‘Sleepy Hollow’ recap: Special delivery from hell

The fact that Henry Parrish is a bad seed cannot be overstated.

But just when many of us fans of Fox’s sci-fi supernatural buddy cop drama, “Sleepy Hollow,” think the title “demon spawn” applies to Henry alone, we’re proven wrong.

That’s because the partially defanged witch, Katrina Crane, nearly gives birth to someone/something much more foul in this week’s episode, dubbed “Deliverance.” In a “Rosemary’s Baby” twist, with a much accelerated gestation time, Katrina almost becomes mother to a bouncing, hell-raising horn-sporting baby boy named Moloch.

Let’s hold hands and scream together: Noooooooooo!!!!

Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) doesn’t like how close Sleepy Hollow comes to being the hometown of the would-be architect of Armageddon. This hour in fact is as much about what very nearly happens as what actually does.

To wit: Katrina (Katia Winter) almost dies in the spawning process, but her labor stops before the evil infant can appear. Sorry, ‘shippers, but that would’ve been way too convenient.

The Headless Horseman nearly goes toe-to-toe with his overbearing protégé, Henry, only to be sizzled vampire-style by the sunlight. Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) comes close to believing that Katrina has slept with Headless and is carrying his ogre-child. Until, that is, she pouts and protests and wins him back again while wearing a barely-there bustier.

As for Abbie, well, she comes within a hair of melting down when the Cranes profess their faith in Henry (John Noble) and his “humanity.” And she’s on the verge of telling the Colonial couple to get a room when the post-lifesaving makeout session starts. She shows admirable restraint all around.

Crane made it clear in last week’s episode, “And the Abyss Gazes Back,” that he’s committed to unearthing Henry’s good side and thus, potentially thwarting the End of Days. Do this week’s happenings cast that promise in a different light? They certainly do for Abbie, but less so for the pie-eyed optimistic Cranes.

Henry, for his part, says during a tense sit-down with Crane that he’s basically prepared to bathe in his parents’ blood. So, no real movement there.

On to the nitty gritty of “Deliverance.”

Katrina has a venomous spider inside her, courtesy of Henry and the boiled and reformulated jincan poison that he stole from Abbie, Crane and Joe “No Longer a Wendigo” Corbin. It’s the world’s most toxic substance and, as viewers learn, used as a grow-your-own-demon starter kit.

It’s no ordinary “pedestrian” devil in Katrina’s gut, though. It’s the Horrid King, also known as Moloch, who’s obviously tired of waiting to be sprung from purgatory and is taking matters into his own gnarled hands.

Abraham, aka Headless, doesn’t know that Henry has infected Katrina and tries fruitlessly to save her, even when Henry says that Moloch has a new purpose for the witch. (Sowing seeds of discontent here: look for Headless to rise up against the all-too-smug Henry at some point).

Katrina, despite a 105-degree fever and fiend juice coursing through her body, escapes Evil HQ and ends up in Westchester General, where Crane and Abbie find her and see freaky black veins inching across her midsection. She’s in terrible pain, too, but whatever.

Crane hustles her back to the Good Guy Lair to research her ailment, which has been immune to her limited magic. Abbie follows Henry’s goons, who were trying to scoop up Katrina from the ICU, to a torture chamber/medical lab. She doesn’t know what she’s looking at, exactly, but those camera phone pics will come in handy later.

This leads to the week’s twistory – “Sleepy Hollow’s” twisted history – when Crane identifies the goat drawing that Henry’s accomplices were carrying. It’s the logo of the Hellfire Club, a savage group that got up to all manner of mischief like human experimentation back in Ichabod’s day. Ben Franklin infiltrated the club, Crane says, and retrieved that purgatory-opening key. He also embedded an all-important prism into their demon-birthing instruction tablet.

Now if they could just put their hands on that tablet…

They’ll need the cavalry, and Abbie’s finally ready to spill a few select Sleepy Hollow details to Sheriff Reyes in order to mobilize the SWAT team. Amazingly, Reyes agrees, based on those photos and scant other information. Who needs a warrant? Go bust up that warehouse on the edge of town!

Recurring geography issue: every pivotal place in Sleepy Hollow is less than 1 minute from wherever our heroes find themselves, and they never, ever hit traffic. They’re able to arrive in the blink of an eye, and not just because Crane drives like a “Fast and Furious” stunt double.

There’s a big confrontation and shootout. Henry’s goons: dead. Tablet: secured. Reyes: sorry for being such a hardass. Crane and Abbie: taking their customary 24 seconds to get back to the church where they’ll try to save Katrina and still the beast in her belly.

It’s touch and go, with “baby” Moloch fighting for freedom, but Crane using the prism, the sun and something about the aurora borealis to shine the succubus right out of her. He succeeds, and her stomach flattens so that she can once more fit into those skinny jeans pilfered from the hospital lost and found. But she stops breathing.

And Abbie does … nothing. What a telling moment that is, right?

Crane revives his beloved wife, and Abbie tries hard to act pleased about it. Then she scoots outside because she doesn’t want to watch them slobber on each other. Who can blame her?

During their coda chat, which has become SOP for the series, Abbie says she’s not happy with that close call because Moloch was mere inches away from joining them in the above-ground world. Crane still doesn’t think it was a mistake to approach Henry, “beseeching” him to cure Katrina, because he inadvertently saw one of Henry’s frightened childhood memories. He’s the Horseman of War, but he’s really just a scared little boy, Crane says.

Abbie resists the exasperated eye roll.

And Henry’s now trying to harness lightning in a bottle or some such, so there’s plenty more action to come.

This week is Crane-isms: he’s not the first but he may be the most articulate critic of voter apathy in the U.S. How can citizens justify casting ballots for “American Idolatry,” as he calls it, when they don’t even vote for their political leaders? It’s naive, but it’s timely.