On this episode of Once Upon a Time, we get a Hook centric storyline, which is something we always need and deserve.
Alice looks to be almost a teenager and she hardly knows anything about the outside world because she’s been in this one room for almost her entire life. Hook does his best to comfort her and offers jars of sands from his own travels to satisfy her curiosity, especially about the ocean, and assures her that those things actually exist outside of the tower.
After Alice has a dream where Gothel comes to banish Hook from the tower, he decides that’s enough. He’ll find a way to get her out of there and the two exchange chess pieces—he gives her the white knight and she gives him a black rook.
Hook visits Rumple in his cell and he knows Rumple’s magic has deteriorated because of his surroundings, so he offers to set him free if he will do the same for his daughter. He accepts and speaks of a magical device that can break any confines and it is currently in the hands of another pirate.
When he approaches Captain Ahab about Maui’s fish hook, he attempts to handle things like a gentleman. Hook resists the urge to get physical and instead offers to settle it all with a wager—the Jolly Roger for the hook over a hand of dice. Naturally, Hook wins with a glimmer of his old pride bubbling to the surface causing him to say he’s heading off to kill the Dark One now.
We know that’s not true and apparently Ahab does too because he follows Hook to Rumple and sees he does nothing. Ahab starts taunting Hook about Alice and ultimately leads to them duelling.
Both pirates make contact with their sidearms, but Hook’s aim is a little more precise. He returns to Alice when Gothel shows up in order to fill Alice in on what she hasn’t seen of Hook’s behaviour before banishing him from the tower and taking away the fish hook. Poor Hook hears Alice screaming for him to help her, but he is unable to do anything.
In Hyperion Heights, Rogers gets a visit from Tilly who has been experiencing upsetting visions. Rogers sends her away just in time for Weaver to suggest they focus on Eloise and she appears. She doesn’t want to talk to Weaver, and she’ll cooperate with only Rogers. Eloise start prying into his soul to find out why he has a sketch of an old boat on his notepad. The only way they can get a lead on the person who’s killing her cohorts is if Rogers figures out who he really is, so Rogers decides to play along.
Tilly doesn’t like it one bit that Eloise is with Rogers, and Weaver doesn’t disagree that Eloise is totally out of her mind, but he doesn’t stop Rogers. Tilly believes Eloise will try to hurt Rogers and tells him as much, but he returns that concern with a threat to kick her out if she doesn’t relax. Eloise flashes Tilly a creepy smile, which doesn’t help the situation.
Back in the room, Eloise draws parallels between Roger’s internal void and that of the killer’s. She also offers a clue that is specific (the victims received a heart-shaped box before they were attacked), but follows it with cryptic instructions that he’ll have to follow his heart to find the big bad.
Rogers and Weaver rely on more traditional detective techniques and trace the latest deliveries from the candy store, but they hit a dead-end when they find out one package was sent to a woman who has been dead for years. Meanwhile, they return to the hospital to find the baker woman dead in her bed, as Tilly looms over her with a bloody scalpel talking nonsense about how she tried to warn them.
Tilly takes off through a window leaving Rogers and Weaver two steps behind on their search. They come across the witch’s symbol with some sectors crossed out and that’s when Rogers asks Weaver if he thinks Tilly did this. He says no, but he splits up with Rogers which says something else.
Meanwhile, Henry is sad because Lucy interrupted his almost kiss with Jacinda and now she’s confused as to why Lucy would interrupt it after all her pushing for them to be together. Henry speaks of the issue to Regina and she confesses that she just got home and forms an oddly jealous comment (he’s her SON) before he explains that things didn’t get as far as he’d hoped with Jacinda. Regina is surprised to hear that they are even a thing, but she doesn’t say anything. Jacinda confronts Lucy about Henry and she decides that Lucy needs more time with her mother.
Ivy also tries to make a move on Henry because she thinks they are soulmates or something. Henry lets her down gently and suggest that she take comfort in the arms of family instead of him. She is insulted, but pays a visit to Jacinda and the two bond over childhood toys and Ivy makes Jacinda feel better about her argument with Lucy and tells her she’s a wonderful mother. Their conversation gives Ivy a spark to finish what her mother started as a way of making peace with her mother’s passing.
Lucy pays Regina a visit and shows her the page from her storybook that shows Henry’s demise during “true love’s kiss,” and Regina informs her that everything she’s read there is true and she is a Mills. The pair come up with an operation name and get to work.
Final Thoughts?
Wow, that certainly was an interesting episode. I liked the Hook-centric episode, but Tilly is starting to scare me!
