Abbie, Ichabod, Katrina, and Hawley face off against a succubus demon stealing people’s life forces under the authority of Henry. Here is a recap of the Sleepy Hollow episode “Heartless.”
Recap:
Abbie interrupts Ichabod and Katrina’s peaceful moment of watching a reality dating show to inform them she’s been tracking Henry. In a crypt, Henry uses a beating heart and a spell to summon a woman, whom he sends to a bar. There, she finds a nerdy guy with an unsatisfied romantic hunger. While making out with him, she consumes his life, leaving his body behind, and releases his glowing life force into Henry’s jar. When Abbie’s called to the case, Katrina recognizes the wounds on the victim, but gets distracted with a flash of Henry and a crib. Ichabod takes Katrina home to rest, leaving Abbie alone. In a diner, a trio of friends has a misunderstanding about who has feelings for whom, only for one girl to be killed by the life-sucking woman.
Ichabod consults Franklin’s journal, and Katrina suggests looking for one of his artifacts, several of which are unaccounted for. They’ll need to consult an expert. Hawley doesn’t want to help until Katrina realizes the woman is a succubus and tracks her mystical energy to the harbor, where Abbie and Ichabod save Hawley. When he picks up on Hawley’s desire for Abbie, Ichabod isn’t too opposed; however, Ichabod soon chats with Abbie about love complicating their lives. Katrina continues having visions of the baby, one of which is of the succubus giving the life forces she’s stolen to the baby. The baby’s the same as the creature that was inside her. Moloch is rising again!
Katrina suggests severing Henry’s tie to Moloch in order to bring her son back to the forefront, but Abbie doesn’t think it’ll work. Love can’t conquer all. Consulting the texts, they discover the succubus’ body is heartless, so to destroy her, they must destroy her heart. Finding Henry has a cemetery permit, the Abbie and Katrina locate the heart in a crypt, while Ichabod teams up with Hawley to track the succubus. The jar containing the heart is protected by a perception spell, so where Abbie see maggots, Katrina sees rats. Abbie faces the fear and pulls out the heart. Katrina starts the spell as the succubus finds Ichabod. He stabs her, which sends Katrina flying backwards. Abbie picks up with the spell, bursting the heart into flames and reducing the succubus to ash.
After Abbie admits Katrina helps strengthen their team, Katrina decides to figure out what Henry’s new plan is via up-close-and-personal research. She wants Abbie to tell Ichabod she’s going back to Abraham. Abbie finds Hawley scratched up and bandages his wounds. Ichabod gives him what’s left of the succubus heart and understands what Katrina is doing. Welcoming Katrina back, Henry is glad to see she’s still wearing her necklace, which now glows. Katrina peers over the crib and smiles upon the baby.
Comments:
– “Heartless” was an average episode of Sleepy Hollow, entertaining, yet ultimately, stagnant in the scope of the season. While Katrina’s inclusion in the case of the week provided for a new dynamic, the story was just a filler until they could return her to her previous state, and the amount of blatant relationship drama that they created to infuse into this episode shifted it from sweet to sour.
– Well, that was nice while it lasted. Katrina leaving Team Witness so soon after they got her back was a less than pleasing move. After the joy of Katrina being out of purgatory was shattered by her being a captive of Abraham, we’re back to where we started with that joyous freedom being destroyed. But hopefully this time Katrina put something into place where she can communicate with Ichabod.
– Katrina’s decision to re-join Abraham and Henry as a way to defeat them was a pretty brave and strong move until that final ominous smile, which raises the question of whether the demon that was growing inside of her left any lingering desires.
– The diner scene was awkward and unnecessary for a number of reasons, so it’s puzzling why they chose to include it. First, it was such a forced and obvious way to further explain that the succubus preys on desire. Also, spending that length of time with characters we aren’t invested in and won’t become invested in since they’re doomed to die was a waste of screen time. There was no shocking or gruesome or unexpected payoff at the end.
– Although it’s been known, I didn’t realize until now just how odd of a line of work Hawley is in. Having people willing to pay for a lock of succubus hair is not quite your typical day at the office.
– Given how Abbie’s gift of the bone flute to Hawley wound up in Henry’s hands and let him create a wendigo that terrorized the town, it doesn’t fit that Ichabod was so lax about giving the succubus ashes to Hawley as his payment for help.
– Abbie mentioning her mother’s love in the end not being enough to get what she wanted was a nice and somewhat subtle set up for next week’s episode, which introduces us to mama Mills.
– “These people wouldn’t know true love if the bard himself wrote them a sonnet.” – Ichabod
– “Fortunately, my head is almost as hard as Ichabod’s.” – Katrina
