- "Huh. What do your friends call you? Ichy?"
- —Jenny Mills to Ichabod Crane
"For the Triumph of Evil" is the third episode of Season One of Fox's Sleepy Hollow. It was written by Phillip Iscove and the teleplay by Jose Molina and directed by John F. Showalter. It is the third episode of the series overall, and debuted on September 30, 2013
Synopsis[]
Another soldier in the army of evil, the Sandman, seeps into the dreams of the residents of Sleepy Hollow. By infiltrating their minds at night, he tortures them to the brink - all because they, at one time, turned a blind eye to justice. When the Sandman sets his sights on Abbie, she is forced to face her past - and her institutionalized sister, Jenny. With Ichabod by her side, and her life at stake, the duo must try to defeat the Sandman and continue their fight against evil.[1]
Recap[]
As the episode opens, Abbie is brought in to the department, where Crane is leading an interrogation as Captain Irving and a psychiatrist observe. Abbie sees who the suspect is; it is her teen self. Crane's eyes appear completely white. Once Abbie bursts in, the room begins swirling, and the doors lock, she can't escape. Beginning to panic, a demonic creature appears behind her. She wakes up from the nightmare, startled by her cell phone, and is called to a scene. A doctor named Maura Vega is threatening to jump off a building and will only speak with Abbie. When Abbie reaches her, the doctor tells her, "everything she saw was real. I believed her and I lied." Abbie is confused, and as Vega turns to face her, Abbie recognizes her as the psychiatrist from her dream, and her eyes are white. The doctor refers to Abbie's sister, Jenny, and jumps to her death.
As dawn breaks, Abbie returns to the others and tells Crane and Irving about Vega's eyes. They check the corpse, and as the paramedic shows them the eyes, the eyeball bursts and sand drains form it. After the doctor's body is taken away, Irving finds that Dr. Vega did a year of residency at the same hospital where Jenny was locked up. Abbie tells Crane that Dr. Vega was in her dream, along with the nightmare monster, but she had never met Vega before. Crane calls it a prophetic dream, but Abbie isn't quite ready to own the "Witness" label. They then watch a recording of Vega's sessions with Jenny when she was a teenager. Abbie finds in Vega's notes, a reference that Jenny showed no other signs of mental illness, and that she was probably telling the truth. Abbie is willing to write off the doctor's suicide as guilt over letting Jenny stay institutionalized when she knew she wasn't crazy, but Crane reminds her of the sand eyeball and her own dream.
Crane insists on speaking with Jenny, whom Abbie hasn't spoken to in five years. At the hospital, Abbie hears the nurse call over to room forty nine and remembers her vision in which Corbin told her not to fear "number forty nine". Jenny refuses to see Abbie, so Crane goes instead. Curious, Jenny allows the visit. He tells her he's seen the demon she saw. She sarcastically warns him to follow her sister's lead and not say things like that. Jenny tells Crane that it's the reason why she's institutionalized and Abbie isn't. Crane then informs Jenny of Vega's death. He tells Jenny that he doesn't think she is crazy, and neither does Abbie. Still having a grudge against her sister, Jenny tells him that it's too late to fight, that "it's all over but the crying."
Mr. Gillespie sees the demon the day in the woods he's found Jenny and Abbie.
As they leave, Crane tells Abbie that what is between the sisters is their business, but her secret may be standing in the way of truths the must know. She tells him something she's never told anyone; she saw the thing in the woods. She remembered waking up, it felt like she'd been asleep for a few moments, but it had been four days, and the whole town was looking for them. A rancher, named Garrett Gillespie, found them and he saw the demon too. When they were taken in, she told Jenny not to say anything about what they saw, but she didn't listen. Jenny told questioners what she saw, but Abbie said she didn't see anything. Abbie blames Jenny for not listening to her to stay silent, they were in a good foster home and Abbie didn't want them to lose that. Crane understood, but tells Abbie that she needs to own the betrayal of her sister. The next step, however, is to speak with Mr. Gillespie.
At his place, Gillespie dozes before suddenly hearing a noise. He goes to investigate and cuts his leg on a nail sticking out of a table. The cloth he uses to wipe the blood away takes on an odd symbol. He takes out his gun, and the demon briefly appears behind him before disappearing again.
