Last week’s episode had Molly stepping in to save Ichabod from his overwhelming despair, and a noose, while this episode of Sleepy Hollow “Blood From a Stone” gets back to the main storyline in this season. Malcolm Dreyfuss and his search for those artifacts is the focus in this segment.
Peripherally, we have Diana accepting that Molly is the new witness after learning that her little one may not have to battle the evil demons at all. The path that Abbie Mills’ replacement takes is still all up to her.
Jobe, the demon who struck fear into the hearts of Jake and Alex, is not the big bad everyone assumed he was. Early in this episode, after the demon kills the conman preacher and takes his stone, another more powerful creature turns up and takes Jobe out with minimal effort.
Speaking a bit of latin defeats Malcolm’s buddy easily and the artifact now belongs to Ansel. “Blood From a Stone” gives us a bit of backstory on Dreyfuss and his obsession with collecting all the stones.
It seems that Ansel, Malcolm’s old business partner was “the face” of the company that Dreyfuss created. People ignored the shy genius with the bad haircut and instead gave all the credit to his partner.
Malcolm struck a drunken deal with Jobe; send Ansel to hell in return for all the credit and Dreyfuss’ soul. Malcolm’s collection of the stones was all about cheating Jobe out of collecting on their deal. When the last artifact is collected Dreyfuss will become immortal.
Ansel spent in time in Hell working on a way out. He arrives to exact revenge on his former business partner by killing him and destroying their old company.
Apart from this demon heavy tale, there is a peripheral plot line which features Jake and his massive crush on Jennifer Mills. He actually “pays” Alex to put in a good word with their new team member.
The big reveal in this episode is that the broken bit of rock that Malcolm, and now Ansel, want to put back together is the Philosophers Stone. Ansel wants to erase his pain and become immortal while a terrified Malcolm is also after the everlasting life carrot so he can cheat on selling his soul.
There is one piece missing and that can be found back at Crane’s old stomping grounds; Sleepy Hollow.
Ansel is defeated as part of a team effort. Alex and Jake help Jenny to find a latin spell which will counteract the pissed of business partner’s magic. Mills arrives in the nick of time and neutralizes Ansel.
His reaction is to grab a tube of greek fire in order to burn everyone to a cinder. Crane throws a knife into the new demon and kills him. Ansel drops the tube of fire and Diana leaps into action and catches the glass full of internal fire before it breaks.
In all the confusion, Dreyfuss escapes. Later, Diana explains to Molly about being a witness and Mills, Alex and Jake realize that the last bit of the Philosophers Stone is in Sleepy Hollow.
It looks like the series will be shifting back to where things all began for Crane and his cronies. It will be interesting to see if this move will bring Molly closer to being a witness and what other ghosts from season’s past will reappear.
As mentioned before, it seems like the show is taking the one stop forward two steps back approach to season four. The fate of Molly and just how she will fill in for Abbie Mills remains to be seen.
The theme of this week’s episode was acceptance. Diana accepting her daughter’s role in Ichabod’s quest and the new team members accepting their own place on Crane’s team, along with Jenny.
Sleepy Hollow airs Fridays on FOX.
Cast:
- Tom Mison – Ichabod Crane
- Janina Gavankar – Diana Thomas
- Lyndie Greenwood – Jenny Mills
- Jerry MacKinnon – Jake Wells
- Rachel Melvin – Alex Norwood
- Oona Yaffe – Molly Thomas
- Jeremy Davies – Malcolm Dreyfuss
Guest starring Kamar de los Reyes as Jobe, Jessejames Locorriere as Preacher and Bjorn DuPaty as Ansel.
Mikes Film Talk 