Once Upon a Time: Mother's Little Helper (6x16)

Okay. Okay, I guess I can dig it. Things are happening, and we're potentially ramping up to a finale for the whole show? They're not renewed yet, in any case. Let's dive in.

Cons:

All of the delays with breaking the sleeping curse are starting to frustrate me. Regina talks about how she's fixed all the other problems caused by the Evil Queen, but she just can't quite manage to crack this one curse. The curse itself was kind of a brilliant way to give Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin both some time off, but now it's to the point where the plot has become a stalling tactic for extra-diegetic concerns about the availability of the actors.

I liked Hook's little story-line here, but something is sort of bothering me. I feel like the whole "Hook killed David's father" thing has become a complete non-issue. We see Snow briefly in this episode, and she talks about how she's going to help Emma to get Hook back. Is nobody even going to react properly to the shocking revelation of his past evils? All I can say is, I hope after the reunion between Hook and Emma, they still have some work to do on fixing the damage. Otherwise, what's the point?

Pros:

There are three main things going on in this episode. I'm pretty excited about all of it, generally speaking.

We see Hook go to Captain Black Beard and strike a deal with him to get back to Emma. Hook basically tricks Black Beard into "winning" the Jolly Roger, only then telling him that his ship is back in Storybrooke, so Hook needs a magic bean after all. With Black Beard coming along, the two jump into a portal. But something's wrong. They're not in Storybrooke. They're in Neverland! Apparently, after Pan left, things got a bit crazy. We end the episode with Hook in dire straits, no closer to getting back to Emma.

If this is indeed the final season of Once Upon a Time, I'm glad we're visiting some old familiar places. Neverland was the realm where Emma and Hook's romance truly started, so it's nice to see it again as a way to bring things back to the beginning. Also, it is pretty darn adorable how desperate Hook is to get back to Emma. Those two really do love each other a lot.

Back in Storybrooke, Emma and Gideon partner up to take down the Black Fairy. Emma only agrees after hearing Rumple and Belle make a case for Gideon's life, and after they explain how evil the Black Fairy truly is. Gideon hands over the sword that was supposed to kill Emma, and also promises to bring Hook back. The two of them go to open a portal to bring Hook back, but a giant spider monster emerges. They fight it together, but Gideon then pushes Emma into the web, revealing that he was just trying to kill her all along. Rumple helps to save Emma, but Emma is now convinced that Gideon can't be saved, and needs to be taken out. It looks like Rumple and Emma are going to be enemies once again.

In flashback, we also get some information about Gideon's upbringing. Turns out, he did once try to turn against his mother, after years of brainwashing. But the Black Fairy has Gideon's heart now, and has been controlling and manipulating him so she can get through to Storybrooke, which she does by the end of the episode.

There are three things I want to say about this that I really liked:

1. Just as Hook is trying desperately to get back to Emma, Emma's first priority is getting her pirate back. Like I mentioned above, I do hope that they still talk about their fight when Killian gets back, but it's really heartwarming to see how hard these two are working to find their way back to one another.

2. The Black Fairy is a legitimate threat, and the whole thing with Gideon finally makes some sort of sense. We already knew that he'd been psychologically tortured, but now we know that he's not in control of himself at all. He didn't really want Emma's help to kill the Black Fairy. Or, in a way he did, but he's actually not going back on his original plan after all. That's very clever.

3. Rumple saving Emma. I don't know what it was, but hearing Rumple say "Miss Swan? Emma? Emma!" with real fear in his voice actually got to me. These two are allies at best, and they've never been friendly. But Rumple wouldn't let Emma die, and for him, that's a real show of devotion. Of course, this is immediately turned on its head, as Emma says that Gideon has to be stopped, and Rumple will of course stop at nothing to protect his son.

Finally, we've got a very intriguing subplot going on with Henry. While hanging out with Regina, Henry suddenly goes into a trance and starts writing weird symbols. Frightened by this, Regina and Henry go to visit the Author, who reveals that Henry's Authorship is taking over, as he prepares to write the end of the book. What does that mean? The end? The end of the stories? This is a truly interesting development, one I really want to see come to fruition. Henry's whole Author thing has come into the story with some infrequency, but I always find it interesting what it does. Also, seeing the original Author again was fun, even if it was just for a brief moment. Again, it feels like we're bringing back in these elements from the past in order to wrap things up in a satisfying way.

I guess that's all I've got to say for this one. A solid episode. I can't believe I'm finally on board with this whole Gideon thing, but I sort of am. I mean, he and the Black Fairy aren't the world's most interesting villains, but their plans make some sort of sense, and they do seem like a legitimate threat! Also, I can't wait for the Hook/Emma reunion...

8/10