
Once upon a time long ago we open the episode with a gray haired man cleaning up in a room. There is a big mess and when the lights go out he pulls his sword and tell the dark one to show himself. Looks like a little bit of fantasia going on. Turns out the dark haired man is the sorcerers apprentice. Once the dark one defeats the older man he takes the box that we see rumple with later, the dark one it turns out is not rumple and he gets blasted by the box. Apparently the Dark one always tries, but they fail because no dark one will ever posses what is in the box. Cut to the modern day and we see Rumple very easily open the box and get the hat again.
When Emma heads on into Granny’s with Henry’s approval Hook looks worried that he missed a search party. Turns out, Emma is asking him out on a date, huzzah for them! He missed a dart shot which is funny suppose he didn’t think she would ever get around to that whole dating thing. He agrees, but on one condition he gets to plan the date. Cue an interesting exchange, including the double enteuander, “I don’t pillage and plunder on the first date just so you know” followed by, “That’s because you haven’t been out on a date with me.”
When Emma heads out to her car she steps in a puddle, the puddle is only around her car. Interesting, but makes you think of the Frozen group. Meanwhile, Hook goes to see Rumple about his hand and it turns out that Rumple has the hand and Hook wants it reattached. Rumple tells Hook that the hand belongs to the man that he used to be and no telling what it will do to him, oh my. There is blackmail going on Hook says Rumple hasn’t changed, unlike him ad the hand ends up reattached as it used to be. With the foreboding don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Elsa is getting help from Snow and Charming and it is old fashioned, census records. They hope to find Anna that way. Emma looks smashing for her date and gets a chorus of wow’s for the pretty soft pink dress. We have to enjoy that the writers are trying to make Emma a little more feminine, girly and not just the savor. Hook looks roguish and handsome when he shows up with something hidden behind his back, a rose, Emma doesn’t notice at first that he presents it with his hand that is usually a Hook, Snow does though. Charming does a good protective Dad speech and is it just this writer or does Elsa look maybe a tiny bit jealous? Hey, who can blame her Killian is a hunk!
Back in fairy tale land Anna finds rumple in the castle we know and she is still claiming her name is Joan. Rumple tells her that her name is not Joan that it is infact Anna of Arendell. Time to make a deal for Anna she has to put a small bit of something in a bottle into an old man’s tea and he may eat children and if she does it, she knows why the parents came to see Rumple. She signed the contract because one he shows it to her we see her conflicted and going with the bottle. Turns out once she arrives at a cottage we see the apprentice. After some thought Anna puts the contents of the bottle onto the flames instead of into the tea kettle, that makes a problem. Nice twist though, no one tends to break deals with Rumple.
Killian and Emma are on a happy date at a nice place that is not Granny’s, Killian is smoldering handsome. We also see the thief from the ice cream shop when he tries to escape, he spills a drink in Emma’s lap and Killian has a rather bold and pirate reaction to it. Turns out his hand might be a problem. Cue the foreboding music.
Regina and Henry as it turns out, are looking through books to try to break the spell on Robin’s wife. Henry is not a dumb child and they have a little talk about how true loves kiss did not work on Marian. Bless, but still no happy ending for Regina.
The date ends well for Killian and Emma with him asking her out again and a very passionate kiss, taking place, though he ends up eying that hand again. One has to wonder, however if he is eying it because there is really a problem or is what Rumple said just getting to him? Emma has parents waiting who want to know about the date. Charming does not want to know about any kissing. No kissing right.
Drunk Will Scarlet or the Knave if you remember that other show is trying to break into the library when Killian finds him and has some major punches thrown. Yeah, looks like Gold might be right. Possibly.
Anna finds out what happened in breaking the deal, the apprentice turns into a mouse. Whoops, for once Rumple was trying to do something nice. Anna finds out that it was all about her that she could not fall into the darkness so that she can go for the prize. Turns out since she didn’t face her inner darkness, she broke the deal and will end up locked up in the tower. Rumple has fun saying Elsa will become the monster everyone fears. Her only way to escape being locked up is to kill Rumple, this time she almost gives in to that darkness but once again turns away. She cries and he steals the tear apparently that was all that he needed. The hat now belongs to him.
Killian is trying to get Rumple to remove his hand from him and it seems his leverage is lost now. At least that is what Rumple says and now its his turn to strike a deal if Killian wants the hand off and his hook back. Apparently the only thing that can remove the hand now is Rumples magic. Killian tries to bury his hook into Rumple, turns it it was just the hand or so Killian says. Killian agrees to the deal. Not good news. This writer enjoyed him more when he was not making deals with the bad guy.
Out dear Emma nearly crashes her car on an ice patch and she finds the evil Snow Queen, able to follow her ice trail for a time until it just ends. Okay, seriously what is that sneaky witch up to? Belle finds Will in her library drunk asleep with a book. Rumple heads on down to the docks and finds a sleeping Killian. Making all Disney fans then squeal their little fan hearts out (maybe it was just me) the broom goes a marching.
More to the story of the box and hat Rumple tells Anna about how her parents had wanted a normal baby. That they feared Elsa and he had to send them away because at the time he had no way to take the powers away. Turns out the hat steals magic and he plans to use it to become completely invincible. The downside is the apprentice a mouse now (come on please tell me I am not the only one laughing that the apprentice got turned into a MOUSE) drops down and bites the hand with the dagger in it. Anna gets the dagger so now she controls Rumple. The commands come out a bit staggered, but she gets the box and demands her and the box go home, with no harm ever to come to her or Elsa and the mouse needs to be a man again. Good thinking Anna.
Back in Storybrooke the broom shows up at the apprentice’s house and with Hook sitting the man down, turns out the first guy magic that gets stolen is his. Alright rumple what are you up to, the apprentice himself said you will never collect enough power to do what you want.
Anna makes it home and Sven wants to have some kisses like his human buddy. I like Sven personally and love the personality that is being given to him by the writers. While back in Storybrooke just as I suspected Rumple after taking the hand back and working on blackmailing Killian tells him that indeed the hand was not the curse but it is the darkness within him. Did I call it or did I call it?
Will or the Knave of hearts is in jail and the book he was sleeping with of course was Alice in Wonderland. Also turns out the evil Snow Queen is not in the census records so that means she did not turn up with the curse. Meantime Henry is going undercover with Gold to help Regina and he becomes the apprentice for Gold and gets the broom to sweep with.
At the end of this episode I am personally left enjoying this season better than I did last season. Frozen while there is not the full story of the episodes which was a worry when I found out that the characters would be arriving. Bottom line, this was a great episode and fun with Fantasia….and of course the plot has thickened around us.