“That’s my problem; hoping. Hoping that things can still work out. Hoping that I can find redemption for the mistakes that I’ve made. But maybe some things you just don’t come back from.”
- August
After rewatching this episode I have to say I’m still kind of lukewarm on it. We had a couple interesting back story pieces filled about August but the big reveal at the end was sort of a letdown. Though this episode does make the Neal/Emma shipper in me cheer that maybe the obstacle between them won’t be around much longer.
We start in Phuket on October 24, 2011. August is in bed with random naked woman. He wakes as the clock hits 8:15am and he sees his leg is turning to wood. His lady friend doesn’t seem interested. I laughed at just how silly his accent sounded. At least he didn’t wake up with a weird tattoo a la Jack on LOST. In Storybrooke, David is making Mary Margaret breakfast in bed again. Emma thinks he needs to stop and let her face the music and move on with her life. That apparently spurs Mary Margaret out of bed and to the woods for some target practice while listening to “Bad Reputation”. I have to say that was pretty awesome. As she’s shooting arrows, she hits something. Upon further investigation, she finds a completely wooden, but ambulatory, August hiding in a dingy trailer.
That isn’t the only surprise accosting the Charmings this week. Emma and Henry head over for a visit with Neal who promptly sends Henry on a hot cocoa run so he can chat with Emma. He tells her the bad news first; Hook has escaped the confines of that storage room (guess his leg was all healed up). And then we get the worse news; Tamara is 10 minutes out. But hey, she’s bringing bagels. Apparently that’s enough for Emma to stay and meet the new woman in her man’s life. I mean come on, Neal. What guy willingly encourages his ex and his current lover to bond? That just least to all kinds of weirdness. There was some awkwardness between Emma and Neal when he blurts out that he needs Tamara. He realizes that probably hurt Emma a lot and she’s just brushing it off by saying she’s not the one being lied to.
In the woods, Mary Margaret fills August in on the goings-on in town, including Neal being back. There’s kind of a glimmer of hope (can wood glimmer?) that maybe Neal and Emma are back together. But that’s crushed when she mentions his fiancée. August is feeling pretty sorry for himself still and he tells Mary Margaret to leave and pretend she never saw and to not tell anyone about him. We flash back to Phuket. August is in the hospital but obviously the doctor he sees doesn’t believe him. He takes off running (after stabbing a scalpel in his leg) so as not to be dragged off in a straightjacket. A kid nabs him and says a man called The Dragon can help for a price. It’s apparently a long walk to get there and August has to do more waiting. But he does get to hand a pretty girl her cell phone after it falls out of her purse. And of course, that someone is Tamara.
Speaking of, she’s arrived with bagels (lots and lots of them) and Henry is interested to know how his future stepmom and his dad met. Apparently she was running late, Neal bumped into and then lent her his scarf to cover the coffee stain. Emma takes this moment to whisk Henry off to Grandpa Charming and Neal tries to explain to Tamara that he’s not from our world. Gotta say, leading off with “I’m from the Enchanted Forest” isn’t gonna win many points. She says he’s just covering because he still has feelings for Emma and that when he’s ready to deal with his feelings and tell the truth about himself, to find her. Don’t find her, Neal. Go find Emma!
I’m going to deal with the random Greg/Owen subplot in a quick little paragraph. Regina finds him eating pie at Granny’s and thanks him for telling her about Henry. She swears he looks familiar but he denies that they’ve ever met. Until he gets back to his room and she’s waiting for him all creepy like. Even the things she says about keeping the little gift he gave her sound extra creepy. He demands to have his father back but she says he left years ago and that if he doesn’t leave the next day, she’ll make him disappear. Totally pointless and wasted airtime if you ask me. I honestly don’t give a crap about him or his dad.
Down at Granny’s, Mary Margaret tells Emma and Marco that she found August but he’s gone all stiff. They hoof over to Mother Superior but she says she can’t help August because he didn’t heed her warning about being truthful, honest and unselfish. Mary Margaret is not going to give up. They’ll head to the woods to find him and drag his oaky ass back to town if they have to. Back in Phuket, August meets with The Dragon and has to give up the string that animated him as payment. Well and he needs $10,000 by that night. But the Dragon promises if August gets it, he won’t turn to wood ever again. He ends up running into Tamara at a bar and she’s flashing a big fat envelope of cash around in her bag. Tamara tells him she’s got rare cancer and she’s hoping the Dragon can cure her. She takes a call, giving August the perfect opportunity to snatch the cash and run. In Storybrooke, a knock comes on August’s trailer and as he angrily opens it, he finds Tamara standing outside.
August goes back to the Dragon with the cash and gets the potion that will save him. Before he can drink it, Tamara catches up with him and after a brief chase, his body gives out on him and he falls, tossing the vial into the air. She takes it and walks off, leaving him lying in the gutter. He is obviously surprised to see her. But he believes the potion worked since you know, she didn’t die from cancer. She says that there’s some of the potion left in New York and all he has to do is go now and not come back (I swear I’ve heard that in a fairytale somewhere before). August at least makes the connection that she is Neal’s fiancée and I think he was a little dismayed to find out Neal knows nothing about her plot (whatever that may be). In the woods, Marco admits to Mary Margaret and Emma that he made the Blue Fairy lie about the wardrobe. Mary Margaret slaps him (which he totally deserved) but they get to the trailer to find it empty. August is speeding away from town in Tamara’s car.
Tamara visits the Dragon the next day and says she’s analyzed the contents of the vial and there are no known elements from this world in it. SO she’s finally found the real deal. We still don’t know why she wants magic but she does. She whips out a serious stun gun and kills the Dragon. Seriously, that shouldn’t be possible. As August is driving off, he hits a pothole and the photo of Tamara and her grandmother falls out. He realizes he’s been played and races back to the Sheriff’s station. He manages to call Emma from the landline but only says he needs to warn her before Tamara yanks the cord from the wall. He tries to act tough and say he’s going to warn them but she stuns him too. Okay, he’s made of wood that doesn’t conduct electricity. Seriously people! Though I suppose August telling her she’s hit the mother lode of magic in Storybrooke was stupid because now she’s going to stick around probably try and steal Rumple and Regina’s magic, too. I really hope the Charming/Mills/Gold clan just takes her out.
The Charmings and Marco race to the station to find August stumbling outside. With his dying breath he tries to warn Emma about what’s going on but doesn’t get it out. Mother Superior (after Henry makes the connection) works her mojo and turns August back to human. There’s a catch though, he’s a kid again. So there goes my slug fest fantasy of Neal duking it out over the fact August stole all the watch money and blew it. But I guess it makes sense in a way. This is August’s second chance. He wanted a clean slate and the chance to start over. Tamara appears in time to see the magical transformation and acts not at all surprised. We get a flashback of how they first met. And it’s pretty accurate to what she told Henry. She leaves out the fact she’s spying on Neal and August as Neal heads up to Storybrooke to get Emma to break the curse. He even tells Neal there’s an upside to breaking the curse, he could see Emma again. Back in Storybrooke, Emma and Henry finally make up over the whole “I lied about your dad” thing and Mary Margaret comes clean to David about her pseudo suicide-by-evil-Queen. We end with Greg getting a call from Her, only to reveal it’s Tamara and they are apparently lovers. Yeah, Neal really needs to dump her ass fast.
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