Rumplestiltskin has escaped the Wicked Witches clutches, but for how long. He knows too much and the Witch has put out a kill order on him if she can’t get him back. Can Emma and the others find him first? And how is he even alive? Let’s break this episode down and find out what ‘Wickedness’ is in store.

Resurrecting the Dark One:

While looking in Rumplestiltskin’s library, Belle and Neal come across Lumière, a poor soul who was trapped by The Dark One centuries earlier – or so he’d have you believe. It turns out that the ‘Casanova of all Candelabras’ was actually cursed by the Wicked Witch and is doing her bidding in order to help Belle revive the Dark One. He tells the that the only way to revive the Dark One is by using a certain key to open the vault of the Dark One – which is where the first Dark One was formed centuries ago – or more.

Belle luckily discerns that Lumière is lying when he says he’s been in the library for over 200 years – which Belle knows to be a lie since Rumple made it especially for her barely 30 years ago. Lumière confesses that the method to bring the Dark One back is true, but the Wicked Witch plans to control the Dark One with his dagger the moment he returns. Belle realizes that Rumple didn’t give his life just to be used as a tool in the Wicked Witch’s plan, so she decides the to not put her own needs before everyone else’s and dishonor Rumple’s final act of courage and redemption.

On the other hand, Neal understands nothing of his father’s sacrifice and decides to put his own fate ahead of everyone else’s. Despite pleas from Belle to stop and not make the same mistakes his father did, Neal forges on ahead with the resurrection and pays the ultimate price.

REALLY NEAL?!?!?!?!?!:

Throughout the episode, Neal just seemed to not ‘get’ his father. In fact, he never really seemed to. When we hear Belle talk about Rumple, you can hear how she accepts him for all of his faults. Neal on the other hand still can’t let go of the past. Despite the countless times Rumple has shown himself to have changed, Neal still can’t let it go.

Neal was surprised by Rumple’s self-sacrifice, but Belle knew it all along. So as to not seem like an idiot who can’t learn, he quickly replies that he always knew his father was a good man trying to get out – but this just digs himself in deeper. Belle corrects him that the good man DID get out. Neal understands nothing of his father or what sacrifice is. Even after Belle warns him that the cost is too high and the Wicked Witch will control him, Neal just brushes it aside as his father’s problem and says “If anyone can find a loophole it’s my dad.”

Neal’s words reveal the bitterness he still foolishly holds towards his father. This is why we know he isn’t in fact doing this to see his father, but rather to get back to Emma and Henry. If he unleashes an unspeakable evil onto the whole Enchanted Forest, so be it. He doesn’t plan on staying anyway.

Neal’s selfish act doesn’t just have consequences for the Enchanted Forest, but for himself as well. All magic comes with a price; and dead is dead. So if there were a way for magic to bring someone back, it would be a pretty steep price. In this case, it’s a life for a life. Rumple refuses to let his son go a second time and drops the dagger when Zelena says he can’t hold onto both – again proving that he is a much better man than Neal – so he merges his own body with Neal’s, which explains why he could slightly resist Zelena summoning him. He wasn’t 100% Dark One.

There is almost another casualty of Neal’s selfishness, but luckily Lumière saves Belle from Zelena’s kill order by trapping her in some sort of fire-spin. Belle then grabs Lumière and runs off crying as Rumple uses every fiber of his being to control the voices in his head and keep himself from killing the woman he loves.

Neal’s hard headedness about accepting his father after making up for it countless times is the reason he was my least favorite character in this show. Think back to earlier this season, if Neal had listened to his father, they would have gotten off the island with Henry safe and sound much sooner. But no, he had to trap his father with squid ink and then get captured by Pan literally 5 minutes later. He contributed nothing to the story except a strong will to not let go of the bad things in his past. Emma he could let go off – twice – , but not his distrust nor his insistence that he deserved a 3^rd – or was it 4^th – chance with Emma.  Speaking of, Neal’s death also gives the Hook & Emma romance a green light – after a grieving period of course.

Do You Like Roofie Coladas & Getting Caught In The Rain?

Moving right along: Is it just me, or does anyone else cringe every time they see Zelena hand someone something to drink? They way she was pushing Snow to drink that orange juice for the baby and then how the baby suddenly started moving again after a long time of inactivity, it all just seemed too much.

Now maybe I’m crazy, but remember when Regina and Robin Hood were inspecting Zelena’s farmhouse? Regina said that a good witch can disguise her potions and magic.

Speaking of disguised potions, it could even be possible that the whiskey in Zelena’s house was a trap too! Whether Robin knew or not, I’ll get it that in a second. Either way, I could be totally off here, but Zelena has all of us jumpy. We’ve seen Evil, but we have no idea just how far ‘Wicked’ can go.

A Second Chance At Making A First Impression

Now as for Robin, the Hood, he and Regina got very close this episode after meeting for the first time … again. Though beyond almost shooting each other, why was this meet so different? Unlike last time, Robin didn’t owe Regina anything so why be so adamant about coming along if he has 0 history with the Wicked Witch? Two options:

1) It Must Be True Love

During that missing year Regina and Robin got close and were well on their way to falling in love – if they hadn’t already. As Belle mentioned this episode when Neal was wondering how his and Emma’s necklace survived the crossing over, true love survives the curse. This is the same reason David and Mary Margaret felt such a connection in Season 1.

Perhaps Robin’s over flirtatious advances – and Regina’s acceptance of them – was because they did find true love with each other during that missing year. Perhaps their kiss could even break this new curse – but what if Zelena is well aware of this?

 2) It’s a Trap!

If Regina and Robin did get close during that missing year – and Zelena knew – she would absolutely use this as a weapon because of revenge and that fact that they would feel some connection afterwards even with memory wipe – a connection that could give Regina an exploitable weakness since Zelena doesn’t know about Henry. Maybe Robin’s being controlled or blackmailed or a monkey in deep disguise, we don’t know yet.

This would make sense since right after Regina revealed that a good witch can hide potions and magic, but she could uncover it, he got VERY forward with the flirting and offered her a drink of Zelena’s whiskey – which for all intensive purposes might have been one of the disguises Regina just mentioned.

Either way, Regina freaked out when she saw his lion tattoo and recognized it as her soul mate. Though did she run away from a trap or from the means to break this curse. Ugh, when will these crazy kids find their happy ending?

 What’s Best For Henry:

 Speaking of kids, this episode Emma expressed concerns about Henry, who has started to figure out that Emma isn’t in this town for just a normal case. When all is said and done, Emma tells him that this case was about Henry’s father, but how long can that reason last. Emma still has a choice to make.

Will she find a way to restore Henry’s memories or will she leave for New York once the Wicked Witch is taken care of? If Henry returns to New York, Emma will certainly go with him. So in the end it comes down to the future of this show being with or without Emma.

I doubt they’ll kill off Henry, but he really doesn’t provide anything to the show and is my second least favorite character – now first since Neal is dead. I think it’ll allow characters much more room to grow if he’s gone; and if that means Emma too then so be it. Although I’ve have become much more fond of Emma the second half of this season.

The next episode might not answer any romance or Henry questions, but it will give us an insight into who exactly Zelena is. We’ve been pondering about her parenthood and relationship with Rumplestiltskin quite a bit. Well we’ll finally get those answers with this Sunday’s episode. Will everything get tied up this season, or continue into Season 4 like last season did? We’ll have to stay tuned to find out. All I know is, this episode explained how killing off my least favorite character was responsible for bringing back my favorite – and I’m PERFECTLY okay with that.