"Oh, my gosh." "Did she teach you how to make this?" "Previously on sleepy hollow..." "Hey." "Move and I will blow you to hell." "Crane!" "I thought bullets didn't work on the horseman." "He's vulnerable on the stone." "My Tinder date was telling me about this video that he watched." "It was posted on Logan MacDonald's picagram feed." "Somebody hacked his account and then embedded the pamphlet's curse into the video's source code." "Has to be Dreyfuss." "He summoned this creature and ravaged our noble city with its pestilence." "Why?" "I am assembling a team of my own." "A hero's welcome to the man of the hour!" "Sent the picagram heard round the world." "I've come to believe I don't need any of you anymore." "The second recruit is..." "Ready to be plucked soon." "Helen!" "Welcome." "Not a moment too soon." "Come in, come in." "So..." "This is where you've been hiding yourself, Malcolm." "Well, not..." "Hiding, so much as working." "May I offer you tea, coffee, water?" "I didn't get up at the crack of dawn and fly 400 miles for a latte, Malcolm." "You shuttered the company to do what?" "Pursue a career in the fine arts?" "Hey, no one has heard from you in weeks." "And it's all over the news." "The scuttlebutt is that you have lost it." "You are awfully close, Helen." "But it's..." "It's not quite madness." "It's clarity." "See, the truth is," "I just have more important concerns right now." "So what is this?" "Some kind of one-man think tank?" "You planning the next big rollout?" "Yes." "Yes, yes, yes." "I invited you here because..." "I have been..." "Impressed with your work as CFO at Dreyfuss, and I would be honored if you would consider taking an exciting new role in the next iteration." "See, I need hosts, Helen." "Hosts, like... for an event?" "Yes." "But probably not exactly the way you think." "See, Helen, I've always appreciated you." "And we all know you're an exceptionally strong woman." "And your hunger for power..." "Good heavens." "It's like you're famished for it." "You are gonna do so well in this position." "I can sign an NDA if you'd like to tell me more." "Not at all necessary, my dear." "Jobe!" "Please." "Our friend Helen is interested in the position we are offering." "No!" "Hello." "Ichabod!" "Groovy party." "Oh, thank you, Barbara." "Uh, this must be your..." "Beau." "Zappa." "But call me zaps." "Or zap." "Well, 'tis a pleasure, zap... zip-zap... zap-zap." "A match made in Aquarius." "Excuse me." "Hey." "Who invited the guy dressed like Hamilton?" "Sham-ilton." "My thoughts exactly." "It's a pretty good turnout, crane." "When master Jake suggested" "I invite a few neighbors over for a party," "I... didn't expect so many to attend." "Oh, crane." "These people really dig you." "You know, in your whole time in sleepy hollow, you never threw a party like this." "Maybe things are working out for you here in D.C." "Yeah, I'd... not thought about it like that." "And you're right, miss Jenny." "I'm satisfied with my work in the vault." "The team is doing particularly well." "And now I have a place to lay my head." "Perhaps D.C. is shaping up to be home." "And what about you?" "Will you be putting down roots here?" "No, D.C. is fine, but I came here to find and train the next witness, and that's what I'm doing and... after that, who knows?" "Back to sleepy hollow, perhaps?" "No." "Settling down there was kind of an anomaly." "I'm really a lot more comfortable on the move." "Well, there art rooms down the hall that will be available for next month." "Options." "Thanks." "I'm just, really not the, uh..." "Housewarming type." "I hope crane won't mind that I have to split early." "They're showing Onibaba, this, like, classic '60s horror flick at the Avalon this afternoon." "Hasn't fighting real monsters put you off that sort of thing?" "Uh-uh, it's a brand-new 35-millimeter print struck from the original negative." "And since, uh, when did book nerd become film geek?" "Oh, Missy is totally into horror flicks, man." "It's, like, her thing." "Oh, hey... there she is." "Missy!" "Oh!" "Ah!" "Hey." "How's it going?" "Oh, you have to be Alex." "So good to meet you." "If you're half as cool as Jake says, then I'm already obsessed with you." "As long as you don't start dressing like me, acting like me, and then kill me and take my place." "Oh, my god, she's even funnier than you said she was." "You said I was funny?" "Uh-huh." "You are." "In a very specific way." "Are you coming to the movie?" "Oh, yeah, why not come with us?" "No." "Uh, I-I've got plans." "But... it was really nice to meet you, Missy." "Hey." "Hey." "Thanks." "Thank you for meeting with me on such short