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Rock and Compass Watches Once Upon A Time – 6.13: Ill-boding Patterns

Overview

Killian struggles with the weight of the unfortunate discovery that he killed David’s father and the ramifications of telling Emma the bad news. Gold tries to reach out to Gideon and steer him towards a better path. A flashback to the past involving Balefire and Beowulf suggests that this won’t necessarily be an easy thing to do.

Discussion, thoughts & things that could be significant

Ill-boding patterns – The title of the episode literally invites us to look at the patterns being highlighted in the story. Rumple’s history with Beowulf and Baelfire inform his choices with Gideon. He tries the same memory potion spiked tea on both sons, he gives both his trust only to have it backfire, the sword Hrunting is important in both stories and in the end, Rumple does something dark to save his son from having to do it – once by force and once by choice.

To the first Ogre War - The flashback must take place very shortly after Rumple became the Dark One and before he turned into an overbearing tyrant who had the villagers terrified. Slim window of opportunity…

The Magic Sword – Beowulf’s sword, Hrunting, is the same one Emma found in Gold’s shop and the same one sought out by Gideon as the weapon with which he can defeat the Saviour. It is imbued with light magic and is said to be very powerful - Although the sword doesn’t really live up to expectation on any of the occasions we’ve seen it in use, except for that one time when it injured the Evil Queen. Obviously the light magic in effect, but is that the reason it didn’t also injure Regina (as it should have – Jekyll and Hyde established that what harms one, harms the other). Maybe this sword is more judicious than a regular blade?

A Blue Creation – The sword was made by The Blue Fairy. My god does this woman have a long, long history! And why wouldn’t she have spoken up about the sword earlier? She’s a nun now, maybe she didn’t know about it. You’ve got to wonder why they don’t bring Blue into the inner circle a bit more; she knows a lot of stuff that could make all their lives easier.

Who so ever holds the …. Beowulf says that whoever wields Hrunting will be hailed a hero. Is this the basis of Gideon’s misguided belief - The legends that are attached to the sword? It is also interesting that in this story an external object is given the power to grant a heroic status, rather than the actions of the person using it.

Cowards vs Hero – so many comparisons of cowards and heroes throughout the episode and not just concerning Rumple and his sons. The opening scene concerns an unnamed piece of cannon fodder and his inclination to flee the battle. He is then inspired by the very tall, very imposing, very stereotypicaly hero Beowulf to be brave and fight. Cannon fodder ends up dead. His confidence in Beowulf’s confidence (in his sword) was misplaced yes, but it reinforces the idea that being brave doesn’t necessarily bring reward and more importantly, being brave is often not an easy choice. Both very important messages throughout the episode. Beowulf himself, seems like the picture of heroinism but we find out later that he is much more attached to the personal prestige of being a hero rather than the altruistic worth. He is devious and manipulative and resorts to some very cowardly acts to try to maintain his status – sometimes heroes are not what they seem and no amount of magic hardware can make them one.

That certain crutch – throughout the episode we see three examples of characters needing an external crutch to be a “hero” – For Rumple it is the dagger. It allows him to defeat the ogres and go from being the town coward to being a celebrated hero. Beowulf, who believes that his ownership of Hruting automatically entitles him to be considered a hero, and Gideon, who believes he needs the same sword to fulfil his destiny to be the saviour of the Dark Realm. In each case, the person’s faith in the object is misplaced; being a hero is about internal choices and actions and by choosing to do the right thing rather than the easy thing. Yep that message is really getting smashed home isn’t it.

Finding courage - Killian too is drinking to try and find some courage, although to be fair, I don’t think his mid-morning tipple is so much about courage as it is about processing what he’s learnt about himself. He’s processing what it means for him and for the people he is closest to – Emma and her family. He knows he’s got to tell Emma, even though he could just keep his mouth shut and noone would be none the wiser, but this is never really a viable option for him. When, at the end of the episode, Hook throws back that final shot and goes home he is clearly resolute about telling Emma the truth because it is the right thing to do. Killian Jones has never been a coward and so for him it’s not really a coward vs bravery thing, it’s more that sometimes doing the right thing takes bravery, particularly if there is an easy way or a short cut on offer…

A safe secret? – Killian thinks that no other living soul knows the truth of his murder of David’s dad. So naturally this means that someone else knows. Regina must know; The EQ gave David the coin. But who else might know? And if Killian doesn’t come clean about it, who will be the one to spill the beans?

