Ichabod is cleaning up Abbie’s house where he’s staying and comes across Abbie’s underthings in the laundry basket. When she comes in, he quickly hands them over and explains that he’s cleaning up as payment for her offering her place for him to stay until he gets his own house. The smoke detector goes off when he burns the meal and they agree to get takeout.
At the ruined church, Pandora observes her growing tree and encourages it to grow, saying it will soon have the fear it needs to grow. She then goes to her box and opens it, and black essence pours from it. She walks out and the essence follows her into the forest.
Pandora goes to the Tarrytown train station where a man, Paul Everett, is calling the FBI. He asks to speak to an agent, while Pandora listens and tells the shadow essence that Paul hassecret and is terrified that it will be discovered. She tells the shadow to take its time and make him squirm. The shadow manifests as a woman and confronts Paul, and visions of what he knows flash through his head. The creature spears him through the chest and Paul collapses, dead.
As they eat takeout, Abbie talks about how Granger’s replacement will soon be in town. She talks about how she wants to continue building a life for herself, balancing her life between being a Witness and an FBI agent. Dispatch calls to tell Abbie that they have a death reported at the train station. Abbie and Ichabod go there and the officer on the scene tells them that Paul Everett was an accountant for the county comptroller. Paul apparently died of a heart attack, and Ichabod notes that he was terrified. FBI agent Daniel Reynolds comes in and Abbie knows him. Daniel explains that he’s Granger’s replacement. Ichabod introduces himself and explains that he works as a historical consultant, and says that he was at home with Abbie having dinner when she got the call. Daniel assumes that there’s together, and Abbie tells Ichabod to head home. He takes the hint and leaves, and Daniel apologizes that he didn’t have time to call and give her a heads up. They talk about how Abbie left Sleepy Hollow and how she made peace with what happened, and the two of them say goodbye.
As Ichabod goes outside, he notices the façade across the street and turns to find Pandora behind him. She walks away and Abbie comes out, and tells Ichabod that Paul called the FBI with something just as he died. Ichabod says that they may be facing a new supernatural threat made out of a shadow. As they go to the archive, Abbie worries that Daniel is her new boss. She says that he helped her get through the academy by pushing her, and Ichabod says that he sensed something between them. Abbie lightly tells him to mind his business, and Ichabod tells her that he’s applied to have the archive declared a historical landmark so it isn’t torn down. Abbie brings up the message Paul left and analyzes the background noise. She filters out the background noise and hears Paul talking to a woman, who says that Williams is right. Paul wants to go public with what they know. There’s another whispering voice in the background, talking about secrets and killing for them.
Ichabod checks Grace Dixon’s journal and finds a reference to the commanding British officer, General Howe, during the Revolutionary War summoned a whispering wraith to root out colonial spies. It was bonded to a human host, Marcus Collins, and Ichabod knows Marcus as a traitor. Once possessed, Howe sent him out to kill the American spies who had taken Howe’s battle plans. Washington lost confidence in Marcus and spent Ichabod to a ball at Howe’s home to obtain the plans.
At Howe’s home, Ichabod makes contact with Washington’s spymaster: Betsy. He talks to her privately as they dance, and assures her that neither one of them will be there long enough for him to be recognized. Ichabod warns Betsy that Marcus is a traitor and has blown her cover, and Betsy says that she has to warn her two fellow conspirators. Howe sees Ichabod, who tells Betsy that they met once years ago. She goes over and tries to distract the general, flirting with him.
Later, Betsy arrives wearing Howe’s jacket. She assures Ichabod that she didn’t handle Howe “like that,” and goes to get the other two spies. Betsy finds them dead in the stables, and the wraith appears in the shadows. She mistakes it for Marcus and calls him out, while the British approach. Ichabod pulls up in a carriage and tells Betsy to jump aboard before she can confront the wraith. In the stables, the possessed Marcus watches them go.
Abbie and Ichabod figure that the wraith is rooting out people with secrets, and they determine that a Richard Williams worked with Paul... and may be the wraith’s next victim.
Joe Corbin calls Jenny at the bar, as she is examining a black rock. He calls her to her trailer and shows her how someone tore the place apart. He says that he was delivering something from his father’s cabin and saw the mess. Joe figures whoever broke in was looking for something specific, and realizes that Jenny is holding something back. Jenny insists that she isn’t involved in everything, and Joe complains that Jenny, Abbie, and Corbin never let him in on what they were doing. He figures that his father was on a mission, and was killed before he could explain what it was. Jenny says that she’ll call around , and tells Joe that Corbin didn’t want him to follow in his footsteps. Corbin would have been proud that Joe parlayed his Marine medical training into a job as an EMT. Jenny promises to tell him if she finds out anything and leaves. As Joe leaves, someone watches him from the forest.
