Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 4 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Take Heart
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 16 | Aired on 03.10.2013
As Neal (Baelfire) and Henry sail the Jolly Roger through the North Atlantic's CGI Stream that leads from Manhattan to Maine. We cut to below deck, where Rumpy is bleeding and suffering, like you do when you've been stabbed with a poisonous pirate hook. When Emma enters his cabin, she heaves a sigh and leans up against the door, so she must have had enough of watching the shiny happy father and son reunion taking place at the ship's wheel. Poor Emma. I want to make her some soup.
Emma and Rumpy exposit about the poison and the fact that, with the Dark One Dagger, Regina and Cora could force him to do anything, like oh say, kill everyone. When Rumpy figures Emma might not be so inclined to save him, Emma says she'll save him because he's Henry's grandfather. Emma being Emma, she makes no effort to hide her reluctance, so even though he's dying of pirate poisoning (what would you call it?) Rumpy still has enough sarcasm in his soul to crack that he's soooo reassured.
Storybrooke. Day. David is on the street, talking on the phone to Snow -- explaining about Rumpy's wound, the poison, the ship and all that jazz. He passes by a blonde, whose hair shade is the same as Emma's. Since we never see her face, I can't help but wonder if she's Jennifer Morrison's stunt-double. The show doesn't feature a lot of blonde females. Cinderella and Abigail (Kathryn) are the only blondes of note that I recall, and their shades are so different from Emma's (which, frankly, is full-on brassy). I started noticing this when Once Upon A Time's Aurora was introduced. She looks so different from my ideal Aurora (okay, Disney's Aurora), and that's mostly because of the hair. My theory is that the show wants Emma to stand out.
Regina and Cora are hanging in Regina's office. I'm sad to say I don't mean that literally. They should both be put out of Storybrooke's misery. Regina has managed to tap Snow's phone, so they're listening in on the Charmings' conversation. After Cora hears Snow refer to her as "that wicked woman" she knocks the speaker off of Regina's desk. Regina is all, "Mother!" Cora: "I don't like what that enchanted box was saying." I love you, Jane Espenson. I love you so much.
Cora continues and claims she's not wicked. Uh, right. I mean, I know we all rationalize our sins, but that right there is some heavy lifting. Regina explains how the enchanted box is just a phone tap. Cora doesn't care. She's upset that Rumpy has a head's up on their dagger theft because that will give him time to respond. She takes heart (not literally, not yet) when she sees that his misspelled name is fading from the dagger. Should it reappear, I hope it's spelled correctly! Cora says she can't let all Rumpy's power boil off into the air. Regina wants to use him to get Henry back before Rumpy dies, but Cora won't hear of it. She says she "has" to stab him with the knife and become the Dark One, like that wasn't her plan all along.