Recap: SLEEPY HOLLOW Plays Capture the Flag

Season 3, Episode 16: “Dawn’s Early Light”
Directed by Paul Edwards
Written by Leigh Dana Jackson, Sam Chalsen, and Nelson Greaves

[Photos: Tina Rowden/FOX]

This is a fun episode where Abbie (Nicole Beharie) and Crane (Tom Mison) work together to find Betsy’s Ross’s flag and some revelations are made.

The Hidden One (Peter Mensah) is being his usual obnoxious self. He dunks Pandora (Shannyn Sossamon) in her pool and dumps her on the ground, all the while saying that he was too indulgent  and spoiled her like a pet. His worst insult is to call her human.

Ezra Mills (James McDaniel) comes to Abbie’s house, bearing photograph albums. Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) is visiting. Abbie is civil: Jenny refuses to admit that she remembers him bringing taffy home for them. He certainly doesn’t look anything like the girls. The picture of their mom in the photograph album does though. Crane walks in, talking about the virtues of a Kentucky farmer who grows chickens, and gets to meet Ezra.

Ichabod goes to the underground tunnels and finds Pandora in the Masonic cell, rifling through their stuff. She’s looking for another piece of the box. She looks more miserable than ever. She asks for Abbie because she had told Abbie some of her story and thought she might be sympathetic. I’m not sure that she didn’t get the more sympathetic Witness, though. Crane might very well be the softer touch. She tells him that the Hidden One will regain his power shortly and that they are running out of time, and that she could control him with the box if it was whole. She also says that it could be restored in the place where it was forged, the catacombs, AKA the place where Abbie spent her summer vacation and that the Hidden One escaped from. But the Witnesses destroyed the Tree of Fear, so there is no way there. This sets Crane on the path of trying to find another way to the underworld.

Abbie has decided to tell Reynolds (Lance Gross) about monsters and the supernatural and her calling as a Witness, but she balks. Crane calls to get her involved in finding a way to the catacombs. He leaves it up to Abbie whether she wants to go there or not. They figure out that George Washington crossing the Delaware was really a secret mission to get the Eye of Providence so that he could win against the British. This is cool because they finally get to refer to the large painting that is hanging over their heads in the archives all the time. They also figure out that they need to find the flag that Betsy Ross (Nikki Reed) made. This also involves a sweet. adorable flashback between Crane and Betsy Ross, where they are mushy with each other and over the flag. This is the last time they saw each other and Betsy knew at this point that she was going on this mysterious journey and Crane wasn’t.

They go to the Paul Revere house to find that the flag is fake. Touching it triggers a defense, an undead creature who was a deserter who was tarred and bandaged with infernal materials. Whatever those are. He can throw fire from his hands.

Jenny admits to Joe (Zach Appelman) that she remembers the taffy. Her favorites were the pink ones. Joe figures out that the holes in the fake flag are musical notes, the Star Spangled Banner. Francis Scott Key wrote the anthem much later, so they come to the conclusion that he moved the flag, being in on everything, and left clues to where it was. Since Fort McHenry is the place “that our flag was still there,” they go to Fort McHenry. On their way, they run into Reynolds in a parking lot. He got an angry call from the person running the Paul Revere house. The eternal soldier finds them, too, and throws a cutlass at Reynolds but it misses. They escape and Reynolds gets brought up to date about monsters in the car.

Pandora gives the Hidden One her Dear John speech. Luckily for her she was astral projecting because he tries to blast her.

Reynolds goes to Sophie Foster (Jessica Camacho), who confirms everything Abbie said. Abbie and Crane go to Fort McHenry, where they find a giant statue of Orpheus, which opens when they play the Star Spangled Banner. They find the real flag, but the eternal soldier finds them. They get the worst of it but Jenny suddenly shows up and coats the soldier with liquid nitrogen and Joe smashes it with a sledge hammer. A great show of smarts and working together by Jenny and Joe!

Abbie talks to Reynolds about her day and the revelations he’s just been given. They kiss. Boo hiss.

Ezra Mills stops by Jenny’s trailer with taffy. It’s pink.

Abbie and Crane meet at sunrise at the park, “by dawn’s early light.” The flag projects a hologram of the path that Washington took to get to the catacombs. Of course they are going to go.

Thoughts: This is a really good episode. Abbie and Crane work together a lot. The flashbacks are necessary, as they were of an emotional time for Crane and have important clues. Jenny and Joe are a good back up team, and Pandora announces her emancipation, this time to the right person. She is done with being a slave. The monster gets a minimal amount of daylight time.

Sometimes the historical facts are extremely unlikely in this show. I doubt that George Washington had the Eye of Provenance or that Ben Franklin dabbled in re-animation. But in this case, there’s sufficient lack of knowledge that they can fit their case into the blank spaces. Betsy Ross’s flag is lost. It probably didn’t survive at all. If it was made by Betsy Ross, that is, because there isn’t sufficient proof that the story is true. There is also no real knowledge of why the flag was designed the way that it was. We know that the thirteen stars were for the original colonies, which is how we got the tradition of adding stars for each state, but not why they are five points instead of the traditional six, why there are stripes, or why those colors. So they get to add whatever they want. And, strangely, there IS a giant statue of Orpheus at Fort McHenry. It was the winning artwork for a contest for the anniversary of Francis Scott Key writing our national anthem. I think they planned this part of the plot for a long time, and it’s why they chose Betsy Ross for the freedom fighter instead of someone who was an actual female spy during the Revolution. Kudos to them for making an interesting mystery.

And, I have to add this: because I am so disappointed in The Walking Dead having just had two episodes where the plot was driven by all the characters losing their brain cells at once, I am grateful that Sleepy Hollow does not do that. The Sleepy Gang doesn’t put each other in danger because of their emotional hangups, although they do have some.

So now Reynolds has been included into the club. He is an active member in the previews. The Sleepy Gang has a lot of people in it. Time for someone to die.

Also, I am predicting that Pandora will not have entirely turned over a new leaf. If she does get the box back, and they save humanity, I am sure she will still be interested in keeping her magical power. If she really were going to turn into a good person, she’d have done it in those hundreds of years she was on earth alone.

Sleepy Hollow airs on Fridays at 8pm/7c on FOX. Be sure to read our Q&A with cast and crew from WonderCon.