By 
“A good puzzle misleads you. It sends you in one direction, fools you into thinking you know what’s going on but once you discover the trick, there is often a hidden meaning.”
The puzzle pieces we have been given this season fell into place in the finale of Sleepy Hollow. After watching the back to back episodes “Indispensable Man” and “Bad Blood”, I was happy to find that many of my questions were answered with a major twist. Here are a few of the jigsaw pieces:
Zombie George Washington
Last week left us with a hidden message in Washington’s Bible. The date Dec. 18, 1799 had been written in invisible ink by Washington himself. Since Washington died on Dec. 14, 1799, how could this be?
It’s simple. Washington was brought back to life.
Free Will vs Fate
Prophecies have played a big role thoughout the season. The one that seemed to be on Abbie mind this week though was about Ichabod giving Abbie’s soul to Moloch.
After Ichabod and Abbie are hunt down a map to purgatory, Abbie isn’t sure whether she should trust her friend or the prophecy. The map is the nuclear weapon of the apocalypse but would also free Katrina from purgatory.
Ichabod wants to save Katrina. However, Andy warns Abbie that the map will be used against her and she wants it destroyed. Ichabod decides to burn the map for Abbie. “I choose to forge my fate with you,” he tells her.
Ichabod is later able to recreate the map using his photographic memory but I couldn’t help but wonder if the fate of the two witness is actually set in stone. Could Abbie and Ichabod change their fate (and the fate of the world) but exercising their free will? So far the prophecies are winning but it would be interesting to see if that could be changed.
The Dollhouse
In the first half of the finale, a worried Jenny reminisces with Abbie about a dollhouse they had as children. Whenever their parents got a little too drunk or too crazy, they would pretend that the dollhouse was their real home. The dollhouse was their safe place.
While Abbie is in purgatory, the dollhouse is home to her child-self and keeps the memory of Moloch that she blocked out. Young Abbie lets adult Abbie see the memory. Not only did Abbie and Jenny see Moloch that fateful day in the woods but they also saw the horseman War being risen from the ground.
Abbie was lead to the woods because she was a witness. Unfortunately she wasn’t strong enough to stop the horseman at the time.
War
The big twist was the identity of the second horseman of the apocalypse, War. It turns out the oddly sweet sin-eater Henry Parrish is actually Ichabod and Katrina son Jeremy. Needless to say he has some serious issues.
The episode “Golem” revealed Jeremy’s troubled childhood as a result of his unintentional abandonment. I thought it was odd at the time that Jeremy’s story seemed to begin and end in a matter of episodes. I found myself wondering what was the point. This all became clear when Parrish revealed that he is not only in fact Jeremy but is is also one of the horsemen, War. “War isn’t coming to Sleepy Hollow. It’s been here waiting all along.”
We now know the backstory for two of the horsemen. Both Death and War are connected to Ichabod in some way. Death being Ichabod’s former friend and romantic rival and now War being Ichabod’s son. This makes me ponder the identities of Famine and Pollution. If Death and War are connected to Ichabod are the other two as well? Or do the they share a connection to Abbie’s past? Perhaps her father who left her as a child, Jenny, or Andy? I’m looking forward to finding the answer to these puzzles next season.
What did you think of the first season of Sleepy Hollow? Hit the comments to share your thoughts!
Comments