Sleepy Hollow ‘Sanctuary’ Recap: ‘The House that Lachlan Built’

Ichabod discovers a shocking family secret as he and Abbie search for a missing person in a truly haunted house…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

You’d think with a series like Sleepy Hollow that they might forgo the old adages surrounding television shows devoting an entire episode to a holiday, but you’d be wrong as this week’s adventure titled ‘Sanctuary’ was a Thanksgiving offering from Ichabod and the gang although it didn’t take long for weird and creepy to take over.

One of the best aspects of Sleepy Hollow thus far are the comedic turns the series continues to throw out considering that Ichabod is technically a 250 year old man who just awoke in a brand new age and time, with no understanding of things like telephones or the internet. So at least once a week we get what I like to call an ‘Ichabod-ism’ where he runs smack dab into the 21st century. This week it was Abbie’s offering of a Thanksgiving meal, which consisted of cold French fries that Ichabod found quite offensive.

“Despite this establishment’s nomenclature, this resembles no Scottish meal I’ve ever eaten!” proclaims Ichabod clearly noting that food from the golden arches of McDonalds couldn’t be further from Scotland.

Another observation was Ichabod’s truth telling when it comes to Abbie’s ‘Thanksgiving’ food menu noting that the pilgrims certainly didn’t have sugar to make things like cranberry sauce or pies, and what they feasted on that first Thanksgiving was actually venison and not turkey. All in all, a good history lesson kids.

Back to the creepy stuff….

While all of this is happening, a young woman named Lena Gilbert wanders into Sleepy Hollow along with her bodyguard to look at an old house she’s purchased that has roots from her family centuries ago. She’s a wealthy philanthropist and nothing would please her more than to explore this old house to see what lies within. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

Well needless to say Lena’s explorations lead her to a closet, which is filled with vines and tree branches. As she starts to break through the shrubbery, she notices after one of the limbs snaps that she has blood on her hand. A few seconds later the vine has grabbed hold of her and she’s being sucked screaming into the closet. Scene!

At the precinct, Captain Irving informs Ichabod and Abbie about Lena’s disappearance and the reason why they should be so interested — the house she bought belonged to Lachlan Fredericks, a friend to the revolution whose house served as a safe haven for former slaves and other kind souls who sought asylum. Some research unearths that Lena is a direct descendant of Lachlan, and of course Ichabod knew him very well and even took Katrina there on a visit back in the say. I’m starting to get that during the Revolutionary War time because there were much fewer people that everybody knows everybody, or at least Ichabod knows everybody relevant to this story.

So off they go to the house where Lena disappeared and once they enter not only do they find her bodyguard carved up and dead. A few seconds later as they start to exit, the entire house shuts down, doors closed and Ichabod and Abbie are trapped in a damn haunted house.

So while they’re stuck there, why not look for Lena and a few moments later they find her, trapped behind a wall of vines and branches. Upon cutting her loose, Ichabod discovers that this tree of life really is alive and with each slice, more blood flows from the branches. The trio runs away as one of the trees from outside literally comes to life and invades the house, looking to track down our heroes and snuff them out once and for all.

During all the running and evading, Ichabod and Abbie have a chance to find out some inside info from Lena about the house and about Lachlan — seems not only was he a friend to the slaves, but he quite possibly was part of Katrina’s coven and put a hex on the house to make sure outside invaders could never harm his guests. Uh oh, meeting over because the tree monster is coming for them and during the run to get away the group gets separated. Classic horror movie mistake.

While Lena and Ichabod split one way, Abbie goes another and quickly gets a vision of one of the hand maidens from the house that she also spotted earlier in the episode. This time she gives chase and turns a corner and guess who is there but Katrina Crane and she’s giving birth to a little baby boy! Yep, shocker Ichabod has a son that he never knew about. For a good, faithful wife Katrina sure as hell does keep a lot of secrets.

Eventually, Abbie catches up with Ichabod and shares this news with him before also revealing that just as his baby boy was born, the evil spirits that laid in wait woke up as they attempted to abscond with the littlest Ichabod. Lachlan gives his life to protect mother and child as the handmaiden that helped birth the baby gives them the route to escape.

Sure enough this path is still there and Ichabod and crew go out the same way. But Ichabod’s had enough of this running garbage, especially after finding out that the child he never knew he had was being pursued by a malevolent spirit that’s still encased in this house. Ichabod grabs an axe and demands that Abbie not follow him into the house. Once he’s inside, Ichabod goes full on Ripley versus the aliens and chops the haunted tree into pieces before landing one final strike right in the center of its head, rendering it dead. He looks over the fallen monster and ominously states ‘give Moloch my regards’.

Back in the tunnels, Ichabod is sad and lost knowing that he had a son he never met, but Abbie does her best to cheer him up offering some Thanksgiving food and rum (which really perks up his spirits). Ichabod then hands over a box that arrived courtesy of Lena Gilbert, who has packed up all of her research about the house Lachlan owned and sent it to the dynamic duo.

Delving into the pages upon pages of research, Abbie finds one piece of paper that’s particularly interesting. Remember the handmaiden that delivered Ichabod’s son into the world and then helped Katrina escape the house? Her name was Grace Dixon and as the generations passed it turns out that Abbie is her direct descendant. So as it turns out, Ichabod and Abbie have been connected for centuries, they just didn’t know it until now.

The other storyline this episode was brief but interesting as Jenny showed up at Irving’s office to return some guns she ‘borrowed’ during their stand off against the Hessians last week, and maybe there’s a spark there. She invites Irving over to Thanksgiving dinner but that’s just before he gets a pair of visitors — his ex-wife and his daughter. It seems when Irving transferred to this area he promised his ex that he would be able to spend more time with his daughter and less time at work — this happened only until things like Headless Horsemen started popping up all over town so he’s had to cancel weekends with his daughter for the past few months.

His wife is fed up — if he cancels one more weekend she’s going to file for sole custody of their daughter and that will be the end of it.

Now it’s your turn — what did you love about the latest episode of Sleepy Hollow as we gear up for the new episode in two weeks time when the Sin Eater returns to the fold! Check out the promo below: