Full spoilers for “Sleepy Hollow’s” latest episode below.
When I saw the preview last week for this week’s “haunted house” episode of “Sleepy Hollow”, I wasn’t particularly thrilled. It appeared as we might get a monster-of-the-week break after all of the reveleations from last week’s episode. I was wrong.
Ichabod and Abbie find themselves at a house Ichabod and his witch-wife, Katrina, visited “back in the day”. However, something has awakened at the house, and that thing is a tree monster working for Moloch. Abbie, Ichabod, and Lena Gilbert – a potential buyer for the house – find themselves trapped inside the house with this monster and must survive and find a way out.
I enjoyed this episode far more than I expected to. They haunted house portions of this show were incredibly well done, and genuinely thrilling. Even with this aspect following some pretty standard rules for the genre (everyone manages to get separated, etc.), the events still feel very fresh and very Sleepy Hollow-esque and kept me on the edge of my seat.
“Sanctuary” provided a lot of insight to the over-arching story of “Sleepy Hollow” as well. The biggest revelation? Katrina gave birth to a son Ichabod had no idea about – and her ancestor delivered it! As Ichabod notes, it appears their destinies have been tied together for longer than either one realizes. On the subject of ancestors, I am suspicious of Lena Gilbert. The tree monster sent by Moloch in the past was after Ichabod and Katrina’s child, but Katrina and her son were able to escape, meaning that Ichabod most likely has some ancestors out there. In the present day, the monster awakened upon Lena cutting her hand on one of the monsters vines, and then touching it again. Did the monster awaken because it recognized some Craine blood in Lena? . . .
Back at the precinct, Frank Irving gets a visit from Jenny Mills who is returning his gun back to him. While these two seem to developing an uneasy friendship (possibly more?), the brakes are put on when Irving’s ex-wife and daughter come to town. To further complicate things, it turns out Frank has been a somewhat MIA father due to all of the events in Sleepy Hollow keeping him away. His ex-wife gives him an ultimatum to start being more of a father to his daughter, or she will file for full custody.
This episode was thrilling and gave us even further insight to all of our main characters. From Frank Irving and his family, to Ichabod and Abbie being more connected than they prviously thought, a lot of revelations came while Craine and Mills were investigating this haunted house. But my favorite moment of the night? Ichabod Craine grabbing and axe and going back into the haunted house to finish off the tree monster. Ichabod has been a pretty even-tempered character thus far, so it was shocking – and frankly, bad ass – to see him lose it on a demon that messed with his family.
After this week’s great episode, It appears the search for answers to Ichabod’s family begins after the holiday break!