Geekscape Recap: Sleepy Hollow: Sanctuary

Wow, readers. Just wow. For the first time, Sleepy Hollow provided an episode that requires no qualifications, no hesitant ‘buts’ or ‘it’s getting better.’ No, siree, with episode nine, “Sanctuary,” Sleepy Hollow finally provided what we had been hoping for all season—a solid, well-paced, challenging and intriguing hour of television with few, if any, flaws. It was just fun. It was scary in parts. It had a little bit of BBC-esque ‘monsters in bubble wrap’ but it worked. The whole episode just worked.

We can only hope the trend continues.

We still have a fairly lengthy ‘previously on’ prior to the episode actually starting, but it seems we’ve finally moved down to just one (yay!) and then the episode starts right up.

Don’t Go In the House…

A Jaguar with a chauffeur drives a young woman–Lena Gilbert, who is wealthy enough to have a ‘Family’ and a Jag and chauffeur/bodyguard—drive up to what she says used to be the Family’s ancestral home. Despite her bodyguard’s admonishments, she runs into the house. Because that’s what rich young women due at the beginning of horror movies.

On the second floor she finds a doorway blocked with some sort of branch/hedge thing—she cuts herself…and the branches come to life, dragging her into the dark.

We go to Crane and Abbie, coming into the precinct with fast food. Crane has a (somewhat entertaining) rant about food (fast food, what the pilgrims really eat…etc.) which winds down when he realizes that essentially, he’s just lonely. Abbie tries to cheer him up–not well–and then she and Crane get called into Irving’s office (the more Orlando Jones is in these episodes, the better they get—coincidence?? We think not) because super rich heiress Lena Gilbert (of the sucked into closet by branch fame) has disappeared, and the Senate Majority Leader wants her found (Crane is rightfully astonished at the idea of a billionaire…) but Abbie doesn’t see why she and Crane need to investigate it. Irving shows them a note left by Lena—with Katrina’s name on it.

With a little research, they discover Lena’s ancestry and from that, know which house she went to—her ancestor’s, Frederick’s Manor (the colonial we saw earlier). The two head out.

When they get there, it’s clearly time for a flashback, and Sleepy Hollow obliges. We go back to see a newly married Crane and Katrina arrive at a well-kept Fredericks Manor, where Katrina calls the place a sanctuary (like the title, get it?) and explains that the Manor is a haven for escaped slaves, for Lachlan Fredericks not only did not have slaves, but freed and protected any who came to him—as well as any other who need protection or refuge.

For once though, the flashbacks do not show Crane as an all-knowing sage, nor do they reinforce exposition which could have been shown other ways. This time, rather, they actual propel the mystery and the ambiance of the episode, providing foreshadowing and layers to characters.

Back in the present, Crane is mildly shocked—though he had just given a speech on human equality—that a billionaire would date an Irishman (Clooney). Funny, apt, character driven. Just all-in-all good.

Dead Bodies, Strange Voices and Doors Slamming Shut

In the house, Crane and Abbie find the body of the bodyguard (we hardly knew ye!) and when Abbie attempts to go outside to call for backup, the episode goes good old fashioned haunted house creepy: doors slam, shutters shut as Crane approaches, and light goes from bright morning sun to grey and spooky.

Abbie, understandably, is not happy. Winds blow, whispers right out of hearing—and a black women in period dress, that only Abbie sees. Apparently a haunted house crosses a line with Abbie, and she wants out.

Crane calms Abbie down and proposes they find Lena and try to get out. As they explore, he finds a book—Gulliver’s Travels—his wife’s favorite—and in it a letter. A letter from him, sent from Washington’s aide-de-camp when he died on the battlefield. Before they can discuss it much, the house goes all spooky sounds and creaks, and they return to their search for Abbie.

And another flashback, where we see the Manor in all its glory and meet Lachlan Frederick and his housekeeper, Grace Dixon. Crane realizes that the house was a sanctuary not just for slaves, but also for the powers of good. Protected against demonic forces.

Upstairs, the find a blood trail that leads them through a series of moldy rooms to a closet—where Lena is being held, caught in roots and branches. They cut her free—and the branches bleed.

Outside, an old tree stump comes alive. And not in the friendly Ents-of-the-Forest way either. As Lena is pulled free from her bonds, she cries that ‘it’s alive.’

At the precinct, Irving has Jenny in his office—where she is finally returning the two guns she ‘forgot’ to give back after the headless horsemen escape the week prior.

Before she leaves, she nervously—and it’s the most charming we’ve seen Jenny—asks Irving over to Thanksgiving dinner.  They mood gets a little flirtatious—before it’s interrupted by a wife? Ex-wife? And Irving’s daughter, who’s in a wheelchair. Jenny ducks out as Irving recovers.

