After a last minute abortion last week – everyone calm down, it was a demonic abomination – Katrina has officially reunited with her husband and joined the team. But there are problems: Abbie is still solidly Team Kill Henry while the Cranes are vehemently against it. Ichabod doubts his wife, and Katrina now has to figure out how to live in the 21st century.
Can our expanding Scooby gang learn to get along, or will they remain “Heartless” towards each other?
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The Cranes are sitting in bed, engaged in a modern day marriage ritual: watching reality television. Somehow they have gotten sucked into “The Bachelor” and, like the rest of America, cannot look away. Ichabod feels the show is a terrible mockery of love while Katrina is more optimistic about the TV couple”s chances.
Shhhh. No one tell her.
Of course, the Cranes can”t watch a show about True Love™ without the conversation turning to their own marital problems. Because couples therapy didn”t exist in colonial times, they”re trying to work through Katrina”s lies and Ichabod”s trust issues on their own. This is going better than expected. But before they can really get to making up, Abbie bursts into the cabin with dumb old apocalypse news.
Oh right, Henry”s still out there. And since they aborted Moloch, he”s probably pretty pissed off at them. The gang tries to figure out what their next move should be. But they shouldn”t have worried, it is totally not War”s style lay low. Case in point, as our heroes debate the merits of Real Housewives, Henry is busy pulling a beating heart from an urn. This seems promising.
The Horseman of War delivers. One magical Latin incantation later, a super fine naked lady demon is brought forth to sow dissent. And get her party on at a local rave. I mean, what else would a succubus do? How do we know she”s a succubus? Other than the visual cues of being a smoking hot female demon? Well, the changing herself into a hot nerd girl after noticing her prey lusting after a nerdy acquaintance was one hint. Sucking the life out of the poor nerd boy in the backseat of his car before he even got to second base was another one. This is some straight up PG “Jennifer”s Body” shit, right here.
After proving himself last week, I guess Reyes is cool with Ichabod tagging along again. So both Crane and Mills are called in to the scene of the crime. The succubus is long gone, but her victim is a crusty husk. No matter how much you want to dismiss supernatural murder, there”s not a lot of normal explanations for this one. So everyone just seems to be deferring to the supernatural experts.
Abbie is pretty pissed that Henry has fired up the old demon-murder machine again. Ichabod is still beating a dead horse with “My son can be saved from this evil.” Oh God, Katrina”s willful blindness is contagious. Get these naive fools into quarantine, STAT!
Back at the Carriage House, Abraham aka Headless is whining about Ichabod stealing his girl. I”d say it”s impossible for someone to steal another person, but it”s actually a pretty common occurrence in this universe. Henry is unimpressed. Apparently Moloch has commanded the horseman of Death to stay away from Katrina…at least according to War. Henry cuts the mirror-call short as the succubus shows back up. Moloch has a new plan and it clearly involves regurgitating souls into a mason jar.
Gross.
At the Exposition Library, the gang is coming up blank as to what could”ve killed the nerd boy. But Katrina recognizes the creature was basically using supernatural acupuncture. By figuring out which vitae point they accessed to kill the victim, the gang can narrow the search parameters. Katrina”s usefulness is cut short as a vision hits from out of nowhere. A cradle and a crying baby and a heart flash before her eyes.
In a moment of accidental bitchiness, Katrina”s response to neither Abbie nor Ichabod having tea on them is to say “Well Abraham always had the brand of tea I liked.” Girl, no. You”re in danger of letting Stockholm Syndrome ruin your marriage.
A quietly hurt Ichabod takes his wife home, leaving Abbie to stew about having to follow up on the demon that”s you know, murdering people, alone. Speaking of which, the next victim has been spotted. Random third wheel lesbian goes down for the count within seconds. A good succubus does not discriminate based on sexual identity.
Without any solid leads, Abbie resorts to finding another supernatural expert. Awwww yessss, it”s the return of Hawley aka Southern Gentleman Aquaman. But alas, SGA is no help at all. He”s never seen anything like these victims before. He tries to salvage the night by asking Abbie to join him for a drink, but she”s too caught up on not getting romantically involved with anyone to just loosen up and get some. Which is probably for the best since SGA has slept with her sister.
Yeah, that”s gonna get weird later.
Anyway, Hawley excuses himself to go flirt with more willing partners and Abbie runs off to meet up with Ichabod. The whole Hawley scene could be written off as time filler but suddenly Mills realizes the only reason anyone would be in the backseat of their own car would be to get some. Ichabod adorably tries out his modern word of the week – macking – and the gang puts two and two together to figure out what the audience has known forever: they”re dealing with a succubus.
As a witch, Katrina is a font of useful information. When it comes to succubi – and presumedly incubi – the more secret the desire, the more the demon can see you and mimic what you want most in order to eat your sweet, delicious soul. Using a tracing spell, Mrs. Crane is able to locate the succubus”s current location. She”s down at the docks. At Hawley”s pier.
Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn.
Abbie and Ichabod race to the rescue but no one rescues Southern Gentleman Aquaman. Hawley saves his damn self…temporarily. In the end, it becomes a group effort. Hawley burns the succubus with a magical artifact, Crane beans her with a metal pipe, and Abbie empties some bullets into the demon”s back. Of course, demons almost always take Endurance as their main stat and the succubus flees into the night. But at least Hawley still has most of his soul.
