“Sleepy Hollow” Recap “Heartless”: Three’s a Crowd

In the “Sleepy Hollow” recap this week, Henry summons a Succubus to fuel his baby Moloch monster and Abbie finds out what it’s like to play third wheel when Katrina sticks around…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Following a week of Rosemary’s Baby aka Moloch almost being born into the world as a demon hell spawn, the new episode of “Sleepy Hollow” titled “Heartless” opens up with — shock and awe — Ichabod and Katrina in bed together acting like a real couple! Over 20 episodes into the series and hearing about their undying love for each other and they finally came together this week to watch a dating reality show? Bad form. The conversation is particularly telling, however, as Ichabod and Katrina start to have a real conversation about what their relationship means these days especially after she spent the better part of 200 years lying to him about any number of bombshells (you had a son, I killed your betrothed wife, etc, etc). She explains that her secrecy in living a double life as his wife and as a spy and witch forced her to become this type of person.

Ichabod is just learning to accept Katrina for who she is now that he knows (almost) everything.

Regardless, Katrina is officially part of the Scooby Gang now, which means this dynamic duo is going to become a trio real quick, but it’s clear Abbie feels more like a third wheel than a teammate when Mrs. Crane starts butting in on their investigation.

Katrina has remained a thorn in the side of those rooting for an eventual “Ichabbie” connection when the witnesses become more than just friends, but I’ve always been intrigued by the character and longed for them to do something with her. Unfortunately, this week’s effort is a stumble and fall when it comes to Katrina before she ends up right where she started a couple of weeks back although now things are more perilous than ever before.

The demon of the week was a good one this go round as my long standing suspicions about Hawley were revealed as true as part of the trickery during this hour. Without further ado let’s talk “Sleepy Hollow” and “Heartless”

The Girl of Your Dreams

Following an unsuccessful attempt to birth a baby Moloch into the world, Henry kicks things off this week by conjuring a new demon to the world with a disembodied heart that magically turns into a horn sprouting killer before transforming into gorgeous, tantalizing young woman. This is the Succubus — a creature who drains the life force out of people to satisfy its own unquenchable thirst. Except this Succubus wasn’t summoned to feed itself — no, it’s feeding the life force energy into a “Prince of Darkness” swirling jar of mystical goo that’s being collected by Henry for some nefarious purpose.

When the Succubus goes out into town, the girl fixates on whoever the target might be and then transforms into the closes living version of the person they desire most. For the nerdy kid at a night club, it’s his fellow nerdette that he doesn’t have the stones to approach. Another girl silently suffers while wanting nothing more than to grab her best friend and make out with her. The Succubus satisfies both of those cravings before zapping them both to death, sucking out the life force, and leaving them dead like crispy critters.

When Abbie is called to investigate, it’s clear this is a crime of the supernatural variety and landing right in her wheelhouse!

Back at the secret (that’s not so secret) lair, the search for what kind of creature could do this is hitting a wall (for once) and it’s Katrina that finds a clue (of course she does). She sees the markings on the bodies and realizes this thing, whatever it is, zeroes in on the area were a person’s life force exists. Before she can get much further into her investigation, Katrina begins to see flashes of Henry next to a cradle at their old house, Fredericks Manor. It’s clear Katrina isn’t back to full health after almost giving birth last week, so Ichabod tends to his ailing wife, which leaves Abbie alone to eat a sad made for one pizza before opting to find Hawley to see if the markings made on the victims happened by some kind of object instead of a demon.

Abbie quizzes Hawley, but he has no answers. He does slightly hit on Ms. Mills before she spurns his advances and bounces from the bar. He consoles himself with a blonde and brunette on the other end of the room, but it’s clear who he really wants right now. A few moments later a gorgeous woman shows up looking an awful lot like Abbie and offers to buy Hawley a drink. Hello Succubus!

How Could You Be So Heartless?

Since Hawley was no help, the trio finally figures out that the thing responsible for zapping people all over town is actually a demon known as a Succubus. The Succubus is a creature that survives by sucking the life force out of people, but also lives separate from it’s own heart, which makes it nearly impossible to kill (thus why the creatures are also called “the heartless”). You have to finish the heart to have any chance of killing the body. Ichabod’s explanation about the first known recording of a Succubus is another wonderful moment of Sleepy Hollow “twistory”

“To destroy the creature, one must find and extinguish its heart. Only then can the body be killed. In the third century, a Roman priest defeated the first of the heartless. Afterwards, he gave the remains of the Succubus heart to the Emperor Claudius, who immortalized the priest as Saint Valentine. Hence the custom of giving hearts for Valentine’s Day.”