Abbie and Ichabod go to Robert’s home but no one answers the door. The wraith forms on the lawn while Richard looks out from the window. Abbie fires at the creature but ignores the bullets, and Ichabod has a vision of Howe interrogating him while Abbie relives taking photographs of a man. Richard drives off and the wraith goes after him, and the two Witnesses pursue. The wraith appears in the back of Richard’s car and he panics, crashing his car.
After securing the crime scene, Abbie confirms that neither Paul nor Richard had any priors. She checks Richard’s house while Ichabod returns to the archive to find a way to stop the wraith. Inside the house, Abbie finds a hidden floor compartment holding receipts. Daniel comes in and points out that there’s no pattern in the deaths between Richard and Paul. He says that he doesn’t want things to change between them despite what they had at the academy. Abbie assures him that they’ll figure it out, and Daniel tells her to go for whatever lead she’s on.
As Joe goes to his car in a parking garage, a man pulls up behind him and revs his engine. The man says that he needs Joe to take a ride with him, and slams his car door into him. He then loads the unconscious Joe in his trunk.
Back at the archive, Abbie goes through the receipts and tells Ichabod that Richard and Paul discovered that the city comptroller, Arthur Weissman, was embezzling from the county employees’ pension plans. They figure the wraith is trying to hide a secret and kill the heroic individuals trying to reveal it, just like it did for Howe in Colonial times. Ichabod admits for the first time that he was captured and taken to Howe. Howe offered him a pardon if he named Washington’s spies, and Ichabod considered it before escaping. When Ichabod asks if she felt anything, Abbie avoids the question and says that secretary Susan James helped Richard and Paul get the evidence against Weissman. They wonder if Weissman conjured the wraith but decide to focus on saving Susan... and themselves as the wraith will come after them since they know the secret.
Pandora summons the wraith again.
Abbie and Ichabod take Susan to an empty warehouse where Ichabod is setting up fluorescent lights to keep the place fully illuminated.
The man, Randall, takes Joe out into the woods and ties him up. Jenny arrives and recognizes Randall. He says that he’s been hired by an interested party looking for the Shard of Anubis, and he figures Jenny got it for Corbin. If Jenny hands the Shard over then she and Joe can walk. She kicks him in the leg and attacks him, and he threatens Joe. Jenny agrees to hand over the Shard--the black stone--and Randalldrives away. As Jenny unties Joe, he asks what is going on. She refuses to answer his questions and say that they should just go back to their lives.
Ichabod admits that he doesn’t have the necessary mystic weaponry to dispel the wraith. He figures that as long as the lights are on, the wraith can’t draw power from the shadows. As Susan says that she wants to be done with keeping her secret, the lights flicker. Ichabod goes to check the line and the wraith blows out the fuse box. It attacks him and Ichabod relives his near-confession to Howe. He grabs a metal pipe and fends the wraith off, and Abbie tosses flash-bangs at the creature to hold it at bay. Ichabod warns that they can’t hold it off forever, and Abbie reminds him that it never came after Betsy. He remembers her yelling Marcus’ name, and they realize that using the wraith’s true name can force its retreat.
Realizing the secret, Ichabod steps out and calls Marcus by name. it flinches and Ichabod reminds it that it betrayed its fellow Americans when Ichabod refused after facing the same choice. Marcus turns solid and attacks Ichabod, and Abbie attacks it long enough for Ichabod to impale it with the pipe.
Later at Abbie’s house, Ichabod worries about how he considered betraying his fellow spies. Abbie assures him that only makes him human and reminds him that he didn’t. When Ichabod says that he feels relieved having given up his burden, Abbie says that she tracked down her father and found him in Saratoga. However, she has never been able to confront him. Ichabod tells her that she’s taken the first step... by telling him.
After Weissman is arrested based on Susan’s testimony, Daniel congratulates Abbie. She’s surprised that he took a chief’s job in a relatively small town, and Daniel says that he plans to build on that and go large. He wonders what Abbie has planned, and she says that she has responsibilities. Daniel figures that they can help each other get what they both want, and figures that Abbie still wants to move onto something bigger.
Joe visits Jenny and asks for an explanation. She warns him that he can’t go back once he comes in, but he wants to pick up where his father left off. Joe suggests that they go after the Shard and Jenny considers the offer.
Zoe Corinth with the historical assessment society arrives at city hall to take a look at the archive. She concedes that it’s an amazing building, but points out that Ichabod is a British citizen. The state won’t release funds unless he becomes a citizen or is granted immigrant status. Ichabod notices a closed coffee shop in the building and tells Zoe that she’ll hear from him soon.
Later, Ichabod tells Abbie that he saw Pandora that day with coffee, even though the coffee shop was closed. They bring up the footage of Paul’s death and see Pandora talking briefly with Paul. Abbie recognizes her from the bar and they suspect she may be the legendary Pandora... and wonder what evils her box may contain
At the church, Pandora pours the water on the tree and it sprouts dark flowers while growing ever larger.
Written by Gadfly on Oct 10, 2015