On tonight’s new Sleepy Hollow episode, “Necromancer”: he’s more than a Horseman, yet subservient to the demon Moloch. You’d think him eternal, and yet he bears quasi-mortal form. It’s the story we’ve been waiting for: who is Death and why is he doing these terrible things?

For those who missed out, my attempt to streamline the basic events follows after this courtesy spoiler alert for the sake of time-shifted viewers.

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Flashback to not long after our man Ichabod Crane defected from the King’s side upon the murder of the activist Arthur “Cicero” Bernard. Crane rides to deliver the Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress (short version: precursor to the Declaration) alongside his good friend Abraham Van Brunt (British TV actor Neil Jackson), whom literature fans will recall as Crane’s boastful arch-rival in Washington Irving’s original “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. His “Brom Bones” nickname is missing here, but he’s no less off-putting. The upper-class, egotistical Van Brunt is stinging because his now-ex-fianceé, Katrina Van Tassel, rejected his proposal of arranged marriage on the grounds that she’s in love with another. And if you saw the November 4th episode with the whole “Cicero” flashback, you know who her new crush is. His name rhymes with Bichabod Brane.

Van Brunt decides that right now during this vital mission is the perfect time for a grudge duel with Crane, despite his protestations that he did not actively solicit her affections, nor is he interested in fighting for them. And yet, fight they must, for Van Brunt’s kind of an idiot when his heart is broken. Before Van Brunt can take his petty revenge and deliver a killing blow, incoming masked Hessians kill him first. Crane flees with Declaration 1.0 clutched against his breast for the sake of our budding nation, but he has to abandon his friend to do so.

Once he’s gone, the Hessians shave Van Brunt’s head, change his clothes, add a head tattoo and some quick branding, presumably weave some dark magic, and presto. Death, the Horseman, walks this mortal coil.

Fast-forward to the present: Crane, “Leftenant” Abbie, and Cool Captain Irving have Death in chains. In addition to his cell and heavy shackles, all designed by a forward-thinking Thomas Jefferson, Death is also held in check by manmade UV rays (i.e., sunlight, his major weakness) and Masonic hex candles (i.e., magic props). With Death on lockdown, Crane decides it’s time for a little interrogation. He struggles to maintain control and at one point finds himself yelling directly into Death’s gross-out neck stump. It doesn’t help that Crane is mildly annoyed with this week’s modern vocabulary lessons, which include “losing your cool”, “got game”, and fist bumps. (Favorite moment in the episode: when Abbie lets a common abbreviation slip, Crane glares and admonishes her: “ACRONYMS.” Abbie rephrases.)

The undead Andy Brooks (still John Cho!) is brought in as Death’s “necromancer”, which is reduced here to mean merely “ventriloquist dummy”, regardless of how ridiculously untrustworthy he was in the first two episodes. Alas, Abbie and Crane have no choice. Death has no mouth, and is probably too evil for sign language.

Meanwhile, Death’s pale horse, not merely content to wander around in search of grass, recruits a Hessian sleeper agent to come to their mutual master’s aid. Death can be freed if they neutralize the two most binding forces. Their two-prong plan:

1. Knock out the entire Sleepy Hollow power grid, thus rendering all those UV bulbs useless.

2. Retrieve an artifact called the Thracian Phiale. The internet says it’s a shallow bowl and the world has many of them. The show says it’s a unique item that can cast Dispel Magic. Its negation can extend to other items such as, say, Masonic hex candles.

With Crane and Abbie busy hanging out with Death, Irving invites Abbie’s sister Jenny along for the ride to his two side quests, now that she’s released from Tarrytown Psychiatric. Either her sentence was nearly up before the series began, or someone on the team is a master of bureaucratic negotiation. Unfortunately, winning a gunfight at the power grid — and, in one alarming moment, taking out an opponent Man of Steel style — gains them naught, as a cell phone trigger detonates planted explosives and brings on the blackout. Side quest #2 takes them to Jenny’s former workplace at Adams Antiquities, for whom she once acted as a unique-item retrieval specialist like Indiana Jones. Once again they fail — the shopkeeper is wounded and Death’s teammates have absconded with the Phiale. Side quest results: 0% completion. No bonus points awarded.

Meanwhile, facts gleaned from the interrogation:

1. Death sure likes to boast.
2. Surprise! He’s Van Brunt! Though this revelation devastates Crane, Van Brunt’s status as a newly introduced character dilutes the dramatic impact.
3. Van Brunt/the Horseman/Death is indeed not in charge, but is instead taking orders from Moloch, who wants all Four Horsemen for his collection so he can have his precious apocalypse.
4. If Death complies with all orders, his reward is Katrina.
5. By prioritizing his revenge on Crane, Death is disobeying direct orders.

Once the plot is moved forward as much as Death deems necessary, Brooks naturally ruins everything as he extracts the Phiale from a magical slit in his stomach that functions like an icky kangaroo pouch. Soon the candles are nullified and Brooks calls for demon backup. A small horde descend on Our Heroes’ underground lair, but a single bullet shatters each demon no matter where it hits. Death yanks free of his chains, succumbs to his thirst for revenge, and lunges for Crane. His flagrant disobedience of Moloch’s orders is nipped in the bud when the demons converge on the room and teleport all non-humans out of the episode.

In the conversational epilogue, Crane begins to unspool the predictable speech about how all of this is his fault, and Death is back on Earth only because he stabbed his best friend in the back, and he’s not even supposed to be here today, and so on. Abbie calls that arrogance and chats some sense into him.

They quickly agree on where things presently stand: Katrina is their new MacGuffin.

To be continued!

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If you missed a previous episode of Sleepy Hollow, the last few episodes can be watched online at Fox’s official site, or MCC recaps are listed below for handy reference. Enjoy!

9/16/2013: “Pilot”
9/23/2013: “Blood Moon”
9/30/2013: “For the Triumph of Evil”
10/7/2013: “The Lesser Key of Solomon”
10/14/2013: “John Doe”
11/4/2013: “The Sin-Eater”
11/11/2013: “The Midnight Ride“