Sleepy Hollow – S3E15 – Incommunicado

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Previously on Sleepy Hollow, ‘Into the Wind’

Middle Age Crisis band practice is interrupted by a banshee sucking the sound out of the room, killing the three dads. Sophie calls Abbie in to view the footage, separating her from Crane, who’s been experimenting with various gloves to prevent accidental remote viewing through the emblem. For science, he may or may not have been spying on Abbie, and by that I mean, definitely. Oh, Crane.

While she’s out, the Hidden One pays him a visit, determined to stop the Witnesses’ from abusing Pandora, because that is his job, hello. He promises to kill Crane first, then Abbie, nice and slow. BEHOLD! The emblem leaps from Crane’s pocket and intercepts the bolt of energy, activating a blue prison around the house. Kind of good and kind of bad, considering Crane is now trapped in there with him, and Abbie is stuck in the catacombs with Pandora, who says the words we’ve all thought for 3 years:

“Please lower your ineffectual weapon, Witness. I am not in the mood.”

The symbol of Abbie’s obsession proves to be the Emblem of Thura, activated for the first time in 4000 years, which imprisons gods and turns their drained power into mass destruction, which, incidentally, seems counter productive. Pandora overhears about the banshee and proposes using its EeVill to power her box shards and disarm the prison.

Sophie and Joenny are less than thrilled at trusting Pandora, but, they look up a barkeep on St Patrick’s Day, because apparently that is the only day you can find Irishmen. Through his multitude of clichés, they divine a need for pure iron to combat the banshee. Jenny jacks a iron fence from the 1700’s graveyard for makeshift arrows.

Driving through the banshee danger zone with an ambulance siren wailing, Sophie advises Jenny that maybe Joe is burying his true feelings about the whole Wendigo thing out of love for her. Suddenly the sound drops out and the banshee appears in the road. Fortunately modern earplugs are totally banshee proof (marketing opportunity!), but when they have it cornered with their fence-post-loaded crossbows, Abbie texts that they need the banshee alive. Dammit!

Crane wakes up to stop the HO from zapping the barrier over and digs into their pile of books, but the HO is not impressed with such “pablum,” spurring one of Crane’s most orgasmic expositions on the genius works of humanity: jazz, classical music, Prince… In answer, the HO drops a bomb: Crane has always been looking for answers because he is driven to by his Witness bloodline.

While Crane gawps at the news that his role is inherited and not just some witchery courtesy of She Of Whom We Do Not Speak and That Monster Sleepy Hollow Used To Be About, the HO freebases all the books in the room and finds nothing helpful.

Speaking of the great works of humanity, Team Joenny draws the banshee to an empty amphitheater with Beethoven’s 5^th. With the creature hogtied, it’s the perfect time for a heart-to-heart. How does Joe REALLY feel about being a Wendigo? Not great, actually. Unsurprisingly their distraction allows the banshee time to escape, and then they’re out a monster since Joe has to kill her.

Sophie: “Who’s gonna tell Mills that we knocked off her monster, hmm? Not it.”

They report back to the Masonic cell, and a series of meaningful glances between Joe and Pandora leaves Joe determined to gamble his monsterness, and possibly his life, away. Nooo!

The Sumerian tablet, which you may recall as the Worst Prop In the World, tips Crane off to the idea that Abbie and Pandora must be working together, so he and the HO should also. If only he could count on the tablet’s snooping signal to be more consistent than Comcast. Alas! The problem is, HO croons, that the tablet’s inscription is 600 years too young for the emblem. Crane hands him a pen and paper. Get to writing, god!

In a sweet scene, Jenny and Joe wish each other a tearful possible goodbye, and he steps into the protective circle. Pandora activates green tendrils from her box fragment to draw from the evil energy of WendiJoe, but the monster won’t stay in the circle. Jenny bargains with the Joe inside, offering first a key to the trailer, then finally admits she loves him. WendiJoe grumbles back into the circle and the spell begins to work, but is still too weak. Pandora asks for another box fragment before Joe dies and it all fails. Abbie flips out, believing this was a ploy all along.

Tearful, Pandora swears it isn’t (whatever, lady), because she accidentally keeps losing the emblem to humans and getting her lover imprisoned over and over. In fact, she knew Abbie had it and never warned him.

As the HO finishes his legal-pad inscription, Crane brainstorms and stacks the existing tablet and symbol in a sandwich, producing a small pop-up video of the last 30 minutes ending in Pandora’s admission.

Jenny completes the box lid with their fragment, re-powering the process and disarming the prison. The HO disappears, Joe transforms back into himself, and the tablet sandwich dissolves into dust… But at least they have that new paper, right? I think.

FINALLY AN ICHABBIE HUG. Shall we? I’ll hold while you get a drink.

Glorious! Seriously, was that so hard? Not a lingering one though, so don’t get too excited. Enjoying their victory, Crane tells Abbie about the bloodline news, miming “mind blown,” and they pound it out for good measure.

Back at the trailer, Joe reminds Jenny of her promise, to which she kids:

“There’s no easy way to say this, but… I offered that key to the Wendigo.”

I would totally be using that one for years to come.

From his throne, the Hidden One tolerates Pandora’s obsequiousness for a hot minute before busting her lying lies.

Overall Thoughts

This episode had some solid highlights. I loved the banshee effect of sucking the sound out of the room, a monster easily worthy of the entire episode. Ichabod’s waxing poetic about the accomplishments of man felt authentic to the Founding Fathers, in addition to revealing his love for Prince, and tied in beautifully with using Beethoven to trap the banshee. We had some long-needed Ichabbie moments with their “watching you” finger motions, the hug, and their signature pound, and Lyndie Greenwood pulled every ounce of her weight with her emotional pleas to Joe.

Of course, there are down sides. The awesome banshee was limited to the B plot, and, the Irish barkeep was one step from being a leprechaun. The Ichabbie moments were hard to enjoy given that the entire rest of the episode is spent with them in total separation, and mixing the gods with mortals only made them seem even less powerful after weeks of not doing much anyway. Lastly, this bloodline revelation has fully ignited my suspicion that there is some doom on the horizon for our Witnesses, as it makes their personal role entirely non-unique as long as someone from their bloodline survives to bear the mantle. Say it ain’t so, Sleepy Hollow!