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Alas, evil Horseman, Ichabod knows him all too well. And this week we find out if Ichabod has what it takes to stop him.

(Fox)

Listen my readers, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere … and the Headless Horseman. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow must have left out the last part. But thankfully, the "Sleepy Hollow" writers have provided us with this alternate, spirited take on American History.

Abbie and Ichabod resort to some drastic methods to destroy the Horseman's skull in "The Midnight Ride."

In the opening sequence of this week’s episode, “The Midnight Ride,” Paul Revere is hustling from town to town, spreading word that “the regulars are coming.” (As Ichabod later points out, they were all still British at the time.) In hot pursuit of Revere’s gang of revolutionaries is our favorite axe-wielding equestrian aficionado. As a wave of terror sweeps over Revere, the camera cuts to the present, where Ichabod and Abbie are stocking the late Sheriff Corbin’s cabin with supplies for the coming siege.

Last week, after the Sin Eater ate Ichabod's sin, we found out that the Horseman would be taking the reins again. Abbie and Ichabod have to prepare, but they've got to clear a few hurdles. First, Ichabod needs to wrap his head around a few trappings of modern living: buying in bulk, bottled water, the internet, smartphones. And second, Abbie and Ichabod need to figure out how to stop the Horseman before more heads roll.

Ichabod figures his Freemason brethren are a good place to start — you know, the same people who wanted him to off himself last week. They’ve invited him to stop by so they might share some of the Horseman’s secrets. Abbie, being a woman, is not invited into the lodge, so she opts to pick up a shotgun from the station.

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On her way into the station, Abbie bumps into Det. Luke Morales, an old flame. He notices that she’s under a lot of stress, and asks her if she’d be willing to get a cup of coffee, just as a friend. But there’s a shadowy figure lurking in the background, so there’s at least a 90 percent chance of this cup of coffee not ending well. But Abbie agrees. It’s a lonely life, chasing a 200-year-old demon. She could use some company besides the resurrected Brit.

Morales, feeling smug and self-assured for landing his coveted coffee date, is summoned into an alleyway by the aforementioned shadowy figure. Turns out, it’s undead officer Andy Brooks, who got his neck snapped by Moloch earlier in the season. He warns Morales to stay away from Abbie if he truly wants to help her. And just to further freak out Morales, Brooks vanishes into thin air.

Meanwhile, back at the Mason Lodge, it seems like an uninvited guest may have arrived before Ichabod, because all four of the Masons are now headless. Ichabod grabs the nearest cavalry saber and begins to search the lodge. Someone grabs his shoulder and he wheels, only to discover it’s Abbie. The two turn just in time to see the Horseman riding off amid bolts of lightning, toting a bag of four freshly harvested heads.

Capt. Frank Irving shows up on the scene. He’s still not convinced this is the work of a Headless Horseman. “For now,” he says, “our working theory is a cult-ritual suicide.” Ichabod deduces that the Horseman must have come to the lodge looking for his skull. To stop him, he and Abbie must find the skull before the Horseman does, and destroy it.

But Capt. Irving isn’t one for the willful destruction of evidence. Ichabod makes an impassioned speech that could have been a deleted scene from “The Patriot,” and tells Irving that the blood of the Horseman’s victims will be on his hands if he fails to allow him and Abbie to do what they must do. Irving agrees to go and get the skull from a forensics lab.

That proof Irving needed, he gets it when the lab tech takes three to the chest from the Horseman’s assault rifle. With some slick gunplay, and one Matrix-esque move, Capt. Irving escapes with his head, and the Horseman’s. “You wanted proof,” Abbie says to him. “Honestly,” he says, “I wanted it to be a lie.”

Abbie and Ichabod get creative with their skull destruction attempts: smashing it with a sledge hammer, dunking it in a vat of acid (Breaking Bad reference?), blowing it up — all to no avail. They’re leaving the station to go to the nearest car compactor when they see four lamps aloft in a parking garage. On closer inspection, hey, those aren’t lamps. They’re the Masons’ skulls. Studying them, Ichabod notices that they’re lined with silver — the same technique Revere, a silversmith, used on his lamps to make them shine brighter on the night of his ride. This silver jogs Ichabod’s memory.

