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[sc:wptop]Hello, SleepyHeads! This week on Witness Prophecies, we discuss Sleepy Hollow Season 4 Episode 1, entitled Columbia, which originally aired on January 6, 2017. Ichabod Crane has arrived in Washington, D.C., and is searching for the new Witness.
When we last saw Ichabod Crane, Ezra Miles had given him a letter written by George Washington in 1789, which gave Crane authority over a new organization charged with standing guard against all threats deemed otherworldly against the new fledgling American nation. Ezra warned him to trust no one, and then Director Jack Walters took him to Washington to answer a few questions.
Ichabod Crane has arrived in Washington, DC, and has been questioned for two weeks about his work with Abbie Mills. 
He escapes his captors, sees a copy of the Lincoln Memorial in their lair, runs outside, and finds himself standing on a runway at Reagan National Airport. The fog clears and we see… Washington, DC. He arrives at the memorial to find a decapitated statue of Abraham Lincoln and a demon, known as a dybbuk, attacking two Homeland Security agents. One dies, and the remaining agent tracks Crane back to the underground lair after he flees the memorial in search of answers about the demon. Thus begins the relationship between Crane and Agent Diana Thomas (Janina Gavankar).
When the demon kills again, Diana suggests they go the “The Vault,” and Crane recognizes the symbol from the sealing emblem George Washington used on the letter to him. 
They meet Jake Wells (Jerry MacKinnon) and Alex Norwood (Rachel Melvin) who oversee the Vault, which contains historical books and artifacts about the secret history of America. There is hidden text in one of Benjamin Franklin’s books and they learn that John Wilkes Booth raised a demon to kill Abraham Lincoln, but the demon can be stopped by copper bullets. These two new characters, Jake and Alex, should bring fun and humor to “The Vault,” and become quick assets to Crane.
They lure the demon to an abandoned building, and as it is about to kill Jake, Jenny Mills (Lyndie Greenwood) arrives to blast it with the copper bullet gun. Jenny and Crane continue to mourn Abbie and have not yet found the new Witness to honor and carry on her work. Diana agrees to continue to work with Crane to avenge her partner’s death.
Meanwhile, evil Malcolm Dreyfuss (Jeremy Davies) has his partner, Jobe (Kamar de los Reyes), incinerate the head of Abraham Lincoln’s statue with a red, demonic eye blast. 
All that remains is a mysterious round stone tablet, apparently one of many. Clearly these two know the significance of the tablets and they are patient to find each one. Could these neutralize our witnesses or perhaps unleash a greater power than Moloch? It seems they are allowing Crane to find the new Witness for them, and they are clearly behind Director Walters and his “abduction” of Crane, bringing him to Washington.
In the final scene, we see Diana talking to her daughter, Molly (Oona Yaffe), who has refused to speak for several weeks after a fainting incident at school. When Diana leaves the room, Molly pulls out a sketch pad and continues drawing another picture of Ichabod Crane. Is Molly the new Witness?
This “reboot” of Sleepy Hollow may be difficult for some fans to accept, especially with the departure of Nicole Beharie who played Abbie Mills and other key characters from Season 3. This episode gave us some vibes of the X-Files and Fringe, with a new monster/demon this week. It appears that Jake and Crane will bond over their love of (and belief in) all things supernatural, and it seems that Alex will find her soulmate in the adventurous Jenny – oh the artifacts they will see and the weapons with which they will play!
History Lesson of the Week – America’s Columbia and Washington, D.C.
Why was the District of Columbia formed, and why was it named Washington, D.C.?
We have to begin with the word, Columbia. The literal meaning of Columbia comes from the stem Columb- refers to Christopher Columbus and the ending -ia is a common Latin ending in country’s names. So Columbia’s actual meaning is “Land of Columbus.”
In 1738, Edward Cave’s The Gentleman’s Magazine was the first to use Columbia in print. The magazine published debates from the British Parliament, which was illegal; therefore, these debates were published under the fictitious “Reports of the Debates of the Senate of Lilliput.” Fictitious names were given to the people and places mentioned, and the “European colonies of the New World” received the name Columbia. Near the American Revolution, the majority of Parliament debates directly affected the colonies. This being the case, America became very familiar with the name Columbia, and the name stuck.
Many people today are not aware that Columbia was once a female personification of the new America. It is important to understand that before there was an Uncle Sam, there was Columbia, also known as Lady Columbia or Miss Columbia.
Columbia was ultimately replaced by the Statue of Liberty. While Lady Columbia has deep roots in America’s history, Lady Liberty has since taken over.
Before Washington, D.C., became America’s capital in 1800, the Congress met in a number of different locations, including Baltimore, Trenton and New York City. Congress passed the Residence Act in July 1790, which declared that the capital of the new nation would be situated somewhere along the Potomac River and granted President George Washington the power to choose the final site. In September 1791, the commissioners named the federal city in honor of Washington and dubbed the district in which it was located the Territory of Columbia. The name Columbia, derived from explorer Christopher Columbus, was used during the American Revolution era as a patriotic reference for the United States (In 1871, the Territory of Columbia officially was renamed District of Columbia.)
Today, America’s capital city has more than 650,000 residents, and they’re represented by a non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. The 23rd Amendment gave citizens of D.C. the right to vote for president, starting in 1964, and since 1974 Washingtonians have elected their own mayor and city council.
Link to Hankering for History.com, America’s Columbia (A Female Personification)
http://hankeringforhistory.com/americas-columbia-a-female-personification/
Link to Ask History, How did Washington, D.C. get its name?
http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/how-did-washington-d-c-get-its-name
SleepyHeads! Will we discover who the new Witness is? Tune in next week to find out!
January 13, 2017 – Season 4 Episode 2 – “In Plain Sight”
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