notice, assistant secretary." "It's good to see you, agent Thomas." "And your timing is excellent, actually." "I've been meaning to call you, but things have been upside down at the D.O.J." "Things have been hectic on my end as well." "Have they been?" "That's actually what I was planning on reaching out to you about." "Is this about my caseload?" "I have very good reason to have fallen behind on my quota." "Which is why I'm here." "I've been working on a case." "I need your help to take it to the next level." "Your e-mail, you said something about search and seizure warrants on a well-known public figure." "I need to locate Malcolm Dreyfuss." "The tech billionaire who recently shuttered his company?" "He's recently transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to offshore accounts." "He's gone off the grid, just vanished." "I believe that he is behind numerous criminal activities." "Everything from the defacement of the Lincoln memorial to the disappearance of a Smithsonian security guard." "And I need the authority to follow up." "This is thin." "And you know it." "You told me once, years ago, there is more than paper to a case, there is intuition." "Believe me when I tell you," "I know this guy is up to no good." "And I know when the blinders come on." "This is some kind of personal crusade." "You're seeing red, and therefore not seeing clearly." "Look, I'm late for a conference at the Eisenhower building." "As close as we are, you know I can't help you unless you bring me more, so, find it." "Thank you, assistant secretary." "Take care of yourself, agent Thomas." "Thank you." "Right this way, please." "The hell?" "Hello, officer." "Everything copacetic?" "This way, please." "You must be famished, after a century and a half." "Have at it." "Sate your hunger." "Nothing beats Penfolds grange '99." "This bill you wanted to talk about." "538." "Does that impossible thing." "Saves the world and makes states money." "It's a no-brainer." "I just want you to put it in front of him." "Just..." "Don't hold back, huh?" "The hell, Larry?" "Stop, man!" "Stop!" "I'm gonna get some help!" "Saw the victim gorge himself on everything in sight." "But the coroner's follow-up says he died of malnourishment, as in he literally starved to death." "A hunger this dreadful with no sustenance can only have a supernatural cause." "This could be a lot of things." "Now..." "There's a creature called a Vetala, which psychically drains its prey." "We dealt with one of those." "The victims don't stuff themselves." "How about a succubus?" "They can supposedly inflame desires, right?" "I experienced one of those personally." "They leave a desiccated corpse, but no sign of malnutrition." "Maybe you guys want to save us some research and make a list of the vampiric creatures you haven't fought." "Hmm." "Never an actual vampire, now that you mention it." "In Greek mythology, Erysichthon of Thessaly was cursed with an unrelenting hunger." "Uh, food merely served as fuel for the fire." "Perhaps this is a similar malediction." "Whatever demon or monster curse this is, we all know where it came from." "Dreyfuss." "The straightest line to ending this or whatever other threat this bastard is cooking up, is to take him down." "We all agree on the root cause, agent Thomas." "We have no idea to where Dreyfuss vanished, nor what he is planning;" "What we do know is that innocent lives are in immediate danger." "How long are we gonna treat the symptoms and leave the disease unchecked?" "I am using every resource that I have to find him." "I could use all your help." "We get it." "Yeah, absolutely." "All right, we all want to find a way to take him down." "Dreyfuss stuck too close to home when he went after Molly." "Your instinct as a mother is to act quickly." "Quite rightly so." "I give you my word, we will bring him down by hook or by crook, but first we must contain the situation at hand." "Fine." "We'll do it your way." "Now..." "There are many types of hunger demons that might cause these sorts of symptoms." "The ancient Chinese scholar Pu Songling cataloged them by genus and type in a book called Liaozhai Zhiyi during the Qing dynasty." "I know a guy..." "Who might have a book like that handy?" "Girl, you so have a type." "Very good." "Miss Jenny, if you pursue that lead, agent Thomas and I will reconnoiter the scene at the Eisenhower building." "We will search for clues as to the monster's whereabouts, and Dreyfuss' endgame." "You two, on me." "While we search the scene," "I need you two to stay on Dreyfuss." "There are a number of leads I was gonna chase down, starting with his assistant." "If the thing made