Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 193 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT PANjandrum
By Cindy McLennan | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.17.2013
Neverland. Rumpy assures the team he has no intention of hurting Henry, even if the boy is destined to be his undoing. Neal doesn't believe him, but proposes he might, were his father to give him Pandora's box. It's not easy for the Dark One to work in this much light, but he does hand it over. As the party again heads off, Rumpy stops Neal and says, "Look, look, you may think you know who you're up against, but you don't." Neal says, "Tell me what really happened between you two." Rumpy says, "Peter Pan destroyed my father." Right, like Darth Vader destroyed Anakin Skywalker. Why are you being so frigging cryptic, Rumpy -- especially with your own son -- the one whose heart you so desperately want to reclaim? We flash back to the...
Enchanted Past. Wee Rumpy finds his father in the village. He's back to swindling the locals with Follow the Lady, and lies that he's just taking a break from looking for work. Disenchanted, the boy walks off. Papa runs after him. Rumpy yells at him about saying he'd look for work. Papa says no one in town would hire him, which is probably the truth, but I doubt he even gave it a go. He's a grown man who wants to play games -- games that abuse the trust of others. Rumpy says no one would hire dear old dad, because no one trusts him. Papa says, "But you do, don't you, son?" Rumpy says he wants to. His asks his father, "What if there was someplace we could start over -- somewhere where no one knew you?" When his father asks how, Rumpy shows him the magic bean. Papa is already familiar with it and tries to snatch it, because it would fetch so much money. Rumpy won't let him gamble away their one chance to be a family. Papa's eyes light up as he says, "A fresh start." He tries to think of a place to go. "Think think think. Think...lovely thoughts. That's it!" When Papa was a boy, his father sold him to a blacksmith. Every night, he'd tell himself to think lovely thoughts, and in his dreams, he's travel the most wonderful place -- Neverland. Rumpy says that's where they should go. Papa casts down the bean and a portal opens. Father and son hold hands and jump in. Well, now I can already understand why adult Rumpelstiltskin let go of teen Bae, and I haven't even seen how this will play out. Commercial.
After the break, we return to present-day Neverland. Emma pulls Hook aside and says, "We need to talk." She wants to find some way for David to leave the island. She knows this is a sore topic for Hook, because of his brother. Hook shuts it down. If David leaves the island, he'll break his connection to the cure. Emma suggests taking some water back with them to sustain the connection. Hook asks, "For how long? Once the water runs out the Dreamshade will take his life."