“Belle, you always brought out the best in me. And right now, I need that. So I will do everything I can to bring you back, for you and for me.”
- Mr. Gold
I have to say I wasn’t as big a fan of this episode as I was hoping to be. I was honestly hoping for a little more Emma and Neal to be honest. Then again, I’m always hoping for more of them. They had a whopping two scenes together and Neal had another sans his ex. We begin in Mr. Gold’s hop and the Charming/Gold clan is celebrating Henry’s birthday. Gold allows him to pick anything from the shop as a present and he picks a magic wand. Gold shows him how to use it but turns henry to porcelain and smashes him, citing the prophecy. Luckily it was just a very bad dream for Gold. The next morning he finds himself down at the park watching Henry and Neal practice with wooden swords. Regina stops by and is confused about what’s going on. Her confusion turns to anger when Mr. Gold explains the family connection. She’s determined to get back at him, convinced he knew in some way. He heads over to visit Belle in the hospital and she’s genuinely relieved to see him alive. He promises to help her regain her memory if she will help bring out the best in him so the Charmings will accept him into the fold. Unfortunately, Regina stops by and curses Belle with fake memories via a matchbook (much like David got his cursed memories back via the windmill in Gold’s shop last season).
In the Fairytale Land that was, Belle is newly indentured to Rumple and she’s been crying every night. He’s grumpy because he spins at night and does his best thinking then. He conjures a pillow to muffle her cries when a window somewhere shatters. A hooded man has broken in and he’ stealing a magic wand (the same one from Gold’s nightmare). The archer (it is obvious who he is) tries to shoot Rumple from his magic bow but all it does is piss Rumple off. As we know, magic comes with a price and this price is torture. And Belle is horrified at the lengths Rumple is going to just because the guy stole a wand. In fact, she’s so horrified she lets him go while Rumple is away.
Because I despise Tamara and find her and Greg’s plotline stupid, I’m going to get their story out of the way quickly. Greg shows her the videos he’s taken of magic all over town and they discuss a package that Tamara has just outside of town. That night, they meet and we find that Hook didn’t really escape. She just tied him up and stuffed him in a U-Haul truck.
Meanwhile, Emma gets clued in on the magic bean crop. She has an amusing reunion with Anton, including an explanation for his human size. She then turns on her parents when she realizes they’re growing the beans to go home. Charming says they think it will be good for the whole family to go back and fix the place up. She’s not so sure. Back at the hospital, Gold finds that Bell has disappeared and he finds the matchbook to The Rabbit Hole. He ventures there to find Belle, now going by the name Lacey, dressed somewhat slutty playing pool. He storms into Regina’s office and demands she restore Belle. Regina says she can’t and that she knows he won’t hurt her because it would ruin things with Neal. He swears he’s going to make Lacey fall in love with him or there will be hell to pay.
In an effort to get Lacey to fall for him, Gold enlists Charming as his wingman (with the promise that Gold will, for the first time ever, owe him a favor). I have to say on rewatch, this was pretty hilarious. Gold and Lacey have zero in common but Charming urges him to just ask her out. And by some weird stroke of luck she agrees. In Fairytale Land, Rumple discovers his prisoner has absconded and he goes on this big tirade that Belle probably thought he was a noble hero and deserved to be set free. She disagrees, saying she could see good in the thief’s heart. Well that just spurs Rumple to hunt the thief down and kill him. And because of her part in his escape, Belle gets to go along for the ride (and the cleanup). Back in Storybrooke, Regina finds Emma on the docks reading the story book and is still grumpy no one told her Neal is Henry’s dad. Emma retorts she was going to tell Regina but she was kind of busy avoiding death by angry queens. Emma suggests Regina stop worrying about everyone else and start focusing on herself before Henry is gone for good. Kind of a bad slip up there, Emma because now Regina is going to go snooping. That evening, when the Charmings drop off the dwarves at Granny’s, she uses magic to follow the tire tracks back to the field and easily dismantles the cloaking spell Mother Superior used. So now she’s clued in on the magic bean crop, too.
Gold’s dinner date with Lacey is anything but successful. He’s nervous as all get out, he order wrong for her and he spills his drink all over her dress. Lacey does say that she’s heard he’s kind of a bad boy but that she just doesn’t see it. Gold thinks this is a good thing and that she’ll still see the good in him like Belle does. Unfortunately, when she doesn’t come back from the bathroom he goes looking for her and finds her snogging Keith (aka the former Sherriff of Nottingham) Speaking of, as Rumple and Belle hunt down the thief, they run into the Sherriff. He wants to make a deal with Rumple. He’ll share intel on the thief if Rumple allows him some time with Belle. Rumple says she’s not for sale (he’s beginning to fall for her already) and steals the Sherriff’s tongue to make a new deal. And we now have the name of our thief; Robin Hood. So it makes quite a lot of sense why Gold is incensed with anger at the sight of his love making out with him. He’s so angry he says that he and Lacey aren’t together anymore and storms off.
For the only real scene they share together, Neal shows up at Emma’s place with Henry over his shoulder, worn out and fast asleep from a day in the park. Emma asks if Neal ever thought about going home but he says he’s spent his life running from there so it hasn’t been high on his places to visit again. He mentions they saw little August at the park and he’s a cool kid (aka eh doesn’t steal Neal’s money). So apparently he and Emma had a discussion about the watch money off screen at some point. Well I guess, if I can’t get Neal decking adult August for it, it makes sense I don’t get them sharing that moment. Emma wishes they knew what August was trying to warn them about and Neal says she’ll figure it out because she always finds what she’s looking for.
Things end up going okay for Robin Hood actually. After Rumple and Bell track him to a meet-up with a carriage, they see him heal a dying (and very pregnant) woman. Rumple shoots an arrow but doesn’t hit them. He obviously wanted to miss. So there is some good in him. When they return to the castle, Rumple even gifts Belle with a library to clean (and all the books she could ever want). He even gets a hug from her. Mr. Gold and Lacey’s ending isn’t quite as happy. She happens upon him later that evening as he’s beating the crap out of Keith with his cane. I have to say, someone really ought to take that thing away from him. She’s into the darkness he’s displaying. So maybe he has to embrace his darkness to get Belle back. Though to be honest, I wasn’t that surprised she wanted him dark when Belle wanted him light.
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