Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 397 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Take Heart
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 16 | Aired on 2013.03.10
Storybrooke. Gold's Shop. The protective barrier is weakening. I guess without Regina, Cora isn't as powerful, but it's funny that now there's finally a limit to her magic. Rumpy says he's dying (which still makes no sense to me) and tells Emma he needs to talk to Belle. She gives him the phone as she explains to Neal that Belle is his dad's girlfriend. We cut to the...
Hospital. Belle is on the phone and reminds "Mr. Gold" that she doesn't remember him. Gold says, "I know. I know. It's just uh... Sweetheart, I'm dying." After Belle says she sorry to hear that, Gold continues. "I know that you're confused about who you are, so I'm gonna tell you. You are a hero who helped your people. You're a beautiful woman who loved an ugly man -- really, really loved me. You find goodness in others. And when it's not there, you create it. You make me wanna go back -- back to the best version of me. And that never happened before. So when you look in the mirror and you don't know who you are -- that's who you are. Thank you... Belle."
Self-plagiarism time. After the call has ended, a tearful Neal says he didn't know his father had that in him. Gold replies, "Oh, I'm full of love. I've spent a lifetime looking for you -- for a chance to say I love you, and I'm sorry." There's more talk, but suffice it to say that Gold reaches for his son's hand as asks if he might grasp it. When Neal says he's still angry, Gold replies, "I know." This is enough to break the logjam. Neal is Baelfire now. He clasps his father's hand and rests his head on it.
On the boards, one of our members thinks that whole call was a set-up in order to manipulate Baelfire. I disagreed at the time, but it still makes no sense to me that Rumpy could die from Hook's poison. I accept that he's wounded and suffering, but it's still extremely curious that he doesn't even try to heal himself, so now I'm inclined to agree with our skeptic, MDKNIGHT who says: kind of knew he wasn't going to die so his deathbed declarations to Belle in front of Bae were for show. I'm not saying I know for a fact it was a sham but I could believe it might have been because he knows parts of the future and because he knew he had dispatched Snow to kill Cora and save himself. He is sooo tricky that I wouldn't put it past him to think- hey if she fails I lose nothing I haven't already lost but if she succeeds (and my future seeing powers tell me she will) then I look awesome in Bae's eyes and improve my standing with Belle if I make this sappy phone call. We know he's manipulated basically every character's every frickin move for hundreds of years so I think that that is what actually happened. In fact, I might be even more cynical, now. I think he not only knew he wasn't going to die and was manipulating Bae and using Snow as an insurance policy. I think he just figured having Snow kill Cora was the easiest way to get back his dagger. I do think Rumpy loves Belle and means what he says to her, but I do not think he's above this entire set up.