dare (the first native born American, if you don’t count all those Indians) led the colonists to this newer, secretier location away from North Carolina. As long as they stuck together, they were fine, but since Grey got out the rest of the world is being infected with the plague. And once the entire world has the plague, Pesty Horse will be able to break through to the land of the living and join Headless. To save the colony and themselves, they need to get Thomas back to New Roanoke.
Our heroes make it back to the hospital where the disease is spreading amongst the staff…and Crane! Crane has the black veins! He gets quarantined and sedated under much duress, since under sedation he can’t help Thomas; but then he see Katrina in the smoky woods. Katrina can tell Ichabod is sick, because he only ever sees her once she’s summoned him. If she didn’t summon him, he must be sick…or dead!
C’mon, Ichabod isn’t dead. This is only episode 5. Ex Boyfriend Luke has made a secret call to Oxford University to confirm his suspicions about Crane being a big ol’ phony. Boy is he surprised when Oxford returns his call and validates Crane’s story. Did he make that call on his work phone? Because this has the Cap’n written all over it.
Katrina continues to explain that this is not just any smoky forest; this is Purgatory she’s trapped in, and she’s starting to look a little worse for wear. All of the other shuffling shadows are souls also stuck in Purgatory with her, waiting for Moloch the Beast to release them. He’s keeping Katrina there for something, though, and either no one knows why or there’s something Katrina isn’t telling us. I’m banking on the latter.
Back in the land of the living, Abbie asks Cap’n for help breaking Icky and Grey out of quarantine and endangering the rest of the town with their disease. Surprisingly, he says no. He’s even outraged! I’m pretty sure Abbie is going to do it anyway.
She finds the hospital chapel and takes a knee, asking for evidence from God that she’s doing the right thing. At this point in the episode, she needs a sign, but all she gets is dramatic background music. Wait, someone else comes in and puts their hand in the holy water vestibule. Abbie (who must have skipped History class to get to Biology) makes the scientific leap that the cure must be in the colony’s water! Just as she makes this discovery, and right as sneaky Katrina is about to tell Crane why she’s Moloch’s number 1 crush, Ichabod gets sucked out of the smoky wood and back into this body. Albeit barely, our hero is alive!
Abbie rushes to tell Cap’n that the spring water from the colony will heal Crane and Grey and, in very un-Cap’n like behavior, he instantly believes her and agrees to help her get them back to the spring. Well, that was unexpected! He comes up with his very own plan that involve other cops following his orders and them making a run for it-and naturally it works like a charm.
Abbie guides them through the woods, letting sick Crane carry sicker Grey to the colony. Crane fills Abbie in the status of Katrina’s soul, but then collapses because he’s doing all the damn work. They stop to rest, but don’t realize a) that the Pestilence Horseman is riding up behind them and b) they’re really only a few yards from the edge of the settlement. There’s no rest for the wicked, though, so Abbie shoots him in the leg with her giant Tube O’ Adrenaline. Oh no, Pesty is riding towards them! Or he could just be circling around them. He’s clearly not taking the most direct route, since they’re on foot and he’s on a horse and he’s always just off in the distance. They make it safely into the village and Crane cannonballs into the well with Grey. The Horseman is getting closer and riding through the village; Crane is still underwater. Is he dead?
The Horseman is so close, and as he rides down Abbie standing guard at the well, Crane pops up out of the water and the Horseman vaporizes. The water really was the cure! A flash of light and the village has disappeared; the heroes are standing in a dry dusty well in the woods while, on another plane that only Crane can see, the ghosts of the villagers walk away-they were dead the whole time!
Cap’n calls Abbie to let her know that the whole epidemic is receding. Once she gets off the phone, she thanks Crane for not dying and also for basically being awesome. He belongs in Sleepy Hollow now (and maybe in Abbie’s bed). Crane voiceovers about the long road ahead of them while we watch the HH climb out of the river and ride into Sleepy Hollow. Or is he riding out of it…?
Next week on Sleepy Hollow: a 3-week hiatus just in time for Halloween! Put a reminder in your phone for John Noble, James Frain, and Recurring Guest Star John Cho on November 4th.
