Sleepy Hollow to Reveal the Headless Horseman's Past

Sleepy Hollowwill soon reveal the identity of the Headless Horseman who has been rampaging the town both in the past and present.

On the series premiere of the Fox drama, viewers learned that Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) was enlisted by George Washington to take a particularly difficult Hessian agent down. But the Hessian claimed Ichabod's life, cutting open his chest before Ichabod cut off his head in return. Their blood bound them together, which is why when the Headless Horseman was awoken in present day, so too was Ichabod. But who is Headless, really?

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"This probably falls under the heading of all bad guys are the heroes of their own story," executive producer Alex Kurtzman tells TVGuide.com. "The best bad guys actually have a core motivation that any of us understands and would relate to; we just may not cross the lines that they cross. It is 100 percent relevant to Sleepy Hollow and the characters. It's not a story line divorced from it. Hopefully you'll feel differently about Headless after you watch the show."

Now that Abbie (Nicole Beharie) and Ichabod have trapped Headless, they'll stop at nothing to find his weakness in order to kill him — a feat that won't be easy. But in doing so, Ichabod may uncover some truths that should've stayed buried. "[Headless] may have been a man," Kurtzman teases. "He may have been tempted by something, something we might all be tempted by. That tricky Moloch, he always promises you the thing that no one else can give you, but the question is: What's the price tag associated with it?"

In order to interrogate Headless, Abbie and Ichabod will enlist Andy (John Cho) to help them. But it remains to be seen whether they can really trust him since he also works for the horned demon Moloch. "The answer to that question will be revealed over the course of the season," Kurtzman says.

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But viewers will get some answers sooner rather than later since Sleepy will also dive more into Ichabod's past after he decided to change sides to help the colonies. "We're going to find out more about his history with Katrina [Katia Winter], about his friends, what he gave up back home and what his life was like before he was shipped off to the colonies," Kurtzman says. "He definitely has people he left behind."

Katrina, Ichabod's witch wife who is trapped in a limbo of sorts, has not been forgotten. In fact, Crane will pick up the charge to try to free her again soon. "She will become an incredibly important piece in what's coming up," Kurtzman teases. "All he wants to do is get back to his wife, so the big question is whether he'll be able to do that and free her. She's asked him for it and obviously he wants to figure out a way to do that."

Sleepy Hollow airs Mondays at 9/8c on Fox.