Henry Parrish

"I bring not peace. I bring a sword."

- Henry, in Season 2 teaser trailer "Now you'll know what it's like to lose faith. When it's gone, you have nothing. And when you have nothing, there's nothing holding you back to what you're capable of."

- Henry, revealing his true identity as the Horseman of War to Ichabod before sealing him in his old grave Henry Parrish (born Jeremy Crane) is a major antagonist on the FOX television series Sleepy Hollow, serving as the main antagonist for the latter half of the second season.

The son of Ichabod and Katrina Crane, he made a deal with Moloch for his own freedom in exchange for becoming War, the Second Horseman of the Apocalypse, as part of Moloch's plan to bring forth the Apocalypse.

He is portrayed by John Noble, who also portrayed Denethor in Lord of Rings trilogy, Unicron in Transformers Prime, Walternate in Fringe, Brainiac in Superman: Unbound, and Scarecrow in Batman: Arkham Knight.

Early Life
Jeremy had a horrible childhood. His father, Ichabod, died defeating Death on the battlefield in 1781 (though his mother Katrina, being a witch, put him into suspended animation, knowing Ichabod would have rise again to face the Horseman). Katrina did not learn she was pregnant until after she had done this, pursued by Moloch's servants and her own coven, the Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart. Katrina sought sanctuary at Fredericks Manor, which was guarded by powerful forces; there, she managed to give birth to her and Ichabod's child. However, Moloch sent a Tree Monster to hunt her. Faced with no alternative, Katrina gave her newborn son to George and Grace Dixon, a couple who ran a church.

Unfortunately, Jeremy inherited his mother's powers and, in a fit of anger while still an infant, he set the building alight and killed the Dixons. He was then sent to an orphanage for war orphans, ran by a cruel priest who physically abused Jeremy, hoping to beat the evil out of the boy. One day, while being beaten, Jeremy accidentally turned a doll his mother had left for him into a monstrous Golem that killed the priest. Afterwards, the two traveled together, the Golem serving as Jeremy's protector and surrogate father.

Sensing Jeremy's immense power, the Sisterhood offered for him to join them, but since it was they who had banished his mother to Purgatory, Jeremy refused. They then banished the Golem to Purgatory and then buried Jeremy alive, using a hex to stop his heart. However, Jeremy proved too powerful and survived the spell, his powers keeping him alive. For two centuries, he rotted in the ground, eating the roots that grew in his coffin, praying and pleading for God, for his parents, for anyone, to help him.

Finally, Jeremy was released by Moloch and agreed to become the demon's second Horseman, War, to gain revenge for everything that had happened to him. His rising was witnessed by Abbie and Jenny Mills, both descendants of George and Grace Dixon, but Moloch casually erased both girls' memories.

After emerging from his grave, Jeremy found the re-built church he had accidentally burned down as a child. Seeing the church's name was "St. Henry's Parish," he took it as his own to spite God, and prepared for the awakening of his father Ichabod, which wouldn't occur for almost two decades. In the meantime, he hid under the pretense of being a Sin Eater.

Sometime after rising from the dead, Ichabod saw War, along with the other Horsemen, in a nightmare he was sent by Katrina, showing him they were going to rise.

Season 1
In Season One, Henry appears as a hidden quinary antagonist of the series, beginning as a "supporter" of the two Witnesses until the season finale. After Ichabod rose from his grave, Henry contacted Katrina in Purgatory, making her belief (quite rightly) that a Sin Eater could break the connection between Ichabod and Death. Katrina, in turn, contacted Abbie who, with Jenny's help, managed to track down Henry. When the Mills sisters visited him, he pretended to be unwilling before arriving at the Freemasons' hideout and freeing Ichabod from his link with Death.

In "The Golem," Ichabod contacted Henry again, asking him to use his powers to let Ichabod visit Purgatory to ask Katrina about their son, still unaware of Henry's true identity. Henry complied and sent his father to Purgatory, but accidentally brought back the Golem, who continued its duties to Jeremy by hunting down the remainder of the Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart. Ichabod managed to track down the four lead members of the Sisterhood, The Four Who Speak As One, who informed Ichabod of what they had done before the Golem killed them. The Four Who Speak As One also told him the Golem could only be killed by Jeremy's blood. Henry then revealed to Ichabod that, as Jeremy's father, it was his blood flowing through his son's veins and thus he could stop the Golem.

