WARNING: INFECTIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD!!
A disease is spreading through Sleepy Hollow and a mysterious boy seems to be the source of the illness. Crane and Abbie see the boy who appears to be from Crane’s era. At the hospital, Crane speaks to the boy whose name is Thomas. Communicating with the boy in an old language, he learns that Thomas is from Roanoke but not the Roanoke of now. Returning to the store room in the police station, Crane tells Abbie about the lost colony of English settlers who suddenly disappeared from Roanoke in 1590. Crane suspects that they relocated to Sleepy Hollow. They then get a call from the hospital about the boy’s condition and the infection of another nurse. As the nurse’s condition worsens, he sees a fearsome rider before he dies.
Crane and Abbie investigate where Thomas was found in the woods. Using tracking skills he learned from his fox hunting days, they find a hidden path that leads them to the lost colony of Roanoke. All the villagers are infected with the same disease as Thomas. Crane asks one of the villagers when they arrived in Roanoke. They are told that the land has been cursed by the Horseman Pestilence whose plan was to spread the disease so may join his brother Death. Meanwhile, the disease is spreading fast. When they arrive, Crane notices that he has been infected. Irving orders Crane to be quarantined. Given a sedative, Crane meets Katrina in the dream world where she tells him that the only reason he would be there is if he is dying.
Agent Ralph, who investigated Crane identity, receives a call that Crane is in fact who he says he is. Katrina tells Crane that they are in Purgatory and the beast Moloch is keeping her captive. Abbie tells Irving that they have to get Crane and Thomas out but he refuses to listen. She finds her way into the chapel looking for an answer from a divine source. Remembering what Crane said, Abbie tells Irving about the lost colony of Roanoke and that they need to get Crane and Thomas back to the village to cure them. Irving tells her that Parsons will be transporting Crane and Thomas to another facility. Abbie hijacks the ambulance containing Crane and Thomas. While she helps them back to the village, they are pursued by Pestilence. Crane makes it to the well with Thomas and takes him into the water. They are cured and the horseman vanishes. It turns out that Thomas, along with the rest of the villagers, were already dead. Abbie receives a call from Irving telling her that the infected people are cured. Crane suggests that it was Abbie’s faith that saved them. Elsewhere, the Horseman of Death rides again and Hell is coming with him.
“I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come and see!” I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.” — Revelation 6:1-2˄ NIV
In the series premiere, we were introduced to the fourth horseman Death. This episode gives us a look at the first rider Pestilence. According to the Book of Revelations, Pestilence spreads disease and infection wherever he rides. That remains true in this episode as the Horseman has infected an entire village with a sickness. His appearance is taken from the 1916 Vicente Blasco Ibáñez novel “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” which provides an early example of this interpretation, writing, “The horseman on the white horse was clad in a showy and barbarous attire. While his horse continued galloping, he was bending his bow in order to spread pestilence abroad. At his back swung the brass quiver filled with poisoned arrows, containing the germs of all diseases.” The interpretation of the horse has always fascinated me and it was very interesting how he was integrated into the Sleepy Hollow mythos. Here, Pestilence has cursed a village with a disease that he intends to spread so he may ride with his brother Death. One of the infected villagers escapes, signaling his arrival.
I’ve mentioned before that Ichabod Crane’s past might catch up with him. I’m tired of being right. He meets a boy named Thomas who speaks a dialect of English that hasn’t been heard for centuries but is spoken in Crane’s era. As he speaks with the boy who was taken to the hospital, Crane begins to feel a connection with him as he is also lost in an unfamiliar world like he is. He takes great attentiveness towards Thomas for this reason and for a moment wonders if there is anyone else who may be out of place. With Abbie, he tracks Thomas’s trail to a village untouched by time. He believes them to be the lost colony of English settlers from 1590, nearly 200 years before Crane’s time. No doubt that he feels at home amongst the people here as he looks around with a longing expression. Ichabod Crane misses the world he once knew as he tries to make the adjustments to live in our world. However, he cannot go back to it. He resumes his conduction of his investigation with Abbie to find out how to break the curse. Crane learns that Thomas has to be returned to the village in order to prevent the spread the disease that will allow the Horseman of Pestilence to ride. Returning to the hospital, Crane is quarantined after it is learned that he has been infected. As he is dying, he meets his wife Katrina and learns that the demon Moloch is holding her prisoner in Purgatory. Just as he asks why her soul is trapped there, Crane awakens in the living world with a head full of questions regarding his wife and Moloch.
It seems that Abbie Mills is starting to open up her mind a bit when it comes to the strange happenings in Sleepy Hollow. She has always had a hard time believing in things that cannot be explained ever since she denied her witness to seeing Moloch in the woods with her sister when she was a kid. Given all that has happened since she met Ichabod it was inevitable that she would come around. When Ichabod falls prey to the disease, she seeks help from god in the hospital chapel. Crane is her best connection to Sheriff Corbin who is the only other person outside of Jennifer who believes her account about seeing the demon in the woods. She practically begs for a sign as she does not want to lose Crane who she seems to be growing fond of. She gets her sign from the Holy Water near the chapel’s entrance. Going on chance, she tells her superior Captain Irving about the village and how getting Crane and Thomas there may cure them. Irving, who has doubted Crane about everything, sees no other option. He puts trust in Abbie against his better judgment. Abbie helps Crane return Thomas to the village where the curse is broken, preventing Pestilence from riding. Crane tells Abbie that is was her faith that help breaks the curse, seeing that she is starting to open herself up little more towards to unexplainable. Abbie returns the favor by telling Crane that despite where he came from he belongs in Sleepy Hollow, here and now, by fate. She seems to now have a better understanding of Crane and his struggle with the 21st century. She thought he might have wanted to stay with the villagers seeing as how much they have in common. But she and Crane have something in common too. Their fates are intertwined and they must fight against the forces of darkness that threaten to bring about the Apocalypse. Now that Abbie has faith, I think that she will be there to help Crane along the way, funny accent and all.
I have a feeling that this will not be the last we see of Horseman of Pestilence. He will attempt to ride again. As will the other horseman—War and Famine. We’ll likely meet them as well. But for now, Death is ready to return to Sleepy Hollow and Hell is coming with him.
