S01.E19: The Return

[KingOfHearts]

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Mr. Gold attempts to uncover the true identity of August, Emma confronts Regina about her involvement in Kathryn’s disappearance, and David tries to apologize and reconcile with Mary Margaret. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Rumplestiltskin agrees to comply and do whatever it takes if his son can find a way for him to safely give up his powers and turn back into the loving man he used to be.

[Rumsy4]

I love young Balefire! That kid was amazing. He was kind, brave, and tried his best to save his Papa. 

Ugh...squishing the snailed-guy and killing a mute maid was certainly one heck of a way to show what a monster Rumple was turning into. 

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I had to laugh at Blue Fairy being called the original magic and all-powerful. And who can forget the Last Magic Bean? I really wish the writers had done something with the “time and space” thing. 

August was such a lying SoB this episode. I did feel bad for Gold for making that heartfelt speech to a substitute.

Ugh...David Nolan.  

Double ugh...Sidney.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Rumsy4

[profdanglais]

In some ways, August is a more convincing older Baelfire than 

Spoiler

Neal

though his eyes are super obviously the wrong colour. Did Rumple just forget that his son didn't have blue eyes? I guess he wanted to believe. Too bad he wasn't the Saviour, haha

I love Baelfire so much, his ultimate fate just makes me angry, .

2 hours ago, Rumsy4 said:

Ugh...David Nolan.  

Double ugh...Sidney.

100% agree. David and Sidney are the absolute worst. I do almost feel sorry for Sidney here when he's "confessing" to the murder, because he does seem really upset about doing it, but still... ugh. 

Emma threatens good police work so well, I wish we'd seen her actually doing some. 

[andromeda331]

I am still amazed that Rumple thought August was his son. As much as I hate August I did like him asking Rumple if he even looked like Bae? No, August you don't. Its amazing and sad that Rumple had a better reunion scene with fakeBae then the real one. I don't think he ever told Neal he was right and Rumple should have gone with him. 

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Ah, then again Rumple was so surprised and taken back that his son hated him. Gasp! Who would have thought. And he didn't want to be turned into a fourteen year old again? I can't believe Rumple suggested that with a straight face and Neal didn't laugh at the crazy suggestion. "Sure Papa, I had love to be fourteen and raised by you! Then you can break another promise and I can spend two more centuries away from you! 

I almost wish August had been Bae. He was so much more interesting before they revealed he was horrible. I love the card Henry gives Mary Margaret. From the size to then inside reading "We're so glad you didn't kill Mrs. Noland!" Its so hilarious and sounds like what a kid would write. 

[Shanna Marie]

The "Is August Bae? No, he's not!" thing was another one of their good twists. It really did seem to be building to that, and then we find out that August was manipulating Gold.

5 hours ago, profdanglais said:

though his eyes are super obviously the wrong colour. Did Rumple just forget that his son didn't have blue eyes?

Yeah, that was bothering me, too. I guess they sort of handwaved that with August talking about making him work for it so he'd disregard the fact that he didn't look like Bae. Actually, though, aside from the eye color, I did think he looked like he could be a grown-up Bae.

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Really, he looked more like a grown-up Bae than Neal did, and he looked more like kid Bae than like kid Pinocchio -- who also had the wrong color eyes.

In buying into Sidney's confession to kidnapping Kathryn, did they totally forget that Regina told Mary Margaret that she knew she didn't kill her and was gloating about the evidence pointing to her -- from the scene when Mary Margaret wondered why Regina was tormenting her and apologizing for whatever she'd done? I guess it's Mary Margaret's word against Regina's, unless that security system was working, but that was at least some proof that Regina was in on it if she knew Mary Margaret was being framed but didn't say anything to clear her. And what about Regina having keys to every house in town? They were calling them "skeleton keys," but it was a giant key ring with lots of different keys. I guess it could have been multiple skeleton keys to deal with different kinds of locks, but still, the revelation that the mayor had those should have meant something, even if supposedly it was someone else taking them and using them to plant evidence.

[KingOfHearts]

9 hours ago, Rumsy4 said:

Ugh...David Nolan.  

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It ticks me off that his scene with Kathryn was the only scene we got to address the adultery plot. We really needed a Snowing + Abigail/Frederick scene post-curse.

1 hour ago, Shanna Marie said:

And what about Regina having keys to every house in town? They were calling them "skeleton keys," but it was a giant key ring with lots of different keys. I guess it could have been multiple skeleton keys to deal with different kinds of locks, but still, the revelation that the mayor had those should have meant something, even if supposedly it was someone else taking them and using them to plant evidence.

