‘Sleepy Hollow’ recap: A visit from Franklinstein’s reanimated monster

If this episode of Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow� had been titled, “Franklinstein’s Monster,� would that have given away too much? Would it have taken even an ounce of fun out of this insanely action-packed hour? Probably not.

It’s a pretty sweet moment when Lt. Abbie Mills puts the name to a creature that Benjamin Franklin, in the Dr. Frankenstein role, stitched together from pieces of fallen Revolutionary War soldiers.

And it’s doubly sweet that Ichabod Crane doesn’t understand the reference. Our hunky hero, a smarty pants Oxford prof, seems to know absolutely everything. But he can’t possibly get the nod to Mary Shelley’s masterwork because he was dead long before it was published in 1818. (Abbie reminds herself to update Crane’s reading list).

Not only does this give a rare hat tip to history – real chronological history, that is, not the supernatural/sci-fi version that fuels the series – but it gently takes Crane down a peg. He’s adorable when he’s stumped.

There are so many major developments in this episode that it’s tough to pick an instant favorite. Capt. Frank Irving may have signed a deal with the devil! Jenny’s in the slammer! Katrina’s a mole! The founding fathers dabbled deep in the black arts!

Best to start with the most spectacular action because, hey, why save the dessert until the end of the meal?

There’s a new triangle in town, and suffice to say, it’s not at all romantic. It does provide the thrilling, ax-swinging, heavy artillery, horses and jousting heart of the hour, dubbed “The Kindred.�

The players in this violent threesome are the headless horseman, aka the horseman of death; the horseman of war, also known as Henry Parish; and the kindred, the gruesome patchwork of body parts that Franklin assembled but never brought to life. The creation’s purpose in the 1780s was to soak up a witches’ spell -- George Washington was tight with a powerful coven -- and take down the horseman of death.

That confrontation never happened because Franklin didn’t have a defining element to complete the kindred: a physical chunk of the headless horseman himself.

Lucky for all humankind and the as-yet-unscorched earth, “Sleepy Hollow’s� heroes have the horseman’s head in a handsome glass display case. Irving (Orlando Jones) stashed it at Sleepy Hollow Savings & Loan in a conveniently oversized safety deposit box.

Backing up for one second: There’s surprisingly little debate about connecting the head to the Franklinstein body and animating this potent killing machine. Abbie does say, “We’re not just raising a weapon, we’re raising a monster.�

But Crane (Tom Mison) convinces her and a skeptical Jenny with only a few words that it’s not just any monster. “It’s our monster.�

And then, bam, decision’s made. Never mind that no one knows what the creature will be capable of or how it will behave once it’s alive. On with the incantations!

The goal is to pit the kindred against the headless horseman, drawing the latter away from the captive Katrina so that Crane can rescue her. He’s foreseen a totally unpleasant “binding ceremony� in which Katrina might lose her head to spend eternity with the horseman.

Crane, justifying all the danger and angst, tells Abbie he’s thinking rationally. He doesn’t just want to save Katrina because she’s the love of his life. He’s convinced that her powerful witchy ways will help tip the scales in the battle of good vs. evil.

Abbie (Nicole Beharie) mostly just looks sad during this monologue. All this talk about Katrina really drags her down, even though she has yet to admit it.

As it turns out, the kindred seems to know who brought him to life, like a shelter animal that realizes it’s finally been adopted. The reanimated soldier protects Abbie when her automatic weapons don’t stop the horseman of war, and he fends off both horsemen long enough for Abbie and Crane to make a getaway.

What happens to the kindred then? He makes like a ghost and disappears. Again, was this a good idea?

And did Crane scoop his wife out of the horseman’s clutches? Nope. (Hooray, say all the shippers). Katrina says it’s better if she stays put, acts as a spy and gathers intelligence. She’ll report all the details of the planned apocalypse so Crane and Co. can act accordingly. She’s trying to save Henry’s soul, as well, and stop being a terrible mother.

She fails to mention that the horseman, in his old human guise as her former fiancé, is playing head games with her, noting how close Crane and Abbie are these days. Chances are, she already knows, but she’s allegedly doing the noble thing here.

Speaking of nobility, Irving sits in custody because he confessed to two murders he didn’t commit. (He’s shielding his young daughter). He’s ready to start truth talking about demonic possession, even if that gets him thrown into the psych ward.

The new sheriff in town thinks it’s a ploy and threatens him with all manner of electroshock therapy for his “hallucinations.�

That’s when Henry Parish shows up posing as Irving’s newly appointed lawyer and throws a wrench in those “treatments,� while having the accused cop sign some “routine paperwork.� Using Henry’s heirloom pen -- nicknamed Spike? -- Irving literally draws his name in blood.

And just earlier in the episode, new Sheriff Reyes tells Abbie that she’s determined to “bring some sanity back to this town.� Ha, ha! Good luck with that!