I'm a pretty happy camper. I mean, this episode was designed to please me. Lots of Hook and Henry bonding, with a dose of Regina being a bad ass to top it off? Yes please.
Cons:
Ummmmm okay so the Evil Queen and Rumple kissed in this episode, and I felt my soul leave my body. Nobody wanted to witness that with their own two eyes. See, here's the thing. The Evil Queen and Rumple both have really confusing motivations right now, and it's making it hard for me to lock on to their story lines. The Evil Queen has been running around playing trickster for the past couple of weeks. This episode's evil mission was to put a wedge between Hook and Henry, which didn't end up working out for her. What is her purpose in stirring up all this silly family drama? Well, she tells Rumple that she wants Snow White's heart.
Still. This is Season Six, people. But, okay, let's say you're on board with the Evil Queen's endgame being revenge against Snow White. I'm okay with that. What I don't understand is why she feels the need to stick her nose into Emma, Killian, Henry, and David's business to get what she wants. I feel like the straightforward approach might do the job here, silly. Just kill her, okay?
And then there's Rumple, who wants the Shears of Destiny (the ones that can sever Emma from the destiny of a Savior). Why does he want them? To change the destiny of his family, so that he and Belle can be happy together. Or something. Since we have no idea how these Shears are supposed to function, this plot thread doesn't exactly make sense as of yet. And it's just another example of Rumple refusing to learn. Messing with people using magic is exactly what Belle finds so despicable about you, Rumple. Take a hint. Make a real change. Do something instead of just repeating the same damaging loop you've been repeating since day one.
Pros:
I'll start with subplots. Snow and David save Archie from Zelena's house, while Regina keeps Zelena and the Evil Queen distracted outside. This scene could have been a real cul-de-sac if not for the moment when we see the Evil Queen start to make an attempt on Snow and David's lives. Regina steps in and swoops them all away to safety. This scene therefore became important in that Archie has been saved, and that we've firmly established that Regina is there for the Charmings. She'll protect them at any cost.
Belle has her first ultrasound. Snow sees her at the hospital, where she's staying to check in on a recent patient, a man brought from the Land of Untold Stories that nobody has identified (this will play in to the main plot in a moment). Belle admits that she doesn't want Rumple to be there with her for her ultrasound, and she despairs that if she can't let him be a part of such a small thing, she'll never be able to let him in to their son's life. Belle thinks that she and Rumple might really be over for good, but she does hope that Rumple and his son can have a chance for a better relationship. Belle brings by a copy of the ultrasound and slides it under Rumple's door, while he and the Evil Queen are solidifying their alliance with a nausea-inducing kiss just inside.
I'm happy that Belle still seems to be sticking to her anti-Rumple stance. This is the most I've been interested in her in her whole history on the show. We're seeing a firm, defiant Belle who still has that sweetness and belief in the ultimate good of the world. She might be done with Rumple, but she wants to find a way to create a relationship between him and his son. Belle is a saint, honestly.
We also see that Aladdin is still on the run from his past. Jasmine despairs that Aladdin doesn't want anything to do with her quest to save Agrabah. However, Emma gives him a little pep talk, talking about her own doubts when she first found out she was the Savior. Aladdin goes to Jasmine and tells her that even though he's no longer the Savior, he wants to help save Agrabah. Jasmine then drops a bomb: Agrabah has disappeared.
This should be interesting. The plot development was all well and good, but what I really enjoyed about this brief plot was Emma giving Aladdin a pep talk. She tells him that she was really worried she would use the Shears, which is why she gave them to her family to get rid of. Emma is not infallible, but she has come to accept her role. She encourages Aladdin to do the same. I really appreciate the fact that Aladdin not being the Savior anymore isn't the end of the line for him. He can still be a hero without destiny pointing the way. Perhaps this is foreshadowing what will happen with Emma?
