An Old Foe from SLEEPY HOLLOW Comes to D.C.
Season 4, Episode 3 “Heads of State”
Written by M. Raven Metzner
Directed by Kellie Cyrus
Crane meets an old enemy and sows seeds of distrust with his new partner.
Crane (Tom Mison) starts out this episode in a dark and creepy place, just like the last episode. He’s looking for apartments in D.C. He ends up renting Constantine’s old apartment. Not from the series, from the movie with Keanu Reeves. At least that’s what it looks like to me. Really, if the last dude disappeared under mysterious circumstances, maybe you should think twice before renting.
Jake (Jerry MacKinnon) develops a sudden, hopeless crush on Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood). Not surprising at all. Jenny tells Crane he needs to tell Diana (Janina Gavankar) about Molly (Oona Yaffe) being the next Witness.
The President of the United States, a woman (Charmin Lee), is threatened by the Headless Horseman on the street. The Horseman beheads the motorcycle escort but the Horseman can’t go any farther so he can’t kill the POTUS. Diana gets the case so she calls Crane in for help.
A tiny slice of her domestic life shows that Molly is still talking, still drawing pictures of Crane, and has drawn a picture of a place with four white trees.
After the usual opening sequence, there is quite a nice compilation of headless horseman scenes while Crane does the voice over. He’s explaining the Headless Horseman to his Histerns and Diana. They do such a good job with this compilation that it makes the Horseman twice as frightening as I ever thought he was in an episode. Alex (Rachel Melvin) has practical questions, like how does he breathe? I want to know how he can hit the broad side of a barn with no eyes.
Diana takes Crane to the crime scene with her. Alex and Jake go to the same area but underneath in the tunnels. My favorite line from the ep: when Jake asks Alex if she can boost a signal through three feet of concrete, she answers, “Future me has already done it.” They find a disk bolted to a manhole and take it back with them. Now, if I found a disk that I thought stopped the Headless Horseman I would leave it there!
The disk was made by a historical figure named Benjamin Banneker (Edwin Hodge). He was a free man who tried to convince the men putting the new country together to abolish slavery. He also helped survey the land for Washington, D.C. Benjamin dabbled in astronomy and wrote almanacs. The character is a good choice for someone dabbling in magic because there was a lot of legend and hyperbole surrounding his history.
However, Ichabod reveals himself by knowing too much about Banneker. He tries to say that he got information from the source material, but Jake knows that almost everything Banneker left behind was destroyed when his cabin burned down during his funeral. Jenny rats Crane out and says he’s 265 years old. He gives a shortened version of his story and Diana is furious! You can tell by how angry she is at not being told the whole truth that Crane should tell her everything, that they think that his last partner’s soul has taken up residence in her daughter’s body. He doesn’t.
Dreyfuss has the only surviving folio of Banneker’s work so Crane and Diana go off to fetch it. Dreyfuss lends it to them gladly. He mentions to them that there is no J street that people know of but it’s in Banneker’s blueprint.It was used to trap things of supernatural origin. Dreyfuss wants them to do his dirty work for him.
They hatch a scheme to lure Headless to the spot by enticing him with Crane’s head, still on his neck. It works. The Horseman shows up and a battle ensues while Alex, Jake and Jenny try to get the magic wall to open up. They do and the Horseman is trapped. Crane steps in something nasty during the fight.
While they are waiting for the Horseman, Diana shows Crane Molly’s sketchbook and he tries to explain about the soul migration.
Mad magician Dreyfuss and his lackey show up where the Horseman is trapped and promise the Horseman everything, including the president’s head.
Crane is in battle with something again: furniture from IKEA. While he is working to put it together, his closet door comes open. He checks it out and black ooze is coming out from under his shoe. It rises up and attacks him!
This episode was kind of boring. Not only have we faced the Headless Horseman before, but didn’t the John Wilkes Booth demon get trapped in the tunnels in the first episode? Why not trap Headless there? I’m sure that they would have made excellent roommates. The whole plot is about finding the hidden street to trap the Headless Horseman. The twistory is about that. Meeting Dreyfuss is about it, too. It’s kinda lame.
For that matter, why didn’t Crane just move into the witches’ house? Except for the bodies, it would be a good place for him. Hidden. If the glamour still holds, no one would find him there.
On the other hand, there are some good things about this episode. The Histerns get out of the library and get to apply their knowledge to solve puzzles. We get to see more of them and get to know them a little better.
Banneker is more interesting than the historical figures we usually meet. He’s more obscure than usual. There’s also enough mythology surrounding him that there’s wiggle room for strange claims.They aren’t out and out stating that a well known historical figure did something we know wasn’t true.
The special effects where the Horseman puts on someone’s head and becomes them is done well. Even when the head falls off and the spell disappears, it looks cool.
Crane and Dreyfuss meet, although we know that Dreyfuss already knows about Crane. When complimented on his success, Dreyfuss says that he sold his soul to the devil when he was twenty-five. Then he laughs. Crane BELIEVES him. I believe him. I wonder if this is a plot point, or if it’s just an explanation for his success. He also says something about leprechauns. It makes me wonder. Are there leprechauns? Is he one? Dreyfuss looks sort of fey. And if he is a leprechaun, can he sell his soul to the devil? Anyway, I enjoyed their encounter.
Diana was angry enough when she found out the truth to say that she wanted nothing more to do with Crane or the supernatural. It was an admirable display of temper. I was impressed with Gavankar’s passion. I’m sure Diana will be back in the next episode, but Crane strained an already tenuous relationship by his silence. He was afraid of losing her entirely if he told her the truth, but he needed to come clean and tell her everything.
But here is the real question for next week’s episode: WHAT grabbed Crane in his closet?
Sleepy Hollow airs on FOX at 9pm/8c on Fridays.
