Sleepy Hollow recap: Novus Ordo Seclorum

“Witness to the Apocalypse” is right up there with “double agent for the CIA” on the list of TV careers that are best kept secret from loved ones. The more people know, the more they’re in danger — and the higher the chance that the truth will get out to someone who can’t be trusted. But there always comes a time when what people don’t know can hurt them as badly as what they do, and that time usually coincides with the fall finale.

Abbie can’t go on keeping her life as a Witness separate from her life with the FBI. That possibility went out the window when Jenny unintentionally interfered with Reynolds’ operation. Now, their very supernatural quest is Abbie’s boss’ business. Should she tell him? On the one hand, the explanation would take time Abbie doesn’t have, and there’s always the chance that he’s not to be trusted. Then again, some backup from the Bureau wouldn’t hurt Team Witness’ odds in this fight — if winning a fight against a god is even a possibility.

That’s right; the training wheels are off! Abbie and Crane are up against their first honest-to-god god, and he’s a vengeful one. (R.I.P. to his “Ghost of Christmas Future from The Muppet Christmas Carol” look, which I was hoping he’d keep forever.) Pandora brings The Hidden One, who also happens to be her husband, back from the underworld, but he’s going to need a lot of rejuvenation if he expects to Apocalypse and Chill with someone as attractive as her. He pulls strength from his “all-seeing eye,” the Shard, which is both good and bad for Jenny: It will eventually kill her, but for now, at least they’ve got a reason to keep her alive.

Abbie, Crane, and Joe identify The Hidden One’s “all-seeing eye” from a drawing Jenny left on the wall, which is totally different from how I identified it: by treating National Treasure as fact. It’s the same eye that can be found on American currency, placed there at the insistence of Crane’s favorite Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin. Crane braves a toga party to recover Franklin’s writing on the Eye of Providence, but it was Paul Revere who had first-hand experience with its powers. Revere’s nephew accidentally absorbed the Eye when he volunteered to help deliver it to George Washington. Even after its energy blew up the boy, the Eye remained intact.

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But Revere had a staff that could hold the Eye (“like an Eye magnet,” Joe points out. His commentary is the single greatest argument in favor of letting more civilians in on the truth about Team Witness). Revere melted down the staff and forged it into the nondescript, “rock in your front yard where you hide your spare key” sphere that Jenny had in her possession. Pandora didn’t come after Jenny sooner because the sphere also acts as a kind of cloak to prevent the Eye from being detected — which makes it the key not only to saving Jenny, but to stopping Pandora.

It’s easy enough for Abbie to recover the sphere from Nevins’ possessions, but Reynolds needs more information from her than she’s willing to give. She can’t say where Jenny is or what she wanted with Nevins, and she definitely can’t explain why Nevins was only willing to talk to her after they took him into custody — or that it was Pandora who killed him before he got the chance to talk. Reynolds wants answers. He knows that Abbie pulled surveillance and sent Crane in to investigate last week. It’s time for Abbie to either trust him or take the consequences, so she takes them on her terms and hands over her badge and her gun.

NEXT: Battle of the Box

This isn’t it for Abbie’s career at the FBI, right? Reynolds and I both hope that it’s not; he refuses to process her resignation until she calls him back. But she did take explosives from the Bureau, so he also sends Sophie to track her down, just in case. I hope Sophie is ready for what she finds. Tactical gear and spell books in tow, Team Witness makes its way to Pandora’s lair, where The Hidden One is feasting on energy from Jenny and looking younger by the minute. Once he’s at full strength, the married baddies can get down to the business of “cleansing” the earth. Jenny “I hope you choke on it” Mills does not approve.

Neither do her friends. The Witnesses get past Pandora (a gun doesn’t work, but a Taser does?), and Abbie uses the sphere to pull the Eye’s energy out of Jenny. Before she can finish, The Hidden One knocks her aside and breaks the sphere. As Crane and Pandora battle over who can summon her Box first, Joe distracts The Hidden One, and Abbie gathers the pieces of the sphere to finish separating the Eye from her sister. It works, but the sphere is no longer capable of containing the energy, and it looks like the whole cavern might come tumbling in on them. Even the tree opens up — so Abbie steps inside the trunk to contain the blast as Jenny and Crane both yell at her to stop. “Take care of each other,” she tells them. The tree trunk is ripped by an explosion as soon as it closes.

So where does that leave us now? Crane wakes up in the aftermath to find Jenny unconscious and Joe badly hurt; Crane isn’t doing so hot himself. I’m not ready to lose any of our new core four — we had quite enough of that last season, thanks — but if everyone makes it out alive (That includes you, Joe; do you hear me?), I’m excited for what comes next. It’s been too long since Sleepy Hollow‘s last visit to another realm. If Abbie is in the underworld, Purgatory is about to look like child’s play.

Doughnut Holes:

• Joe is willing to become a Wendigo again if that’s what it takes to save Jenny: not a bright plan, but a gallant one.
• Why is Reynolds so concerned about Abbie as an “asset”? What is his endgame for her?
• “First of all, I have a name. Second, it’s rude to point.” Sophie can stay.
• Wouldn’t she have picked up at least some knowledge of the supernatural goings-on in Sleepy Hollow from her six months undercover with Nevins, though?
• I love it when Crane kneels to smell the leaves and dramatically announces, “She’s on foot.”
• “His favorite. Ben Franklin.”
• “Cele-brae-tory.”
• The Pandora who condescendingly praises Abbie’s family values is my new favorite Pandora.
• “This plan of ours is crazy, yeah?” “Is that a question?”
• “No offense, lady, but your man is damn ugly.”