SLEEPY HOLLOW Puts Crane on Trial

Season 4, Episode 4 “The People v. Ichabod Crane”
Written by Sam Chalsen
Directed by Jim O’Hanlon

As angry as Diana (Janina Gavankar) was that Crane (Tom Mison) did not tell her the entire truth about when he was from or that they thought her daughter was the Witness, she still comes to the rescue when she learns that he is in trouble. In fact, this whole episode is not about Crane’s trial and guilty conscience, as the title might suggest, but about gaining Diana’s acceptance.

Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) comes to Diana’s door to talk to her about Molly (Oona Yaffe). Diana is not interested in what she has to say. Crane was supposed to be with her, but he doesn’t show. Jenny goes to his apartment and finds goo and webbing, but no Crane.

Jenny takes the goo to the Histerns. They analyze it as mostly spider silk. Which is weird, because it’s gooey. It’s also photophobic. They find a mention by Benjamin Franklin about a despair creature and find where it’s lair was located, which unfortunately is now an army base. They want to call Diana but Jenny says no. She can handle it herself without them and without Diana.

We find out that Dreyfuss is trying to cheat death. Since he did sell his soul to the devil, he has motivation. He sends Jobe (Kamar de los Reyes) off to find some maps.

Crane is on trial. He’s in an eighteenth century courtroom, which may prove that inside he is still from that time period. Unknown people are watching, but they have nice costumes. His son Henry (John Noble) is the prosecutor. They bring up his guilt about Henry, and Joe Corbin, and about Abbie’s (Nicole Beharie) death. He defends himself. He points out that he didn’t know about Henry’s existence, and that Abbie sacrificed herself for the greater good.

Jenny gets grabbed by the military right away. She almost pulls off claiming that she is there to meet a boyfriend until she drops a pair of bolt cutters in front of them. Jake (Jerry MacKinnon) and Alex (Rachel Melvin) followed her and saw her get grabbed.

Diana walks in and gets Jenny released. She is Homeland Security, after all. Jenny was about to free herself and doesn’t really welcome the help. Diana is helping her anyway because Alex and Jake said Crane could be hurt. They find the lair. Jenny reveals things about herself and Abbie while they are searching.

Crane is there, covered with webbing. They try to tear him free, but it’s not very effective. A spider monster tries to get them. They shoot it, but discover that its wound transfers to Crane.

Meanwhile, Crane is faring worse and worse in the trial world. His defense is getting weaker.

They LEAVE Crane. It’s actually pretty surprising. Jenny and Diana leave him there alone and head back to the library. There’s info about Grace combating the despair monster at Valley Forge with Fire of Joy, so they set out to make some. They also find out that the monster gets a victim, soaks up its despair, then lets it loose in the world so many more people will become despondent.

Alex and Jake sneak into the Smithsonian to get ancient Chinese weapons to handle the Fire of Joy. They witness Jobe floating the guard above his head and grabbing maps. Then he turns the guard into particles when he leaves, which seems unnecessary.

Crane sees future guilt-all of his new companions dead, even Molly. He puts his head in a noose and prepares to end his life.

They return to the lair, burn the silk off Crane, and kill the spider! Still. Crane doesn’t wake up. Diana has been told about the bond between Abbie and Crane and how they could communicate through worlds. She calls her daughter and asks her to talk about Crane. She says nice things about him and he hears her voice — Abbie’s words — in the other world and wakes up.

The histerns return to the library. The jar of goo is no longer photophobic but we see a face in it. They do not.

This was actually a pretty good episode. I was worried when I heard that John Noble was going to be on. Not that I don’t like the actor and appreciate his skills, but the long lost evil son that’s older than Crane never worked well for me. He was used very appropriately in this episode. Tom Mison and John Noble got to stretch their legs and act their hearts out. However, there was nothing new revealed in the court scenes. We know Crane has been through a lot and has regret. I do like that Abbie is still missed and he is still mourning her. It makes the transition easier.

I think the court scenes might have been better if they had used more actors from the past, instead of just old footage. For contractual reasons that could have been difficult, however. The blue light in the courtroom was very flattering to Tom Mison.

We know that Dreyfuss did sell his soul to the devil, and has his own Caliban. Or maybe he’s a demon sent to keep an eye on him. Jobe does appear to do his bidding, however.

But this episode was really all about Diana. She started off the episode not wanting to have anything to do with this madness, and ends up allowing her daughter to bring Crane back. The bonding scenes between her and Jenny were about Jenny trying to convince her that her life wouldn’t have been as messed up if the world believed them. They needed people who were willing to accept that Abbie was a Witness and that they had a connection to the supernatural. Jenny and Crane could help Diana and Molly deal with this new world they were in. Diana was given a lesson in how dangerous the supernatural was, but also one in how powerful being a Witness was.

They also demonstrated how necessary Diana is in this episode. She got Jenny out of incarceration, and was able to access the area the lair was in twice. She handled Jenny’s connection, who was reluctant to work with Jenny again, to get materials for the Fire of Joy because they were both marines.

It proves Diana’s integrity, bravery and compassion that she would show up instantly when she was needed after they had freaked her out so badly.

One more little thing-Crane’s landlord said that the previous tenant had disappeared mysteriously. Crane brought the goo into the apartment from the invisible J street. Could something else have caused the previous tenant to disappear? Is there another danger lurking in his building?

The next episode promises to tell us more about Dreyfuss.

 

Sleepy Hollow airs on FOX on Friday nights, 9pm/8c.