by Tracy Ladd:
Once Upon a Time Recap: “Manhattan”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday February 17, 2013
Season 2 Episode 14
After a couple of mediocre weeks, we’re finally getting to the good stuff. I’ve had my suspicions about Gold’s son and have even voiced those suspicions a couple of times in previous recaps. If you haven’t seen the episode yet and don’t want to be spoiled, then trust me, you don’t want to read any further until you watch it in full. We get some answers this week, and this recap will contain spoilers.
Now that that’s out of the way, I feel like it’s taken quite a bit of time for this season to really get started. There are still some things left hanging in the wind and I’m wondering if we’ll ever get back to them. Like Mulan and Aurora for instance. They’re still stuck in present day FTL looking for Phillip. To be honest I won’t be heartbroken if we don’t make it back there anytime soon but still. The other loose thread, and I’ve mentioned this before too, is August. I’m extremely curious to know where he hobbled off to. I know that we’ll see him again in a few weeks, but how will they explain that one? Is he August again, or is he stuck as Pinocchio?
I do like that we’re getting more evil Regina. She’s at her best when she’s wreaking havoc but I don’t think things with her mom are going to go smoothly. Just keep giving us a decent amount of Hook and his smarmy comments and I’ll be happy because he’s been a nice distraction this season. Back to the episode at hand, last week we left off with Gold being affected by having to remove the shawl when going through airport security and I figured they’d expand on that, but not this week. Also, Henry and Emma are along for the ride while Storybrooke welcomed its newest resident with the addition of Anton aka “Tiny”.
Fairytale Land
FTL starts way back when Rumpelstiltskin was just Rumpelstiltskin. Before the limp, before becoming the Dark One, before Baelfire was born and when he and Milah actually had a happy marriage. Rumpelstiltskin rushes into the house telling Milah that he finally got word. He’s been called to the front lines to fight against the Ogres and this makes him happy because he can finally step out from behind the cowardly shadow his father’s reputation has cast over him. Milah is scared for her husband but sends him off to battle none the less. She tells him that when he returns, they can finally live the life they’ve always dreamed of.
Once with the army, Rumpelstiltskin is called on by another soldier to guard a covered cage. He’s told that the contents will change the war in their favor. As he stands guard, he hears his name being called. He lifts the cover to find a young girl, with a jagged scar in place of her eyes. But she had eyes on the palm of her hands….which is weird….and kind of creepy. Anyway she’s a “seer” and she tells him that if he goes into battle the following day, he’ll die. She also tells him that Milah is pregnant, it’s a boy, and that the army will ride cows into battle. He tries not to believe her, but when the commanding officer later tells the troops to grab their cows (he meant a saddle), Rump realizes that the seer was speaking the truth. He makes his way to talk to her again, but she’s gone. Worried that he’ll die and leave his unborn son fatherless, and knowing that the only way out of fighting in the war is to be injured, he decides that the best course of action is to pull a Misery and hobble himself. Because that’s what any rational person would do.
He must have been gone for oh about nine months or so because when he finally makes it home, Milah is cradling Baelfire. He’s proud of the name she’s chosen, saying it’s a strong name. She replies that he’ll need a strong name to make up for the cowardice his father showed when he didn’t fight in the war. She leaves him holding the baby….even though he’s filthy and probably covered in germs.
Jump foward several years and Rumpelstiltskin is the Dark One. He comes across a camp, and once again, finds the Seer, who is now a grown woman. He tells her that even though, what she said did happen in round about ways, she left out details that would have been helpful. She tells him that the future is a puzzle and is only able to see pieces. He decides to take her gift, which she is thankful for. At this point, he’s already lost Bae to the portal, but she tells him that her final gift is to inform him that he will see Bae again. She tells him that a curse will take him to a new world, but he won’t be the one to cast it, and that the curse will be broken, but he won’t be the one who breaks it. She finally tells him that a boy will be the one who leads him to Bae, but that same boy will also be his undoing. Rumpelstiltskin simply says that he’ll just kill the boy.