that dude go all "one more tiny wafer-thin mint"" "is at the Eisenhower building, what?" "Crane and I have it covered." "Shall we, agent Thomas?" "I don't know." "I don't know." "How may this student of mystic herbology help you today?" "Donnie Lu." "Since when did you learn how to read mandarin?" "Mills." "No way." "Oh, my god, it's been too long!" "Oh." "Hey, is your uncle around?" "Oh, he's down in Charlotte Amalie with his boys..." "some kind of high-stakes poker game weekend." "Hmm." "So I'm working the register." "That doesn't sound like your style." "Last I heard, you had a fleet of g4s for rent and were raking it in." "Nah, I got out of jets." "The upkeep is murder." "And this place has been killing it." "Chinese herbs are super in." "Royal jelly, kombucha, ginseng tea." "People want to live forever, dude." "Seems to be a trend these days." "Hey, I'm looking for a Qing dynasty text on hunger demons." "Say no more." "Let me check my mystical inventory of ancient tomes and scrolls." "Wait, go back." "It's the Gjallerhorn of Heimdallr, right?" "Collector out of Dubai is looking to track it down." "He's got deep pockets." "It's like one month in Nepal, two in Bangkok, bathysphere down the Marianas trench." "It's crazy." "I'd ask if you're in, but you're out of the game, right?" "Not "out" out." "Just had a lot on my plate recently." "Who's taking point?" "Gonzalez?" "Dresden." "Oh, no, wait, uncle Lu and Agatha Muir go way, way back." "No one yet." "It's yours if you want it." "Hand-pick your own team." "Uncle Lu would be so psyched." "You're one of the greats, mills." "Let me think on it." "And, um..." "Let me see that book on hunger demon lore." "Okay, you got it." "In Latin, "lustitia."" "In Greek, "themis."" "Lady justice is the allegorical personification of moral force in the judicial system." "In her hands, the scales of justice." "Always equal, always equivocal." "Don't look so equal to me." "If Dreyfuss is behind this, then whatever's causing it, maybe we can use it to track it back to him." "Then we start upstairs in the dining room." "All security teams, sector 4." "All security teams, sector 4." "Or wherever they're going." "Lady, get up." "Get up now!" "Back away!" "Agent Thomas, DHS." "What is going...?" "Back away, slowly." "Put your hands where I can see them!" "Assistant secretary Stryker?" "You know this woman?" "Oh, my god." "Nancy." "The thing that did this it's in the walls." "Hey, you okay?" "Agent Thomas knew this poor soul." "It's another life" "Dreyfuss is gonna pay for." "You said you saw it behind that vent?" "Only the eyes." "They glowed red." "Crimson eyes, desiccated bodies, and a propensity for living in darkness." "All characteristics of a number of genera of hunger demon." "There's a whole host cataloged in here." "Gaki, egui, preta." "There's even a demonic strain fathered by Mnemoth." "Some are thought to be responsible for the great famines of history." "Hold up." "Two attacks today." "This creature was released recently." "And if Dreyfuss had a hand, he may have left a trail." "There." "Jobe." "Proof that Dreyfuss is involved." "You saw the demon in the ventilation duct system, right?" "And Jobe was headed to the basement." "Can we access the building's utility schematics from here?" "I think so." "The central hub for the building's ventilation system is in the sub-basement." "Allowing the creature access to both the dining room and the conference room." "And the rest of the building." "This is one of the biggest office buildings in D.C." "It's an all-you-can-eat buffet." "So we got to go down and find it." "Hold on." "It's kind of odd shape." "He could be carrying an artifact." "There's a chapter in here about the Mifang conundrum." "Chinese mystics created enchanted puzzle box mechanisms that, depending on the configuration, could draw, trap or release a hunger demon." "They vary in complexity." "Some take as many as 1,536 predetermined moves to open." "I've seen this device before." "In the hands of a former compatriot of mine." "Uh..." "Before I joined the colonial forces," "I was friends with a fellow British officer named Edward Reed." "Shortly after I arrived on American shores," "Reed and I were sent on a raid to recapture a supply room commandeered by the colonists." "Relax, crane." "The colonials would not be so rash as to risk their lives over crates of tea." "I would not be so sure, sir." "These Bostonians are proud men." "It seems they would gladly give their lives for the pursuit of freedom." "Good luck to them." "Rabble against the might of empire, right?" "Damn this foul contraption." "It's a peculiar curio." "Are those Chinese