By: Kh Ishrar
The Golem
In the previous episode, we saw Abbie learning about the existence of Ichabod’s son who may or may not be alive. Ichabod is angry and intends to find out all he can about his son and the only person who can help them do so is Katrina, herself. Abbie tells Ichabod that interacting with Katrina was quite as challenge in itself, but seems like Ichabod already has a strategy in mind. The sin eater, Parish, arrives shortly and Ichabod asks him to help them communicate with Katrina. Henry Parish refuses, saying that he has never pushed his powers beyond the purpose of cleansing sins but Ichabod insists. Henry had once already summoned a dead man, Arthur Bernard, for ridding Ichabod of his sins and now he was going to do it again for a different purpose. Henry elucidates that he would have to place Abbie’s and Ichabod’s mortal souls in the land of the dead where their lives would be jeopardized. Both the witnesses are willing to take the risk.
The procedure starts as Henry asks Ichabod to think about Katrina with all his heart and then suddenly the sineater starts choking Ichabod with his bare hands, uttering, “The closer he is to death, the shorter distance he has to travel.” Ichabod voyages all the way to the purgatory, where Katrina is held captive. Katrina is petrified as Moloch is nearby but Ichabod shoots the question, he asks about their son. Katrina then tells Ichabod that his name was Jeremy, after Ichabod’s grandfather. She explains that after her coven was prone to punish her for saving Ichabod’s life, she had to flee to the Fredericks’ sanctuary, where she gave birth to Jeremy. But, she knew that she had to get rid of the baby as her coven still was a threat to its life. She wanted to give her child a stable future and so she left him with Grace Dixon and her husband Joseph. Katrina also speaks of the powerful witches who trapped her in the purgatory; they are called ‘the four who speak as one.’ Ichabod promises her that they would be together again but that is when a creature arrives and Ichabod makes a narrow escape from there.
Ichabod reveals what he had learnt to Henry and Abbie, who says that they would find out what had happened to Ichabod’s son by any means. Ichabod starts calculating how big his family tree might have become by now if all had gone well. Abbie suggests going to the historical society library where they kept records dating all the way back to the revolutionary era. Henry Parish is keen on catching the 8:05pm train but Abbie gives his a heart-warming lecture on the importance of family, which makes Henry extend his stay till the 12:44am train arrives.
After burying themselves into the library’s books for a while, Henry finds records of Grace Dixon which said that she died in a fire. It said that Jeremy had the ability of starting fires merely by crying, which meant that he had inherited his mother’s powers. People believed that Jeremy was a monster and he was then sent to an orphanage for children of the war. That is all the records contained about Jeremy but Henry seems quite certain that the librarian, Miss Hudson, knows more than she is letting on. The three of them then find her dead in her smashed car.
They later get access to some files, formerly, under the librarian’s possession, and start looking into them. They find a box and Parish labels it as being filled with pain. Ichabod remembers the symbol on the box as the crest of Katrina’s coven. The late librarian was apparently a witch herself. Upon opening the box, they discover a notebook, full of drawings by a kid; drawings of a doll Katrina had made for her son. 
Henry Parish gets visions with help from the notebook. He is able to gather that the child was tormented by the priest who ran the orphanage. One day while getting beaten by the priest, a drop of the boy’s blood animates the doll his mother had made for him. A monstrous creature rises from it and begins by punishing the priest to death. Jeremy finds a friend, a guardian in the creature. Ichabod looks in the Washington’s Bible, where there is reference of an inanimate object made animate by its creator’s ardent passion, called a ‘golem’. Abbie finds carnival tickets where the librarian went to visit the four witches who speak as one. The latest carnival was just outside town which was going to be the witnesses’ and Henry’s next stop.
Captain Irving is concerned about what he has gotten himself into and while speaking to his friend, a priest, he learns that the witnesses are destined to die for their cause and so are their followers. Irving seems to be repenting some of his major life decisions and in the process he apologizes to his wife for all his faults in their failed marriage. He goes to the part with Macey and there a man, possessed by some kind of spirit, asks him whether his daughter is strong enough to fight for her soul. Irving gets violent but the spirit just jumps to another woman and Irving quickly leaves the park with his daughter.
Ichabod visits the four witches alone and they enlighten him that they are destined to die the night Ichabod came to visit them. He offers them safety against the Golem if they agreed release Katrina form the purgatory. The witches refuse by saying that their fate was sealed and fills Ichabod in with more information about Jeremy. 
They say that the boy’s powers had gone beyond control and he wouldn’t take assistance from anyone, but his Golem, so, in order to stop the boy and the creature, the sisterhood applied a hex on the boy to stop his heart. The Golem arrives in the meantime and upon asking the witches, Ichabod learns that only his son’s blood can stop the Golem. Parish points out that Ichabod’s blood was his son’s blood and so he takes a broken piece of mirror with his blood on it and stabs the Golem with it. Ichabod, however, was much inclined to spare the Golem’s life and felt deeply for this only friend that his son had the privilege of having. But for greater good there are some choices that need to be made from which there is no turning back.
Parish finally gets to leave Sleepy Hollow and he seems glad to be of service. After Abbie leaves to get herself a meal, Ichabod sees a pathway in the mirror which takes him to Moloch, who warns him saying, “I offer this warning. The saint’s name is a sign. When you know my meaning, the war will take form. Then the end of days will begin. Your death is assured, you and the second witness. I touched her soul once. Soon it will be mine forever and YOU will give it to me.”
This might not have been the highest rated episode of the show thus far but it was easily my favorite episode! It brings out some significant events of the past and marks the beginning of some great upcoming episodes!
Quotable Quotes:
Ichabod: “I’m still reconciling today’s language and its advancements. For example, in my era, a toilet was a vanity cabinet. Intercourse meant, simply, social conversation. Awful, meant awe-inspiring.”
Abbie: “So, if I went out with a guy and we had awful intercourse, we’d be going on a second date?”
Ichabod: “Disconcerting, yet accurate.”
Ichabod: “My father always used to say to me, ‘when you have a child, he will follow your example more than your advice’.”
Ichabod (upon receiving his Christmas gift from Abbie): “You embroidered by name on some over-sized hosiery. How…odd!”