Storybrooke (and Manhattan)
Gold, Emma and Henry arrive at the location where Gold thinks Bae is. It’s an apartment complex that requires the visitors to be buzzed in. Gold can’t determine which apartment is Bae’s so Emma jumps in and puts her bounty hunting skills to work. She buzzes an apartment, telling the occupant that UPS has a delivery. It doesn’t work, but she hears someone coming down the fire escape. Gold asks her to chase him, since he can’t run….because he hobbled himself….and tells her that he’ll watch after Henry.
The guy leads Emma on a merry chase. but she’s able to catch him and what she finds, is quite surprising. It’s Neal. Her old flame. The one she went to jail for and also, he’s Henry’s father. She spits out the name Rumpelstiltskin and he confirms that he is Baelfire. What a little nuclear nugget of info to find out right?
Emma is understandably pissed and freaking out and Neal promises to tell her everything…at a bar. Meanwhile, Henry keeps Gold company and after a bit of conversation, Gold tells Henry that he’s a remarkable young man. Henry tells Gold to keep the faith and maybe Bae will come around.
Neal tells Emma that he had no idea who she was when they met. She asks if he was just using her to help with his crimes, but he tells her that he was told about who she was later on. He tells her how August knew who he was and he tells Emma that he thought he was helping her get home by leaving her. Neal tells her that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with his father or magic and she agrees to keep his secret. Neal asks about what’s happened to her and Emma tells him that she just went to jail and that’s it. She doesn’t tell him about Henry, but she does call Mary Margaret to ask for advice. Mary Margaret tells her that Henry deserves to know the truth.
Emma meets up with Gold and Henry and tells them that she lost the guy she was chasing. Gold insists on breaking into his apartment and once inside, Emma sees the dreamcatcher he bought for her when they were together. Gold senses that she’s holding back and demands that she tell him what she knows. Just as things are getting tense, Neal comes in and puts a stop to it.
Father and son are reunited, but it certainly isn’t happy. Henry walks into the room and wants to know what’s going on. Neal sees him and asks his age, and Henry tells him that he’s 11 years old. Neal does the math and realizes that he’s Henry’s father. Emma tells Henry the truth, and another father and son are reunited.
Gold still tries to talk to Neal, and actually uses the fact that Emma made a deal with him, in order to make it happen. Gold tries to convince Neal to come back to Storybrooke and offers him youth and a reset of his memories, but Neal doesn’t bite. Instead he tells Gold about how his last thought every night is of his father and how he let him go when Bae/Neal went through the portal.
Emma apologizes to Henry, and explains why she lied to him. He’s awfully understanding, but this comes after he slams her and tells her that she’s just like Regina. Ouch. All’s well that ends well and Emma tells Neal that Henry wants to meet him. The two bond out on the fire escape while Gold watches from inside.
In other news, Cora and Regina plot a way to get Henry back. Hook wants to go after Gold while he’s out-of-town since he can’t use magic, but Cora and Regina talk some sense into him. Their plan is to find the Dark One’s dagger because if they have it, they can control the Dark One, have him kill Mary Margaret, David and Emma, and Henry will only have Regina to comfort him. Regina heads to the hospital and knocks Belle out with magic and goes through her bag until she finds a clue to the location. That leads the terrible trio to the library, where they find a crude map, which of course, a pirate can translate. The search for the dagger is on.
In Stranger news, Greg Mendell tells someone that he’s going to stick around Storybrooke a bit longer and sends video Regina working magic in Belle’s hospital room to whoever he’s talking to.
So Neal is Bae which I don’t think is a big surprise. But, the little boy who the Seer predicted to be the end of Rumpelstiltskin has to be Henry. Who is his grandson. That also makes Regina not only his adoptive mother, but his great step grandmother. Oh, it’s just enough to make your head spin.
I have a feeling that once everyone is back in Storybrooke, Cora and Regina will try to put their plan into motion, but know that Henry knows who his father is, and that he’s related to Gold, he’ll put a stop to it, at least on Regina’s end. We’re on the downhill slide so I expect things to really start heating up. This week was a good start.
DarkMedia contributor Tracy Ladd has been writing about film since her days on the her high school newspaper. Even though she took a decade or two off to explore other things, she’s back to doing what she loves. She also bakes, can knit a pretty nifty scarf and makes lightsaber sounds with her knitting needles. Or chopsticks. Especially with the lightsaber chopsticks.
You can find her on Facebook, on Twitter @ReelGoddess, and on her website The Reel Goddess.
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