So, yeah, Great-Great-Great Granddad was  Warlock

At the house, Lena explains that she’s been researching her family history, and that Katrina Crane had interested her as she was the last person to seek sanctuary at Frederick’s Manor. She confirms a legend that Lachlan was involved in witchcraft, and Crane surmises he and Katrina were in the same coven.

They are attacked by a root-man (straight from the BBC…), and panicked, they run into hidden passages between the walls. Abbie gets separated from Crane and Lena, who crash through the walls to get out. Crane reaches behind to get Abbie, but instead his almost captured by the root-man. Lena helps him pull free and the two run.

Abbie, meanwhile, sees the same women in period clothing she had seen before—who we now know is Grace Dixon–who leads her through the passage and to an empty bedroom.

At the precinct, Jenny is confronted in the halls by Irving’s daughter, Macy. The two bond slightly over having-relatives-as-cops, and Jenny denies dating him (or even wanting to, though we think the lady doth protest too much). We learn that Macy’s spends most of her time with her mother in the City, and Jenny urges her to give Irving another chance.

Irving and his ex-wife have a tense little you’re-not-a-good-enough-father conversation, and in the end, the ex-wife, who doesn’t understand why Irving is there in a small-town precinct instead of the big-time city job he had before, says that if he cancels one more weekend with Macy, she’ll file for full custody.

Meanwhile,  Grace shows Abbie a vision—Katrina, giving birth. It is obvious something is trying to get at her—crows beat upon the window—and Grace is clearly the mid-wife, helping Katrina through the birth. Despite the difficult labor and the uncanny events, a baby boy is safely born.

Crane and Lena continuing running, trying to escape the creature. They do not succeed, and Lena is taken again.

So, Crane, There Was This Vision…

Abbie, gun and flashlight out, stumbles through a hallway. Points for atmosphere,as the only-seeing-things-through-a-flashlight-beam is used, and used well, for effect from this point out.

She runs into Crane, who has lost Lena, and Abbie tells Crane what she saw. It’s a lovely bit of acting on both Mison’s and Beharie’s parts, as Crane learns he lost not only a wife, but a child. And that they had been left in danger. Abbie compassionate but stern.

She then tells him what we haven’t seen: that the dark forces gathering outside (sent by Moloch) started to get in, growing inside the property. And they attacked the same moment Crane’s child was born. Lachlan sends Katrina, the baby and Grace to his carriage, and is almost instantly slaughtered by the root-man. We hear the child cry—but that was all Abbie saw. We don’t know if the child survived or not.

Lena’s scream interrupts them, and they run towards the sound.

Lena stands in the basement, light only by a flashlight, and before she can speak to them she is pulled into the grasp of the root-man, who holds her by her throat.

Abbie can’t get a clear shot and the creature—and Lena—disappear. They cast their flashlights about—illuminating the roots along the foundation of the house. Crane urges Abbie to shoot them, and she does, which injures the creature, who releases Lena.

Grace appears again, escorting Katrina and the child to a secret door—to escape, for safety—and Abbie now knows the way out. The fight their way to the door and emerge, safe, outside the house.

Vengeance is Sweet

But Crane is not appeased. Though he knows the child and Katrina lived, he is infuriated at the monster who attacked them, so he grabs a flare and a ax from the back of the car, and goes back in. In a particularly powerful moment,he tells Abbie not to follow him.

He goes back to the basement and begins to whack at the roots, and finally the monster itself, killing it completely.

He stumbles out, splattered in blood (we know, we know, you’re thinking, ‘Yes! maybe they’ll get him some new clothes.’ Nope, sorry. His shirt apparently can instantly clean itself of blood stains, because, yeah, cotton weaved 200 years ago never held a stain). He gets in the car and Abbie, silenced, drives off.

They leave the Jag behind because, well, it’s a Jag.

The next day—Thanksgiving—Abbie finds a morose Crane in their secret-research-room (in his perfectly spotless shirt), where Abbie has gotten a package from Lena, containing all of Lena’s research on the Manor. In it, Abbie finds a family tree, going back to Grace Dixon…and ending with Abbie’s mother. Crane and Abbie realize they had been set on this path for quite awhile, and acknowledge each other as family.

It would have been nice to actually see them at Thanksgiving, since Jenny had invited Irving and it seemed like he had said yes, so it was weird that we didn’t see anything, but that was a very minor flaw in an otherwise really strong episode.

Stay tuned next week for all the haps in the Hollow!

Sleepy Hollow airs on Fox on Mondays at 9 p.m.