- "There must always be two Witnesses. When one dies, their soul does not move on. It's eternal."
- —Ezra Mills to Ichabod Crane[src]
Witnesses are characters on Sleepy Hollow. Their job is to protect the world from evil. There must be two Witnesses at a given moment so if one of them dies, the essence of their soul moves on to the next chosen Witness, indicating that their souls are eternal. [2]
History[]
Existence[]
- "We were chosen for this; to sacrifice ourselves so that humanity can endure, so that people can choose their destiny."
- —Abbie Mills to Ichabod Crane[src]
The Witnesses, Ichabod Crane and Abigail Mills, inherited the Witness mantle from their extended bloodlines. Their ancestors weren't mentioned, except in an ancient tablet Crane found from his family tomb in Scotland between the events of Season 2 and Season 3. It was over 2,000 years old and it was entitled "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." It was written in ancient Sumerian and it explained how they were known as the Destroyers. They weren't meant to devastate the world, but to destroy the monsters they faced. Unfortunately, Ichabod wasn't able to decipher the entire tablet before the Hidden One destroyed it, but learned that there must always be two Witnesses.
In 1751, when Ichabod was born, at about the same time Grace Dixon's birth, indicated she and Ichabod were the next generation of Witness. After centuries of dormancy, they carried on the mantle through their bloodlines. Then during the Revolution, General Washington created his own Bible adding verses to hide codes, and annotating the Book of Revelations. It consisted of valuable information concerning the roles of the two Witnesses, as well as a set of instructions on how to locate a map leading the way to Purgatory. After the battlefield apparent deaths of Ichabod and the Horseman of Death, Katrina and Washington buried the Bible with Ichabod's body in a secluded cave in Sleepy Hollow. In Season 1, it proved very helpful for Ichabod and his allies, especially when he used it to prove to Abbie the reality of the supernatural war he was engaged in.
It was then discovered in August Corbin's files, that Abbie is the next Witness, and eventually learned she belonged to a family of Witnesses. Her bloodline was revealed as she later found out the history of her ancestress, Grace Dixon; who upon her death from a fire at Frederick's Manor - caused by cries of Henry Parish as a baby - the mantle was passed onto Martha Dixon. After she was turned to stone by the Gorgon, it was eventually passed on to Lori Roberts, Abbie's mother, who then succumbed to spiritual torture by Moloch's demons. Lastly, it was passed onto Abbie after her mother was forced to commit suicide by Gina Lambert who haunted Tarrytown Psychiatric.
In a dream, Abbie saw her deceased mother in Purgatory. The ruins she was standing in front of was revealed to be the location of the Sword of Methuselah, as well as the petrified Martha Dixon. The experience was a connection to her role as a Witness. Ichabod came to the conclusion that the ruins were important to him because of the Horseman's connection with himself. Before they found it, he even said that he sees his destiny clearly thanks to Abbie.
In Season Three's premiere, I, Witness, Ichabod discovered the Tablet of Witnesses. He was then incarcerated by the ICE when he tried to bring the artifact back to the US, but with Abbie's help, now an FBI agent, he was released, and it was sent to the Archives. He later attempted to decipher it, but was only partially successful before it was destroyed by the Hidden One. Ichabod had discovered it had some interesting effects when it was used with the Emblem of Thura.
Abbie's time at the Catacombs were significant as she came across a symbol. After she left, she was distracted by it. Always seeing it at the most inopportune times. When Ichabod was poisoned by the Jersey Devil, it distracted her enough so that she briefly ignored her partner in agony. It was drawn in the back of her shed, and it was even scribbled countless times in her journal. Because of a bronze pendant with the same shape of the symbol, Ichabod discovered the significance of the symbol after noticing its connection with Abbie and the Catacombs. With the help of a professor in Rochester, NY, he carefully examined them with the tablet. The pieces suddenly attached themselves to the lower corners of the two pieces of the tablet, and he had a vision in which Abbie was fighting the Verslinder. With some help from of the Blavatsky Map, it led him to her and they soon discovered that the symbol which was known as the Emblem of Thura wasn't a tool for evil. It was a symbol representing the everlasting connection between the two Witnesses, as seen when it was Abbie's voice that helped Crane retrieve his astral form from the Catacombs and into his body at the Archives. The Emblem of Thura later saved his life as it absorbed a magic attack from the Hidden One. It was rumored to be more powerful than the Hidden One himself, though it was destroyed after the confrontation with the Hidden One, along with the tablet.
Everything led up to Ragnarok. When Abbie and Ichabod returned to the Catacombs to find answers on defeating the Sumerian god, Pandora's Box opened and a shadow enveloped her, causing her to blackout temporarily. Ichabod said that the tablet mentioned that the eternal soul of a Witness must be used to restore Pandora's Box, which had foreshadowed her ultimate fate. When they got to the Hidden One's lair, Pandora told them that the Eternal Soul of a Witness must be sacrificed to be used as a binding agent to hold the darkness of the box together. Because the Hidden One was regaining his strength, Abbie accepted. Her soul and body vanished, and the box was able to completely drain the Hidden One of his power before he was killed by Jenny.
