Sunday, March 27, 2016

Once Upon a Time 5.15: "The Brothers Jones"

“I don’t care about the stories anymore. I want to be a hero. I want to help my mom, even if that means helping Cruella.”
- Henry

You would think I’d be dreading a Hook centric episode at this point but I’m actually kind of interested to see how Hook interacts with his brother now that the former is a pirate. Also, given the preview I’m intrigued to find out if and why Liam might not approve of his baby brother’s new beau (other than you know, the creepy factor which Rumple pointed out in last week’s episode). Just as Emma heals Hook, they get a knock on the door and Liam appears. He’s apparently learned that his little brother is in town and it’s kind of an awkward introduction. He clearly doesn’t like Emma and when he says that she’s not good enough for Killian, she gets defensive and thinks he’s rather self-righteous.

In flashbacks, we see Liam and Killian’s rise to the navy. When last we saw them as boys, their father had sold them into servitude. But all of that is nearly over since the following day they can sign up for the navy and be free of their contracts. Unfortunately, Killian is kind of a wuss and also a drunk. So while Liam goes off to secure papers, Killian gets tricked into gambling all his money away. Instead of taking the chance to join the navy when he gets back the next day, Liam tosses the papers into the ocean. He’s not leaving his little brother no matter what. Things get dicey as the ship sales into the eye of a massive hurricane. Apparently the captain (Captain Long John Silver I might add) is intent on finding the Eye of the Storm (some crazy looking sapphire). Liam and Killian mutiny with the rest of the crew and then things take a dark turn. Hades shows up and makes Liam a deal: let the rest of the crew die in the storm and Hades will save the Brothers Jones and get them navy commissions. Liam ends up following through and thus he and Killian join the navy.

Back in the present in Underbrooke, Henry gets a bit of a story on his own. He and Cruella are on the hunt for the pen and he has a run-in with the Apprentice who warns that Henry might be making the wrong choice. It appears that the Apprentice’s unfinished business is making sure Henry uses the pen for the right reasons. The kid struggles with that as the gang searches for the story book (Underworld edition) in the Sorcerer’s mansion. Henry ducks out to find the pen and ink (which he eventually does). He’s torn about using it though. I’m sure he’d love to find a way to bring Neal back to life but he’s obviously not going to do that. He’s also kind of tired of everyone treating him like a little kid in need of saving. He wants to be the hero.

While Emma confides in Regina that she has a bad feeling about Liam, Hook is intent on not returning to Storybrooke when the defeat Hades. He think she’s not worth saving. After all, how could he ever be a hero when he’s been comparing himself to Liam the time. Of course, he doesn’t know his brother’s nasty truth. At least not yet. The truth gets darker when Hades tasks Liam with destroying the pages in the story book about himself. It seems Hades has something to hide as well.

Soon enough, Hook learns the ugly truth of his brother’s devil’s bargain. Not only did he sacrifice the crew back in the day but he’s betrayed everyone with the pages. Hook is pretty heartbroken by his brother’s betrayal but there’s not much time to process it because he and Liam get nabbed by their former crew and dragged down to the pits of fiery river to get tossed in. They’re about to go over when Hades poofs in and gets all smarmy. He sends Liam over the edge but Hook grabs him before he falls. But Liam sacrifices himself to save his baby brother which in turn allows him to ascend to the happy place with the rest of the crew. Liam’s sacrifice emboldens Hook to fight for his future with Emma (yes I was a little sad by this revelation) which makes her super happy. And Henry comes clean with the rest of the family about the pen. He vows to use it to write Hades’ story again. Which should be an interesting effort.

And in super awkward news, David spent some time with Cruella, pretending to be James and it was just really weird. She knew it wasn’t James the whole time but she was having fun. She also fills him in that his brother resents him (even though they’ve never met). Somehow James got it in his head that David was the favorite son which is why he got to stay on the farm with a loving mother. That doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense to David (or me really) but it was enough to prompt Henry to stop wallowing in his teenage funk. I do hope they give Henry more to do as the season goes on. For one thing he isn’t a little kid anymore so he should have more meaty stuff to deal with. And you give the kid this power and then don’t let him use it. Seems kind of lame to me.

And I’m sure the ending was supposed to be shocking but it wasn’t all that surprising because everyone knows everyone in this world. Hades’ pages from the book hid that he has some sort of past with Zelena. I don’t think he knocked her up or anything (yes Robin still has a baby girl somewhere in Storybrooke) but it seems Hades likes Zelena a lot and probably wishes he were the baby daddy. But we’ll be popping off to Oz at some point in the near future.

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