The main plot is where things get really good, in my humble opinion. In a flashback, we see that Hook is kidnapped by Captain Nemo and brought aboard his submarine. He says that his job is to find wayward souls with a lust for vengeance, and turn them onto a good path. He and his first mate and crew are looking for a magical place where they can settle down and start over. (This place ends up being the Land of Untold Stories). Hook is caught up in plans for revenge on the crocodile, so he doesn't buy in to Nemo's ideas of a peaceful future. Hook then discovers, to his horror, that Nemo's first mate is none other than Liam, the little brother he left an orphan when he murdered his father. Liam learns who Hook is, and going against years of a peaceful philosophy from Nemo, he attacks Hook. Nemo jumps in the way and is stabbed. Hook escapes.
In the present day, Henry, thanks to the Evil Queen's meddling, discovers that Hook did not get rid of the Shears and he goes to the docks to do it himself. Hook catches up with him, and the two argue about the Shears until the submarine shows up. Henry and Hook are taken prisoner. Hook helps Henry to escape, sacrificing himself since there's only one diving suit and helmet on board. But Henry comes back to help Hook just in time, as Liam was about to kill him. Killian knocks Liam out. Henry and Killian decide together to get rid of the Shears, reaffirming their plan to find another way to save Emma. Liam is taken to the hospital. When he wakes up, he and Killian make peace, and are reunited with Nemo, who, it turns out was the man brought in to the hospital earlier in the episode. They had been in the Land of Untold Stories until recently! Killian tells Emma that he didn't get rid of the Shears right away, but that they're gone now, and Emma forgives him for his hesitance.
First off, Hook was adorable in this episode, especially all the instances where he doesn't understand modern references or appliances. He calls Henry's gaming system a "video box," and despairs that the controls probably won't be usable for a guy with a hook. Later, he mislabels the Wookie prisoner trick, and when Henry corrects him, he says "what's a Wookie? It doesn't make any sense!" All that stuff is precious, and I never get sick of it.
In the flashbacks, Nemo talks about how Hook is missing having a family, and Hook declares that he doesn't need a family. In the present day, we see Henry telling Hook that he's not a part of his family, which seems to break Hook's heart. Regardless, he still sacrifices himself for Henry, and gets the emotional catharsis of Henry coming back for him, and declaring that he does consider Hook family. It might be a bit simplistic, but it got the job done, and it felt really satisfying after watching Hook and Henry at odds with each other for most of the episode. Hook is just so innocently hopeful about finding a place in Henry's life, and even if Henry is still the tiniest bit uncertain about it all, he's got a big heart, and he's never one to turn away family, no matter how unconventional.
Another delightful element here is that everybody seems to consider Hook Henry's new dad, including the Evil Queen and Rumple. In fact, Rumple actually refers to them as "the pirate and his son." I just about fell over. How cute is that.
Liam the younger has yet to distinguish himself as anything other than a plot device, but he was a pretty good plot device. We see in the flashbacks evidence of the not-yet-a-hero Hook, which I think is actually really important at this juncture in the story. It's easy to forget that Hook wasn't always a good guy, considering he's basically faultless nowadays. Liam had sort of the reverse thing going on. He had revenge on the brain, and then he recovered, but then he relapsed. I hope that he sticks around so that maybe Hook can help him on his road to recovery. After all, Hook isn't on a mission to kill Rumple anymore. It seems he's fully recovered from that particular addiction.
Hook and Emma have a little talk, where Killian comes clean about his deception and apologizes, and Emma understands. This was such a lovely subversion of the "everybody is keeping secrets" thing that I hate so much in shows like this. They could have pushed this conversation even further, in my opinion. Emma forgives Hook because she "would have done the same thing." She actually did the same thing last season, turning Hook into a Dark One against his express wishes in order to save his life. Killian actually came around to his error and corrected it far sooner than Emma did, which I think shows that his love for her really is a selfless thing. He wants to belong. He wants to have a family. But more than any of that, he respects who Emma is.
I think I'll end things there. This episode hit the sweet spot for me, given that it was all focused on Hook, and in particular on Hook's relationship with Henry. It's an important relationship to shine some light on, and I'm excited to see how Emma's little family continues to bond in the future.
Rumple has the Shears now, which is potentially bad, even if I don't know what he's supposed to do with them. And then there's the fact that this episode forced me to watch the Evil Queen and Rumple kiss. Seriously disturbing. Gotta mark it down a bit for that. Just kidding. Maybe.
8.5/10
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