This week, our Sleepy Hollow recap celebrates Thanksgiving, families and ax wielding!
Home is where the demon spawn is
It begins like any other horror movie: Billionaire heiress (Lena Gilbert) shows up to run-down family estate with big dreams of discovering her ROOTS. Miss Gilbert, unfortunately, has outsourced all of her horror movie viewing to her servants, so she is unaware that the pretty rich girl ALWAYS gets it first. She burst headlong into the creepy old mansion and is at once captured by ROOTS.
Crane and Mills are sent to recover her, not only because she has ties (or you could say, roots) to the founding fathers, but also because she left behind research notations mentioning “Katrina C”. Unsurprisingly Crane is familiar with the ancestral home of her ancestor, Lachlan Fredricks, as he and Katrina once visited there when it was a refuge . . . from EVIL!
Once inside, the house shuts down tight, trapping Mills and Crane inside. Crane concludes that the Lachlan must have lost that battle against evil, and now the house has been overtaken. Mills is NOT into haunted houses, and in her head is all:
But on the outside is all:
which is one of the many reasons why we love her.
They find Miss Gilbert wrapped up, and the roots bleed as they hack her out, bringing to life a whomping willowa a root-tree-demon. Gilbert informs Crane that Lachlan was involved in witchcraft, and he concludes that he and Katrina belonged to the same coven.n ent
Meanwhile . . .
Back at the station Jenny had stolen Frank’s heart gun, and is in the process of returning it, and inviting him to T-day, when the ex-wife and daughter show up. The ex is pissed because this sleepy ‘lil town is supposed to be less work than being a captain in the big city, and yet Frank has only been able to spend one weekend with his daughter. She’s like: there’s like one freaking stop light in this town, WTF are you doing with your time?
He best get his act together(.com), and respect his roots if he wants to see his little Macy again.
Crane’s a whaaaat?
While they try to escape the demon, the ghost of the lady of the manor shows Mills a vision of Katrina giving birth to a son. Ichabod goes heartbreakingly bewildered at this revelation. He then goes a little nuts when Mills tells him that as soon as the son was born the root-tree-demon rose from the earth inside the hex and came after him, causing Katrina to flee. (The monster, it’s coming from inside the hex!)
Gilbert is captured by the root-tree-demon, and Mills starts shooting at the roots to slow him down, with approximately this result:
The ghost lady of the manor shows them the way out, but Crane is not done with that demon. Crane takes a page from pal G. Washington and starts chopping the shit out of that that tree, leaving him Carrie-level bloodsplattered.
Crane and Mills wrap up with some musings about the nature of family and the holidays, and the episode ends with the revelation that Mills is the descendant of the woman who midwifed Katrina. Their fates are truly ‘entwined’ (like roots. get it?) Then they get tanked on rum! The end.
Scorecard
Number of Beheadings: 0 – again. Uh oh, Headless is heading for a reprimand! (sorry)
Flashback headgear: Eeek! History, what have you done to those beautiful people!
Relevant hyper-specialized knowledge that Crane happens to posess: This:
Okay, I recognize that this is neither a) knowledge, or b) relevant, but DAMN! Look at him!
Best Crane vs Technology moment: This week Crane is introduced to the concept of drive-thrus:
Moment that totally should have ended in a makeout sesh: This one:
Most surprising ancestry bombshell:
Shippiest Moment: Dr. J (seriously, I am going to keep spreading this ship-tag – it will eventually stick and it will be HUGE!) does some coy flirting while the parental units are otherwise occupied.
“I find your kleptomaniac tendencies very alluring. Now come on over and let’s play find the pistol . . .”
Episode Rating: Roots! It’s all about roots! Get it? Tree monster? Tangled up in roots? Ancestry? Get it? Seriously, do you get it already? We learn a little about everyone’s family in this episode, and there are some nice moments of connection – a little sappy (get it? roots, trees, sap?) in some parts. It feels like we are gearing up for something big to bring it all together, but not for another 2 weeks -waa!