The Sandman briefly appears behind Abbie.
At the precinct, Captain Irving comes gets a report of shots fired at the Gillespie ranch and he heads a response team. Abbie and Crane pull up to Gillespie's house, but it's already surrounded by patrol cars. Gillespie has taken his wife hostage and demands to speak to Abbie. She goes in the house and finds Gillespie on the floor of his kitchen with his wife nearby, where she says he's lost his mind. Gillespie, like Dr. Vega, has white eyes. Suddenly, Gillespie sees the demon behind Abbie and fires in the air and warns her that the "Sandman" is coming for her the next time she falls asleep. Without hesitation, he then shoots himself. Outside the Gillespie house, Abbie tells Crane what Gillespie said, and he suggests the Sandman is the faceless monster from her nightmare.
Back in the archives, Abbie looks into the sheriff's files on sleep demons and finds one that bears the symbol that was left on Gillespie's bloody rag. Crane is familiar with the Mohawk sleep demon. His Mohawk friends told him stories about the spirit, Ro'kenhronteys, during the Revolutionary War. He would come for you if you didn't do right by your neighbor. Crane then suggests that they visit a Mohawk shaman. She gives him the bad news about the Mohawk and says there aren't many around. Crane is astounded, but she does take him to a used car lot, Geronimotors, which is owned by a Mohawk shaman named Seamus Duncan. Upon their request, he refuses to hear them out, telling them he doesn't do rain dances. Once they mention Ro'kenhronteys, Crane convinces him that he will be just as guilty, and a target for the demon himself, if he refuses to help. Duncan takes them to a lodge away from town and gives Abbie a herbal tea that will allow her to walk in the dream world and take on the demon, but warns her if she dies there, she dies in reality. The listening Crane immediately takes a swallow of the tea himself, and tells her he will accompany her.
Abbie confesses to her secrets, allowing Ro'kenhronteys to turn into glass before shattering him.
Then Duncan tells them they need scorpion venom to be able to control what they do in the spirit world. He ties them down to tables and puts scorpions in jars on their bare stomachs to let them get stung. They fall asleep and wake up in a foggy forest, looking for each other. Ro'kenhronteys finds Abbie and flings sand in her eyes. He tells her she has been weighed on the scales of justice and been found wanting. She fires at him but the shots do nothing.
Crane finds a red door in the forest. Abbie finds herself in the interrogation with her teen-aged sister. Eventually, Ro'kenhronteys turns into the questioner and asks Abbie if she saw the demon. Crane, meanwhile, walks through the door and is in the police station. He sees Dr. Vega and Gillespie hanging from nooses in the hallway, a third empty one swings nearby. He finds Abbie is trapped by the demon and about to die, Crane tells Ro'kenhronteys to stop. The demon turns on Crane and strikes off his forearm, from which sand instead of blood flows. Abbie stops the attack by confessing he sin, admits to what she saw that day and confronts Ro'kenhronteys. She tells it she's not afraid anymore and won't desert her sister again. Immediately after, Ro'kenhronteys begins to harden into glass and Abbie shatters him with a chair.
As the tired Witnesses talk in the archive, Abbie says she has some unfinished business to take care of. Just as she's about to leave, Captain Irving enters. He doesn't want to know the details of their investigation, just that it's closed. Abbie visits Jenny at the mental hospital and the orderly takes Abbie to Jenny's room, but it's empty. After realizing that Jenny has escaped, Abbie orders the building locked down. Abbie finds a loose panel in the ceiling, learning of her escape route.
Cast[]
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Trivia[]
Cultural References[]
- This could be a nod to the concept from A Nightmare on Elm Street, as it describes a monster that attacks sleeping victims in their dreams.
Body Count[]
- Mara Vega - Suicide caused by Ro'kenhronteys.
- Garrett Gillespie - Suicide caused by Ro'kenhronteys.
- Ro'kenhronteys - Defeated by a sinner coming clean and telling the truth. He turned to the glass and Abbie Mills shattered him with a chair.
International Titles[]
| International Titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Language: | Title: | Translation: |
| French | "Le Marchand de Sable" | "The Sandman" |
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