The Black Fairy – Rumple makes such a point about her being ‘trapped in another realm’ that it’s clear that she is going to appear sooner rather than later. Where is she trapped? And why is she trapped? Is it just the limits of inter-realm travel? How did she get through to steal baby Gideon? And who is going to help her gain entry into Storybrooke. The Wish Realm is looking awfully suspicious right about now – like some sort of key to unlock passage? Fake Robin – FRobin is also looking pretty suspicious with his attempts to open the town line, and his suspicious comments about not liking children and having a partner in crime who is competent with magic….

Retconning Rumple – While the flashback slots neatly into a slim window of opportunity in Rumple’s backstory, it does add a noble layer to Rumple’s darkness that is not as easy to accept given what we already know about him. In this new addition to the story, Rumple is already enamoured with the power of the dagger but not necessarily completely under its spell. He likes it, he wants to use it but with persuasion from Bae he is convinced to forego it. He voluntarily hands the dagger over to his son – something I don’t think we’ve ever seen him do again. Balefire cops it big time in this flashback to prop up the revisions to Rumple’s story – He becomes something of a hypocrite, particularly after taking such an anti-magic stance and clearly positioning himself as Rumple’s moral superior, when he commands his father to kill Beowulf and then begins to consider the possible benefits of having a tame Dark One at his beck and call. Rumples use of the memory potion to restore Bae’s innocence is done out of lov, but is it necessarily right to mess with a person’s mind like that? The price for the intervention is large; it sets his relationship with Baelfire on a very specific course – cements the dagger as a point of contention between father and son that is never overcome and really, leads to the Dark Curse and Storybrooke and where we are today. I will concede that this addition to the story actually provides some textual scaffolding to Neal and his inherent weaknesses and his willingness to use very dark magic to resurrect Rumple as a means to getting back to Henry.

Who’s got the dagger – There is a lot of dagger swapping in this episode! It’s a timely reminder of the power of the dagger. I still think we are ripe for a change in Dark One (particulalry if Robert Carlyle is leaving the show).

A young master – Gideon’s magic is strong. He should be a formidable opponent and yet somehow, I just can’t take him seriously… and I keep thinking why isn’t Belle the one trying to help him? She is clearly a soft spot for him and is going to be more successful than Rumple in reaching him. Despite my finding Gideon unconvincing, he is written incredibly ruthless. He is prepared to harm his godmother to get what he wants, he is clearly willing to kill Emma to achieve his purpose. though I can’t help but think that all the efforts to protect his soul from corruption are too late? The intent is already there. You need darkness to make these terrible decisions in the first place – surely his heart is already spotty? I don’t think Rumple can ‘save’ his son; Gideon needs to choose a better path for himself. Isn’t that the point.

A box of potions – this box of black potions could have many uses, many possible concoctions. I wonder if we’ll see more of its uses than just the sucking magic spell.