In "The Indispensable Man," Ichabod once again asked for Henry's aid to help them discover George Washington's secrets. Taking a dead priest's beads, Henry read the priest's sins (although it caused him great pain, as they had been protected to stop Moloch) and, with them, helped Ichabod and Abbie find Washington's grave, where Washington hid a map to gain access to Purgatory.

In "Bad Blood," Henry helped Ichabod and Abbie gain access to Purgatory to save Katrina, as she was necessary to cast the spell to stop War from rising, as Henry had seen it occur. He warned them of Purgatory's tricks and encouraged them to remember each other. After Ichabod and Katrina escaped (Abbie had to stay behind so Katrina could leave), he went with them to where War was supposed to rise. Katrina tried to cast the spell, but it didn't work as there was nothing under the earth.

Revealing his true colors, Henry telekinetically overpowered Ichabod and Katrina, and caused the trees to ensnare them, revealing that his powers greatly surpassed Katrina's. He then revealed who he really was: Jeremy, their son. He then recounted the torment he had endured over the years, how he had prayed and begged for help before his faith ran out and his anger turned towards them, as their choices were responsible for what had occurred to him. He also revealed he was War, the second Horseman of the Apocalypse. Using his blood, he re-opened the ground to reveal his coffin.

Jeremy was then met by Death, who handed him the second seal of the Apocalypse. He then magically knocked out his mother and gave her to Death, as she was what he (Death) wanted. He then imprisoned Ichabod in the same coffin he had lingered in for two centuries, revealing the plan was always to separate the two Witnesses, thus making it impossible for them to stop the Apocalypse. Jeremy then causally broke the second seal, stating that War had always been in Sleepy Hollow and now it could take physical form, before slamming the lid, imprisoning his father in the earth.

Season 2
Henry/Jeremy returns as the secondary and later primary antagonist of the series' second season.

In order to know the whereabouts of the Ghenna key which can unleash the lost souls from Purgatory (as well as Moloch) to Earth, Henry creates an illusion of a time one year later which makes himself "in custody," confusing Ichabod and Abbie. Not knowing the truth about the illusion, they keep Henry locked in the dungeon and bribe him to cooperate with a plant. Henry scans the files with his sin-eating powers, but announces there is nothing on the key in them. He then asks if Sheriff Corbin's files might have anything on the key. Ichabod and Abbie confer in the observation room next door, and Abbie says she remembers that Corbin had Jenny go to Philadelphia to get one of Benjamin Franklin's sketchbooks, but she doesn't know where it is.

All of a sudden, an eerie feeling washes over Ichabod and he can't remember any details of the past year; neither can Abbie. They don't remember how they captured Henry. Meanwhile, Henry rises up from his chair and easily breaks free of his chains, announcing that Moloch brought them to him for one final mission: to locate the key. Now he knows where it is: with Jenny. As the room falls apart around them, Henry announces that Abbie will remain in Purgatory while Ichabod will stay buried in the coffin where Henry left him in the first season finale.

Back in the real world, while Ichabod finds his way out of the coffin, Henry has Jenny brought to an empty warehouse and revives her with epinephrine. He brings up the sketchbook and tells her her lies are pointless since he can see through them with his sin-eating. He grabs onto her head and sees flashes of her and the sketchbook, then tells his lackey that Jenny's memory was in code and to keep her alive until he deciphers it. However, his plan fails when Ichabod frees himself and later frees Jenny and Abbie. After Ichabod and Abbie get out from the Purgatory, the doorway closes and Moloch remains trapped inside. The key is destroyed forever as well, succeeding Franklin's will.

Down in the catacombs, a horrified Henry talks to Moloch on the other side about his failure. Moloch opens up a doorway and a chainmail suit forged in fire walks through. Moloch reminds Henry that he's the Horseman of War and that he can use his soul to control the armor to secure Moloch's place on Earth. Henry manages to control the armored Horseman of War and presents it with a sword, which the warrior wields as it bursts into flames. He then swears to Moloch that he will find the way to bring the demon king back to Earth, and Moloch tells him not to fail him.

