Sleepy Hollow Recap “Go Where I Send Thee”: I’ve Got a Theory

In the latest Sleepy Hollow recap, Ichabod and Abbie battle a musically talented demon known as the Pied Piper and Henry continues his pursuit of Frank for his apocalyptic dream team….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

I’ve got a theory that it’s a demon. A pied piping demon. Yeah, something’s right there.

I’ve got a theory a kid is dreaming after following some creepy demon nightmare.

I’ve got a theory so try to follow. This isn’t Buffy but it sure is Sleepy Hollow.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system! It’s hard for me to watch a single episode of Sleepy Hollow and not be reminded in some small way of one of the greatest shows of all time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I could do long drawn out features about how these two series are so similar and maybe that’s a big part of the reason why I’ve fallen so hard for Sleepy Hollow these last two seasons, but Monday night’s episode titled “Go Where I Send Thee” was one of the most identical Buffy-esque hours yet and it was quite fantastic.

The show opened with Ichabod once again assimilating to 2014 as he learned how to drive after receiving his first lessons from Jenny, who apparently took her driver’s ed courses from John McClane. The latest ‘Ichabod learns about the future’ segment played no larger part in the actual story unfolding this week, but once again, what a fun, comical romp.

Once the plot started to unfold, Sleepy Hollow started to trek down the path of another MacGuffin-centric, bad guy of the week episode with small hints about a larger plot unfolding in the background, currently simmering in the shadows. Long story short — the Pied Piper story is real, a cursed family is responsible and Ichabod and Abbie have to save the day. Got that? Okay, let’s go.

The Legend of the Pied Piper

One of the reasons why this week’s episode of Sleepy Hollow filled me with so many memories of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was because of the demon at the center of the plot that didn’t necessarily revolve around a historical place or figure, re-imagined for this particular series.

Instead the backstory goes like this — during the Revolutionary War (because a lot of shit happened during this time period apparently), there was a rich businessman in town named Daniel Lancaster. He said on the fence for most of the war playing Azrael, just waiting to see which side got the upper hand before he decided where he was loyal. When it was clear the colonists were overwhelming the British, he chose his allegiance but not before a run in with a group of Red Coats, who paid him a visit, looking for a warm bed, some food and maybe even something a slight touch naughtier.

It seems these Red Coat soldiers, who just made themselves at home in Lancaster’s home, got a little too handsy with his daughters. So to get rid of them, Lancaster hired a musician, who could play a flute with a tune so captivating it would draw all of the soldiers out of the house where he would then spring into action and slice them up good and proper. With the Red Coats dead, Lancaster was safe, but not as long as the musically gifted butcher was still able to tell this story so he had him killed and dumped into the lake.

What Lancaster didn’t know was that to gain his enchanting tones and killer sword style, the Pied Piper as he would eventually be known had to make a deal with a demon. Anyone want to take a guess as to which demon? Three guesses and the first two don’t count. So following his death, the Pied Piper came back to life as a full blown demon this time with one mission on Earth — the torture and torment of the Lancaster clan.

So once every generation, the Pied Piper will show up and kidnap a child who turns 10-years of age. He starves them, keeps them prisoner and then when their skin is falling from their body, the Piper tears them open and steals a bone to make his next flute of influence. This awful cycle continues for hundreds of years until a time in the early 1900’s when one of the children he kidnaps is found before he can kill them and when they return home, all of the other Lancasters fall down with a deadly illness and it wipes all of them out. So in other words, one dies, or they all die.

So in the latest incarnation of this Pied Piper trap, he’s taken little Sarah Lancaster, who just celebrated her 10th birthday. Her parents are frantic with worry, especially her mother who already knows Abbie when she gets assigned the case. It seems Beth Lancaster was the social worker who helped Abbie and Jenny after their mother went into the madhouse. Abbie wants to pay back her kindness by finding her daughter and returning her safely.

Follow the Music

The search begins in the woods behind the Lancaster home where Ichabod runs across a flute laying on the ground that’s carved out of a human bone. He starts playing it because he already knows how to play the flute because why the hell not? Ichabod is by far the most talented man this side of MacGyver and Bear Grylls. The only problem is when he starts to play, Abbie drops into a trance and begins walking off in a direction, just aimlessly heading towards some unknown destination. Ichabod stops playing and realizes that this is the piper’s pipe and the dulcet tones are forcing Abbie to walk off towards his hidden lair (and why was this weapon just laying around in the middle of the woods? That was a 1960’s Batman TV show villain mistake but I digress).

It doesn’t take much for the dynamic duo to realize this could be used to their advantage. So instead of Ichabod just playing so anyone could hear, they record the flute and put the music on Abbie’s phone where she can listen to it on headphones and walk towards the Pied Piper’s lair, leading Ichabod along with her. When they get close, Ichabod gets spooked so he pulls her out of Piper land, but upon further investigation they realize that the noise and person at the other end of the woods is none other than Nick Hawley, back for another episode.

