Sleepy Hollow Recap ‘Paradise Lost’: Send Me An Angel

In the latest Sleepy Hollow recap, Ichabod and Abbie try to find a purpose after Moloch is killed, but it doesn’t take long for evil to spring its ugly head up again….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

What do you do if you’re a witness with a mission to save the world from an apocalypse and you get the job done in just over a season and a half on television?

It’s an interesting question because that’s exactly what the writers behind ‘Sleepy Hollow’ were faced with after a phenomenal mid-season finale this year, which saw Henry Parrish aka Jeremy Crane aka The Horsemen of War dispatch of evil Moloch, the grand big bad in this entre apocalyptic scenario since the first day the show started. Moloch’s mission was to escape purgatory — hell’s waiting room if you will — and bring his special brand of terror onto the Earth where he would lay waste to human life.

Unfortunately, Moloch’s own hubris got to be too much to handle and his No. 2 in charge finally sais ‘fuck this guy’ and stabbed him with a supernatural sword that ended his existence and may have blinked out the other guy in the process as well.

So with the world saved and the apocalypse (seemingly) over, where do Ichabod and Abbie go from here? This is moderately answered in the first episode back titled ‘Paradise Lost’, but also left some wide open questions that may not bode well for the future of this series. Stick with me on that one until the end of the recap and see where I’m going with it.

Split Open Like Rotted Fruit

The episode picks up just seconds after Moloch got vaporized by the death dealing sword courtesy of Henry turning against his master in TV’s own Vader-Emperor scene. Ichabod wakes up and checks on Abbie and then runs to Katrina, who is convinced that Henry killed Moloch to save them, thus there’s still good in him. This lady wants to see the good in everybody and that’s rather evident later in the hour as well.

Everybody’s safe and sound so cut to six weeks later where Ichabod and Abbie are searching for the perfect piece of fruit at an organic farmer’s market. Ichabod doesn’t understand how anything grown from the ground isn’t organic, but watch his head buzz when Abbie tries to explain hybrid fruits like the grapple (grape/apple). The duo has been searching for some remnant of evil ever since Moloch disappeared, but all’s quiet on the Sleepy Hollow front.

Abbie’s ready to move on and see what else life has in store for her, but Ichabod — who remains on the outs with his wife — wants to keep searching for some sign of bad guys if for no other reason than to distract himself from the wreck that has become his marriage. A piece of rotted fruit, teeming with maggots and worms, gives Ichabod just the opening he’s been looking for.

A pile of research later and Ichabod deduces that something fishy is going on at the farm where this piece of fruit was produced. He wants to investigate and Abbie reluctantly goes along for the ride. It’s a good thing she did because they happen upon a barn where three stone-faced demons in robes are currently chanting over an open fire, desperate to find their master. Just as a battle is about to get going, a winged creature flies through the door, dispatches one demon with his circle of death weapon and the others flee in a haze of fire and smoke.

This is Orion — an angel that was captured over 200 years ago by Moloch, who escaped when the master of evil bit the dust. The demons he was chasing were also allowed to get away from purgatory’s clutches when Moloch died and thus becomes the plot for the second half of the season. Abbie and Ichabod will be teamed up to stop the convicts who got out of the asylum.

Orion informs the dynamic duo that the creatures they just dealt with are descendants of Asag, a particularly nasty demon, who was so ugly no one could possibly be in his presence so instead of procreating with a human, he opted to go HAM on a mountain and made a pile of rock babies. Yes, seriously. The rock babies are his disciples and the robed creatures who tried to beat up Abbie and Ichabod until the angel came flying through to save the day.

Orion has more to do on Earth that just stop the stone demons. He’s there to hunt down their new master. It seems with Moloch dead the next person in line to ascend to his throne is none other than Abraham Von Headless, the Horseman of Death. Orion wants to kill the big bad and in the process stop more demons from manifesting around town on a hunt for a new leader.

A Mission to Civilize

While Ichabod and Abbie are trying to find new ways to save the world, Katrina is spending all her time down in the catacombs attempting to save Abraham from his evil self. Why she has this undying belief that everybody must have some good deep down inside of them is beyond me but now I’m finally starting to understand why everybody who watches this show hates her so much. I’ve never quite fallen into that category although after tonight’s episode I’m certainly willing the read the pamphlet for the ‘I despise Katrina club’.

Katrina wants to separate Abraham the man from the avatar of death that turned him into The Headless Horseman. He’s not convinced it will work but since Abraham is chained to a wall he also doesn’t have much choice in the matter.

When Ichabod finally reconnects with his wife after weeks of not talking the first thing she hits him with is her desire to save Abraham from the demon living inside him. He’s not too keen on the idea and Abbie is really, really not okay with the plan. Abraham — as the Horseman or otherwise — killed her father figure Sheriff Corben and a whole ass load of other people since coming to Sleepy Hollow and she’s not happy about the idea of setting him free even if the demon inside of him is exorcized.

