Sleepy Hollow Season 2 Premiere Recap With Spoilers: This Is War

Season two of Sleepy Hollow opens with Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) underground, right where Jeremy left him in the season one finale.

Suddenly, the episodes cuts to Ichabod and Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) on Ichabod's "surprise" birthday party, where Abbie is insisting he make a wish before blowing out the single candle on his cupcake. They are quickly summoned by the leader of a local historical society, and as soon as they get there, they find a beheaded man on the porch stoop and another inside.

The Headless Horseman appears before long, but he escapes quickly. At this point we learn that Katrina and Jenny are dead; they have been killed by the horsemen. The man who called them was researching Benjamin Franklin and specifically a key, leading Ichabod to recall the tail of when he helped Franklin with his famous kite experience.

Franklin was trying to destroy the key, as it turns out, and his experiment had nothing to do with electricity. He believed that maybe fire from the heavens would destroy the key, but it could not. Ichabod says that the key can break the rule of purgatory, which states that a sole can leave purgatory only if one takes it place. Therefore, possession of the key can enable anyone to leave purgatory – including Moloch.

Ichabod suggests that the only person who might be able to help them is his son, Henry (John Noble). We find Henry shackled in a room, where he has been nurturing a mini-garden under articial lighting. The duo brings Henry a plant as an exchange, and asks the sin-reader to gather information from a document they found. He claims that he learns nothing about a key.

Abbie remembers tale of one of Franklin's sketchbooks, before some sort of shudder takes over Ichabod. He states that since they captured Henry, he has been unable to remember anything. Suddenly – they realize that everything is a rouse. They are in purgatory, and now Henry knows about the key that could Moloch free.

Next we see Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood), who survived the car crash from the finale but is now at Henry's mercy. Henry tells her that Ichabod and Abbie are dead before he inquires about Franlkin's sketchbook. Of course, Henry is able to figure out its location with a single touch. Jenny expertly assaults her only guard as soon as Henry leaves, texting Ichabod her location. Katrina (Katia Winter) is also being held captive with the Horseman himself. She tries to fight back after the horseman cuts her loose, but her attempts are fruitless.

Back to Ichabod in the tomb, who futilely checks for cell reception. We see that the four white trees are right about him in a wide cut. He tries to record a video message for Abbie, before he uses the trace amounts of gunpowder burying him to cause an explosion and allowing him to escape. His hand shoves through the earth just like it did when he broke out of the ground in the cave, back in the series premiere.

Purgatory for Abbie is a haze of green, and she runs into Brooks (John Cho), who wants to help her as always. She sees Moloch performing some kind of ritual, and Brooks tells her that he's preparing to enter the human realm with a demon army in tow. Abbie needs to speak to Ichabod, so Brooks brings her to a mirror that enables souls in purgatory to speak to those alive. It's the same device that Katrina used to stay in touch with Ichabod.

Ichabod swings to pick up Jenny, though he can barely drive. Jenny takes over the driver's seat before Ichabod fills her in: Abbie is still stuck in purgatory. They need the sketchbook, bringing them to the key, allowing Abbie to escape. Ichabod and Jenny recover the sketchbook, which is written in Franklin's own alphabet. It says that he left the key with the only person in Sleepy Hollow whom he trusts.

Purgatory Abbie successfully summons Ichabod using the mirror and methods described to her by Brooks. She fills him in on the demon army full of purgatory souls on the way to Earth, and he tells her of the plan to break her out with the key. Abbie is concerned that maybe they are being tricked again and wonders if Ichabod should just leave her in purgatory, while he finds and then protects the key, but he won't have it. They plan to meet again soon, and then Ichabod is back in the car with Jenny.

Katrina is still stuck with the Horseman, who silently fastens a necklace upon her – the necklace Abraham (Neil Jackson) gave to her before he turned into the Horseman. Suddenly, Abraham's head appears on the Horseman's shoulders, but Katrina refuses to accept what she perceives to be an illusion. Abraham says that Ichabod will die on that night.

Ichabod and Jenny follow the clues in Franklin's sketchbook to his statue in town, inciting another Franklin flashback and more clues. This leads Ichabod to break through the brick under the statue, where they find the key. Now it's time for Ichabod to break back into purgatory to retrieve Abbie.

We see Abbie searching for an amulet that would help protect her from Moloch, before she sees Ichabod, who offers her a drink of water. Jenny just reminded Ichabod never to eat or drink anything in purgatory. This Ichabod isn't real; he's an illusion, but the real Ichabod appears and calls out to stop Abbie just in time to stop fake-Ichabod.

The Ichabods fight in the distance, but it's difficult to tell which is which. Abbie follows the first that seems victorious but knows that he isn't the right Ichabod, based on the way he pronounces her name. Abbie beheads the imposter, and then she and the real Ichabod try to summon the gate to escape, just as Moloch's un-dead army begins to rise. They make it – just in time, and the key disintegrates.

Ichabod, Abbie, and Jenny rest after the dust settles, while Ichabod explains the horsemen situation to Abbie. The Horseman has Katrina, and Ichabod's son Henry is also one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the horseman of war. The episode ends on Henry, who has disappointed Moloch by letting Ichabod get the key. Moloch reminds Henry of his purpose and gifts him a flaming sword.