The day after he was scolded by Moloch, Henry goes to visit Abraham van Brunt, who is holding Katrina captive. They plan a binding ritual, which involves mixing Katrina with Abraham's blood and chopping her head off so that she can become Abraham's bride who is "as same as" the Headless Horseman. Ichabod predicts this in his dream, so he and Abbie manage to locate Abraham's cabin and pass by it. Confirming that Katrina is inside, they leave to search for the Kindred.

Henry and Abraham, both aware that Ichabod and Abbie passed by, set out a greater plan, but they are overheard by Katrina before making the plan. Enraged, Henry rushes back to Fredericks Manor, his birthplace. There, he summons his Horseman armor; in this form, Henry/War goes to Abraham's cabin where Death is confronting the Kindred and Abbie. Abbie shoots War, but it only enrages him and he rides towards Abbie. However, War is confronted by the Kindred and Abbie escapes. Both Death and War pursue the Kindred, but they fail. The Kindred vanishes into mist without any trace.

Later, Henry disguises himself as an attorney and somehow visits Cynthia Irving, telling her that he can solve her husband Frank's legal troubles. While Frank is being held in Tarrytown Psych by Sleepy Hollow's new sheriff Leena Reyes, Henry visits Frank and has him sign a paper. When Frank holds Henry's pen, he is pricked by the sharp metal on the pen. Henry takes off the metal, which is now covered with blood, and apologizes to Frank, falsely claiming that pen is old and damaged. Frank accepts his apology and signs the form, unknowingly selling his soul to Moloch.

Before leaving Tarrytown, Henry uses his legal expertise to ban Crane and Abbie from visiting Frank. After that, he leaves for a bank, talking to bank clerk Lydia Galway and exchanging his coins to cash. Lydia sends him away but ends up exposed to a Tyrian shekel which contains a curse that can make people betray their loyalties to others. The coin turns her from a loyal clerk to a mindless robber, just like what similar coins did to Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold.

After leaving the bank, and returning back to Fredericks Manor, Henry has finished a full model replica of Sleepy Hollow. Meanwhile, he manuipulates the bombing in a flower shop. The bomber is the shop owner's son, who used to be kind and easy-going, yet turned twisted right after he picked up the Tyrian shekel fell on the ground when Lydia was shot down by Leena Reyes. Poilce officers arrested the bomber, yet he claims to be innoncent and hires a lawyer. The lawyer is, no doubt, Henry Parrish.

Henry manages to stole the shekel and replaces it with an oridinary quarter. In the hallways, Crane confronts him, saying they won't let him turn anyone else with the coin. Henry argues it doesn't turn anyone, just brings out what's already there. He promises more demonstrations before he leaves. Soon after, Henry finds Jenny and makes her to pick up the accursed coin and turns paranoid. Jenny tries to find and kill Reyes, in order to avenge her mother Lori, but is stopped and saved by Abbie. Ichabod and Hawley manages to erase the curse on the coin, and Hawley keeps it.

After his plan failed, a fraustrated Henry looks at the bed where he was born. He refuses to recall the memories for it makes him painful, and then he uses his powers to incinerate it. He watches it burn, apparently not feeling much of a connection to anything.

Unbeknowest to Henry, Ichabod found Frank Irving and reveals Henry's true nature. Doubtful about this, Frank reads the bible in his room and realized how hazardous the Horseman of War is. He has a vision of himself as a danmed soul going absolutely crazy on townspeople as Sleepy Hollow burns and the Horseman of War rides. Fearing of becoming the puppet of evil, Frank invited Henry into his room and told him he would be fired.

Henry says he could quit, but then the payments to Irving's wife would stop, as would the insurance for his daughter, and Irving's own case would be delayed indefinitely. Henry tells Irving he just wants to help him, claiming War is an instrument of justice. Irving asks Henry what he's done to him and Henry cites a bible verse: Ezekiel 18:4. Irving races to read it: "Behold all souls are mine." He remembers pricking his finger on Parrish' pen when he signed his legal documents, and he realized that Henry had took his soul.

Back into the Fredericks Manor, Henry orders a Hessian troop to buy the Pied Piper's flute (which is now broken) from Hawley, and he grinds it to dust. He used the dust to curse Joe Corbin, the son of August Corbin, making him into a cannibalistic Wendigo and forcing him to search the poison known as Jincan for Henry via a letter.