Inside Regina’s wardrobe – Very interesting costuming for Regina – A red pantsuit, (classic early Regina) covered by a very light beige trench-coat and hat. Have we ever seen Regina wear something this close to white before while in Storybrooke? It just strikes me as odd, for a woman so frequently in black. Is it to be taken as a sign of her authentic change? While wearing the coat she is all about doing the right thing – she wants to help Frobin - she’ll even help him get out of Storybrooke if that’s what he truly wants. That being said, I still find her response to Frobin really weird – she seems to flip-flop between accepting that he not Robin Hood and yet still hoping that she can still somehow force the transformation. Most inexplicable is her assertion that meeting Frobin in the Wish World was some kind of test, that was meant to see if she can move foreward with her life… if this was the case, then wouldn’t meeting Snow and Charming in the Wish Realm have been a test to see if she could like, maybe not kill them? She really does have an impeccable knack at making everything about her. I liked that when she was talking to Zelena they were both dressed in singular colours – Green for Zelena (for her “wickedness”) and Red for Regina – the red is so interesting when used in conjunction with Zelena because it really plays with the allusion to apples and reminds us of Regina’s fondness for red apples and the fact that they were frequently her weapon of choice. And I still haven’t forgotten that the colour of magic used by the robed figure in Emma’s original vision was red. Yup I’m still suspicious. Okay, sure, when she’s discussing the Evil Queen with her sister she does have the decency to own that she is responsible for the Evil Queen’s past actions, but she also maintains a certain degree of separation – a “her and me” mentality because they are separate. Plus she still cultivates that deep persecution complex where everything that happens is somehow all designed to rob her of happiness. And until she starts wearing her past and doing constructive things to make up for it, beyond hoping for personal gain, I’m not buying any depth of change.

Resistance is futile - Once you give in to the darkness it’s almost impossible to resist. Hmmm, I can think of a couple of people who did resist it but that’s not the point. The point is that those who use Dark Power find it difficult to stop doing so. Is that why Hook’s redemption is so much more convincing than Regina’s? Because he is not a slave to dark power and is actively making the choice to change? Whereas Regina, who has used Dark power to get what she wants for so long is like an addict going cold turkey. How long will she stay on the wagon? Rumple of course is a functional addict. He fully admits his need for power and has no intention to give it up.

Bullseye – Frobin suggests that Zelena has a “target on her back”. The comment comes out of nowhere and seems to have no substance so I’m thinking we are perhaps supposed to take this as foreshadowing? Ill-boding pattern indeed.

Hard way vs Easy way – Rumple’s story is an exploration of the choice. Bae encourages the hard way (defeating Grendal without magic) but ends up using the easy path of dark power to kill Beowulf. And he also chooses the easy/hard way (depending on how you look at it) when he chooses to help Gideon by usurping the Blue Fairy’s magic to reforge the sword. It’s an odd one; I get that he does it to help his son avoid darkness (which is a debatable topic in iself) but he willingly drains Blue of her magic. Why is Gideon’s need greater than hers? And of course, you could argue that Gideon needs to make his own decisions – even if they are bad. He’s a grown man. He shouldn’t need the cotton wool. We also get reminded that Regina took the easy way to redemption with her split personality – rather than work through her dark urges, she decided to cleave them away from her. And we also see Killian succumb to temptation and take the easy way of not telling Emma the truth about his past before he proposes to Emma. None of these ‘easy ways’ is going to turn out well, that’s not the lesson from this show (and I stand by this expectation even in the light of today’s developments with Regina and her other half!)

Think again – Before Blue is drained of her magic she outright tells Gideon that “killing Emma with that blade won’t make you the saviour you think.” It sounds like Blue, who did make this sword, knows what she’s talking about. It’s clearly a warning that all of this is not what any of them thinks. Twist coming.

The Proposal – Killian is obvious in his intention to tell Emma the truth when he first arrives home. But Emma inadvertently finding the engagement ring makes him veer off course somewhat. For the life of me I can’t work out why they wouldn’t have shown Emma finding the ring! It would have only been a short scene, it would have tied the two ends of the story together beautifully – Show, don’t tell, isn’t that the first rule of writing? Hook’s desire to confess the crime is mistaken for endearing nervousness and uncertainty. She makes the proposal easy for him, reassures him of her feelings and lets him know that she will say yes. It’s understandable that he got caught up in the moment and pops the question; the woman he loves wants to marry him, she handed him the freaking ring! The beautiful bittersweet rendition of the Captain Swan theme acts as a warning that this is not as nearly settled as it seems. Hook’s expression as he and Emma hug is the real kicker though; he knows he’s made a mistake and it won’t be easy to just live with it – and that truth is going to get out the only question is how. Will Killian come clean and admit the truth by his own volition or will someone else force confession? Either way, angsty times ahead for Captain Swan.

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