Sleepy Hollow Episode 109
“Sanctuary”
Written By: Damian Kindler & Chitra Elizabeth Sampath
Directed By: Liz Friedlander
Original Airdate: 25 November 2013
In This Episode...
Abbie and Ichabod are asked to investigate the disappearance of Lena Gilbert, a billionaire philanthropist who was last seen at a colonial home in Sleepy Hollow. A note on Lena’s desk, scrawled with a number of names - including “Katrina C.” - is the reason the captain passed the case off to them.
Lena fought to buy this home, which once belonged to Lachlan Fredericks, an ancestor of hers (and, of course, someone who Ichabod was very friendly with). The property has a mysterious history: one day, everyone just vanished. Lachlan was also rumored to dabble in witchcraft. (You see where this is going.) Of course, when she walked into the house for the first time and began to explore, tree roots in a closet came to life and wrapped around her.
Ichabod and Abbie arrive, and they are there mere minutes before all the doors, throughout the house, slam shut. They are trapped. It’s a full-on haunted house scenario. Abbie dismissed the idea that Ichabod’s Katrina was the one referenced on Lena’s notes - until Ichabod finds an old copy of Gulliver’s Travels, Katrina’s favorite book. Inside is the note he wrote her on the day he faced the Horseman. It was to be delivered in the case of his demise. So Katrina was here, at some point.
They find Lena trapped in the closet, and Ichabod fights his way through the branches to free her. Curiously, the branches bleed when they are cut. Even more curiously, cutting the branches seem to wake a tree monster that had settled in the front yard. So that’s coming.
The trio keeps searching for a way out, but the house is like a maze. They burst through a wall and move via the passageways between the walls. Abbie gets separated from Ichabod and Lena, who are attacked by the tree monster. Ichabod kicks through a weak spot in a wall in order to get back to the house proper. Meanwhile, Abbie is seeing ghosts. She follows the ghost, clearly a maid from Ichabod’s time period. Suddenly she is transferred to the past, and sees this ghost-maid helping a woman give birth: Katrina. And she has a son. If you are like me, you probably assumed that Katrina was having a fling with Lachlan and this was his baby. The writers are not that cynical; the baby is Ichabod’s.
Abbie breaks out of the walls and runs into Ichabod. He explains that the tree monster took her (again) but before they go rescue her, Abbie has to tell Ichabod about his son. He is startled by this and at first refuses to believe that Katrina wouldn’t tell him about the baby. According to what Abbie saw in her vision, something happened during the birth. Apparently Katrina, Lachlan, and their coven put a protective hex on the property. She had to keep the pregnancy a secret (from what exactly, I am not sure) and went to the estate to give birth. Once the kid was out, the protective spell was broken and the estate is under attack. The maid gets Katrina and the baby out (to safety, I assume) and the elements took over the house. Abbie and Ichabod are snapped back to attention by Lena’s screams. They find her in the hands of the tree demon, which Abbie shoots. The demon isn’t dead, but it does drop Lena. The ghost-maid appears again and shows Abbie the way out.
With Lena, Ichabod, and Abbie finally out of the house, Ichabod grabs an axe from the car and goes back inside. He is determined to kill Moloch’s tree-demon for going after his child. The house is even more choked with tree branches and roots, but Ichabod finds the demon and kills it rather easily (a strike to the torso and a strike to the head). The tree bleeds excessively, and when he is done, he returns to Abbie outside, covered in blood and with a look of shock plastered on his face.
A couple days later, Abbie finds Ichabod in the archives. She is there to invite him to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner that Jenny is cooking; he is not feeling up to company. He does give her a package that Lena sent, containing all her notes about her family’s property. The maid that led Abbie to safety was Grace Dixon, and her family tree is in the box. She is a distant relative of Abbie’s. It seems that she and Ichabod were destined to find each other.
Dig It or Bury It?
I rather enjoyed this episode. This may be my favorite so far. I am a sucker for haunted house stories. The tree monster was reminiscent of Evil Dead. (My husband shuddered when the tree grabbed Lena. “Tree rape.”) Story-wise, this episode was lacking in a lot of direction. How did the protection hex break? What was Mon
So Ichabod has a son. Which means Ichabod has ancestors. Which means I sense a very awkward family reunion in season two.
Douchey Time Travel Thing to Say
When Ichabod gives Abbie the package from Lena, he suggests that it is “perhaps another treasure from the depths of the Amazon.” (See, because he doesn’t know of Amazon.com; only amazon.jungle.)
Prophecies?
Ichabod is hellbent on finding out what happened to his son.