'Sleepy Hollow' Season 1, Episode 5: 'John Doe' Recap

A litle girl gathers pretty leaves in the wood, as a little boy watches her from behind a tree. He comes out, in old fashioned clothing, and the little girl invites him to play. He chases her, but she disappears, and a horse races up behind him with a masked rider. The little boy runs, leaves the woods, and races onto a paved road. The horseman disappears.

Ichabod is going to live in Corbin's cottage, which suits him more than the motel. He looks at himself in a mirror and asks Abbie if he looks out of place in her century She suggests a change of outfit.

Abbie gets a call on her radio and the two go out, to where the boy was found. He stumbled and went down. Ichabod calls Abbie over to look at the boy's hands. His veins are turning black. The boy says something, and Ichabod speaks to him, but the medical team puts the boy away before he can answer. Ichabod tells Abbie it was Middle English, from the Middle Ages.

Abbie looks through missing persons files, but the boy is nowhere to be found. Ichabod explains to Irving that the boy speaks Middle English, a language he studied at Oxford. He says that the boy said "evil girl." Irving has contacted the CDC to check out the sick boy, and asks Ichabod to speak to the boy.

Morales speaks to Irving, suspicious of Ichabod, and Irving reminds him to stay focused on his own work and not let his past with Abbie interfere.

Ichabod and Abbie go to the quarantine to see the boy. Ichabod speaks to him through a camera. The boy says his name is Thomas Grey. He apologizes, and says he knows he was not supposed to. He followed the girl, leaving his home, which was forbidden. He tells Ichabod he is from Roanoke, the lost colony.

Abbie and Ichabod study up on the mysterious colony, where everyone disappeared. Ichabod believes Thomas is from the colony that vanished 400 years ago.

Irving calls to tell them that the boy is getting worse, and the EMT who treated him now has black veins as well. Ichabod worries about the disease they do not know how to cure... the EMT begins to struggle, sitting up. He sees the horseman racing toward him, and he dies.

Abbie and Ichabod go to where the little boy was spotted running out of the woods, and go through the woods to look for clues.

Morales sulks about Ichabod, though his partner suggests he lets it go. Morales decides to make some calls.

Ichabod tracks Thomas' path through the woods, an excellent tracker from his days of hunting foxes. They find a second pair of footsteps, which disappear abruptly.

Other people who were in contact with the boy are beginning to fall sick. The CDC says they need to figure out what it is before they can cure anyone.

They find where Thomas' trail ends/begins, at a small pond. In the center is a small island. Ichabod puts a stick in the water, but something seems to pull it under. Ichabod notes a marking on a tree, and walks across the water- a hidden crossing. They walk over to the island...

And apparently into the lost colony. Abbie notes that everyone has black veining on their faces.

However, no one seems sick. Ichabod asks what happens, and a man tells them the horseman of pestilence haunted them, and made them ill. Virginia Dare, the youngest of them, died, but her ghost came back and led them all to this place. He says that the illness does not affect them there, only if they leave. He says they have to return Thomas to this place before everyone dies.

Ichabod believes if the illness spreads, the horseman, Conquest, will be able to enter Sleepy Hollow. A girl tries to give Abbie a flower, but she tells her to keep it, and believes she spots a horseman in the forest. They leave.

The illness is spreading back home, even to those taking precautions. Ichabod realizes he has been infected also. The CDC rushes in and sedates him, taking him away.

Ichabod "wakes" in the forest with Katrina. She notes he is not well, if he is there. She hasn't been able to summon him for a long time. If he is there, he is dead, or near to it.

Morales gets a call... from Oxford. The woman confirms that Ichabod is a professor there, and on loan to law enforcement at the moment.

Katrina explains she's trapped in purgatory.

Abbie goes to Irving, trying to explain that they have to bring Ichabod and the boy out. She goes to church, asking for evidence, a sign that they are on the right path. Nothing happens. She remembers what Ichabod said of the cure within the colony, and touches the holy water on her way out.

Ichabod is grabbed by the beast, but wakes.

Abbie goes to Irving, and says she believes that the spring at Roanoke is what cleanses people of the sickness. Irving gets orders to transfer to an overflow quarantine facility. Abbie steals the truck.

Ichabod and Thomas limp through the woods with Abbie as he explains to her what happened with Katrina. Thomas begins to fail, as well as Ichabod. Abbie stabs him with Adrenaline, as the horseman begins to chase them. They get to the colony and Ichabod and Thomas go into the water. The hoseman closes in on Abbie, but Ichabod bursts up, Thomas revived, and the horseman vanishes as Thomas seems to renew.

Ichabod stands now in a relic of a well. Roanoke has vanished - they were all dead, of course, though Thomas was briefly returned to the living. Irving calls to tell them somehow everyone is recovering.

Abbie tells Ichabod she was worried he may want to stay in the colony, but he belongs in Sleepy Hollow.

The headless horseman, meanwhile, the horseman of death, rides out of the woods.