In retrospect, Emma played the idiot ball so many times in S1. She does very little successfully against Regina and it's not because Regina's just too smart and has too many advantages. Emma ignored some obvious red flag moments and didn't deliver on her threats.

Edited August 4, 2018 by KingOfHearts

[Camera One]

4 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

In retrospect, Emma played the idiot ball so many times in S1. She does very little successfully against Regina and it's not because Regina's just too smart and has too many advantages. Emma ignored some obvious red flag moments and didn't deliver on her threats.

I'm behind in the rewatch and don't have this disc yet, but this is why I did for 1B a little frustrating to watch after awhile.  There seemed to be little or no progress in her belief and she was solely reactive.  In 1A, she was clearly more of a threat to Regina and they were actually going toe-to-toe.  

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It was a hint of things to come, since almost every plot after this involved the heroes being reactive and helpless until the penultimate episode of the arc, whether it be half-season or full-season.  The main difference was that in Season 1, the only actual "hero" in full control was Emma, and maybe Henry, though Henry also didn't/couldn't do much in the second half of the season.

[Shanna Marie]

1 hour ago, KingOfHearts said:

In retrospect, Emma played the idiot ball so many times in S1. She does very little successfully against Regina and it's not because Regina's just too smart and has too many advantages. Emma ignored some obvious red flag moments and didn't deliver on her threats.

It makes you wonder why they decided to have Emma be a street-smart bounty hunter who became the town sheriff if they were going to have her be so naive and passive and never actually doing any real sheriff work. Or why they bothered giving her the lie detector "superpower" when she was lied to so often without her realizing it. She might as well have been something like a diner waitress or retail clerk, and that wouldn't have changed the story at all. Her actions would have made more sense then because we wouldn't have expected her to be following police procedure or figuring things out. She could have just been Mary Margaret's support system, maybe doing a little investigating on her own unofficially, while Regina's handpicked sheriff pretended to investigate the "murder."

[companionenvy]

I love the EF scenes in this episode. What's fascinating is that the following things are all clearly true of Rumple:

1) Power has made him an absolute monster.

2) There is a level on which he is aware of this.

3) Despite being unambiguously monstrous in other respects, he quite sincerely loves his son as much as he ever did.

The scene at the portal is particularly fascinating, because Rumple's unwillingness to go through is not the traditional megalomaniac's love of power, although that of course plays into it; it is the old cowardice reasserting itself. Bae recognizes that the Dark One is changing his father, but ultimately, I think the person who decides to break his word is far more Weaver Rumple than Dark One Rumple. 

And while Rumple's regret once the portal closes is real, and I think he means it when he sobs "I'm ready to go with you, Bae," part of the tragedy is that whatever Rumple may think, if he had the chance to do it again, he'd make the same choice.

Just a really, really great character. 

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At least for now. 

 

In the present, August really is a total shit. He had his reasons, and Rumple deserves it, but what a terrible thing to do to someone. Making it more complicated is the fact that he actually does have a father he's not able to reunite with, so the scene is fairly emotionally interesting from his perspective as well.

All around, well done from Jane Espenson. 

[Rumsy4]

33 minutes ago, companionenvy said:

And while Rumple's regret once the portal closes is real, and I think he means it when he sobs "I'm ready to go with you, Bae," part of the tragedy is that whatever Rumple may think, if he had the chance to do it again, he'd make the same choice.

I think so as well. It also seems typical of him to immediately blame someone else for his sin--the Blue Fairy in this case. Rumple really is a fascinating character. 

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until "the stars in the sky align with the stars in the hat..." shtick ruined everything.

[daxx]

Spoiler

 

I know we joke about this being touted as the “Last Bean” but Blue parses this statement. “The last bean known to our kind, the rest got away”

So the last bean the fairies know the whereabouts of, not THE last bean. SoBlackbeards stash would be the beans that got away.

 

 

I love young Bae, he’s such a wonderful character and fantastic young actor.

It’s interesting that Gold goes to a therapy session. I feel for Rumple in this episode and kind of feel like August is a jerk. 

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Any empathy I had for Rumple is lost in season 4.

As much as he regrets not going through the portal I think he’d repeat the choice even given a second chance. He’s a power hungry coward and always has been.

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This is why the path to getting his son back was so long and convoluted, he needed to take his power with him to the land without magic and none of the other paths would do.

Edited August 4, 2018 by daxx

[Rumsy4]

1 hour ago, daxx said:

  Hide contents

I know we joke about this being touted as the “Last Bean” but Blue parses this statement. “The last bean known to our kind, the rest got away”

So the last bean the fairies know the whereabouts of, not THE last bean. So Blackbeards stash would be the beans that got away.

