- "Whilst I am an expert in many fields, I should have acknowledged that you, Miss Molly, are the master of the sacred ritual of the selfie."
- —Ichabod Crane to Molly Thomas
"Sick Burn" is the eighth episode of Season Four of Fox's Sleepy Hollow. It was written by Joey Falco and directed by Darnell Martin. It is the fifty-seventh episode of the series overall, and debuted on February 24, 2017.
Synopsis[]
When internet sensation, Logan MacDonald, comes to town, a supernatural infection comes with him, via a viral video. Meanwhile, Molly has a frightening vision that could predict a bleak future.
Recap[]
The episode opens with a disturbing vision of Malcolm listening to his employees singing. Two guards drag a scruffy man in and he greets his "old friend." They drag an a scarred and broken Ichabod Crane up to Malcolm's table and throw him to the ground. Crane wearily asks if Malcolm got what he wanted; the death of democracy. Malcolm dismisses democracy as ineffectual, and says that he's learned that people are herd animals and don’t want to bear the burden of governing themselves. He says that most people want a shepherd. The guards then drag Crane away. Jobe wakes Malcolm, who says that he had another vision. He staggers to his feet and says that his vision was spectacular. He assures the demon that he is destined to become the best thing that has ever happened to America.
Elsewhere, Crane tries to record a selfie video while Molly gives him instruction. They are waiting in a crowd for a celebrity appearance. She accidentally knocks the phone out of his hand, and apologizes. As Crane tries again, Molly takes the phone and steps aside to post it to Crane's Pictagram account, and says that it's pointless because Crane has no followers. Diana thanks Crane for coming, and Crane ponders what the world be like if Jefferson and Lincoln had the Internet. Internet celeb, Logan MacDonald, then arrives. As the other fans crowd Logan, Crane and Diana agree that Logan's Internet diatribes are boring. As Molly defends Logan, Logan overhears her and comes over; he takes a selfie with he, and then collapses. As Logan's assistants take him away, Crane sees Logan's arm glowing red. Diana takes Molly home while Crane investigates further.
When Diana and Molly get home, they find Jenny setting up security cameras and mystic wards. Molly goes to check on updates about Logan, and Diana tells Jenny what happened. Jenny offers to stay with Molly while Diana goes to the hospital, and admits that she'd like to know Molly better. Diana hesitates and Jenny says that they can't treat Molly with kid gloves. After a moment, Diana agrees and leaves.
At a local tavern, Alex's date, Brad, is trying to show her an Internet video. Jake is down the bar ordering a drink, and he chats with the bartender, Missy. He insists that he and Alex are just friends, and they came on Tinder dates, and they agreed to come to the other's help if their date was bad, but Jake's date stood him up. Meanwhile, Alex tells her date that he's creepy and starts to walk off. Brad gets up to go after her, and collapses. At the hospital they spot Crane whop explains about Logan. Alex says that they saw a guy with the same symptoms. As he goes to check out Brad, he screams and says that he hears his call, and then bursts into flames, taking the attending orderly with him.
The team heads to the vault and Diana calls the CDC. They've been receiving similar reports around the DC area, and another victim burst into flames and burned down a whole hospital wing. Crane suggests that a similar affliction hit DC before, and tells Jake to look for the works of Paul Jennings. He then tells Alex and Diana that when the British forces invaded DC during the War of 1812, they burned down dozens of buildings. Paul Jennings was a young White House slave. Jake finds a journal which describes how pamphlets were handed out hours before the British attacked. Anyone who read the pamphlet came down with the illness. Paul and the White House staff dealt with the infection, which they named "influenza incendio." Paul was the only one who understood that the disease was spread by cursed pamphlets, and spread by language. Alex figures that this time the disease was spread by Pictagram feeds, embedded in the source code. Diana realizes that Molly might be afflicted and calls her. Jake and Crane agree that Malcolm is spreading the virus, but that they must focus on containing the infection. Meanwhile, Diana reaches Molly, who says that she and Jenny have been at Jenny's trailer, hiking, and she hasn't watched Logan's videos. Relieved, Diana talks to Jenny and explains about the viral video. She asks her to make sure Molly is nowhere near computers or phones.
Once Diana hangs up, Jenny shows Molly the ancient Buddhist ritual of finding one's right path, displaying an array of objects. She has Molly close her eyes and meditate, "Each one of these objects gives off a distinct vibration, your mind should be tuned to receive one of them." She tells there is no wrong choice, that every path has value and if she listens to her heart she will choose true. She breaths a sigh of relief, however, when molly picks the singing bowl. She said she had chosen the crossbow, the path of the warrior, " the bowl means that the path laid out before you, should you choose to walk it, is that of an oracle, someone with insight into people's minds, someone able to see into people's souls as easily as looking into a mirror." When the bowl then chimes, Molly falls into a trance and has a vision.
