Season One, Episode Four: “The Lesser Key of Solomon”
Written by: Damian Kinder, Directed by: Paul Edwards
For new shows, the first four episodes truly prove a series’ worth. On the heels of a second season renewal, Sleepy Hollow proves that it deserves it. By the end of the episode, the first story arcs that have been developing over the last weeks have paid off in a very satisfying way (while still leaving you wanting more).
Quick Breakdown
This episode does not open with a dream. Instead, we find Crane at the Boston Tea Party, searching for a secret crate for Washington. Before his team can snag it, a Hessian speaks something mysterious and blows everyone up.
In the present day, Jenny has just escaped from the psychiatric ward, and Abbie convinces Irving to give her a 12-hour head start to track her down. After consulting some files and tracking her car, Crane convinces Abbie to tell him what happened to her parents. Her dad bailed; her mother was institutionalized from the emotional trauma, and the girls were put into foster care. Jenny bounced around 7 different homes, staying at the last one the longest. This is where they start.
Meanwhile, Jenny appears at a bar where she knows the bartender. He gives her a package he’s been holding in a safe for her before she departs. Later that night, he is visited by a hulking figure whom we saw get a phone call from a mysterious voice telling him to track down “Item 37.” They torture the bartender for information about Jenny.
The cliché foster mother (abusing the system to make some money) doesn’t reveal much beyond a cabin where Jenny used to disappear to. At the cabin, Crane discovers that it actually belonged to Corbin. Jenny appears and verbally fights with her sister until Crane steps in as a babysitter. Jenny pulls out a special object that Corbin had hidden in the wall: a sextant (a three-dimensional protractor, if you will, that doubles as a projector).
The hulking man, a modern day Hessian (the same breed as the Horseman that Crane decapitated), and his team arrive at the cabin and steal the sextant in the midst of a shootout/brawl, but not before Crane catches a glimpse of a map revealing the chest’s location revealed by the projector.
They do manage to capture the hulking man, and quiz him to death. They learn that the crate contains Solomon’s book of dark magic, otherwise known as the Lesser Key of Solomon. This book will unleash 72 demons that will summon the evil demon Moloch. Turns out, this Moloch is the Pan’s Labyrinth creature who has been interfering in all their lives. Finally, we learn more about this evil creature who keeps popping up!
They race to the crate’s location (which Crane remembers thanks to his photographic memory); but not before the hulking Hessian’s henchmen chant the book’s spell. A pit of demons trying to break out of the underworld opens. The gang arrives and dispatches of the Hessians along with the Lesser Key – Abbie throws it into that burning pit of demons.
Abbie, law-abiding cop that she is, turns in Jenny to the police; but she strikes up a deal to free her and enter into a conservatorship with her. This will keep her out of the psychiatric ward and maybe allow her to join this misfit team of supernatural investigators. After some sentimental bonding and forgiveness between these bickering sisters, Crane chats with Abbie. He’s tracked down the literary history of Moloch, an evil demon in charge of the horseman (and Hessians everywhere), mentioned in Paradise Lost.
Rating
A-
This was a solid way to end the first four episodes. It was a much more personal, character-driven episode, with the convoluted monster-drama-of-the-week taking the background. However, the climaxes for these episodes seem to be getting more and more uninteresting and clichéd. (Maybe let’s not turn every episode into a poorly choreographed battle scene?)
Now for some random thoughts and my favorite moments of the night…
Wardrobe update: Crane is STILL wearing the same clothes.
Katie Winter (Crane’s wife) is one of the four series leads, yet Lyndie Greenwood (Jenny) has had far more screen time.
We learn that Corbin sent Jenny on global missions to track down rare items for their research. It’s starting to feel like Dan Brown is writing the series (but in a good way).
Solomon’s book of dark magic once again reminded me of Charmed.
The more we learn about the extent of these conspiracies, the more excited I get for the show’s potential.
The renewal of the show for another 13-episode season brings with it the promise of continued succinct storytelling, making me even more excited for the show’s potential.