As Ichabod and Jenny made the final attempt to defeat Pandora and retrieve Abbie's soul from the box, Pandora told them that she was never inside the box and that Abbie was dead. In a dream state Ichabod discovered that Abbie's life had come full circle. They were in Limbo; a waiting room between life and death. She assured him that she was free, and explained how their souls were eternal. She said her role as a Witness was done, it had been her job to push Crane on his way to fulfill his destiny. He wanted them to end their fight together, but she knew that it was a new beginning for her. They said goodbye one last time after she tells Crane to kill some monsters for her. Later, Ezra Mills would explain to Crane that when a Witness dies, the essence of their soul moves onto another person from the extended bloodline, sparking the new Witness, and the bearer happens to be in Washington, DC where Ichabod was soon to be taken by Jack Walters.
Upon Abbie's demise, a young girl named Molly Thomas had a fainting spell at school. Since then, she had been utterly silent and sketching in her notebook, many of the drawings were of Ichabod, whom she had not met yet. Taken to see doctors, they said it was transient aphasia, which disabled her ability to talk, however, after she saw Ichabod in person for the first time, she began speaking again instantly. Apparently, her soul was infused with the essence of Abbie's soul after death.
Meanwhile, Ichabod discovered the face of the new Witness through a dream of the Archives induced by a Tibetan Singing Bowl. It linked him subconsciously to Molly for a short period of time. When he saw a photo of her on Diana's phone, he put two and two together. It was at her school when he encountered her for the first time, neither of them noticing anything but each other, and instantly restored her ability to talk. She was then able to save Ichabod's life since she was the only one who could reverse the effects of the Despair Creature, telling him he was a bringer of hope and he should never give up on hope. Because she was his anchor, she was successful in bringing Crane back, unknowingly using Abbie's last words to save him. Molly turned 11 in Loco Parentis which, according to Washington's Bible, was the age a Witness was to assume the mantle.
By series end, there was the arrival of Molly's future counterpart, Lara. She had traveled into the past from the future the Witnesses were trying to prevent, and worked to aide to prevent Malcolm Dreyfuss from achieving his goals. Lara turned out to be a future version of Molly, who once admired Dreyfuss, and saw him as a father after the supposed death of Diana, whose fate she was kept ignorant of. When Ichabod then became the Horseman of War, she managed to use a decoupling spell created by Katrina Crane to separate him from the Avatar of War. As she was trying to make him remember who and what he was, she succeeded in freeing Crane as he separated his soul from the Avatar of War. After battling against the horsemen and confronting Malcolm one last time. Since Lara was a future version of Molly, the Witness' mantle had been passed onto Lara without Molly dying. Molly had the freedom to choose whether or not she wanted to pursue the supernatural, but Molly's decision about facing the supernatural was never addressed.
At series end, the Witnesses were Ichabod Crane and Lara Thomas.
Trivia[]
- The witnesses are said to be drawn to one another.[3]
- Though they don’t seem to possess magical powers, Witnesses are capable of having prophetic dreams.[4]
- According to the rogue angel Orion, Witnesses are meant to do just as their name says; Ichabod took the initiative of interpretation that they are meant to stop the Tribulations.
- Considering the first three Tribulations all sought to end the current world and rule their own replacement versions (Moloch wanted to turn Earth into a hellish place, Hidden One sought to wipe out humans, and Dreyfuss sought to take over America), they would have eventually clashed with each other.
- If it wasn't for Henry killing Moloch, Pandora wouldn't have been able to obtain the seven fears to open the path to bring the Hidden One back, nor give Dreyfuss the time to find the Philosopher's Stone.
- Considering the first three Tribulations all sought to end the current world and rule their own replacement versions (Moloch wanted to turn Earth into a hellish place, Hidden One sought to wipe out humans, and Dreyfuss sought to take over America), they would have eventually clashed with each other.
- There must always be two Witnesses active at any given point.[2]
- As a soul of a Witness is eternal, once they die, the essence of their soul moves on to the next Witness.[2] For example, upon Abbie Mills's death, the essence of her soul moved on to the next chosen Witness which is someone from their extended bloodline, Molly Thomas.[5]
- It's unknown why this happened, rather than an immediate relative like Jenny becoming the next Witness after Abby died.
- Upon possession by the eternal soul, the new Witness is apparently affected oddly if the last Witness died unnaturally; Abbie was killed to restore Pandora's Box, and Molly was rendered unable to speak until she met Crane, the other Witness. Molly herself was very confused, as she wasn't silent by her own will.
- When a Witness reaches the age of 11, they are granted the responsibility and power of a Witness.[1]
- Like other humans, Witnesses may be made into Horsemen. The creation of a Horseman from a Witness does not trigger the calling of the next Witness.[6]
- Only two Witnesses can exist at any one time. When Lara, a future version of Molly, traveled through time, she carried her mantle as a Witness, making Molly the first Witness who had their mantle passed onto another person without dying.[7]
Appearances[]
| Bones: Season Eleven | ||||
| "The Resurrection in the Remains" | ||||
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Loco Parentis"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Ragnarok"
- ↑ "Pilot"
- ↑ "The Kindred (episode)"
- ↑ "In Plain Sight"
- ↑ "The Way of the Gun"
- ↑ "Freedom"