SPOILERS AHEAD (or, um be-head?), so duck and cover, Sleepy Hollow fans!
Season One, Episode Five: “John Doe”
Written by: Melissa Blake, Directed by: Ernest Dickerson
This week’s entry is a run-of-the-mill one-off. No groundbreaking storytelling. But there are a few story threads that seem to be slowly developing on the side. Despite being a one-off, “John Doe” is a pretty interesting episode regarding American history.
Quick Breakdown
A boy wearing antiquated clothing stumbles upon a girl in a white dress in the woods. She giggles and tells him to follow her, which he does until she vanishes. A horseman, looking like a Hun and wielding a large bow, chases the boy until he runs into the street and nearly gets hit by a truck (Are we already making callbacks to the pilot?).
Abbie is helping Crane get moved into Corbin’s cabin when she gets a call about the boy. After an exaggerated shot of a fountain where the boy is found, the police have all been gathered to inspect this John Doe who is suffering from blackening veins. He says something in a foreign language before being taken to the hospital. Crane says that the boy was speaking Middle English (from the Middle Ages) and said “evil girl.”
Having learned Middle English at Oxford, the CDC lets Crane question the boy. He reveals that his name is Thomas and he is from Roanoke. Of course, the Roanoke the boy speaks of is the lost colony from 1587. Knowing the CDC will not believe them, Abbie and Crane track the boy’s footprints to a secluded island with a hidden pathway through the water.
The island contains the lost colony of Roanoke, where everyone is infected by the black veining. Crane chats with one of the residents and discovers that the Horseman of Pestilence (Conquest) placed a plague on them in 1587. After the death of the first victim, Virginia Dare, her spirit led the colony to this isolated place, where they were protected from further complications from the plague. Abbie and Crane decide they must bring Thomas back here to save him.
However, while they were gone, the plague started spreading. The EMT who treated Thomas dies while having a vision of the horseman — and even the well-protected CDC agents begin suffering. And when Abbie and Crane return, Crane begins to show signs of infection as well. He is sedated and soon finds himself in front of Katrina. This time, however, she did not summon him. She reveals that she is trapped in purgatory (by Moloch) and that if Crane is there then he must be on the brink of death as well.
Without Crane, Abbie feels a bit lost. She stumbles into the hospital’s chapel and prays for a sign of what to do. A woman emerges and dips her hand in the holy water before going to pray. Abbie gets an idea. (Remember that exaggerated shot of the water fountain? Was that some obscure foreshadowing?) She tells Irving that if she can get the victims to the spring water in Roanoke then they would be saved. So Irving helps her hijack the ambulance used to transfer Crane and Thomas to a new quarantine. It’s interesting to note that he is willing to trust Abbie’s zany ideas when she has enough of her own faith driving them.
They painstakingly return to Roanoke, with the horseman on their tail. Crane, holding the boy, jumps into the spring water well. The baptism works, and the horseman dissipates in the wind. Suddenly, Crane and Abbie are transported back to the normal world. They realize that Thomas and the others had been dead all along. The girl he spoke of must have lured him into their world to bring the plague to them. Case closed, let’s all go home.
At night, the headless horseman rises from his river resting place and mounts his red-eyed steed. More trouble is coming.
Rating
B-
This episode gives us an interesting answer to the story of the lost colony of Roanoke. It seems that this show will be addressing much of America’s history, maybe now American History classes will be more engaging. Abbie’s trial of faith seems to be opening her mind to the supernatural things occurring in Sleepy Hollow. Hopefully she’ll be more agreeable when Crane suggests bizarre reasons for the weird deaths in town. This is definitely a middle of the season episode, and I’m interested to see where the few stray story threads will lead in the future.
Now for some random thoughts and my favorite moments of the night…
Wardrobe update: Crane continues to wear his 200-year-old outfit. But at the beginning of the episode, Abbie does suggest that he needs to update his wardrobe. Maybe next week?
“What is this impenetrable barrier around this instrument?” –Crane. “It’s called plastic.” –Abbie.
Morales is growing increasingly distrustful (and jealous?) of Crane’s involvement on cases. Is he going to try to expose everything? And how did that Oxford woman he called have an accurate record of Crane’s existence?
What’s the deal with that girl who lured Thomas? Is she another evil spirit or merely an extension of the horseman?
I can’t wait for John Noble to join the cast.