characters?" "Well, I found it here, in one of the open tea crates." "A misplaced child's plaything perhaps." "My youngest, Penelope, she's quite adept with this sort of thing." "Perhaps I'll take it with me when we return home." "A day that cannot come soon enough." "Thereafter, I was sent on a different assignment." "And when I returned, I was told that Reed and the rest of the company had all died of starvation whilst on a reconnaissance north of the Berkshires." "Reed must have inadvertently summoned a hunger demon, by solving what he believed to be a child's puzzle." "Ultimately, we fought on different sides, but no man deserves a death so foul." "We find this puzzle box, we can lure the demon." "Trap it." "Then we track down the bastard who set it free and make him pay." "Okay, spymaster." "Diana said start with Dreyfuss's assistant, not grab dinner." "Picagram doesn't lie, my friend." "Dreyfuss's assistant Ashley's feed tells me that she's super into street cuisine." "Mm-hmm." "She's tagged herself at that truck every Friday during happy hour for the last three months." "Okay, so, if she's a creature of habit, she should be here any minute." "Exactly." "But you, uh, might miss that screening with what's-her-face." "Oh, Missy?" "Uh, no worries, it's not like we can't find something else to do." "You know, we have a ton in common besides old black-and-white horror movies." "Yeah, pricey French wine, vintage Elric of Melnibonã© sword and sorcery paperbacks." "Melni-what?" "That's a real thing?" "Yeah." "Whatever." "Just don't get too cocky, okay?" "'Cause people with too much in common, they never work out." "But didn't you say the exact opposite when I was crushing on Jenny mills, though?" "There she is." "That's Ashley." "So, what..." "Bluetooth scanner." "Patent pending." "Mm-hmm." "Not exactly legal yet." "But I can use a remote link to clone Ashley's SIM card." "That way, if and when Dreyfuss calls, we can piggyback and use cell tower triangulation to locate him." "But, uh, not too close, Romeo." "Just because you score with girls at bars doesn't mean that puppy dog charm of yours is gonna serve you here." "Puppy dog charm?" "That's what I said." "Oh, yeah, it was." "I mean, it wasn't much of one, but I believe you just complimented me." "No." "I described you, using canines as a comparison." "Uh-uh, the word that jumped out was "charming."" "Yeah." "You do not find him charming." "We should double our efforts." "I'll take right." "Okay." "Over here." "I believe we have found the source of our demonic infestation." "But how does it work?" "See if there's any information in the book I got from Donnie." "I'm gonna do a sweep, make sure this demon isn't lurking around." "If we dial in on the correct configuration, we should be able to call the creature back here." "These are shang characters." "So, uh..." "That one there..." "Means "return to."" "And then, on the other side," ""to cast away."" "And the third," ""to restrain."" "Configuration is the key." "Fortunately, I was most adept at puzzles, so..." "Confounding." "Hey, I was a master at Rubik's cube." "I have no idea what you just said." "But I do know that I solved Franklin's cipher when many others had failed." "And I was able to drink from the most challenging puzzle jug without spilling a drop, so perhaps I should..." "Got it." "Talk to me." "Dreyfuss assistant was a rainbow of flying colors." "Excellent." "You have his location?" "Not yet, but I have a program scanning cell towers across the U.S., looking for common I.P. Addresses." "All right, keep digging." "Okay." "Crane!" "Jenny!" "Come on." "Trap it." "Trap it!" "Jenny, you okay?" "Yeah." "Where is it?" "Behind you!" "After it!" "Quickly!" "Follow it!" "Come on." "No sign of the demon." "Without the puzzle box, we can't call it back." "Leaving a voracious creature free to sate its hunger amongst the innocent denizens of Washington." "But perseverance eventually paid off." "Could use some serious cleaning supplies down here." "Fresh coat of white paint would do... wonders." "Dark rider of death." "I think you're right, Jobe." "He does look a little..." "Under the weather." "He suffered these wounds while under the transformative influence of the philosopher's stone." "I am so, so sorry, my friend." "You've been dealt a great disservice." "But fear not," "I've come to restore you to all your glory." "I made you a promise when we first met, and I never welsh on a deal." "We're gonna have you on the mend before you know it." "And..." "I am getting the gang back together again." "This is on me." "If I hadn't taken that phone call, the hunger demon wouldn't have