This episode of Once Upon A Time was a revelatory one, and should have been titled “The Elephant In The Room.” But, I’ll get to why that title later. First, the recap. And, I’m going to try a new thing and divide up the three storylines into their own explanations.
Second Storyline
I’m going to start with the secondary storyline because it doesn’t really affect a lot. Regina is looking for someone’s tombstone in the cemetery. She gets information from Cruella that an upright stone means the person is in Underbrooke (as Regina has dubbed it), a tipped over stone means they have moved on to their happy place, and a cracked stone means something far worse. She and Snow head to find the grave of Daniel, Regina’s first love. The tombstone is tipped over, and Regina has a sweet final farewell to him. When they return to the town, they find a hurt horse. Regina uses magic to heal it, and there’s some kind of connection between them. Also, Regina realizes her magic is working again.
Flashback Storyline
Over in the Enchanted Forest we see the family Rumple on some kind of wood gathering task quest. Bae finds a snake by himself and gets bit. Milah and Rumple go to a healer, and that man does have a magic cure, but it’ll cost more than the family has. The parents plot to have Rumple kill the healer and steal the potion. As Rumple goes off to do the deed, Milah meets Hook/Killian in the tavern. When Rumple goes to commit murder, he can’t do it and the healer makes a deal to give him the potion. It turns out it’s to give the man Rumple’s second born child. Rumple thinks it’s fine as he and Milah can plan on never having another child. But, Milah resents Rumple to stop her from having a future.
Underbrooke Storyline
For the main storyline we start with Hades taking Hook to solitary confinement, which is suspending him on a lowering chain to the river of lost souls. This river will turn anyone into a ghost-like form with no real consciousness. Over in the town, Rumple makes a crystal ball thing to apparently see Belle. But, he is shocked and drops it. We don’t know why…yet. Rumple and Emma hatch a plan to go save Hook, but it employs Milah. Though she hates Rumple, she loves Hook and wants to save him. They use her to get through a barrier because she’s dead and Emma and Rumple are not. They all get through and travel on a ferry boat to get through the river and to Hook. Rumple and Milah stay with the boat, Emma rescues Hook. But, while Emma is away, Hades shows up, freezes Milah and takes Rumple to make a deal. Hades will send Rumple home if he destroys the boat, which is the chance for all of them to get home. We find Rumple agrees because he destroys the boat in front of an unfrozen Milah and tosses her into the river. He tricks everyone into thinking Hades attacked. Regina tries to do the split Emma’s heart in two in order to have Hook be alive again, but the group finds out that Hades has made tombstones of Emma, Regina, and Snow making them sort of dead and stuck in Underbrooke. When Rumple goes to have Hades return him, Hades reveals an adjustment to their agreement: Rumple will work for him now. How and why? Well, Hades had the healer sign over the contract to him, because in the Enchanted Forest the Dark One killed the man to try to nullify the contract. So now Hades can have Rumple’s second born child, and we find out why Rumple was shocked at seeing Belle. He tried to view his child through it, thinking he’d see Bae/Neal. The revelation is that Belle is pregnant.
Review
So, what did I think about this episode?
This was a huge episode with some great, exciting, and also awkward moments. The “Elephant In The Room” is that this episode addressed some of the weird family tree. Regina is going after her first love, though Robin is in Underbrooke. Then there’s Milah and Emma meeting and Rumple taking advantage of it by explaining Milah is the mother of Bae, who is the father of Emma’s son, and that she was Hook’s first lover. Somehow everyone gets through all of that and moves on. It was so awesomely awkward, and it’s been my own running joke about the show. I was glad they addressed it in some form.
There was a neat moment between Rumple and Milah where Milah explains her unfinished business is with Bae. Even Rumple’s inner turmoil at his continuous betrayal at the end of the episode were great performances.
This episode is the one I’ve been waiting for with the second half of the season. It had a lot of twists and turns that will perpetuate the story further. It even sort of nullified much of the previous two episodes as they rescued Hook and have an all new plot to follow. It was a quick turnaround. But, there are plenty of questions now posed from this change, and it still makes it a little hard to swallow. Despite that, this was a great episode with some amazing humor and good acting. I enjoyed it, and I now want more of this season. I wasn’t quite getting that with the previous two episodes.
Questions I Have
- How does Hades’ magic work? It seems like he can do anything, but has others do it? Why didn’t he just make the tombstones in the first place?
- Why is it just the three gals that have tombstones?
- So, everyone’s ok with this family tree?
- Will Robin Hood get more than three lines in any episode?
- What was with that horse??
Let us know what you think about the episode in the comments!