Maybe if “Sleepy Hollow” explains some mystical meaning behind Sweetest Day it can stop being the dumbest holiday of them all. I digress.

Katrina whips up some magic to find the Succubus on a map and it reveals the creature is somewhere down on the ocean — or as Abbie calls it “Hawley’s crib”. The team races off to save the scruffy supernatural hoarder, and luckily he carries around a mystic crystal that he uses to keep the demon from completely sucking his soul dry before it escapes.

Back at headquarters, Katrina’s visions continue and she finally shares with the group what she’s been seeing for the entire day. It’s Henry standing in Fredericks Manor while feeding the life force juice down to a creepy demon baby. It seems when Ichabod and Abbie used the fake Aurora Borealis to eradicate the Moloch seed from Katrina’s body, the little sucker didn’t die. Instead, Henry has him and he’s feeding him all of the life juices the Succubus can gather so he can grow up to be a big, strong destroyer of worlds.

So a plan is hatched — Katrina and Abbie will go off to find the heart and destroy it while Ichabod and Hawley go back to the night club where the Succubus was first spotted because these creatures hunt in circles and that should be the next stop.

Bromance and Cat Fights

Abbie and Katrina don’t really get along. At all. But for the sake of saving the world, they team up just long enough to find the heart and seek it out for destruction. The only problem is Katrina — the most powerful witch since the one who got a house dropped on her in the “Wizard of Oz” — fails to notice the protection spell cast on the Succubus heart and she’s tossed like a potato. So Abbie has to finish reading the spell and sure enough the heart stops beating and turns into a big prune.

Meanwhile at the club, Ichabod reads Hawley the riot act about his intentions towards the leftenant. He tries to play it off, but Hawley clearly likes Abbie and Ichabod noticed. Through all the flirtations Ichabod and Abbie have had for the past two seasons, this was the first time I saw them more as brother and sister than future husband and wife. Ichabod seemed completely at ease with handing off his partner in crime to another man. Kind of ruins the whole idea of “Ichabbie” doesn’t it?

Regardless, Hawley finally spots the Succubus and they are in hot pursuit. He gives Ichabod a magical blade to use to stab it and hopefully kill it, assuming the heart has been destroyed. When Ichabod finally encounters the demon, she transforms into a version of Katrina and starts telling him all the things he wants to hear. When the Succubus finally gets close enough she beings to suck out Ichabod’s life force, but he counters with a stab to the belly. The demon stumbles but doesn’t fall. Finally after Hawley arrives and joins the battle, Ichabod grabs his gun and fires a few shots at the demon and this time it works because Abbie and Katrina got their job done in the middle of this.

Demon dead, day is saved.

A Mother’s Love

One of the big themes this season on “Sleepy Hollow” is the undying love both Ichabod and Katrina share for their son Jeremy aka Henry Parrish. No matter what he does, they both want to believe that deep down inside their son is still very much alive and can be saved. This episode saw Ichabod finally sign off on the fact that if his kid is still in there, he’s so far buried that there may be no way to pull him back at this point. Katrina isn’t nearly as convinced.

Following the death of the Succubus, Katrina tells Abbie that she’s going to live with old Headless. She knows her greatest gift is lying her ass off to the men in love with her and she feels she can better serve the cause by being there as a spy as opposed to a third wheel in the land of the witnesses. She also goes before even telling Ichabod, instead asking Abbie to break the news to him.

When she does, Ichabod finally reacts with no emotion at all. He basically says this is just the latest change in his marriage and he has to trust Katrina knows what she’s doing. Either that or he just wants her gone cause these last few days have been really crappy.

Finally, Katrina shows back up to throw herself at Headless. She tells him that Ichabod is now with Abbie, and she can’t be around him any longer. Headless is convinced so he brings her back to Frederick’s Manor where she comes face to face with Henry again. He calls her mother, which immediately pulls on her ovaries, and when she gets closer to see what’s hiding inside the crib, Katrina only sees a beautiful little baby boy. At the same time, Henry cracks a smile because he knows the amulet Katrina is wearing to be able to see Headless as Abraham is the same thing that’s turning demon baby Moloch into a normal little boy.

How much longer before Katrina turns on Ichabod all together? Season 2 finale anybody?

Tune into the next episode of “Sleepy Hollow” on Monday at 9pm ET on FOX and then come back here for the full recap on NerdcoreMovement.com.