Katrina plays on her constant faith in Henry and the way he turned around (or so she thinks) as proof that good can beat evil even at the deepest depths. He agrees to give her some time, but Orion ain’t playing that game. He wants to kill the Horseman right now and Abbie is ready to join up with the angelic squad and eradicate Abraham before he can do anymore harm.

So what does Katrina do?

Of course she lets the Horseman go! Well she gets him to pinky swear that he won’t kill anyone until she has a chance to apply her charm to see if Abraham can be separated from the avatar of death. Because this is one guy whose word is bond, right?

When the Scooby Gang finds out what Katrina did, everybody is really pissed. Ichabod’s mad because Katrina once again played him to get what she wanted. Abbie and Orion just wanted to snuff out the Horseman and end this charade right now. So they go on the hunt to find Abraham while Katrina keeps getting in the way while attempting to save him.

Rock and a Hard Place

Jenny pops up this episode dressed to the nines in search of some bartender booty. She’s got her eye on a handsome man serving drinks at the only club in town (same one we’ve seen like three times now), but there’s only one problem — Hawley shows up out of nowhere (like always) and cock blocks her action. Hawley declares that he still has feelings for Jenny and she should be with someone like him and not some muscle bound dork who can barely pour a beer much less fight demons and save the world.

Correct me if I’m wrong here but wasn’t Hawley just lusting after her sister a few weeks ago?

Anyways, once they get a call from Abbie and Ichabod about the rock demons and their new demon daddy, they have a mission to go on that takes them away from hot bartender guy and the dating game.

Hawley has an artifact (of course he does) that is said to have belonged to the Sumerian demon Asag as a tracking device of sorts so he could keep an eye on all of his rock babies. It takes a little time to figure out how the thing works, but once Hawley gets the job done he reports that the stone soldiers have found the Horseman and they are currently hold up at the Carriage House getting ready to do wicked things.

Abbie and her new pal Orion are on the chase while Ichabod stays behind to do some research.

Not the Angel You’re Looking For

Once Orion and Abbie close in on the target, he starts spouting off some rather unnerving rhetoric about the real evil that lies just under the surface of humanity. He doesn’t see evil just as demons hell bent on ruling or destroying the world. He sees evil as an entity that’s infected the entire human population and it must be destroyed to turn the Earth back into the perfect place it once was. At the same time, Ichabod calls Abbie to confirm what she was already thinking.

It seems Orion’s legend is that he was always around whenever really bad shit happened. Pompeii, the Noah floods, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc. In other words Orion was Matt Damon’s character in ‘Dogma’ before Ben Affleck started fucking with his head and in this angel’s case he’s had 200 years trapped in purgatory to stew about how bad this world has become.

Orion wants to kill the Horseman, but in the process transfer his apocalyptic power to himself so he can use it to eliminate evil on Earth even at the most micro molecular level. Abbie knows this is bad. So does Ichabod. Katrina, well who cares what she thinks.

The Enemy of My Enemy

Abbie and Orion arrive at the Carriage house as does Ichabod, who is still trying to appease his wife while not pissing off his partner anymore than he has to. This guy has serious women troubles. Abbie and Ichabod deal with the stone soldiers while Orion goes after the Horseman, who has built a new axe for himself as a weapon.

It doesn’t take long for Orion to find an upperhand as his circle of death gets planted right into Abraham’s back. The mystical weapon is draining Abraham of his powers and once Orion gets them, he can unleash hell on Earth as he tries to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Thankfully, Ichabod shows up in the nick of time, pulls the circle-saw out of Abraham’s back and uses the axe to destroy it.

As Abraham rises and Orion is horrified at what just happened, Abbie lets him in on a little secret — the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Abraham may be bad, but Orion is worse (or at least that’s what they try to convince us to believe). Abraham goes after Orion but he quickly sprouts wings and flies off into the night. Abraham turns to strike down Ichabod instead, but stops himself when he remembers his promise to Katrina.

It appears the Horseman of Death has an emo side and Katrina managed to touch it.

Abraham refuses to be kept in chains any longer, but he will allow Katrina to attempt to complete her spell to save him from the avatar of death. Nobody else is particularly happy with this plan, including Ichabod, who basically tells his wife they need to think about how they redefine their marriage (in other words ‘we are on a break’). Abbie is glad she was able to save the day and now her purpose has been found. She’s going to continue being an upstanding police officer by day and a demon hunting bad ass by night.

At the tail end of the episode, a barefoot man walks into a convenience store and begins sucking down a carton of milk. The clerk tells the man that he can’t come in there with no shoes. As the camera pans up we get a clear glimpse that the shoeless milk drinker is none other than Captain Irving, alive (probably) and well (most likely not).

He asks the clerk if this is heaven or hell. His replay — “it’s Sleepy Hollow”.

Irving is back and my theory remains the same — he’s the new living embodiment of the next Horseman of the Apocalypse. Let’s see how this plays out in the next few weeks if Irving is indeed the new bringer of death.

‘Sleepy Hollow’ returns to FOX in two weeks with a brand new episode on FOX.