Warning: Spoiler Alert
Last we spoke, Abbey Mills had been transported back to Sleepy Hollow, 1781. Where she was promptly arrested for being Black. She name dropped ‘Captain Ichabod Crane’. Meanwhile we find Ichabod in mid battle against the red coats where he looked like a 200 year prequel to the Jason Bourne films. A man approaches Ichabod in down time to report of this strange woman. Ichabod dismisses the news as he is not to leave the battle field. That was a specific she gave. Even referenced a soldier with something on his hand. A reference to the man we would come to know as the Headless Horseman.
The next scene goes just as you might expect. Abbey is a stranger to Ichabod and he dismisses her claims quickly. That is until he is passed a message and Abbey recites it verbatim. Later, Katrina comes into the infirmary tent looking for Ichabod. The time line has shifted. Abbey warned Ichabod. So Ichabod does not get wounded. And thus, she cannot complete her spell that sends them on this course they’ve been on for two years now. A wounded soldier does inform Katrina of the strange woman who calls herself Abigail Mills. Abbey and Katrina still have their memories. This is bad news.
On the field of battle our two eventual partners survey the situation. Ichabod does not yet possess the ability to process what Abbey is telling him. But, she’s been right so far. Later, Ichabod is reprimanded from what appears to be a superior officer. Ichabod asks about ‘this woman’ and the man before him tells him, “If you want her, buy her at auction”. He arranges to have Abbey turned over to him in transport for a camp for ‘runaway slaves’.
In the carriage ride, Ichabod is stern. Skeptical doesn’t quite cover it. He asks questions and Abbey answers them. Even to the extent of describing the events that lead to Ichabod and Katrina’s engagement, as said by the man who experienced it. Then she tells him that they, in 2015, work together to fight off the impossible. Ultimately coming to the revelation that most of the assistance they get come from books written by men who are (currently) still alive. With Washington and Jefferson in Virginia, that only leaves Benjamin Franklin.
Abraham appears looking for Ichabod. Katrina walks up behind him and lays it out. Well, enough to swindle Abraham. She knows he, the horseman, is Abraham. Ichabod has betrayed her as well. He has joined forces with another woman and they present a great threat to Katrina and Abraham. She extends the black book and says, “find them and kill them”.
When they meet with Benjamin Franklin, his reaction surprises Ichabod. He is welcoming and rather pleased to discover that all of his ideas are still around 200 years later. Ichabod is still skeptical and asks Abbey to tell Franklin of this woman sent to kill him. She beats around the bush by only saying she’s a witch. Franklin then sends Ichabod away. It’s important to remember that Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, all of them knew far more than Ichabod was aware of. He knew before she told him that the witch in question is Katrina Crane.
The next step is to attempt to undo the traveler spell. Thus negating everything that has happened since Abbey and Katrina traveled. The first stop is to meet Ms. Grace Dixon. Abbey’s great great great great Grandmother. Before they can begin this plan, the Horseman makes a forceful entrance. They fight the Horseman for a moment. Then Franklin stands holding a small grenade-bomb. The Horseman decapitates him. But the bomb thing still works.
After the death of Franklin, Ichabod locks Abbey up again. Refusing to believe anything she says, he asks the question Franklin specifically told her not to answer. What did she discuss with Franklin in private? When she tells him who the witch is, he cuts her off and leaves. She informs him that Katrina is pregnant. She yells at him to check her phone. The password is his birth date. In the pictures, he will find one of both of them.
Ichabod returns home to find Katrina has laid out a series of peculiar herbs alongside an open book with very odd writings. She is cryptic and insistent about the location of the mad woman. Ichabod is beginning to believe in small doses. Then a man barges in with the request of his presence by General Washington. Immediately. He sends the man on and leaves to retrieve Abigail Mills’ little black box with the pictures in it. This feels like a Zoolander “the files are IN the computer” moment.
Watching 1781 Ichabod Crane trying to access an iPhone is priceless. “Slide to unlock” and he slides the phone along the table. He navigates his way to the photos icon and watches a video of himself talking about waffles with Abbey in the background. Meanwhile the Colonel invites himself into Abbey’s cell. He aims to punish her. She is nice enough to explain that close quarters attacks have evolved. He tries to strike her and it ends badly for him. Ichabod arrives just as Abbey has put the Colonel to sleep.
Katrina was able to gain some information from the Colonel. Even take a some dried blood from his arm which she used to see where Abbey and Ichabod were going. Then killed the Colonel.
The reunion between Abbey and Grace Dixon is an emotional one. Not just on the surface, but because Ms. Dixon didn’t need to be told the specifics. She already knew that Abbey was one of the witnesses. Reversing the traveler spell can be done, but it will require using all of the power than protects the house. Moments later, the Horseman and Katrina arrive. Ichabod must face them to buy Grace time and Abbey cannot leave the house as part of the counter spell.
Ichabod is losing the fight while Grace prepares the counter spell. Abbey begins to read the incantation. The counter spell freezes time, the moment before Abraham’s blade slices Ichabod throat. Katrina knows what’s happening and shouts out, “you cannot stop this”. The imagery of this montage suggests otherwise.
Both women are taken back to the moment before the travel. Katrina is pissed. She goes into full blood magic rage. She wants Abbey dead for killing Henry. Ichabod reaches for a knife but Katrina summons it to her instead. Ichabod pursues, until Katrina’s miscalculation leads to her knife stabbed into her body. Ichabod holds her as she dies with Abbey watching on. I have said, yelled or shouted at my television to kill her off at least twenty times. While I am satisfied momentarily, it was a very well done scene.
Jenny and Irving race into the church. Not knowing what happened with Jenny and Irving upon Henry’s death, she greets them with her gun drawn. She is convinced all is clear. Then informs the group that Grace told her the biggest battles are yet to come. Thus, setting up a future series of events that are both not tied to the previous battles and has no definitive end in sight.