Henry then look at his model of Sleepy Hollow, when Abraham sent messages to him via a mirror. He told Henry that Katrina secrectly used magic, even if they limited her power. Henry suggested that they should perform the Binding Ritual at anytime needed. Wanting to assure Katrina's safety, however, Abraham rejected and disappeared. Henry then opened a book with Katrina's signature on it, wanting to use her "sin" to start his plan if she had one. By reading the signature in his mind, he saw a flashback with a former lover of Ichabod named Mary Wells, her talk with Ichabod, and Mary's dying corpse on ground. Then, Henry summoned Mary's soul to break the trust between his parents, though he did not really want to harm them.

However, the plan soon came up to Moloch. Furious about Henry starting his own agenda, Moloch angrily dragged Henry to his lair and scornfully scolded Henry that he wants Katrina alive as she is a "Hellfire Shard", a chosen vessel. Henry explained to Moloch that his plan is just set to please the Demon King, but Moloch taunting Henry ever further, calling him a mere soldier. Finally, the selfish and cruel words made Henry broke into tears. Moloch then pushes Henry back into Fredricks Manor and leaving him crying insanely like a child.

More Coming Soon!

Personality
"I relish any opportunity to cause my parents pain."

- Henry

As he was always alone, Henry/Jeremy enjoyed solitude and despised others greatly as those he loved had died and everyone else saw him as a monster, some even punishing him for his powers. As a young child, when Jeremy created his Golem, he felt like he had a true friend and father to watch out for him and was satisfied to be alone with his Golem as it protected him from anyone else. As the Sisterhood of the Radiant Heart was responsible for trapping his mother in Purgatory, he grew to resent the Sisterhood and refused to join them at every opportunity. When they trapped the Golem in Purgatory and attempted to murder him, he seethed in anger and rage for two centuries under the ground.

As no one but his Golem was anything close to a friend or family, he felt alone. As Moloch offered him a place of power and released him from his tomb, Jeremy was more than willing to accept Moloch as his "true father," seeing that Ichabod and Katrina's absences in his life were a betrayal that created his life of suffering. Later episodes showed that he remembered events from his childhood when in places where they occurred, but these memories only served to make him more resentful of his parents.

After losing his armor in battle against Frank and then being sent to his doom by Moloch, Henry saw the demon king as cruel and uncaring, even to the point of feeling hurt when Moloch stated that there had been Horsemen before Henry and there would be Horsemen after him. This resulted in Henry finally forgiving his parents and turning against Moloch, especially after Ichabod pleaded with Jeremy to take his life instead of Katrina's.

Powers and Abilities

 * Pyrokinesis: As a baby, his crying would cause fires to erupt.
 * Golem Creation: Henry was capable of creating a Golem at a young age, requiring the doll he was left as a baby and a drop of his own blood.
 * Sin Eating: As a Sin Eater, Henry is capable of sensing the pain and sins of objects or people, and of digesting their sins to sanctify them, with the power being more potent when in physical contact with the sinner. He claimed that he increasingly lost his identity the more often he used this ability, due to having to take on the identities of the sinned individuals for the sinners. One of the sins he can detect is as small as a simple lie to someone.
 * Telekinesis: The ability to move or otherwise manipulate objects by will alone.
 * Sleep Inducement: He was capable of putting Katrina to sleep by merely squinting his eyes.
 * Astral Projection: Henry has the ability to reach across dimensions into Purgatory to allow the dead to speak to the living and to send the living's conscious into Purgatory. It can only work if the living person will is hard enough to have the person they wish to speak to appear before them and it is easier to enter Purgatory if the willing person is closer to death.
 * Illusion: Henry was able to trap Ichabod and Abbie in a illusion that he twisted to his will.
 * Armor Animation: He was granted a suit of armor by Moloch that he can animate at will for combat purposes. May only be an extension of his telekinesis. This ability seems to require absolute focus, as Jeremy is seen sitting perfectly still as he manipulated the armor against the Kindred. After losing the armor in battle against Frank wielding the Sword of Methuselah, he could no longer animate it with his soul; in addition, should the armor become damaged, he would suffer injury, such as feeling pain in his arm.
 * Sword of Fire: The armor could ignite the blade of its sword at will to possibly cauterize as well as cut through enemies or obstacles.
 * Durability: The armor was quite durable enough to withstand multiple gunshots from a shotgun. However, the armor proved vulnerable to the magical properties of the Sword of Methuselah, as the sword was able to slice off one of the arms and then reduce the rest of the armor to a puddle of molten metal.
 * Immortality: According to Henry himself, he is immortal as the Horseman of War by the time of Moloch's rise, rendering him immune to both gunshots from Blackbeard's flintlocks, and to the soul-removing effects of the Sword of Methuselah.

