Monday, April 10, 2017

Once Upon a Time 6.16: “Mother’s Little Helper”

“I’m sorry, I was weak.”
- Gideon

Well, this episode was a hell of a lot better than the week before. It moved the plot forward, filled in gaps in the story and gave us the final season-ending arc we’ve been waiting for. It also really feels like this could be the end of the show (and with the ratings it’s been getting, I suspect it may be the end for sure). We pick up where Gideon and Emma left off. She’s pissed at him (as he insists any efforts on Hook or Emma’s part will not bring him back). She even slugs him in the mouth. But as we will learn by the end of the episode, things are not what they appear.

In the past, we see Gideon growing up in the Black Fairy’s realm. She steals kids to work in her fairy dust mines (so she doesn’t have dwarves) and she thinks Gideon is special and that he’s going to be a gift to her. Seriously, this woman kidnaps other people’s children and fawns over this one but she couldn’t give two shits about her own kid? Did she ever think maybe if she hadn’t had Rumple she would never have Gideon? Also, it’s super creepy and cult-ish that she makes them all call her mother. We see the boy that Gideon told Gold about a few weeks back. He thought the boy died but when we find Gideon on his 28th birthday (he doesn’t know what those are) we find the boy (Roderick I believe) wasn’t dead after all. He’s alive and working in the mines and trying to steal stuff from the Black Fairy to stop her. The boys team up (is it wrong I was kind of hoping for like a little romance there?) and break in the Black Fairy’s vault to steal and orb to communicate with the Savior. But Mother is hip to their plan and she turns Roderick into a bug and steps on him, leaving poor Gideon to scream in heartbreak. And then she takes his heart and insists that he find the Savior and kill her so the sword can open a portal to let the Black Fairy out of her realm.

In the present, Emma and Snow pay Rumple and Belle a visit about Gideon and they get the low down on what she did to Gideon and also that she’s Rumple’s mom. Seriously, they are a really messed up family. Emma finally agrees to help Gideon when she recognizes the same look Henry had when he found her all those years ago: the need for hope. He agrees to bring Hook back and give her the sword but they need to bring him back at the Sorcerer’s mansion because it’s a super strong nexus of magic. Unfortunately for Emma, Gideon has been playing her this whole time (as we know it was mostly the Black Fairy controlling him through having his heart). He summons a giant spider (like in the book Belle sent off with him as a baby) to kill Emma and it works, much to Gideon’s surprise. He’s able to free the Black Fairy, even though Gold saves Emma at the last minute and they are able to defeat the spiders. This, however, leads to quite the family confrontation. Emma is convinced Gideon is evil and Belle now thinks she may be right. But Rumple is insistent that his son can be saved and he’ll take whatever measures are necessary to protect his boy. I will give him props for being a better parent than either of his. He is fierce when it comes to his boys.

But the Swan contingent of the family isn’t the only one having issues this week. It seems Regina can’t manage to break the sleeping curse put on Snow and David, even though she’s managed to break everything else that the Evil Queen did (including locking Dr. Doolittle in a cage which I found kind of funny). She thinks Emma may have some ingredients she hasn’t tried and when she asks Henry to write them down and fetch them, he goes into a weird trance and starts drawing bizarre symbols before passing out. When he wakes up, he’s got no memory of what he’s done. So, Regina decides they should go talk to the one person who would know what’s happening: Isaac. He’s not in a mood to be helpful unless she gives him a few things: namely a fancy sports car, Hamilton tickets and his freedom so he can go back to New York. In the end, he gets a crappy beat up station wagon and the ability to leave town. But as he departs, he does drop some knowledge on the Mills clan. The Author powers are taking over and soon Henry won’t be able to control them. And then, Isaac suggests they take a look at the story book. They are in the final chapter, the last to be written. Isaac warns that the final battle is coming between the Savior and a great evil and no one wants to be around for that.

The more I think about it, the more I feel like the writers came into this seasons like it was their last. This would be a great way to end the series. Let Emma be victorious over the Black Fairy and get everyone their happy endings. Let them ride off into the sunset (even if it’s with the pirate I detest). Oh, and speaking of pirates, Hook tries to get a magic bean from Blackbeard in exchange for the Jolly Roger and when they portal out of the Enchanted Forest, they end up in Neverland which is currently overrun by the worst of the Lost Boys and now Hook is stranded there. I suspect we are going to get more Hook backstory in the coming weeks as he’s trapped there. I wonder if perhaps Pan may make a reappearance.

No comments:

Post a Comment