gotten the drop on us." "More pressing is the fact that we were unaware you had employed master Jake and miss Alex on an information gathering mission." "I didn't want to drop the ball on Dreyfuss," "I thought a two-pronged assault was right." "Yes, the plan is not the issue." "The issue is that you chose not to share it with all of us." "We understand your anger, agent Thomas." "And your right to it." "But what is at risk is the integrity of our team." "If we are to be successful in our battle against the supernatural, we must always stay on the same page." "Trust us, separate agendas will only lead the group astray." "I hear you." "Then let's put our heads together and take this thing out already, hmm?" "Okay, look, I was combing through entries in the secret histories, looking for any reference to hunger demons, cannibalism or famine, and I found one about the Donner party." "The Oregon trail people who got snowed in and ate each other?" "They were trying to forge their way across the high sierras." "May I see the entry?" "You think the Donner party went cannibal because they ran afoul of one of the hunger demons?" "Oh, my." "One of the leaders of the party was one James F. Reed." "He was a direct descendant of Edward Reed, my former commanding officer in the British army." "It's the Mifang conundrum." "Was it passed down in his family?" "And brought with the Donner party on their journey." "Here, Reed survived and wrote this account." "In the spring of 1848, the snow in the passes finally melted enough for the Donner party survivors to make their way to safety." "But they did not come out alone." "Led by James F. Reed, they made their way west and took shelter from their demonic pursuer in a cave system." "The Donner party survivors made their last stand at the mouth of this cave, just outside the town of Sutter's mill." "James F. Reed laid a trap for the demon volunteered himself as bait to lure the foul beast." "The survivors dug Reed out." "Of the creature, there was no sign." "Ah." "There was a literal golden lining to this story." "A vein of gold ore uncovered in the explosion was mined and provided for the survivors' recovery and eventual prosperity." "Whoa, wait." "Mm-mm." "Mm-mm. 1848." "Sutter's mill, California?" "You're saying that when the Donner party took out this demon..." "They kicked off the gold rush." "Oh." "In our world, and only in our world, does that make sense." "The Donner party's tragic tale must provide the key to defeating this demon." "The Mifang conundrum boxes were fashioned out of enchanted teakwood, but they had gold characters emblazoned on the sides." "Gold." "Gold is the creature's weakness." "It's mine, too, but I don't have enough to create a weapon." "I've got a plan for that." "But first we need to draw the creature, and the puzzle box is a pile of splinters." "I can 3-d-print a replica." "I mean, not out of enchanted teakwood, but it might be able to hold the demon for a little bit, if at all." "As long as it will lure it towards us." "Look, I'll research the correct symbology to paint in gold leaf onto your version of the box." "Very good." "Now, miss Jenny, you say you have a plan to procure enough gold to make weaponry." "I do." "But we've got to mine it ourselves." "This is a junkyard." "That's what you see." "I see gold." "Take down this demon?" "Okay, it's a little known fact, but cars are filled with trace amounts of gold." "Uh, anti-lock brakes, airbag inflation system chips." "Oh, come on." "If gold was laying around in cars, people would steal it." "Yeah, they do." "I had a friend that used to use skateboards to slide under the cars and dismantle catalytic converters." "She'd strip and sell the gold inside for beer money." "She called it a, uh, "catalytic conversion rate."" "Did she?" "A friend?" "Okay, so, there's trace amounts of gold in every car." "And with this many cars, means a heck of a lot of gold, right?" "Which means we can create our own Donner party gold mine with what we have to hand." "This thing, it attacks from high, causing its victims to attack each other." "But in close quarters, it will fight hand-to-hand." "So, to avoid eating each other, we should force the latter." "That is the approach we shall take." "Miss Alex, do you have the facsimile box?" "Yeah." "Now, I'm all set to apply the symbols on this box once we do have some gold in hand." "Yeah, and while Jake was doing his research," "I came up with these." "This is fluorosulfuric acid." "Any spare gold we have, we drop in here and we get a solution that might take this thing out." "Nice." "Excellent work, all." "Now let us commence prospecting." "Ready