When I heard this week was a double episode I was surprised, and even more surprised to find it was the season finale. It seems rare to have just a 13-episode season, especially for a network show. And throwing the two episodes together seemed a little haphazard, but it actually worked really well.
The first half was a basic episode, but left enough to want to watch one more. And the ending of this season was so good and so unexpected, I was floored. It’s not too often that my jaw drops during a TV show, but it did twice during the last few minutes. Please keep in mind that this review covers two episodes, so it will be fairly lengthy. But, enough preemptive reacting, let’s get to the meat and potatoes.
Brooks finds his way into Abbie’s house and tells her that Washington’s bible contains instructions on finding a map that can lead them to a way to stop Moloch. Moloch cannot use the map, but wants to get it so they cannot use it. If Abbie gives Brooks the bible, she will be spared and given a spot in Moloch’s clan.
Meanwhile, Crane has remembered something that Washington said to him about Lazarus and finds that passage in the bible. Abbie arrives, and Crane shows her that the Lazarus passage in the bible has ten more verses than it should. A secret message hidden in the bible shows that Washington knew that Crane was a witness, and also reveals that Washington was resurrected after his death, and was able to bring knowledge from the other side which included a map on how to navigate between the worlds.
Crane and Abbie determine that Reverend Knapp must have been present at Washington’s resurrection, and perhaps his rosary beads contain some ingrained sins that the Sin Eater can read in hopes of finding new clues. They dig up the Reverend, and Parish tries to read the beads, but they are hexed and very powerful. He tries again, and receives a little bit of information, seeing that Washington was resurrected, and the Reverend was in fact there.
After Parish reads the beads, some demons attack them in the cemetery, but Abbie and Crane are able to fight them off. They decide that this map is very powerful, and Abbie contends that Crane at some point may have to choose between saving Katrina from purgatory and saving the world from evil.
Having failed to get the bible from Abbie, Brooks begs Moloch to turn him into a weapon. Brooks is attacked by wasps, and woven into some kind of cocoon that looks like a burlap sack. He emerges some time later transformed into a gross, slimy, scary demon.
Crane, knowing that the map is of great importance, and that Masons take everything with them to the grave, figures that the map must be buried with Washington. There are multiple burial sites listed for Washington, but Parish remembers seeing Reverend Knapp navigating a river with a body on his boat. Washington must be secretly buried on an island near Sleepy Hollow.
Abbie picks an island that Washington used as a penal colony during the war. She happens to pick the correct island. Crane uses his Mason knowledge to find a stone used as a marker in the middle of a field. He turns the stone to a specific spot, and the ground shifts, revealing an underground crypt.
The Sin Eater tells Abbie about a prophecy that was rejected from the bible, a story about a witness surrendering a witness, and neither will survive. As if Abbie didn’t need more of a reason to think Crane may turn on her.
Inside the crypt, Crane puts his ring in a hole on a stone medallion, and this causes the wall to open up, and Washington’s casket to emerge. The cover slides off, and the skeleton of George Washington is revealed, clutching a map. Demon Brooks finds them in the crypt, but the Sin Eater touches him, and for a few moments he is regular Brooks. Abbie shoots him, but he later recovers, a demon once more. Abbie triggers a booby trap that Crane warned her about earlier, and Brooks is buried inside the crypt, the others escaping through a secret exit.
Abbie lets Crane decide whether or not to destroy the map, knowing that if he destroys the map, Katrina may be lost forever. But if they keep the map, it could end up in Moloch’s hands and the war would be lost. Crane opts to burn the map, and Abbie promises him that they will free Katrina from purgatory. Back at his house, Crane makes use of his photographic memory to recreate the map.
During all of this, Captain Irving is being questioned about the dead cops at the safe house. All he can tell them is that evil did it. Police begin taking DNA samples of his daughter and wife. Captain Irving confesses to the murders to save his family.
Parish rushes to see Crane and Abbie, having had a disturbing premonition. He saw Moloch summoning something from the earth during a solar eclipse. There is a solar eclipse happening today, and it just so happens that the day Abbie and Jenny saw Moloch was 13 years ago exactly, and there was also a solar eclipse on that day. The war is coming…today, warns Parish.
