********SPOILERS********
Special Guests: Captain Hook, Mister Smee
While much of this episode was boring and trite, the last 20 minutes were real fun. Not just cute, but “Peter Pan never grows up” fun. The costumes for this episode were outstanding, so were the sets. Visually, this show just gets better and better, even though the writing isn't up to the same standard.
(Need to catch up? Don't miss Synde's recaps of the Season 2 premiere (2.01), episode 2.02, and last week's episode 2.03.)
Gold gives Belle a beautiful necklace; she is ecstatic and tells him so. Grumpy comes in shouting about how Gold took his axe and he wants it back. Gold gets furious and violent, nearly choking Grumpy to death. Belle wakes up with a start, realizing she's had a bad dream and goes to find Gold. Looking through the basement window, she sees him conjuring a spell.
Timid Rumpelstiltskin from the past walks into a tavern where we see his wife Mila, drinking with some scoundrels. He calls to her and she humiliates him in public. Their child Balfour calls for his mom and she responds and leaves with them. At home, she tells Rumpelstiltskin that he is a coward and she can barely stand him.
The next day, a maiden from the town tells Rumpelstiltskin his wife has been captured by pirates. He goes to the ship to get her back and meets the Pirate Captain, who completely humiliates Rumpelstiltskin yet again, by calling him a coward. (see a theme, people?)
Belle confronts Gold about the spell casting, he makes excuses and she gets angry. He tells her magic is power, and that he needs it. Belle looks as though she has woken up from a dream and she tells him what he really needs isn't power, but courage. She calls him a coward and storms out. Gold is crestfallen.
Rumpy is in a tavern talking to a stocky fellow in a red cap (remember that cap, folks, it's a clue!!!) about a magic bean that can help you travel between worlds. They make a deal for the bean so that Rumpy can go find his son and just as he is about to leave the Pirate Captain and crew come in. Rumpy seethes.
Belle goes to Granny's diner where her and Ruby have a talk. Ruby suggest Belle take a job at the library. She goes over to the library and looks in windows, seeing scads and scads of books. It's a job made for her! Just then a dude in a red cap approaches her with a kind face, only to kidnap her.
Scary Rumpy hijacks Captain in the alley, making with the maniacal giggles again. (oh how I have missed that chittering!) The captain asks “who is this crocodile?” Rumpy tells them who he is and the pirates all freak out, as if Blackbeard himself has just shown up. Rumpy asks about Mila to which the Captain tells him she passed many years ago.
He loses it and after some fancy fighting and snarky quips goes to pulling his heart out of his chest. Just then, Mila shows up dressed like a Pirate Queen and ready to rumble.
Gold goes to Charming to ask for help finding Belle. At first Charming is hesitant, but Gold appeals to Charming's sense of love and he reluctantly agrees. They traipse all over town trying to get info and then go to Belle's father's flower shop. Hollering ensues, but not any pertinent info. They leave and Belle's kidnapper reunites her with her father who is all ranty about Gold. She sees that her father is also a coward and threatens to leave. Father tells the red-capped kidnapper to take her away. AWAY WHERE???
Meanwhile, back in the the tavern alley, Rumpy is furious that the pirates lied to him; he is about to kill everyone when it is revealed that Mila actually has the “magic bean” Rumpy so dearly needs. She agrees to hand it over for the life of the Captain. (Rumpy even alluded to time running out by saying “tic toc” just like the croc)
Ruby tells Charming and Gold that she can find Belle by “smelling her out” because it's some “wolf thing.” Okay, we get it Ruby, you are a wolf. They are baffled because Belle's trail ends right in front of the flower shop. Gold tells them this is her father's shop and they go in to confront him again. After more yelling he tells them he did what he had to do and it's too late now. Charming figures out that he is sending her across the town line so she will forget about Storybrooke altogether. They make for the mining tunnels.
Back at the Pirate ship, the Captain and Mila bring Rumpy aboard to get his magic bean. Rumpy confronts Mila about their son, and she basically tells him she hated him more than she loved their son, so she had to get away. Rumpy calmly rips her heart from her chest, pretty much killing her on the spot. The Captain calls him a coward so after a bit of fighting and some threats about being tortured for the rest of his life, Rumpy cuts off the Captain's hand (see where they are going yet?), to which the Captain retaliates by throwing a hook into Rumpy's chest. Rumpy just laughs and disappears in a puff of purple smoke, leaving the hook on the ship's deck. The Captain picks it up and
looks at it knowingly.
Charming and Gold make it to the tunnels in time to save Belle and they also find kidnapping dude's red cap. Belle thanks them for saving her, but makes it clear she wants nothing to do with either her father or Gold ever again.
Gold is near tears. Later that day, Ruby gives Belle a key to the library saying that a stranger dropped it off for her. She happily goes there, and is met inside by Gold who tells her the job is hers if she wants it. He says he is a coward because he loves power more than anything else. He tells her he was making a spell to try to break the curse that holds people in Storybrooke so he can go look for Balfour. He says all magic comes with a price and even if he can break the spell he might not recognize his son once finding him. He turns to leave and Belle stops him and asks him out for a hamburger. (???) He smiles and leaves.
Pirate Captain gives Mila a burial at sea, and then tells little red capped guy that he is going to keep the magic bean. The little dude is flummoxed and asks what he gets in return. He is told he gets to live and be first mate on the ship. He asks him his name, and our little guy replies....Patrick Smee!!! ( I think I actually giggled like Rumpy right then). While screwing on his new hook hand, the Captain says “well, Mister Smee we sail now for a land where we will never grow old, where I can plot my revenge” Smee asks what this new land is called and the Captain shows “NEVERLAND”!!
Gold walks into his basement where we see kidnap guy now known as Smee tied up. Gold insists he tell him where HE is. Smee makes with the dumb.
Last Scene:
Capetian Hook is standing on a bone filled beach looking through a spyglass at Skull Island, Cora walks up and tells him she has found a way for them to get to Storybrooke. He asks her if she is there (meaning Regina) and Cora replies “yes and so is he...”
Tic toc indeed, here comes the Crocodile.
I loved the idea of Rumpelstiltskin being the crocodile to the Captain, and the anonymous nature of Mister Smee until the end. So tell me, what did you think? What are you looking forward to and what did you think of Hook? He was nice to look at, wasn't he?
Synde Korman talks music and books on her website Tombstone Tails, along with creating a line of literary jewelry on her etsy site Cemetery Cat Designs.
When she’s not herding cats or creating art, she works as a part-time bookseller. You can find her on twitter as @psynde.