Famous quotes
"I have been called many things--angel, demon. Until now, I wasn't sure what was true. For so long, I've hoped for this day. To find the reason for what I've been given. And now I know. The reason is you."

"As God Himself declares, I bring no peace but a sword."

"War isn't coming to Sleepy Hollow. It has been here, waiting, all along...and now, it begins. Goodbye, Father."

- Henry, to Ichabod, as he traps him inside his old grave

"Don't say "no." Say "rise." Rise, my Horrid King. Rise, Moloch."

"War is hell."

"Hello, Sleepy Hollow. Time to wake up."

""How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child." King Lear."

- Henry, quoting Shakespeare to Ichabod

"Perhaps I should thank you for the twinkle in my eye."

- Henry, to Ichabod, during their confrontation at Tarrytown

"Oh, my. Is this to be an attempt to start over? Are you going to take me down to the fishing hole?"

- Henry, to Ichabod

"Magnificent..."

- After seeing his Horseman armor wield its sword

"It's perfect..."

- After grinding Pied Piper's flute and tasting its dust

"Tell me of the Abraham's sacrifice, the Akeda. The story of a cruel, merciless god who designed a cruel, merciless world. Who could worship a deity who commands a man to sacrifice his own son? Those days have come to an end. True lesson of the story comes not from Abraham but from Isaac. Chasm between father and son was never bridged; they never spoke again and justly so: For any man willing to sacrifice his child should die...and so should any god!"

- To Ichabod, as he kills Moloch with the Sword of Methuselah

"Good morning, gentlemen. (Thug: What the hell?) I know you're all very busy, destroying your lives, day after rich day. (Thug: What do you want?) Well, you see, I, too, have been destroying my life. For weeks now, I've hid from the world, unsure of who I am or what I am to do. You see, I killed my "father", and since that time, all I could feel was... crushing regret. But then I saw you threatening the woman and her son. (Thug: Huh, is that what this is about? You don't need to get all Papa Bear about it.) Oh, no, you've got it wrong. I admit that for a moment I was drawn to what Mary and Ronnie represented. A simple life, simple needs, humanity... but then you reminded me of something. There is a natural order of things in this world. There will always be sheep and wolves... and I... I am a wolf."

- to the three thugs at the motel before killing them

Trivia

 * He is one of the many Sleepy Hollow villains who was not revealed to be evil at first.
 * He is similiar to Darth Vader. Both of them are biologically related to hero, and went corrupted due to their tragic trauma and the main villain (Moloch to Henry and Emperor Palpatine to Vader), and they both ended up killing their masters when they were about to kill their family. In addition, both of them fits the trope Death Equals Redemption.
 * He also shares similiarities with Kylo Ren and his Expanded Universe counterpart - Darth Caedus. All three of them are son of hero who lost their way and manipulated by a powerful evil.
 * His birth name, Jeremy, was named after Ichabod's grandfather.
 * Chronologically, he is the third character who John Noble portrayed in FOX series, after Walter Bishop and Walternate in Fringe.
 * He is the second villain who John Noble portrayed in a FOX series, right after Walternate.
 * He is very similiar to Mr. Gold:
 * Both of them have truly tragic backstory that are not merely Freudian excuses when they were young, and both of them were light-hearted before their corruption.
 * The most important thing is, both of them killed their loveless and ruthless "fathers" (Moloch to Henry; and Peter Pan to Gold) as a noble choice, and their act disproved the theories that they are irredeemable Also, both of them was still yet to reform even at that time, for Gold was possessed by the Darkness and Henry again lost his way towards redemption.
 * However, there are a vital difference between Gold and Herny: the time of their redemption. Gold redeemed right after he was freed from the Darkness' control and is an anti-hero now, no longer the Dark One; but Henry returned to villainy even if he is no longer the Horseman of War yet he finally redeemed right before his demise.
 * Thanks to John Noble's amazing acting, Henry Parrish had become one of the most popular villains of Sleepy Hollow.
 * His "last name" is sometimes mispelled as "Parish" by some people instead of "Parrish".