as we'll ever be." "It's a good plan, crane." "It was a group effort." "Our team has endured much in its short life." "It has continually proved to be far greater than the sum of its parts." "It has been a unique experience." "Indeed it has." "Miss Jenny pointed out that D.C. is becoming more of a home for me." "It is largely thanks to you and miss Molly." "You accepted me into your lives, and it means a great deal to..." "Well, you've given us a real sense of purpose." "Knowing we're saving the world from monsters?" "Not a job I would've willingly signed up for, though." "Oh, dreadfully lacking in benefits." "Alex and Jake are ready with the puzzle box." "Let's do this." "Okay." "This should draw the demon to us." "It's working." "You say that like you weren't sure it would." "I wasn't." "But let's not sweat the small stuff, okay?" "Nowhere to run, demon." "You're encircled in a ring of gold." "It's trapped." "Now we finish this." "Its eyes are doing the thing!" "Crane, another arrow!" "Jenny!" "Now!" "Jake, Alex!" "Come on!" "Gold solution was a smashing success." "You know... no." "Uh, uh..." "Operation, uh, Hangry demon take..." "Jake." "Yeah." "Just drop it." "Okay." "Actually, I'd go with smashing success." "Dreyfuss is a madman, but he has a method." "True." "When he was assembling the philosopher's stone, he released monsters with a purpose." "So we do a sweep, top to bottom, see if we can spot anything off-kilter." "I'll take the north end." "Breaking into a government building after hours." "She can stay." "Indeed." "She has adjusted admirably." "As have you and I." "We've gathered quite the formidable troop." "Long may we reign." "This is about the apartment down the hall, isn't it?" "3c." "It is a shade shabby, but the spirit of the neighborhood more than makes up for it." "Yeah, I'm really..." "I'm okay with my trailer." "For now." "You know, with the respect and admiration you command from our new compatriots, and with..." "Well, you're fully aware that I consider you as much family..." "Crane." "Don't make it weird." "I'm not making anything weird." "All I'm trying to say, if you will allow me, is that you also have more of a home than you know." "I got offered a job today." "And it's out of town." "Way out of town." "A really interesting gig, doing just what I love, finding something special, uncovering mysteries." "Congratulat..." "Uh, have you accepted?" "Not yet, but..." "I didn't say no." "I think it's just because" "I wouldn't just be a part of something." "It... it'd be... my own thing." "Hey, I think I found something!" "There was a tour guide with a bunch of schoolkids here earlier when crane and I first came to the building." "And in that security footage, Jobe paused here and looked up." "I think that's what he was looking at." "Lady justice." "Blind, equivocal..." "And missing something." "There was a set of golden scales up there." "Now they're gone." "We need to return to the vault, try to glean what our enemy is planning." "Why do we bother to talk children into wishing upon stars?" "Pinpricks of light from hundreds of thousands of years ago, which we have breathlessly assigned patterns and form and meaning to..." "From a ridiculously simplistic perspective." "We really need to teach future generations to bring about real material change, not pin their hopes on the ephemeral." "You've killed the poetry, Malcolm." "All the more room for reason and logic to stand tall." "Scale me, my friend." "Charged as the hunger demon fed." "What an interesting dichotomy." "Overflowing with famine." "My young and rather stylish rider of pestilence." "And my ambitious, social climbing, and savagely hungry..." "Rider of famine." "Just two more spaces left to fill, my friend." "And I'm hoping the dark rider of death will be strong enough to rejoin us soon." "The condition for his recovery will be attended to immediately, Malcolm." "And that will leave just one last totem, Jobe." "War." "So Dreyfuss vandalized the Eisenhower building, and took the scales of justice." "Yes." "A set of golden scales." "Uh, it's not always seen in the hands of lady themis." "Correct, master Wells." "Scales are a totem in many mythologies." "In the zodiac, Libra is a symbol of logic and balance." "In biblical texts, the scales are a symbol of dread and primal power." "Oh, no." "Malcolm Dreyfuss raised a djinn in order to spread a supernatural pestilence." "Now he raises a hunger demon in order to spread a supernatural famine." "I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking." "You are thinking what I was." "Our enemy Dreyfuss seeks to raise the four horsemen of the apocalypse."