Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 5 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Take Heart
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 16 | Aired on 03.10.2013
And then Neal goes there. No. Really. Ignoring that the surprise to which she's referring is his parentage, Neal smirks and says, "Oh..." in that really annoying way. When Emma wonders what he means, he says, "I didn't mean for Tamara to be a...surprise." When Emma says, "Do you think I care that a guy I dated a decade ago is engaged?" I want to take the pen away from Jane and rewrite Emma's retort into a false imprisonment jab, to save her some face, but I think it's an invisible, magical pen, because no matter how many goats I sacrifice, I cannot conjure up sufficient mojo. [Note to PETA: No goats were harmed in the making of this recap.] Charming comes in and announces that they're all clear outside. When he notices the tension, he asks if everything is okay. No it is not, Charming. It is not. Can you not see Neal's backpfeifengesicht?
In the back room, Rumpy tries to convince Snow that the candle is the only thing that will save him. I half hope that's not true, and that he's also just simply wants Cora dead, and is maybe more than a little invested in tarnishing the Fairest of Them All. Snow points out she wouldn't use the candle to save her own mother, and asks why he thinks she'd use it to save him. Rumpy smirks. "Because you're all grown up now, and for once, our interests are aligned." He knows she wants to kill Cora, so when Snow says there's no coming back from murder, Rumpy points out that there's also no coming back from death, either. "And that's what will happen to your loved ones." When Snow is willing to hypothesize about logistics, Rumpy explains that she doesn't even have to hold the candle over Cora, proper; her heart will do. The biggest challenge will be shoving the cursed heart back into Cora's body, then she will die. Snow says she could also get Cora's heart, control her to make her do the right thing, and let Rumpy die, which would take care of two evils at once. Rumpy always knows which buttons to push and he's not afraid of going for the obvious ones, so he laughs. "I'm just imagining poor Henry's face, when he finds out that you killed his grandpa." Don't get me wrong. I want Snow to be proactive, and I think it's understandable that she will save Gold's life for more than one reason, but it ticks me off that she doesn't point out that she wouldn't be killing Rumpy. Hook already dealt the deadly blow. It's just going to take some time to play out.
None of that matters, as they're interrupted by Emma, who announces she's drawn the line and then asks if Rumpy will cast a protection spell. He says, "No, no. You're going to do that for me." As Emma and Snow look at each other in surprise, Rumpy adds, "I'm relying on you." Snow looks positively stricken when she turns back to him. Commercial.