 

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Now I'm imagining a row of magic beans desperately jumping through time and space to get away from the fairies, only to end up in the clutches of Blackbeard. :-p

[KingOfHearts]

4 hours ago, Rumsy4 said:

I think so as well. It also seems typical of him to immediately blame someone else for his sin--the Blue Fairy in this case. Rumple really is a fascinating character. 

And as if this episode didn't give Rumple enough reason to hate fairies...

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... we've got to have his mother be the Black Fairy too. I would've preferred Rumple just being petty against fairies because they're light magic and offered his son the bean. His mother was so unnecessary. 

This episode proves you can make a villain who turns people into snails somewhat sympathetic. You feel bad for how tragic it is, but Rumple's sins are not diminished. Somehow his love for Bae feels more genuine than Regina's love for Henry. It helps that the show is self-aware that Rumple is an evil psychopath. 

[Camera One]

26 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

Somehow his love for Bae feels more genuine than Regina's love for Henry. It helps that the show is self-aware that Rumple is an evil psychopath. 

I think it feels more genuine because we saw how much pre-Dark One Rumple loved Bae.  I felt for him because he seemed to want to do the right thing by Bae and jump into the portal but he was still afraid to.  I did feel sympathy for him but like with many of this show's villains, I still felt a little manipulated to feel bad for him on the one hand, and then have him heinously murder the innocent mute maid.  

[tennisgurl]

This really is a really good episodes for Rumple, and they do a good job at balancing allowing us to feel bad for him, while not making excuses for him. There is generally a lot of great stuff for him, both in Storeybrooke and in the EF. The Enchanted Forrest stuff is quite magical and dark fairytale-ish, and its such a great intro for Bae. I love Bae such a sweet, awesome kid. And the Storeybrooke stuff is quite solid too, even as Emma continues to not exactly be the worlds greatest detective, and has to have evidence pretty much waving her in face to figure stuff out. And the "We`re glad you didnt kill Mrs. Nolan" card the kids in her class made her will never not crack me up. 

Whats so interesting about Rumple is that he both gets a kick out of his power, but also hates himself for it, but when it gets the chance to be a better person and start over with his son, he cant do it in the moment. And its not really out of thirst for power (which he does have, of course) but out of fear of losing power, and of the unknown. I do really feel sympathy for him when he lets Bae go, and cries that he wants to go with him now. He really was a complex character. He could murder innocent people, but I also totally buy his love for his son. 

They even made me feel bad for Mr. Gold when he thought that August was Bae, and was apologizing to him, and I do feel his regret for what happened, and the love for his son that has lasted for years, and caused him to create this whole elaborate plan to find his son. The scene where he goes to Archie to talk is also a really great scene, you can see a lot of vulnerability in Rumple, and even his awkwardness in talking to Archie about his nerves. And Archie actually gets to do his job, even for the guy that everyone is scared of! 

Even knowing that Rumple deserves to be screwed with, August is still an asshole for pretending to be Bae. Thats an awful thing to do to a person, even if he is just trying to stay alive. Of course, August is a whole different thing...

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Rumple must have been so pissed when he realized later that traveling from world to world is actually super easy, and instead of this decades long Machiavellian quest to get to another world, he could have just gone up to the giants to get more beans, or tagged along with a mermaid, or called an Uber, or anything else. Also, the whole thing about Blue being such a super powerful being is hilarious considering how useless she is. Of course, really any good magic in this show turned out to be useless, so its par for the course. 

[KingOfHearts]

8 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Whats so interesting about Rumple is that he both gets a kick out of his power, but also hates himself for it, but when it gets the chance to be a better person and start over with his son, he cant do it in the moment. And its not really out of thirst for power (which he does have, of course) but out of fear of losing power, and of the unknown. I do really feel sympathy for him when he lets Bae go, and cries that he wants to go with him now. He really was a complex character. He could murder innocent people, but I also totally buy his love for his son. 

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Makes me think of how dumb it was when Malcolm did the same thing to Rumple. These writers are so unoriginal. History repeating itself isn't clever. It's lazy.

8 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

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Also, the whole thing about Blue being such a super powerful being is hilarious considering how useless she is. Of course, really any good magic in this show turned out to be useless, so its par for the course.

 

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It would've funny if the show knew she was useless, even if it was just someone making an off-handed comment about it.

Snow: "We could ask Blue for help."

Hook: "Since when have the fairies ever done anything for us?"

Edited August 5, 2018 by KingOfHearts