Who is dark and who is light? This episode blurred the lines of what we’ve come to know in our favorite fairy tale town. A new villain rises and an old villain is reborn.
(ABC/Jack Rowand)
The episode opens with the Dark Swan intruding on the dwarves work in the mines. Surprising them all, she only wants Happy’s axe. Dwarves’ axes can cut through anything and that’s how she thinks she will free Excalibur from the stone. Dark Rumple explains that only a true hero can release the sword and he tells her she knows who that has to be: a reborn Mr. Gold.
Down the street in Storybrooke, the dwarves confront Charming and Snow about Emma stealing Happy’s axe. And the dwarves are none too pleased about the manner in which Swan has been protected and thus allowed to wreak havoc on the town. Charming feels like he’s let Emma down by not stopping her but Snow reminds him that he did the right thing and he will always be her hero. Arthur seeks Charming’s aid because someone in Storybrooke has stolen his relics. Feeling the need to be helpful, Charming is on the case and we see the two of them become great buddies as is also paralleled in Camelot….
Weeks earlier, Arthur and Charming embarked on another quest: to find the toad stool in the Forest of Eternal Night that allows the group to communicate to Merlin (something the ladies read in one of Merlin’s books). As the royal duo reach the forest, there’s only room on the bridge for one, so Charming insists he be the one to grab the toad stool across the way. As he heads back with the prized possession, he’s attacked by three bodiless knights that ascend from the waters below. Charming fends off the three, but a fourth beneath bridge pulls him into the water! Arthur comes to the rescue. Although Charming is grateful, he is also disappointed because he lost the toad stool in the fight. Seeing his heroic and selfless efforts, Arthur knights Charming in a ceremony and invites him to sit at the roundtable. But not just as any knight, he is the Siege Perilous – the knight pure of heart.
Flash forward back to Storybrooke where Charming and Arthur have discovered who the relics thief is and are on the pursuit. Once caught, Griff, a villager, admits he wanted to hurt the king by stealing his goods. Arthur is really after a magic bean but Griff explains that there was never one in there. While looking in the stolen chest, Charming comes across the toad stool! It seems the legendary King has been keeping it from the heroes all this time. In Camelot, he kept it from them claiming it would hurt the safety of the kingdom. We see Lancelot again who warns Snow that Arthur is a villain. And to prove that point, in Storybrooke, we learn that Arthur did not have a magic bean and asks Griff to drink poison so no one will ever be able to know Arthur lied about that AND plans to take Storybrooke for his own. The villager sacrifices himself to his king and drinks the poison and a new villain is born.
Since the whole episode is centered on Charming, our heroic Prince, I kept waiting for the moment where the moment where Swan catches him, but about halfway through I knew that was too easy for OUAT. They don’t usually have a long set up like that, there had to be some sort of twist. That’s why with Emma’s meeting with Hook on the Jolly Roger was incredibly suspicious to me. At first I thought Hook was the hero Emma needed or she would use him to coax the hero into working for her. But it turned out she needed the sword he used against Rumple (a sword that touch Rumple before he became the dark one – something Belle explained she needed in order to bring him back).
Speaking of Belle, how cute was she when the rose became alive once more?! While I’m happy if she’s happy, I help but think she shouldn’t get her hopes up too soon. I think Rumple and the darkness will always find each other. Some other great moments, worthy of mention are Hook and Robin’s buddying bromance ( I loved the joke about the sonogram), Regina telling Zelena she will make sure the baby is safe but not Zelena, Hook telling Swan he “loved her” past tense and of course reborn Rumple versus the Dark One.
What did you all think of this episode? Do you also have the following questions?
- Why is the Sheriff’s office and jail area always open?
- Why would Charming let Arthur drive his car?
- How does Arthur know how to drive a car?!
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