BWW RECAP: The Headless Horseman Returns in Ep. 6 of FOX's SLEEPY HOLLOW

This week's episode opens with our heroes, Abbie and Ichabod, in the stands of a baseball game. Strangely normal, right? But we have to say we're digging it. They exchange some cute banter about the point of the sport and the merits of heckling the referee. You know, All-American things like that.

As they're leaving, Ichabod tells Abbie he looks forward to her expanding his horizons in the future. Yeah, we BET you do Ichabod. If by expanding your horizons you mean going on more totally platonic friend dates with Abbie, we can't say we're opposed to it either. Did we mention he bows to her before they leave? Our hearts melted.

The whole scene is funny, sweet and oddly ordinary. Sometimes it's nice to intersperse the supernatural with a sense of normalcy. It reminds us that although they might fight demons and headless monsters every week, our prophesized heroes are still just regular people.

Of course, the moment doesn't last. The episode quickly transfers out of the realm of normal and back into horror, when Ichabod, who is visiting his wife's grave, is shot in the neck and abducted.

Abbie is driving along minding her own business when she is also dragged off the road and into the supernatural world, this time in the form of a dream. She wakes in a creepy room filled with candles and to the sound of eerie music and babies crying. What is it about horror and babies that go together so perfectly?

Katrina reminds Abbie that Ichabod and the Horseman are bound by blood and warns her that she must find the Sin Eater in order to save Ichabod, who has been taken by god knows who. And she must find him before sundown! Or the world is over! How many times have they saved the world so far? And we're only on episode six.

Meanwhile, Crane wakes up from his tranquilizer induced sleep in a dark, dank dwelling surrounded by men in surprisingly snappy suits. Oh, villains and their caves. Wait, they are villains right? Who are these people again? We think Crane is asking the same questions but he seems to be one step ahead of us. He does some impressive, Sherlock-esque deducing and comes to the conclusion that the men in front of him are Freemasons. As in, the ancient fraternity.

The Freemasons need to make sure that Ichabod is who he says he is since he's, you know, supposedly long dead. And you can never be too careful when dealing with a world filled with demons, witches, and Headless Horsemen (Oh my!). He is asked to corroborate his story of the first time he heard the phrase "Order out of Chaos," with an account written by some mysterious third party. He admits the first time he heard the phrase was from a man named Arthur Bernard. Cue flashback.

FLASHBACK:

We are taken back in time to Ichabod's Red Coat days where he has been asked to torture Arthur Bernard, a freed slave who has been convicted of treason. The goal is to get information out of him about the identity of another man. But that's not really important. What's important is that Crane really doesn't want to torture Bernard because he has what Katrina (who he has just met for the first time) calls, a conscience.

Ichabod, to prove his loyalty, is ordered to kill Bernard. Crane has yet to switch sides in the war, and pledge allegiance to George Washington. Still, like a good soldier, he takes Bernard out to the forest to shoot him, as he's been instructed. And yet, he just can't do it.

Bernard tells him to go to Katrina who will bring him to George Washington. His superior shoots Arthur just as he's getting away. When Crane runs and stabs him with his sword, he suddenly turns into a monster, but is then scared off by other riders in the forest.

END FLASHBACK

Back to Abbie, who has enlisted her sister, Jenny, the walking, talking encyclopedia of Supernatural knowledge, to try and help find this Sin Eater and, of course, Crane. Abbie figures out that the Sin Eater is hiding by taking on the identities of dead inmates and they go to the man's house to get some answers. It turns out the Sin Eater has a real name, John Parish (John Noble). Unsurprisingly, John Noble plays insane just as well here as he does on Fringe. Parish explains that he is able to see people's sins. Abbie, in turn, explains what their predicament is and urges Parish to break the bond between Crane and the Headless Horseman and to help her find him.

Utilizing the strong bond between Abbie and Crane, Parish uses his powers, complete with black, demon eyes, to find Crane. He informs Abbie that Ichabod is underground, behind a door that bears the symbol of the Freemasons. With this new information, the sisters rush off to the tunnels to find Crane.

Back in the Freemason frat, Ichabod finally takes responsibility for his sin; he believes he could have saved Arthur Bernard. With this confession, and his story that matches the written account, the Freemasons accept Crane as a fellow brother and inform him that Katrina was the mysterious third party who wrote the other account.

It turns out the Freemasons had a pact with Katrina, until she hid Crane away to protect him, while they wanted to end his life, for "the greater good". They basically guilt Crane into killing himself, in order to rid the world of the Horseman. But to be fair, they do it extremely politely, handing him the box with the death potion. Having him do the honors coincidentally also frees them from any guilt or responsibility for his death. Very classy.

Abbie barges in on the scene and tries to stop Ichabod from killing himself but Ichabod makes a compelling case for his death; he insists he must end his life so others can live, Horseman-free. She tries to tell him about the Sin Eater but he says it's too late and that would only break his and The Horseman's bond, not kill him. Eventually he convinces her that this is the only way and it's something that has to be done.

Fully intent on dying, Ichabod drinks the magic death potion the Freemasons gave him and while we know that this can't be the end of Crane (that prophecy promised us 7 years!), when Abbie Mills cries, we cry, apparently. This isn't the first near-death experience the two have experienced and it certainly won't be their last, but...well, Crane drank the death potion. So he's dead, right?

Well, not if John Parish has anything to say about it. That's right, The Sin Eater is back and just in time. He works double duty-both to remove the poison and Crane's sins. You go, John Parish.

Rejoice-Crane is alive and will live to see another near-apocalypse. When Ichabod opens his eyes, Parish has been replaced by Arthur Bernard. Bernard is back from the dead to put Ichabod's soul at ease and let him know that there was nothing he could have done to save Bernard, and that freeing himself is ultimately how they will free the world of the Horseman and prevent the apocalypse. The bond between Crane and the Horseman is broken, Crane is sanctified, and Abbie and Crane hug it out.

The last shot of the episode is of the Horseman finding the spot where Ichabod rose from his two century long nap. What's the Horseman's next move? Are Abbie and Crane ready to take him on? I guess we'll just have to watch next week to find out. Sleepy Hollow airs Mondays at 9/8c on FOX.

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