The rough and grumble supernatural antiquities dealer ran into the Pied Piper and got a good cut across his leg for the trouble of trying to free the little girl he kidnapped. To make matters worse, Hawley admits that the reason he’s here is because a dealer offered him big cash to track down the Pied Piper’s bone pipe and like a 21st century Han Solo, this guy is all about the profit. He agrees to help Ichabod and Abbie capture or kill the Pied Piper while saving the girl in exchange for the pipe when they are done.

Abbie agrees, but the ensuing battle doesn’t go quite as planned. They are able to rescue Samantha, but the Pied Piper is a formidable enemy compete with a gigantic bone staff and sword and a banshee like wail that renders humans next to comatose with a piercing sound ricocheting around the brain.

The team escapes, the girl is rescued, but the Piper is still alive to hunt and come after the Lancasters again. Things are only compounded when they return the little girl and the rest of the Lancaster children are sick already, afflicted with the Pied Piper’s curse. And before Samantha can crawl back into bed or have a slice of birthday cake, her mother is leading her back into the woods because she never intended for her daughter to return in the first place. Beth wanted Samantha to get kidnapped and sacrificed for the sake of saving her other three children.

The Sound of Silence

Before Ichabod and Abbie can go battle the Pied Piper one more time, Hawley wants his payment because technically he did his part already. The girl was returned safe and he wants to collect so he can take this treasure to his buyer and get his reward. Ichabod is sickened by Hawley’s immoral demands, but Abbie agrees that a deal is a deal — except when it isn’t. Abbie shatters the pipe into two pieces and hands it over to Hawley, confirming that there was no way she was ever going to give him a weapon of that magnitude no matter how much he helped.

To help combat the Piper going Bruce Dickinson on their ears, Abbie arms Ichabod up with a pair of noise cancelling headphones as they go out to stop Beth from sacrificing her only daughter. They arrive in time and snatch the girl back from brink of being turned into a wind instrument and Ichabod is off to fight the piper in his pit of hell.

The fight is going well until the Pied Piper knocks Ichabod to the ground and his headphones fall out. The screech permeates his brain as he locks up, but just as he’s about to die, Abbie shows up in perfect timing and stabs the Piper through the heart with his own bone sword. He withers away as Team Witness slays another demon (Buffy anybody?).

The End of Days

In the other twist this week away from the Pied Piper, Frank Irving is reading his bible at the loony bin when he starts reading the book of Ezekiel and begins to recite an account of the end of days when he flashes into an apocalyptic future where he’s wearing black eyeballs and battling alongside the Horseman of War.

When Henry Parrish pays him a visit, Frank decides to fire him after learning that this guy was no lawyer and was in fact the embodiment of the Horseman of War. Henry lays down a few threats about pulling his efforts to get him out of jail while also ripping away life insurance policies and even the insurance that pays for Frank’s daughter’s medical bills. Frank doesn’t waver, until Henry lets him in on another bible passage he needs to pay particular attention to when reading next.

Ezekiel 18:4: Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Frank realizes in that moment that when his finger was prodded at his first meeting with Henry that he signed a contract in his own blood, thus literally handing over his soul to the Horseman of War. Frank’s apocalyptic nightmare may have been a harbinger of the real future that’s about to unfold if Moloch is successful and now the former police captain might be an unwilling slave to the machines of war.

To compound the misery, when Hawley hands over the bone pipe he collected, the person who pays his fee is a Hessian soldier. The pipe is then turned over to a man revealed to be Henry Parrish, who tosses the weapon into a giant mortar and pestle where he grounds it into dust. He dips up part of the remains and puts it on his tongue and my first thought was ‘no Henry, 10-year old bone dust is a helluva drug!’.

Whatever Henry wanted the bone pipe for can’t be good and how he plans to use the remains will certainly spell doom for our heroes in the weeks to come.

Did You Witness?

— I’m fairly certain tonight was the first time we heard Abbie referred to by her first name — Grace Abigail Mills.

— As another recapper noted so expertly, Hawley’s nicknames for Ichabod are starting to pile up and get pretty hilarious. Tonight, Ichabod was called ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Shakespeare’. Something tells me this will be a running theme so long as he stays on the show.

— Speaking of that — there is zero doubt in my mind that at some point Hawley will end up romantically involved with Abbie this season. What better way to infuriate Ichabod to the point where he realizes he has feelings for his partner than to flaunt another relationship in his face with a man he absolutely cannot stand?

— Ichabod drinking an espresso with whipped cream all over his face was one of the more enjoyable moments in the episode.

— No Jenny, Katrina, Horseman, Reyes or any other side characters for the most part tonight. The show stayed focused on the central story along with Frank’s brief interlude to give Henry something to do tonight. Strange thing is, the show didn’t skip a beat and felt like a perfectly contained story. That said, this team is always stronger as a unit. I’ve got a theory, it doesn’t matter, what can’t they face if they’re together? This battle can’t go on forever. Apocalypse? Snorting bone flute coke? The Horseman of war. Let’s go for broke!

Okay enough singing — come back next week for another new episode of Sleepy Hollow.