A helicopter takes Helen to an isolated cabin. She knocks at the door and Malcolm lets her in. He says that he's been working and she asks why he closed the company. When Helen says that rumor has it that Malcolm has lost it, Malcolm tells her that he's been consumed by clarity and has more important concerns. He says that he's planning a rollout and that he invited Helen there because he wants her to work for him. Malcolm tells Helen that he needs hosts but not the way that she thinks, and admires her hunger for power. Helen offers to sign a NDA, and Malcolm tells her that it isn’t necessary. He goes to a door leading to a dark room and tells Jobe that Helen is interested in the positon that he's offering, and Helen is pulled into the room. The door slams and she screams.
Ichabod is hosting a housewarming party for his apartment Jenny is there and congratulates Ichabod on the turnout, and he admits that he didn't expect so many neighbors to attend. She points out that he never had a party in Sleepy Hollow and figures that things are working out for him in DC Ichabod admits that he's satisfied with his work in the Vault and team is doing well, and DC is becoming his home. He asks if Jenny is putting down roots, and she admits that after she trains the new Witness, she doesn't know what her future holds. Ichabod suggests that she move in nearby, and Jenny warns that she's not the housewarming type.
Jake and Alex start to leave the party, and Jake says that he's going to a horror movie with his girlfriend Missy. Missy hugs him and then Alex, They invite her to come to the movie with them, but Alex says that she has plans. She goes over to Jenny and they both watch Jake and Missy dance.
Diana meets with her mentor, the DOJ secretary Nancy Stryker, and apologizes for falling behind on her quota. She says that she needs to locate Malcolm, who has recently transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to offshore accounts and gone off the grid; Diana believes that she's behind recent activities like the defacement of the Lincoln Memorial. Nancy warns that the evidence is thin and figures that it's a personal crusade. She tells Diana that she'll need more before she can help and leaves for a meeting.
Jobe goes through an x-ray scanner at the Eisenhower Building and it momentarily shows him as a demon. When the guard looks back, the image is normal. On the other side he collects his case from security and continues on to the statue of Justice, holding her golden scales. Jobe then goes to the basement, removes a puzzle box from the case, and unlocks it. It glows red and Jobe sets it on the floor It levitates in the air, twists itself on its own, and opens to reveal a demon. Jobe tells it that it must be famished and to have at it, and it leaves through the air vent.
Two staffers are having lunch in the building. In the vent, the demon stares at one of them, Larry, and the man suddenly starts eating everything in front of him. He grabs the other man's plate and eats all of his food. He eats the tablecloth and snarls at the other man when he tries to intervene. The man runs off to get help and Larry convulses and falls onto his plate... his body desiccated by hunger.
Diana soon gets an incident report and goes to the Vault. She tells the others what happened, and that the coroner's report shows that he died of malnutrition. They figure that the source is supernatural and Ichabod figures that it's a curse. Diana believes that Malcolm is the source and they should take him down, but Ichabod points out that they have no idea where he is. The agent insists that she will use every resource she has to find Malcolm and asks for their help, They agree, but Ichabod warns that Malcolm's attempt on Molly has Diana concerned. He promises to help her but says that they have to deal with the immediate crisis first. After a moment, Diana agrees to do it their way, and Jenny knows of a man who has a book with information on hunger demons. Ichabod and Diana will check out the crime scene and search for clues about the location of the demon and Malcolm. However, Diana privately tells Jake and Alex to stay on Malcolm and follow up the leads that she has.
Jenny goes to a shop owned by Donnie Wu and they hug. He explains that his uncle is in a high-stakes poker game out of town, and he's been working at the shop because Chinese herbology is popular. Jenny asks the book and Donnie brings up the inventory. An artifact is listed and Donnie explains that someone is looking for it. He figures that Jenny is out of the game and wouldn't be interested, and she insists that she's been busy but isn't out Donnie tells her that she's one of the greats and Jenny says that she'll think about it. He then goes to get the book.
At the Eisenhower Building, a tour guide shows a class the statue of Justice and explains that the scales are always balanced. One of the students points out that the scales on the statue are uneven. Ichabod and Diana arrive and they spot security guards running off. They follow them to where Nancy is chewing on a man that she's killed. Diana stares in shock at her mentor, now consumed with hunger. Nancy stands up and a guard shoots her dead. Ichabod glances up at the vent and sees the hunger demon's glowing red eye.
The scales of Justice glow.
As the EMTs take away Nancy and the mans he killed, Jenny joins Ichabod and Diana, and Diana promises that Malcolm will pay for killing Nancy as well as the others. Jenny shows them the book, and Diana figures that the demon was released recently and Malcolm may have left a trail. They check the security footage and see Jobe coming in. They check the utility schematics and discover that the central hub gives access to the entire building. Jenny recognizes the box Jobe is carrying as a Chinese puzzle box. The box's configuration can capture, hold, and release hunger demons. Ichabod remembers seeing a British officer, Edward Reed, using such a box when Ichabod was still a British officer himself. He and Reed were sent on a raid to recapture a supply room captured by the Colonists. Reed acquired the box and decides to take it home to his child, assuming that it's a plaything. When Ichabod returned later, he was told that Reed and his men died of starvation. Ichabod figures that Reed summoned the hunger demon, and Jenny figures if they find the box then they can capture the demon.
