Sleepy Hollow - S2E4 - Go Where I Send Thee
Previously on Sleepy Hollow, ‘Root of All Evil’
The biggest revelation? Jenny has been teaching Ichabod to drive. Abbie lets that drop while she’s giving him a driving lesson. “Jinba ittai… Well, why didn’t you say so?” The horse and rider as one speed off, spinning donuts with a smirk while Abbie yells and laughs—thanks to Miss Jenny, he’s practically a stunt driver. But he understands why she’s really teaching him, and reassures her: “Hear me, Grace Abigail Mills, it is not our fate for one to bury the other.” Luscious hair two weeks in a row.
As for the case, Sarah Lancaster-Weiss, 10 years old, is lured into the night by ethereal flute music. The Amber alert leads Abbie to interview Beth Lancaster, who fell asleep before turning the security system on, and Richard Weiss, parents of three adopted boys as well. As it happens, Beth was Abbie’s caseworker as a child and kept her from “sliding off the world.” A lovely moment, interrupted by Crane popping up in the bushes like a gopher and spotting Daniel Lancaster’s encased sword on the wall. A “scoundrel” that refused to choose a side during the Revolution until the winner was clear.
In the woods, they find blood spatter, signs of a struggle, and a jiuhu boni, a bone flute. As Ichabod plays, the melody causes Abbie to fall into a trance and she wanders into the water. With horror he realizes it belongs to the pied piper and wakes her.
Once again Ichabod whines about sneaking into their command center and Abbie snarks that it must’ve been when Betsy Ross had a crush on him. “That woman was relentless! Once Adams found me hiding in a broom closet… from her.” #SpilledTeaWithIchabod He relates how the flute once lured Redcoats out of the Lancaster home into slaughter. They postulate that if Abbie goes under the flute’s spell again, they’ll find Sara, and Ichabod records it on his phone so she can use earphones. They begin again, but Ichabod stops her when he spots someone behind the rocks… It’s Hawley, all beat up, confirming the girl is alive.
“Yo, Pride and Prejudice, you mind not touching things in there?” Hawley says at Ichabod pulling explosives from his bag. He was attacked by a “sicko in costume,” who he thinks is copycatting the curse of the Lancasters—because of Daniel’s betrayal of the demon-possessed piper, the creature returns to claim a Lancaster girl from each generation when she turns 10, making a new flute from her bones. Abby trades the flute for his help, much to Ichabod’s chagrin, who labels Hawley a “brigand for hire.”
Abbie again leads them, but Ichabod stops her. Hawley still thinks it’s BS, audio hypnosis, but they’ve found an ancient cellar. Bones hang from the ceiling and Sara is chained in a cell. Hawley wanders off and the growling piper appears behind him. He fires but the creature is fast like a bat on speed. Abbie carries the girl to safety as the men are overtaken by the creature twirling his weapon, creating a disabling sound. They toss an explosive then set a bomb as they leap out of the bunker. Ichabbie agree to take the girl home before hunting the piper down, but Hawley is not about this life. He just wants the flute and he doesn’t do refunds. As it turns out, neither does Abbie, who breaks it over her knee. They return Sara to her grateful parents, but Beth doesn’t look like she believes it’s over.
Back at headquarters, Abbie blows Ichabod’s mind with noise-cancelling earbuds. He mentions that Beth didn’t look entirely relieved, so they pull up records on the Lancaster “curse.” Each generation, one girl was kidnapped, including Beth’s older sister, but in the years the Piper didn’t get his prey, all the children in the family die…. Which means Beth knows that the piper will be after the rest of the kids… Which means she left the alarm off on purpose… Which means she’s going to try again.
As they arrive back at the estate, all of the boys are being loaded into ambulances, suddenly stricken ill. Richard says Beth left with Sara “to meet them at the hospital.” Ichabod strolls into the house and punches the Fishkill Bailey cutlass free from its case, strolling back out, and snatching the keys, “in the interest of time,” squealing off in the car as Abbie tries calling Beth. Yeah, that’s not hot at all.
Abbie finds Beth sadly dragging Sara through the woods. Beth pulls a gun, desperate, having prayed all these years for the curse to be fake. “My good lady,” Ichabod exhorts, “a great evil has taken control of your legacy. For your sake and for the sake of all your children, trust us, let us make this right.” She comes to herself and cries, hugging Sara, as the piper appears, vicious and snarling. Bullets only slow him down. Was that a horse whinnying? He leaps down the well into his lair. “FINISH IT,” Abbie yells. MORTAL KOMBAT! You know you’re dancing, so don’t even try to play me. Your Running Man could use some work, btw.
Ichabod leaps down, earbuds in place. The fight starts in silence, but Ichabod’s knocked down, an earplug falling out. The piper’s whirling makes his ears bleed but he grabs a stone from the hearth, bashing it into the Piper’s boot. They fight awesomely until they’re both down. As the Piper gets up again, Abbie stabs him. “No. more. kids,” she commands… “privateer.”
Tarrytown
Frank reading from the Bible, “The horseman of war gathers his soldiers for the end of days…” and suddenly sees himself possessed, slaughtering men in the apocalypse as the flaming soldier watches. He comes to and drops the book, now on fire. He tries to fire Henry, who is totally fine with it, as long as he’s okay with his wife losing all that union money and his daughter having no insurance. Frank straight out calls him the Horseman of War, but Henry reasons that the good side hasn’t done jack to protect him or his kin, so why not? Irving demands to know what Henry’s done to him and is directed to Ezekiel 18:4, “Behold all the souls are mine.” He realizes he signed in blood and is now DOOOOMED.
At the end of the day, Ichabbie share a cappuccino that he derides as “sadistic larceny” costing “three Tennessee stallions” before coming to understand the wonder that is the modern espresso confection, leaving whipped cream all over his mustache… and the resulting fanfic breaks the Internets. He gives her the eyebrow for gloating, but it’s totally justified according to her. And then he burns his mouth.
“Nicolas” Hawley, as a courier/middleman is there for the flute, which he specifies is broken, but the money is already in the account. The man leaves the case on a desk and hustles out of the office. It’s Henry, of course, who smashes the flute to oblivion with a mortar and pestle, tasting the dust. “It’s perfect.” Watch out for the water hole, y’all.
Next time: A restless spirit haunts the site of her suicide, because Halloween.