Alex goes to get some water, and Jake approaches her. He realizes that she watched Brad's video, and she shows Jake her glowing wrist. Diana and Crane go out on the street and see hundreds of people on their phones. Crane tries to warn them to turn off their phones because they're dangerous, but is ignored. Then one man stops an infected victim from walking out into traffic. The glow on her back forms a triangular pattern, before Crane and Diana can react, the woman bursts into flames.
In the vault, Alex says that she has to get out before she burns the place down. She feels like that she has five more minutes before she burst into flames like Brad did, and Jake refuses to let her go alone. Alex heads in the tunnels just as Crane and Diana return. Jake tells them what happened, and Alex calls and tells them not to come after her. She hears a voice calling to her, saying that it needs her, and she goes after it.
Crane tells Jake that they need his research skills and he has to focus. Diana describes the pattern they saw on the victim. The symbol contained Arabic writing, and Jake realizes that he knows the symbols. He checks the Histories and finds a book with the symbol on the cover. It contains more of Paul Jenning's writings, and they realize that he worked with a team at Vault 355. The other team members were Sam Wilson, Davy Crockett, and Sacajawea. Paul determined that a djinn was responsible for the symbol, and Jake warns that the djinn were powerful fire demons. The curse transmits the symbol onto the victims, and they are compelled to find the djinn's lair, and then it consumes them in flames. Crane tells Jake that Paul and his team stopped the curse by having Sam Wilson reading the curse. The others followed him to the djinn's lair and Paul summoned a tempest to strike down the djinn with lightning. Sam, however, didn't survive the infection, and Jake vows that Alex won't suffer a similar fate.
The victims, including Logan, gather at the djinn's lair: a server farm. It says that they must all burn for it and joint he eternal flame, and then consumes one victim. Alex is among the others, saying that she is ready to burn with it.
At the trailer, Molly's terrifying vision shows her an older, beaten and scarred Ichabod Crane, chained in a cell. The girl snaps out of the vision and tells Jenny what she saw, "I saw something terrible. It was Mr. Crane, but he was so... he was so old, and so... and so alone...."
Diana gets a serum from Jenny's alternative medicine cabinet. It will cause a rapid drop in body temperature. Meanwhile, Jake says that he was unable to trace the video's source code. Crane says that he must infect himself and lead them to the djinn, and tells them that he has a responsibility to witness the curse and ward off evil, but Jake says that he's already looked at the video. He figures it is the fastest way to track Alex down, that Alex would have done the same for him.
Jake has an attack, he then tells Crane and Diana that he knows where Alex is. He leads them to the server farm, and tells them to get Alex out and ignore him. They go in and find hundreds of infected victims. They spot Logan and make their way through the crowd and Alex. She approaches the djinn, and Diana injects Alex while Jake shrugs off Crane and moves toward the djinn. It throws a fireball at Diana, who avoids it.
Crane dons a pair of insulated gloves, rips free two electrical lines, and says that it's time to summon the lightning. The djinn comes at him, and Jake reaches for it. Alex runs up and knocks Jake aside, and Diana shoots the djinn, distract it allowing Crane to electrocute it. Everyone snaps out of the spell, Jake and Alex confirm that they can't hear the djinn's voice any more.
Later at the vault, Alex thanks Jake for saving her. She says that no one has ever risked everything for her before, and Jake figures that she'll pay him back. Alex hugs him, just as Crane and Dianaenter. Jenny arrives as Jake puts up a painting of the original Agency 355 team, he names them descendants of heroes. Diana says that Crane doesn't seem himself. He shows her a letter from George Washington appointing him as commanding officer of Agency 355. He worries that his war will get one of his team killed, and Diana tells him that is the burden of leadership. Crane suggests that they celebrate their victory with a commemorative selfie. They all say "prunes" and take the picture.
When Diana picks up Molly, Jenny tells her about Molly's vision of Crane in the future, and warns that something is coming. Crane overhears her and says that someone is coming: They figure that Malcolm summoned the djinn, and Crane wonders why.
Jobe tells Malcolm that Crane and his team contained the outbreak. Malcolm tells him that there is nothing that they can do to stop the future that he's seen. He's assembling a team of his own, and says that he got everything he needed from the outbreak. Logan enters and Malcolm says that he's their Patient Zero. The youth says that he can feel himself becoming something stronger, and Malcolm tells him to be patient for the others to arrive.
Cast[]
Starring[]
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Multimedia[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- It was revealed that Logan McDonald is working for Dreyfuss, as a Horseman candidate.
- We see Dreyfuss' goal for the first time, as well as his flag. In a futuristic vision he is labelled as an emperor, even surpassing the President. The flag's symbol is Hindu and it represents eternal life.