Jake and Alex track Malcolm's assistant Ashley to a street vendor, and Alex points out that Jake will miss his date with Missy. He talks about how they have a lot in common, and Alex warns him that people with too much in common never work out. Jake points out that Alex said the opposite when he was crushing on Jenny, but Alex spots Ashley and sends Jake over with an illegal Bluetooth scanner to clone Ashley's sim card and track any calls Malcolm makes to her. She sarcastically tells Jake that his puppy-dog charm won't work, and he points out that she complimented her by saying that he has charm. Jake gets close enough to Ashley for Alex to clone the card, and she mutters to himself that Jake isn't charming.
Ichabod, Diana, and Jenny go to the basement and split up to search for the box. When Ichabod finds it, he calls over the others and Diana searches the area for the demon. Ichabod starts working the box and makes a mess of it. Jenny takes over and easily solves it, the characters glowing red.
As Diana finds the air vent, Jake calls her and says that they're scanning for common IP addresses. The demon drops out of the vent and runs off, and it brushes past Jenny. Diana shoots it and it falls onto the puzzle box, smashing it. It runs outside and by the time they go out after it, the demon has disappeared.
Jobe reports to Malcolm about what he did. They find the Horseman's body in the ruins that they're exploring, still wounded from when Ichabod shot it over the Philosopher's Stone. The Horseman manages to raise his axe but then collapses, and Malcolm apologizes for the disservice the Horseman has been dealt. Malcolm promises to restore the Horseman as he promised, picks up the axe, and says that he's putting the gang back together.
At the Vault, Ichabod confronts Diana over the fact that she used Jake and Alex to find Malcolm. He says that she chose not to tell them all what she was planning, and warns that the integrity of their team is at risk. Diana reluctantly agrees and Jake says that he found a reference in the secret histories to the Donner party. One of the party leaders was James Reed, a direct descendant of Edward Reed, and Ichabod figures that he brought the box with him. The descendant survived and wrote an account of how the Donner survivors made their way out and brought the hunger demon with them. They took refuge in a cave system just outside the town of Sutter's Mill, and James lured the demon into the caves. The survivors blew up the cave entrance and dug James out, but the hunger demon was never found. The explosion revealed a vein of gold that was mined and provided for the survivors' recovery. Jake points out that the survivors kicked off the Gold Rush, and Ichabod notes that the characters on the teakwood puzzle boxes were made out of gold. They figure that gold is the demon's weakness, and Jenny says that she can find enough gold. Alex can make a 3-D replica of the box, letting it lure the demon to them, while Jake researches the symbology. Jenny warns that they'll have to mine the gold themselves.
Later, Jenny takes the team to a junkyard and explains that cars are filled with trace amounts of gold. Diana points out that the demon fights hand-to-hand when it's cornered so they should set that up. Alex has built sprayers and a solution that they can spray the demon with if they find any gold. The team splits up to scavenge for gold, and Diana tells Ichabod that it's a good plan. He points out that they made it as a group, and thanks Diana and Molly for accepting him into their lives. Diana says that he's given their lives a sense of purpose.
Jake and Alex prepare the puzzle box and as night falls, Jenny sets the proper configuration. The characters glow and a few minutes later, the hunger demon approaches the box. Diana starts up a car and slams the surrounding cars together in a circle. Ichabod steps out and tells the demon that it's encircled in a ring of gold, and shoots it with a gold-tipped crossbow bolt. Diana shoots it but the bullets have no effect. She kicks it into the surrounding cars and Jenny smashes more cars into it with a forklift, pinning it in place. Jake and Alex inject it with the gold solution, and the demon explodes.
Later, Ichabod, Diana, and Jenny return to the Eisenhower building to discover what Malcolm was really after. Diana goes off to search on her own, and Ichabod tells Jenny that they're a formidable troupe. Jenny tells Ichabod that she's okay with her trailer, and Ichabod says that he considers her family. She tells him not to say anything weird, and he says her that she has more of a home than she knows. Jenny tells him that she was offered an out-of-town job doing what she loves, and she didn't say know. However, she's considering it because it would be her own thing.
Before Ichabod can respond, Diana calls them over to the statue of Justice. She remembers seeing Jobe pause at the statue on the security footage, and the golden scales are gone. They head back to the Vault to figure out what Malcolm is planning.
Jobe takes the scales to the forest where Malcolm is waiting. The demon hands them over and says that they are imbued with hunger, Malcolm goes to the nearby bodies of his team: Lucas, representing Pestilence; Helen, representing Hunger. There are two more spaces left, and Malcolm hopes that the Horseman will serve as Death. Jobe says that the condition for the Horseman's recovery will be attended to immediately, leaving War.
At the Vault, Ichabod realizes that Malcolm has spread pestilence and then famine. He figures that Malcolm seeks to raise the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse... and they're the only ones who can stop him.
Written by Gadfly on Mar 13, 2017