This week’s episode was incredibly hyped up so, needless to say, my expectations were high. While some predictable revelations came to light, this episode was definitely a season 2 standout. Let’s get into it…

MANHATTAN

In Manhattan we found Bae and, as I predicted, we learned that he and Emma’s ex Neal were one in the same. After she chases him down the two come face to face and Emma is not a happy camper. She basically rips his head off. Considering the magical context of their conversation, he moves the party to a bar where he relays that he didn’t know who she was when they met and if he had he would have stayed away. Neal relays how August showing him a piece of paper that read “I know you’re Baelfire” made him leave Emma all those years ago. To which she brilliantly replies, “You let me go to prison because Pinocchio told you to?”

Neal has spent a lot of time avoiding his dad so he convinces Emma to tell Rumple that he got away. Rumple doesn’t exactly take this lying down and decides to break into his apartment. After he deduces Emma is lying he threatens to physically harm her. He’s about 60 years old and has a limp, is he going to hit her with his cane? At that moment, Neal barges in and saves his former ladylove. Everything unravels as Neal and Henry learn they are father and son, Rumple learns Bae wants nothing to do with him, and Emma looks on the verge of a panic attack the entire time.

As Emma consoles a distraught Henry on the fire escape, Rumple and his son get a minute alone and Neal makes it clear he has no interest in reconnecting. After Rumple (stupidly) suggests turning his son 14 years old again, Neal tells him he’s still trying to use magic to fix his mistakes. The conversation ends with Neal saying, “I didn’t get closure, so you don’t either.” Then he goes outside and meets his son for the first time, determined not to make the mistakes his father did.

STORYBROOKE

Regina and Cora were up to their old tricks this week as they tried to find Rumple’s ‘Dark One dagger’ in order to make him do their bidding. They recruit Hook under the guise that they will help him get his revenge if they can get their hands on the dagger. Can we note that Cora got a whole new modern-day wardrobe already and Hook is still wearing his leather pants and eyeliner? Not that he doesn’t look good in them…

Anyways, the ladies and Hook find a map to the dagger in the library and it was all strangely easy to find considering Rumples penchant for secrecy, but let’s just go with it. After Hook uses his pirate ways to decode the map, he’s thrown aside (literally, into a bookcase) by the ladies who were just using him to get the dagger for themselves.

And let’s not forget David not realizing Henry can have two grandfathers when they learn that Rumple’s son is Henry’s father. David, you are pretty but maybe not the brightest. But I did like your realization that if there were Thanksgiving in the Fairytale World it would be one messed up event.

Oh, and weirdo stranger Greg got a video of Regina using magic and I am just tired of that plotline already.

FAIRYTALE LAND THAT WAS

Obviously this week’s flashback portion of the episode was Rumple related. Rumple is recruited for the Ogre Wars, which I guess is an honor? While he’s away awaiting battle he encounters a Pan’s Labyrinth-looking seer that tells him his wife is pregnant and that his actions on the battlefield will leave his son fatherless. Desperate to combat this fate, he injures himself (and gets his trademark limp) and returns home to find that Milah has given birth to Baelfire. She says she gave him a strong name to offset his weak and cowardly father, denouncing him for injuring himself and abandoning the war. She claims she’d rather her son have a dead dad than a cowardly one. Ouch, Milah is cold-blooded.

The episode ends with a Dark One-era Rumple encountering the seer again when she is an adult. Bae has already fallen through the portal and he demands to know if he will see him again. She says yes, but that the young boy who leads him there will be Rumple’s undoing. To which he replies, “Then I’ll just have to kill him!” Cut back to Neal’s apartment where Rumple is staring at Henry…murderously?

QUESTIONS

-We see in next week’s preview that Neal knows Hook, and since Neal should be way older than he is, can we assume he’s Peter Pan? Or at least a Lost Boy?

-Will Hook ever find normal clothes?

Alexa can be reached at [email protected].