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Sunday 14 July 2013

Once Upon A Time 2.14 "Manhattan" Review

                                                
Gold (Robert Carlyle) Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Henry (Jared S Gilmore) arrive in Manhattan and straight to Bae's apartment but he's not around, or so they think until Emma hears him getting away via the fire escape, didn't need to make that much of a racket if you're running away.  So she gives chase and finds him.  Realizing who he is, she thinks she's been played by Gold and Neal (Michael Raymond-James) cos it's always about you Emma, isn't it.  They argue about him not knowing who she was and didn't find out until after they met and until August showed him the typewriter.  Of course he always kept his typewriter in that box, should have known that - duh!  Which is what my sister said last season.  On it he's typed: "I know you're Baelfire."

Neal: "I've spent a lifetime running from that man, I'm not gonna let him catch me" and what lock him up, cast a spell on him.

Emma: "You let me go to prison because Pinocchio told you to?!"

Cue Rumples' backstory and the ogre wars where he tells a delighted Milah (Rachel Shelley) how he's been called up to fight.  Think she didn't really love him after all, the way she was so excited to watch him go off to war like that, not even a little sadness, oh cruel woman!  At said wars and before he goes into battle, he is left to guard someone who will be of help to them. A seer (Shannon Lucio) who tells him his future: about Milah having a baby and how he will die tomorrow on the battlefield when the army rides on cows.  Which he finds strange.  However he's told that they will use these 'cows' since the Duke has sent supplies.  Saddles for them to ride to their deaths.  Since they call cows saddles.  He searches for the seer but she's gone and sees a hammer nearby which he uses to club his foot.

Milah expects him back and has already had the baby, fast job, ha since rumours from the war spread fast and she hates that he's just like his father, a coward and it would have been better for him to have died on the battlefield.  But Rumples wanted to be here for his son and not abandon him, and he didn't.  So when Bae says he left him, he was there for him for 14 years at least and didn't abandon him like his mother did, all for another man.

Neal doesn't want Emma to tell Gold about him but she has to since they have a deal.  But when she gets back she goes through with the lies.  Gold breaks into his apartment in the hope of a clue or two.  Notice red apple on the table and the sign near the door which reads: "Cleaners and Hatters"  surely a reference to Jefferson!  Yay ha!  Emma notices the dreamcatcher and Gold knows there's something she's not telling him. Henry is sent to the bathroom so they can talk, as if he's not old enough for their conversation.  Henry is far more intelligent than that.

Neal doesn't believe in coincidences since Gold taught him that there's only fate.  But he doesn't want to return to a land of magic.  Neal realizes Henry is his son, he's eleven and Henry is angry she didn't tell him, she said his father was a fireman, well she was half right in terms of names.  Then Henry runs to the FIRE escape! ha.  Gold wants to talk and he has 3 minutes, which were a very long 3 minutes indeed!

The seer comes to Rumples as the Dark One now and tells him he'll find his son but not yet, also there will be a curse which he will need and someone to break it too, but they won't be up to him. She gives him all her knowledge and  everything's jumbled up so he has to sort out the puzzles from what is and what can be. Though she does tell him he will be reunited with his son.  Also there is a boy who will be Rumple's downfall, Henry no doubt.

So anyway who set up the meeting between Neal and Emma all those years ago.  Emma calling Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) for advice on whether she should tell Henry about his father and Charming (Josh Dallas) wondering if he can have more than one grandfather!!  Which makes Regina (Lana Parrilla) his step- great grandmother. This ep was about fathers and sons wasn't it, seems Henry was more upset over Emma keeping the truth from Henry than realizing Gold is his grandfather!  Which makes them all a family an  they can be reunited in their struggle against Regina and Cora (Barbara Hershey).  Of course Rumples recalls this about Henry and realizes the only way for this not to come true is if Henry is not around.

Also it seems Rumples fulfilled his own prophecy since he didn't fight on the battlefield but still lost his son in his own interpretation of the prophecy.

Oh and wasn't Emma holding the dreamcatcher in the ep, The Cricket Game, where Cora killed Archie and Gold saw her holding it.  Here he sees her holding the dreamcatcher again and surely he must have thought that wasn't a coincidence either.  That a dreamcatcher could be used to see Pongo's memories and Emma has to capture those memories using her powers.  Also she had those memories with Neal when she got hold of the dreamcatcher from the window.

Regina and Cora cook up their own plans of course and Cora wants Rumple's dagger so they can control the Dark One and Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) thinks he'll get his revenge when he does.  She goes to he hospital and Belle (Emilie de Ravin) tells her she doesn't know who Gold is, she knocks her out using magic, so much for abstaining, well she won't get her one year badge at this rate.  Then uses magic to remove the contents from her bag and finds an ISBN number.  Leading her to the library.  They search for a book and Cora finds a piece of paper so how come they didn't realize it was a map. Agh!  SO much for them having magic.  Hook has to intervene of course and tells them it's a map and even deciphers it for them.  Surely Gold wouldn't need a map for the dagger and even if Belle would, why keep it written down, she could just as easily remember a few numbers, considering the number of books she reads.

Hook gets double crossed again, ha, really again?  He should know not to come between a daughter and her mother and is knocked out; kissing the floor once again!  Did he really think they'd let him have something so precious just for meagre revenge.  Cora explains how they can control the Dark One who'll kill Emma, Charming and Snow and then she'll have Henry and he won't suspect Regina of anything.

Mendell (Ethan Embry) makes another call again and plays a video of Regina using her magic.  As once again no one's learned the moral of the story, allowing an outsider to wonder the hospital alone.

Henry is angry Emma lied just like Regina did and compares the two of them, even if Neal was a thief, a liar, it really didn't mean she should have lied, after everything he's been through he would have understood and he tells her that too.  Emma admits she lied to protect herself and it's what I said, it's always about Emma even when it shouldn't be.  Snow being ever the optimist thinking they will get on better now since they are all related.  With those family ties comes so much baggage.

To those of us who always knew Bae/Neal was Gold's son we were finally rewarded for our patience!

References to Tallahassee here and also The Cricket Game.

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