Having part of your soul removed apparently makes you woozy and Crane comes to Hawley”s rescue. Oh? What”s that? The beginning a grudging mutual respect? Whatever, I will use this moment of physical contact to ship the ever-living hell out Crawley. Crane half-heartedly tries to dispel the sexual tension – SHUT UP LET ME HAVE THIS – by warning Hawley to stay away from Abbie but SGA is like “I do what I want.”
And then they make-out.
On the car ride home, Ichabod and Abbie talk about changing/growing as people and how that effect their relationships. Crane tries to be like “If you like Southern Gentleman Aquaman, it”s totes cool with me,” but Abbie is adamantly against complicating her job as a Witness by relieving stress via orgasm, apparently.
Regrouping at the Exposition Library, the gang is perplexed by the feeding patterns of the succubus. Souls are super filling, meaning she should only need to eat once every few weeks, but the gluttonous shit has attacked three potential meals in one night. And worse yet, she succeeded twice.
Suddenly, Katrina”s visions return with a vengeance. Mrs. Crane isn”t experiencing subconscious sadness about the death of the demon fetus; she”s just still psychically connected to baby Moloch. When Ichabod and Abbie stopped the pregnancy, it didn”t kill Moloch. It merely transferred his energy to that cradle. So Henry summoned the succubus to surrogate mom it up. The succubus isn”t feeding herself, she”s regurgitating food to Moloch like the world”s most disturbing nature documentary.
Abbie finally get the Internet in on this action and we discover exactly what we”re up against. An Incordata…a succubus with no heart. Literally. Her heart is external from her body and must be destroyed first before she can be killed.
Fast fact: In the “Sleepy Hollow” universe, Valentine”s Day is the result of St. Valentine giving the remains of an Incordata heart to the Pope. Isn”t supernaturally-infused history fun?
The Internet also tells our heroes that Henry recently got a permit for a nearby cemetery, which is a great place to hide a demon heart. Also, I feel way better about the competency of the police department knowing that they”re monitoring Henry”s credit card transactions and public records.
A plan is hatched. The boys head back to the rave, hoping that succubi are creatures of habit. Meanwhile the ladies will head to the cemetery to destroy the Incordata heart.
Hawley and Crane are in the club, but Hawley is only there because he was promised a lock of Incordata hair to sell to God knows who. Or because Ichabod smells good and he just wants to hang out. WHICHEVER.
Crane is perplexed by modern day music. And lighting. And dancing. But while Ichabod sorts out dubstep and Hawley”s intentions towards Abbie, the ladies are having a heavy conversation about the limits of a mother”s love. Stand strong, Abbie. Don”t let Katrina suck you in with her talk of saving the Horseman of War from his mean old puppet master!
Things start to speed up as the ladies find the hex protecting the Incordata”s heart. Hawley arms Crane with a magic dagger in case things go south and dudes split up to find the succubus. Ichabod spots their quarry and of course he just follows her down into the pitch black basement without calling SGA to update him. In the catacombs, Katrina pulls down the urn but it has a perception spell on it designed to prey on individual fears. Abbie sees an urn of maggots while Katrina sees rats. They share a moment of silent “No, you do it” before Mills puts on her big girl pants and shoves her hand into the squirming pile of maggots to pull out the heart.
Success!
Trapped in a basement with a man trying to kill her, the succubus turns on the charm. She knows Ichabod doubts his wife in his heart of hearts, but the Incordata can make it all better. Crane is having none of it and stabs the heartless wretch right in the stomach. At that exact moment, Katrina hits the protection spell on the heart…literally. It knocks her clean out. Leaving Abbie to pick up the spell book and recite the Latin passage that will destroy the organ.
Abbie Mills is totally going to be a witch, y”all.
Stabbing an Incordata just pisses it off and Crane is in trouble. Hawley finally shows up but instead of being helpful, now they”re both just getting their asses kicked. Abbie finishes the incantation and the heart catches fire. In the basement, the boys finally get it together and stab/shoot their enemy to death.
The guys bond over their near death experience. Awwww. The girls bond over their complete success. Awwww. Bonding for everyone!
With the immediate danger out of the way, Katrina relays her plan to save Henry to Abbie. Oh my God woman, let it go. Whatever. Mrs. Crane plans to return to Abraham. If she can gain his trust and get access to baby Moloch, Katrina will kill him. With the puppet master strings detached, maybe Henry will be saved. This overlooks how much Henry hated his parents before becoming a Horseman of the Apocalypse but, logic cannot penetrate Katrina”s brain when it comes to her son. Leaving Abbie to break the bad news to Ichabod, Katrina heads out.
Mills meets back up with the boys and we are treated to a shirtless SGA. Bless. He refuses to go to the hospital because he”s gotta stay out of the system. Abbie helps patch him up and then gives him a gift. The remains of the Incordata”s heart. It”s no lock of hair, but Hawley seems genuinely grateful for the artifact.
Crane appears and Mills breaks the bad news. Katrina has returned to her double-agent status. Ichabod is actually pretty okay with it. He reasons that Katrina is a highly skilled operative and he is done overlooking that just because he loves her.
We end with Abraham running to brag to Henry that his love Katrina returned to him of her own free will. Neener, neener. Henry is actually pretty okay with it. Asking Headless if Katrina is still wearing her necklace, he agrees to see her. Mrs. Crane enters the nursery and peers over the edge. Oh goody, whatever sorcery makes Abraham look normal also makes baby Moloch appear as a harmless human baby. The episode ends as Katrina smiles, hopefully because she”s about to stab that adorable infant straight in the face.
Well, what did you guys think? Should Katrina have returned to the Headless Horseman? Are you shipping Ichabod and Hawley? Should we call them “Crawley”?