Wedding bells are ringing in Storybrooke, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t drama. Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) struggles with telling Emma (Jennifer Morrison) about killing David’s father, while Robin (Sean Maguire) and Regina (Lana Parrilla) have issues of their own to work out. Here is what happened in Sunday’s episode of Once Upon a Time.
Epic hero meets Disney
Do you remember the poem Beowulf that pretty much every high schooler had to read? Well, the epic hero makes an appearance in this week’s episode.
In the past, Beowulf (Torstein Bjørklund) is fighting in the First Ogres War, the same war in which Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) became the Dark One so he could look like a hero. Rumplestiltskin uses the Dark One’s dagger to kill all of the ogres, which makes Beowulf look bad. At this point in time, a young Baelfire is happy for his father, but encourages him not to use the Dark One’s magic ever again.
When some of the villagers need help to defeat the beast Grendel and rescue Beowulf, Baelfire convinces Rumplestiltskin to help without using magic. Rumplestiltskin gives Baelfire the dagger so he can control whatever Rumplestiltskin does. In Grendel’s cave, they find two dead villagers and a vengeful Beowulf. Beowulf made up Grendel in an attempt to blame everything on Rumplestiltskin. Beowulf snatches the dagger and orders Rumplestiltskin to stay in the cave to make it look like he killed the villagers.
When leaving the cave, Baelfire gets the dagger back and uses it to summon Rumplestiltskin. Baelfire abuses the power and orders Rumplestiltskin to kill Beowulf. When they get back to their home, Baelfire is high on power, so Rumplestiltskin gives him a memory potion to make him forget what happened. Baelfire is then led to believe Rumplestiltskin killed Beowulf on his own.
Rumplestiltskin helps his son
In Storybrooke, Belle, the Blue Fairy and Rumplestiltskin are on the hunt for Gideon. “I’ve already lost one son, and I won’t lose another,” Rumplestiltskin says.
Rumplestiltskin catches Gideon at the sheriff’s office stealing the sword he is supposed to use to kill Emma. Rumplestiltskin uses magic to put Gideon to sleep and ties him up in the clock tower. That must be how parenting goes in Storybrooke.
Gideon wants to become a hero so he can save the other people trapped by the Black Fairy, who is also Rumplestiltskin’s mother. To get a grasp on why Gideon wants to kill the Black Fairy, Rumplestiltskin asks Gideon to tell him what the Black Fairy did. Gideon says he had the opportunity to help the other captors but chose not to. Rumplestiltskin then gives Gideon a memory potion so he will forget. Gideon gives his father a hug and takes the dagger during the embrace. The memory potion didn’t work.
Gideon forces Rumplestiltskin to tell him how the sword can be mended. Restoring the sword requires the blood of the person who forged it — the Blue Fairy, who is his godmother. Gideon finds the Blue Fairy, but Rumplestiltskin refuses to let his son succumb to the darkness. Rumplestiltskin cuts the Blue Fairy’s hand and gets a drop of blood, which then sucks all of the magic out of her. Rumplestiltskin is going to help him with the Black Fairy but says to Gideon, “I won’t let you touch the darkness to do so.” In an odd way, this is Rumplestiltskin’s way of being the good guy.
Via giphy.com
Hook gets down on one knee
Early on in the episode, Hook wants to tell Emma the truth about killing David’s father, but he is not sure if she will want to marry him. That night, Hook goes to Emma’s home with intentions of telling her the truth. She comes down the stairs and he says he needs to tell her something. She assumes he is going to propose, jumps the gun and says “yes” before he starts talking.
It turns out Emma found the ring hidden in one of Hook’s sea chests. That was Hook’s first mistake — hiding it in a sea chest. Instead of stopping Emma, Hook takes the ring and gets down on one knee. The two are now engaged. It’s hard to celebrate the occasion when Hook is hiding something from Emma. Hopefully Hook can work things out because he and Emma are relationship goals.
An unlikely alliance
Robin and Regina are still on different pages, so Robin seeks help from someone else — Zelena (Rebecca Mader). Robin wants a way out of Storybrooke so he can have a fresh start and “new places to drink and more women to meet.” Wow, the differences between this Robin and the old Robin are obvious. Robin knows Zelena would like to get out of Storybrooke too, so he asks her to brew up a potion that will reverse any spell, including the protective spell surrounding Storybrooke.
With the cobra that is really the Evil Queen in hand, Zelena meets Robin at the town line. Robin pours the potion, but nothing happens. Regina shows up to tell them the potion won’t work, but she will help Robin get out of Storybrooke because she sees he doesn’t want to be there. Personally, I’m just happy Sean Maguire is still going to be on the show because he is easy on the eyes.
The return of a villain
After everything that happened with Robin, Zelena apologizes to Regina and to return the Evil Queen Cobra. When she takes the sheet off the cobra cage, the Evil Queen is not in there. The camera cuts to the snake-form of the Evil Queen slithering down Robin’s arm. The cobra bites Robin’s hand and turns into the real Evil Queen. It turns out Robin spilled a little bit of the magic-reversing potion on his hand. At this point, the return of the Evil Queen is underwhelming. I think the creators realized the Evil Queen was the best villain and are just trying to find ways to bring the character back. It’s exhausting.They seriously need to find new villains.
Via giphy.com