He was with John Adams and John Hancock in Boston the night of Revere’s ride. Before Revere left that night, Adams handed him a document containing enemy secrets. The document’s envelope was emblazoned with a heptagram, a symbol meant to ward off evil spirits. Ichabod reasons that if it bore that symbol, the document must have contained instructions on the fight against evil, which is why the Horseman pursued Revere. They must find the document to stop the Horseman.

Abbie and Ichabod team up with Capt. Irving to stop the Horseman in this week's episode of "Sleepy Hollow," "The Midnight Ride."

But there are a few obstacles, the first is that Revere’s document is on loan to a museum in London, but thankfully, it’s available online. The second is that an eighteenth-century man doesn’t know much about the internet — frustration, and an introduction to live online sex chats ensue. The third problem is that the document is written in a code that is impossible to crack, unless you know the author’s password.

Ichabod sets to work deciphering, while Abbie steps outside to make a phone call to politely blow off Morales. Morales looks pretty terrified by the information his once-dead colleague passed along to him, and he decides to ignore Abbie’s call. Hanging up, Abbie turns to find once-dead Brooks lurking behind her. Brooks explains that he wants to help her because the Horseman just won’t let him die.

Back in the Ichabod-Abbie Batcave, Ichabod sees the sunlight glinting off the Horseman’s skull’s teeth. Turning it over, he sees the word Cicero inscribed in silver on the back of the teeth — Revere’s password. With the password, he’s able to decipher the code.

And he does so just in time to save Abbie from Brooks, who is doing some pretty hardcore creeping. “You can’t kill death,” Brooks warns the pair, “but you can trap him.” And now that Ichabod has deciphered Revere’s code, he knows just how to do it. He tells Brooks to tell the Horseman to meet him in the cemetery at sundown.

Ichabod says that Revere’s document offers instructions on how to capture the demon: Get yourself a witch and have her turn the moon into the sun, and you’ll be able to ensnare the Horseman. Problem is, there aren’t any more witches in town. And Moloch is keeping Katrina in purgatory. Abbey thinks a strong dosage of UV light will do the trick, though. Ichabod and Abbie have a plan, but they’re going to need a little help to pull it off.

The Horseman looks menacing as usual in this week's "Sleepy Hollow" episode, "The Midnight Ride."

Thankfully, Capt. Iriving is willing to assist with their epic arts and crafts project of making a dozen paper mache skulls. Irving asks Ichabod what Thomas Jefferson was like. Ichabod gives him a rave review: “a true renaissance man.” “How do you figure a guy who wrote, ‘All men are created equal,’ justified owning slaves?” Iriving asks. Irving also adds that Jefferson fathered six children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. Though he’s an ardent abolitionist, Ichabod is aghast at the allegations of an extramarital affair and illegitimate children. He chalks it up to newspaper gossip, recalling a joke he once shared with Jefferson: “A man who reads nothing at all is better educated than a man who reads nothing but newspapers.”

Irving explains that DNA evidence conclusively points to Jefferson as the father. And a quick web search by Abbie reveals that Jefferson took credit for Ichabod’s line about the press. “Well,” he says, “we never really do know people, do we.”

But we do know Ichabod — a chivalric and courageous man, fond of wearing the same getup episode after episode. And now he’s going toe-to-toe with the Horseman once again. Giving the Horseman a glimpse of his head, he gives chase, and Ichabod lures him down into the tunnel system beneath the town. There, Ichabod, Abbie and Irving have scattered the paper mache skulls. The trick confuses the headless one, but only temporarily. He catches the glint of silver in the skull that Abbie is holding. Abbie, feigning an injury, falls to the ground, coaxing the Horseman to come closer. And just when he reaches the right spot, Irving hits him with the UV lights. The Horseman withers, and Ichabod shackles the demon in place.

A major victory for team Abbie-Ichabod. And it looks like next week, we’re going to see what goes into interrogating a dead, headless Hessian.

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