One way to stop the 2nd horseman from entering this world is to perform a binding spell. The only witch left that can perform the spell is Katrina. Crane has recreated the map, so Crane and Abbie will have to cross over and retrieve Katrina so she can bind the horseman from entering. Abbie wants Jenny to search Corbin’s audiotapes, as he had been working on something with Reverend Knapp, and there may be some clues.
Jenny doesn’t want Abbie to go, and reminds her of a dollhouse they had as kids, that Abbie had said was a place they would always be safe. Abbie has to face Moloch for her and Jenny, and promises her she will be ok.
Parish warns Abbie and Crane not to take any food or drink in purgatory, and if they embrace anything they will be trapped there forever. The map points them to where they can recite an incantation to open the portal between the worlds. Crane and Abbie recite the incantation and walk into the portal.
Abbie wakes up in a cabin with a bandage on her head, and a very alive Corbin and Brooks looking after her. She hit her head while training at Quantico, and got a very bad concussion. They offer her some apple pie, and she almost takes a bite before remembering why she is there. The fantasy crumbles away.
Crane wakes up in an old British building, getting a hero’s welcome for leading the British to victory. His father is there, and promises him a professorship. Crane almost takes a drink before remembering why he is there, and yells at his father for disowning him when he turned on the British. The fantasy crumbles away.
Crane awakes in the woods, surrounding by the lost souls searching for salvation. He finds Abbie, and they head towards the old church. At the same time, Jenny hears a tape of Corbin talking about an old church, so she heads there as well. Abbie and Crane find Katrina in the church, and tell her of their plan.
Katrina’s soul cannot leave purgatory without receiving forgiveness. Not unless another soul is left in her place. Crane volunteers to stay, but Abbie overrules him. She wants to face Moloch, and this is her sacrifice to make to save the world. Katrina gives her a necklace for protection, and they promise to come back for Abbie. So Crane didn’t exactly give Abbie’s soul to Moloch, but it did work out basically the same.
Crane and Katrina come back to earth without Abbie, and Parish introduces himself to Katrina. They perform the binding spell, but something isn’t right. It’s not working, and Katrina doesn’t sense the horseman below her. Parish says he definitely senses him. He then looks at Katrina and Crane and uses some kind of magic to bind them to two of the white trees. The Sin Eater is the second horseman!
Abbie has a standoff with Moloch, who grabs her by the throat and is choking her. She stabs him with the necklace and runs away, eventually ending up in some weird, kid-like house. She finds two girls there, and the girls are Abbie and Jenny as kids. This is the dollhouse that Jenny was talking about! One of the girls tells Abbie that they are her memories, the ones that Moloch didn’t want her to remember.
Jenny finds the old church, but can’t figure out where the answers lie. There was some comment about a saint’s name, and then Jenny finds an old sign with the name of the church. She rushes off and calls Abbie to tell her, but her car is shot at by the headless horseman, and she is run off the road. The horseman leaves her for dead, but it is not made clear if Jenny is actually dead or not.
Parish revels in the fact that he planted the idea of the Sin Eater in Katrina’s head, and all of this has come from that. He explains that the second horseman was already unearthed over a decade earlier. It was the day that Abbie and Jenny stumbled upon Moloch. And you thought the bombshell of Henry Parish being the second horseman was stunning. How about this one? Henry Parish is actually Ichabod and Katrina’s son Jeremy!!! He was buried for two centuries before his true father Moloch freed him.
Abbie finally remembers what happened the day her and Jenny met Moloch. Abbie is trying to leave the dollhouse, but her memories won’t let her leave. They tell her that this is her home now.
Henry reveals to Ichabod and Katrina that he took his name from the church that sent him off to die two centuries earlier – Saint Henry’s Parish. Henry says there is nothing stopping him from breaking the second seal now. The headless horseman arrives and takes Katrina away. Crane is put in Henry/Jeremy’s grave and bound with roots and vines. Henry breaks the second seal, and tells Crane that the war isn’t coming to Sleepy Hollow, it’s been there all along.
