SLEEPY HOLLOW Returns to Sleepy Hollow

Season 4, Episode 6 “Homecoming”
Written by Joe Webb
Directed by Jim O’Hanlon

Crane (Tom Mison) returns to Sleepy Hollow to find the last piece of the philosopher’s stone. Diana (Janina Gavankar) comes with him. There are  a lot of flashbacks as he comes into town. He has memories of waking up after two centuries, of Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) and the sleepy gang as it used to be.

Right away, Dreyfuss (Jeremy Davies) supplies the answer to a question I had. He calls for Jobe (Kamar De Los Reyes), saying that his deal said that Jobe was supposed to stay by his side. Dreyfuss made a very good deal with the devil, unlike the deals the Winchesters make on Supernatural. He became rich, his partner got dragged off to Hell, and he has a demon at his back and call. All for one measly little soul.

Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) and the Histerns take a strange divining rod to find the piece of disk. It doesn’t work very well. They repair to the library —err, I mean the archives — and Crane re-reads some letters from George Washington (Mark Campbell) that give them some information about the stone. Alex (Rachel Melvin) fixes the divining rod so it works more like a Geiger counter.

While they are in the cemetery, a figure that looks like a cross between the Green Arrow and Anubis shoots at them. Jenny knocks Jake (Jerry MacKinnon) to the grown and shields him. This is definitely not going to help his crush go away. I don’t know how she can hear an arrow coming. Maybe she heard the bow twang.

The trip repairs to the archives again and find out that the creature was a sphinx. They devise a plan (my favorite part, when they make a plan). Jenny and the Histerns are to distract the sphinx up above while Crane and Diana look for the piece of the stone in the tunnels. Jenny, Jake and Alex fight off the demon while Crane and Diana solve the riddle and unlock the room that holds the fragment. Victory is theirs until Jobe suddenly appears and takes their find and Crane!

The rest of the team look up Dreyfuss’s business dealings and find that his charity invested in a park where a revolutionary war battle took place.

Dreyfuss has a tent over the stone on the old battlefield. It is the spot where Crane died the first time. Dreyfuss says he should recognize it. Crane realizes it’s the spot where he killed the horseman and then died. He also pieces together that George Washington (Mark Campbell) sacrificed him. Our evil magician wants to sacrifice him, too, along with the headless horseman (Marti Matulis). Their blood mingled together will give him immortality. It will also kill everyone in Sleepy Hollow.

Suddenly the bad guys face an assault. Jenny traps Jobe in a blessed lantern. The rest of the gang plant bombs with the aim of breaking the philosopher’s stone again. They rescue Crane and Dreyfuss laps up Crane’s and the Horseman’s blood from the stone, on all fours, which is just gross. There is an earth-shattering kaboom.

The gang celebrates at the tavern where the old gang used to celebrate. We see flashbacks of Crane’s fond memories.  He and Diana discuss Crane’s feelings about Washington sacrificing him. Crane finishes his visit home at Abbie’s grave site, telling her everything that has transpired since she died.

Dreyfuss emerges from the rubble with something sharp stuck in him. He pulls it out and he heals instantly. Dreyfuss is now immortal.

This was a big fail for our team although they celebrated a win. They acted together as a team and saved Ichabod Crane but they failed to stop Dreyfuss. They just don’t know it yet. It was stated that immortality would take many lives, as many as the entire population of Sleepy Hollow. That didn’t happen. I wonder if that is something that still has to happen. Dreyfuss could turn into a vampire or zombie that needs lives to be immortal.

I have to admit I don’t understand why Crane and the Horseman had to activate the philosopher’s stone before Washington broke it up and hid the pieces. Supposedly, they had to do it to win the war but I don’t understand how or why. Perhaps I missed that part.

We may have seen the last of the Horseman. Crane manages to shoot him while he is vulnerable. I wonder if this is the last time we will visit Sleepy Hollow, as well. This episode was a good long goodbye to Crane’s old life and this could be the end of Crane’s period of mourning.

Benjamin Banneker (Edwin Hodge) has taken Betsy Ross’s place as Crane’s flashback friend. This might be the last time we see him as he was involved in the betrayal of Crane and the philosopher’s stone and that story has come to an end.

I’m still not sure that the new and improved Sleepy Hollow is an improvement. Crane’s nostalgic memories are my nostalgic memories. However, it couldn’t be helped if they wanted to continue the show.

Next week, Molly (Oona Yaffe) has an adventure.

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