Tonight’s new Sleepy Hollow episode, “Vessel”: a French demon revealed, a new tape from the Sheriff Corbin archives, modern exorcism tropes, dry cleaning, the word “boondoggle”, and the one moment that Ichabod Crane ‘shippers never thought they’d live to see.

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 the Mills sisters’ childhood: after their initial run-in with the white demon Moloch all those years ago, li’l Jenny found herself haunted by an inner voice, occasional blackouts, and allegations of pranks and crimes she had no memory of committing. With time and experience she began to recognize the signals and, whenever she felt another bout of possession approaching — rather than risk harm to li’l Abbie — she would proactively get herself in trouble and locked up. Shocking but true. She never told anyone because they’d think her insane, and in some circles it’s better to be thought a thug than a madwoman.

The perpetrator: not Moloch itself as we previously assumed, but a demon leader in his armies named Ancitif. Unlike the Ro’kenhryontyes, the name of Ancitif existed before Sleepy Hollow, as a demon of interest in an alleged real-life possession case in a 17th-century French convent. Thus has Ancitif leaped from the footnotes of shadowy European history into the limelight of modern television.

Seven years ago, Anticif once again took Jenny’s body (now age 19) for a spin and got them both captured while trying to break into the secret cabin of none other than Sheriff Corbin himself, thus giving Clancy Brown an excuse to return once more, albeit via shaky-cam self-recording instead of as a resurrected super-sheriff, which remains my long-term hope. Corbin kept her tied to a chair for a while, tried not to panic when she and the chair flew around the room, kept her encircled with salt on the floor (Anticif’s one weakness — because every good villain has one), and eventually purged Ancitif from her body with some effort. From there, their secret mentor/gofer relationship blossomed ever after until Jenny’s re-incarceration and Corbin’s murder in the pilot.

Fast-forward to today: Ancitif is back, and has been plaguing Our Heroes for the last few episodes. Last time around, it used a hot dog vendor to threaten Captain Irving’s family and escaped Irving’s wrath by retreating inside a convenient older lady. Both the vendor and the lady are called in for questioning, with unproductive results…for Irving, anyway. For Ancitif it’s a field day as he skips from the lady to a random deputy to Detective Jones (Michael Roark), the partner of Abbie’s ex-boyfriend Detective Morales (Nicholas Gonzalez). It’s not long before Ancitif upgrades to Morales himself.

Ancitif leaves his ultimatum for Irving written on the ceiling at Police HQ in dripping, disappearing blood: Ancitif wants George Washington’s Bible, which was buried with Crane during his 250-year suspended-animation stint, or else Irving’s family gets it. Irving, his attorney ex-wife Cynthia (Jill Marie Jones), his wheelchair-bound daughter Macey (Amandla Stenberg), Morales, Jones, and Irving’s local priest (David Fonteno, who usually plays judges) steal away to a safe house, but Ancitif’s along for the ride. Another hop and a skip…and it’s inside Macey, indulging in multiple creepy jump-scares and for some reason giving her a cat’s nose.

Meanwhile over in happy-go-lucky WillTheyWontThey-Land, Abbie has convinced Crane to try 21st-century clothing for a minute or two. A simple oxford shirt and tight-fitting jeans last all of a minute before Crane’s had enough and retreats back to his same old outfit, in desperate need of dry cleaning by Abbie’s estimation. When Irving calls them about the Bible, their research through Corbin’s old files uncovers the recording of Jenny’s exorcism, though they wait till they have her consent first. She reluctantly allows it, then tries to escape the episode rather than face her demon. And yet…won’t someone think of Macey?

Reviewing the tape one more time, Abbie takes a nod from old heavy-metal critics and tries playing Jenny’s growly utterances backwards. Sure enough: Ancitif spoke through her in backwards Aramaic for reasons known only to demons. Crane recognizes a few snippets (I’m guessing he knows just enough words and phrases should he ever find himself on an Aramaic vacation), hits the right books, and IDs the perp as Ancitif. Fortunately he knows a secret weapon that works wonders against possession: French magic lanterns!

Crane explains Benjamin Franklin ordered several from France back in the day to be used in the Revolution if and when the enemy marshaled dark forces against the Revolutionaries. In this universe, our Founding Fathers had to prepare for all contingencies. As luck would have it, Jenny knows where to get one: she used to hang out with a right-wing militia that had one gathering dust in an artifact storeroom. And everyone knows militias are excellent hoarders. They’re not prone to lending their wares to strangers, and trying to charm them with equal admiration for Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” gets Crane nowhere (not exactly as smooth a charmer with the fellas as he is with the ladies), but Jenny negotiates with their leader, a guy she knows named Chase Weaver (Craig Stark), by taking the high ground and surprising them all with bigger guns. Thus is the lantern duly loaned.

Meanwhile back at the quote-unquote “safe” house, Ancitif has used Morales to kill Detective Jones and Macey to kill poor Father Not-Gregory-Peck. Demon Macey forces Irving and Cynthia to take her/it/them to the underground office where Corbin’s files are kept, but the Bible drawer is empty. Just when the day is at its darkest, Macey is at her grossest-looking, and Cynthia is taking her first exposure to the spookity side of Irving’s job rather poorly, Our Heroes arrive at last with one lantern and plenty of salt for drawing mystic traps around misbehaving demons. Jenny faces down her demon, Our Heroes extract Ancitif using the lantern like a Ghostbusters ghost trap, Crane shouts a made-up Bible verse at top volume, and the day is saved. Abbie and Jenny share the longest, teariest hug they’ve probably given each other since childhood. At last they’ve achieved closure on that childhood trauma, except for the part where Moloch’s still out there somewhere planning Armageddon.

Later, after the Irving family has presumably gone home to recuperate and make pancakes or whatever, Crane keeps coming back to the recurring message that his wife Katrina and others keep emphasizing: that Washington’s Bible contains the answers to all their troubles. Putting his knowledge of eighteenth-century espionage tactics to use, Crane whips up a solution whose main ingredient is glow-worm, genus Lampyris. (Available now at your local arts-‘n’crafts store! Be sure to ask Mom or Dad for permission before you borrow their mortar and pestle!)

Crane brushes a thin layer of glow-worm juice across the first page of Revelations I in Washington’s Bible and reveals a single image: the date “December 18th, 1799” written in Washington’s own handwriting. Fun trivia: Washington passed away December 14th, 1799.

Our homework for next week: guess the signfigance of this vital scribble. Was there an appointment he needed someone else to keep? Was he trying to guess his date of death in advance? Did Washington write down this date before or after he died? If you trick Moloch into saying “December 18th, 1799” backwards in Aramaic, does he disappear and return to his home dimension?

Whatever the answer, I hope Crane had the decency either to clean the gunk off that antique Bible page when he was finished, or at least waited until it dried before slamming it shut and getting the pages stuck together.

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”
11/18/2013: “Necromancer”
11/25/2013: “Sanctuary”
12/9/2013: “The Golem“