Sleepy Hollow

My name is Ichabod Crane.

In 1781, I died on the battlefield,

Now I've been awakened 250 years later

in a land I no longer recognize...

Sleepy Hollow.

You were called to defend humanity

from the forces of hell... we both were.

We need to fight with every breath that we have left.

I have faced horsemen without heads.

Even discovered my own son is the horseman of war.

Let us release our own horseman.

They've been planning this since before the birth of our nation.

What are we willing to do to keep everyone safe?

War isn't coming to Sleepy Hollow.

It's been here waiting all along.

Good-bye, Father.

No! No!

Lieutenant?

Lieutenant, please.

Anyone?

Surprise.

It's a surprise party.

I got you.

A surprise party.

And why must your era

celebrate terror with dessert?

I'm sorry I couldn't find a cupcake big enough

for 251 candles.

Happy Birthday.

Well, then...

I shall consider myself "punk'd."

Well, what? Do we just stare at it?

You blow it out.

- Make a wish. - Oh, a wish?

- Another modern tradition. - And here I thought

science had won over superstition in modern America.

Very well, a wish.

- I wish... - Not out loud.

Is there no end to this birthday madness?

Just wish for something good.

Given everything we've been through,

we could use a little celebrating.

Revenge won't bring them back.

No, but it will be

eminently satisfying.

It's been almost a year.

The future is perilous enough.

I'd rather not discuss the past, thank you.

Today of all days.

We keep avoiding it.

We avoid it because it is hard.

It is hard to believe.

It is even harder to accept.

We both lost someone we loved.

Let us leave it at that.

I just...

I don't think I would've made it without you, Crane.

Nor I you, Lieutenant.

Mills.

All right, we'll be right there.

Party's over.

Thank God.

The sheriff's department didn't say why

this fellow requested our presence?

Only that he's the attending professor

at the Historical Society.

Couldn't wait.

He had something to show us,

thought he might be in danger.

And he specifically summoned us?

Yep.

Well, that's never good.

The Horseman.

He's back.

This is what we've been training for. You ready?

I've been ready for 200 years.

Clear.

We're too late.

Professor.

"First Among Founders:

"Benjamin Franklin's Impact

on Colonial America."

"Impact"?

On the scores of strumpets

he crushed beneath his girth, perhaps.

I take it you knew Franklin.

I was his apprentice.

Under General Washington's insistence.

The man was insufferable.

We are talking about Benjamin Franklin?

The editor of the Declaration of Independence?

Blowhard, braggart, blatherskite

and gasbag.

He had an insatiable need to prove

he was the sharpest intellect in the room.

Could see how that would be hard for you.

The Horseman was looking for something.

Why would he want a history professor's research

on Benjamin Franklin?

Any student of Franklin's

would be as shrewd and conniving

as the man himself.

Ah.

"Diligence

is the mother of good luck."

And we could use a little of that right now.

Crane, down!

Consecrated rounds!

I'm all out.

Kali's arrows.

Lieutenant!

He dies tonight.

- Crane! - He pays for what he took.

We can't. Look at me.

He killed my wife!

And my sister.

We are low on ammo.

He was here for a reason.

We stay on mission.

You okay?

Yes.

We have what he came for.

Now we find out why.

And these documents are from Franklin libraries

around the country.

Albany, Boston, Philadelphia.

What have we here? Boston.

These notes say he found

a charcoal key rubbing in the archives

at Harvard University.

That place still exists?

I know this key.

Franklin requested my help

with his experiments on electricity.

You were there when he was out in the storm

flying a kite?

Of course. I was his apprentice.

He had just returned from England,

where he claimed to have infiltrated

a secret society known as the Hellfire Club.

They were fixated on defeating

America's quest for freedom.

And, as was typical

of our Founding Father,

I found him unabashedly exposed.

Crane!

Just getting in a little air bath

before the end of the day.

Very good.

Don't be such a prude, Ichabod.

Clearly they never taught you how to tie a knot at Oxford.

Well, I suppose I should have spent

more time studying the Hellfire Club.

Study Washington, Jefferson, Adams and me.

You're one of us now.

An American.

There's a storm coming to our shores, lad.

We must be prepared to weather it.

Sir, please!

We must go back inside!

Not yet!

Not till this key is struck.

What's wrong?

It failed.

This key cannot be destroyed.

I don't follow, sir.

I was hoping the fire from the heavens

might neutralize it,

but it's no use.

It must be secreted away.

Far from evil's grasp.

So, his experiments had nothing

to do with electricity.

Indeed.

He was trying to destroy this key.

But why?

The professor's notes refer to it

as the "Gehenna key."

What?

"Gehenna."

It's the name for the realm

between life and death.

Also known as purgatory.

The one rule of purgatory:

A soul cannot leave unless another takes its place.

- Right. - Wrong.

- This key can break that rule. - A loophole.

A way to release souls trapped in purgatory.

Would've been nice to have a year ago.

Crane, you know what this means?

This key can let anyone

or anything out.

Moloch.

Of course.

He's the guardian of purgatory.

Therefore, he is bound by the same laws.

Lieutenant,

if he discovers this key,

everything we've sacrificed will be for naught.

We've combed through the professor's notes.