Sleepy Hollow 1.09: "Sanctuary"

“I know who you serve. I know why you came here. You think you can go after the ones I love without consequence? My wife? My son?”
- Ichabod

This week begins with a young billionaire, Lena Gilbert heading off to her ancestral home that she’s only recently acquired legal title to. She wants to fix the place up and her body guard is skeptical about going into the house because it looks haunted (dude’s right). They go in anyway and things get creepy. Her guard disappears and Lena’s arm gets caught in some roots. Back at the precinct, Ichabod is scoffing at fast food and his general grumpiness about the holiday spirit since he is separated from Katrina. Just as Abbie suggest he take a night off, Irving hands them Lena’s case. Apparently there may be a connection to Katrina in the house. After a little google fu, Ichabod realizes that Lena is descended from Lachlan Fredericks, a man who worked in railroad and whose estate was a safe haven for freed slaves following the war for Independence. No sooner do Abbie and Ichabod find Lena’s guard’s body, then the house locks them in quite literally. Damn, that place is haunted!

As they explore the house more, Abbie really starts to freak out. She was never a fan of haunted houses and I don’t blame her. This episode is really creepy! She seems a woman that Ichabod doesn’t. But that’s not all. They find a copy of Katrina’s favorite book with a letter he penned her the day he faced the Horseman. So she must have been at the house shortly after he was buried. And we jump back to see he and Katrina being entertained at the manor and he recounts that their hosts talked of evil. It seems whatever they were trying to keep at bay, got in. He and Abbie finally find Lean in the closet being squished by the roots and Ichabod makes the mistake of cutting some of them. This triggers some Ent looking demon outside the house to come alive and start moving towards the house. Oops.

Ichabod manages to free Lena and she explains that she bought the place because it was always a family mystery. In her research she found Katrina’s name in a registry as one of the last people to see sanctuary on the property before it was abandoned. Ichabod surmises that Lachlan was likely a member of Katrina’s coven and that something evil managed to break through his protective defenses. In typical horror fashion, the monster shows up and starts to chase them and Abbie gets separated. Ichabod and Lena get into a room and he thinks Abbie is right behind him but he pulls the monster through. Some part of this house kind of remind me of the house Abbie was in a few episodes back when Katrina first appeared to her.

In the side plot, since the episode is airing the week of Thanksgiving, involves Jenny and Irving. She shows up (after he called her a week earlier) to return some guns she stole from him. She ends up inviting him to Thanksgiving at her place (along with Abbie and Ichabod) if he doesn’t have any other plans. This little amusing moment is interrupted by his estranged wife and daughter. His ex gives him an ultimatum; he either steps it up as a father or she files for full custody. While he’s getting a dressing down about shirking responsibility (I’m guessing for some kind of accident that made his daughter wheelchair bound), his daughter gets some friendly advice from Jenny. She needs to give her dad a chance.

Back at the house, Abbie finds herself following the ghost of the Black matron of the manor. At first it’s just kind of creepy but then we get into full on flashback mode where Abbie can actually see what’s happening and we find Katrina giving birth to a son. I wondered when we’d learn that she had a child (especially since we saw the pram in Abbie’s last Katrina-vision). I hope Abbie gets to confront Ichabod about this by episode’s end. Turns out we didn’t have to wait long. Abbie and Ichabod reunite and she shares what she saw in her vision. Ichabod was flabbergasted that Katrina was even pregnant. Honestly, I know he was off being a war hero and all but I’m pretty sure even back then it was fairly obvious when a woman was pregnant. Anyway, the vision didn’t stop there. The protection spell broke as soon as the boy was born and a creature sent by Moloch beat the spell by growing inside the grounds. Lachlan tried to stall its progress but it gutted him rather violently. And that’s all Abbie saw. I hope the next time Ichabod gets to visit Katrina, he gets some answers. I really do hope his son survived and there’s a way to somehow find his descendants.

Our Witnesses find Lena again in the basement and while Abbie gets them out of the house thanks to the ghost of the matron (and it looks like Katrina and baby Crane got out safe0, Ichabod goes back in with some flares and an ax and hacks the hell out of the beastie until he comes out blood soaked requesting to go home. The next day, Abbie stops by and offers up some rum, burnt turkey and pumpkin pie but Ichabod doesn’t think he’s up for it. He’s in a rather morose mood. They settle in though with some rum as they look through a box of stuff that Lean sent them. It has to do with the manor and the various people that inhabited it. Ichabod comes across a family tree of the Matron and it seems his and Abbie’s paths were destined to cross before she was even born. She is a direct descendant of the Matron. Pretty cool. Now we can look forward to the hunt for baby Crane in two weeks. I have to say I’m quite excited to see where the show goes.