This week’s episode of Once Upon a Time was like vanilla ice cream. It was good, and I enjoyed it, but it was plain and boring compared to the chocolate fudge sundaes that we’re used to devouring each and every week. While Rumple is doing all that he can to restore Belle’s memory, Emma and the gang are trying to ensure that last week’s outsider, doesn’t remember anything out of the ordinary from his drive into Storybrooke. Read on for all the spellbinding details from “In the Name of the Brother.”
Frankenstein Flashbacks: I found these parts of the episode to be particularly boring, so I’m not going to spend too much time rehashing them. Basically all you need to know is that Dr. Whale is actually Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a man who lived in the shadow of his younger bother, Gerhardt. His daddy dearest announces that he is cutting Victor off from his money and he is no longer allowed to conduct his little scientific experiments. Enter, Rumplestlskin! Rumple offers Frankenstein a pile of gold in exchange for a lesson on how to bring people back from the dead. Victor gladly accepts the deal and heads on over to the cemetery to dig up his first experiment. However, Gerhardt followed his brother to the cemetery and a watchman shoots him before he could return to the safety of the carriage.
Now Victor is determined to bring his brother back to life. After a few heavy duty electrical shocks, Victor is devastated to see that his brothers heart is now a charcoaled mess of crumbs. Take 2: Victor has an enchanted heart from Regina and he experiment is a success. Gerhardt is alive, but he is not the same person, he’s now a monster. Their father stars screaming at Victor for his monstrosity of an experiment, so Gerhardt promptly punches him to death. The flashback ends with Gerhardt locked away in a cell, and Victor about to shoot his bother and put him out of his misery. However, Victor’s pride is too great and he makes a promise to his brother: “I’ll save you. I’ll find a way”
Stroybrooke Surgery: The episode picks up right where we left off: at the town’s border where Hook has just been hit by a car, and Belle no longer remembers anything about her magic-wielding beau. It only takes about 2.5 seconds for Rumple to try and kill Hook for shooting Belle and erasing her memory but Emma reminds him that there is one very important reason for him to keep his cool: “Murder is a bad first impression.” Charming then throws into the conversation a WWBWYTD? (Translation: “What would Belle want you to do?”) The ambulance arrives at the scene and transports our “outsider,” aka some random Joe Schmo named Greg, to the Storybrooke hospital.
In Belle’s hospital room, Rumple tries to take a page out of the Charming and Snow handbook and restore his girl’s memory with true love’s kiss. Unfortunately it doesn’t work and Belle thinks that some crazy stranger just came into her room and kissed while she was sleeping. Needless to say she freaks the eff out and screams her head off. Over in another room, Hook is bleeding, has a few broken ribs and is handcuffed to his bed. Emma is questioning him on Cora’s whereabouts, but Hook is more concerned with where his hook is. “Or is there another attachment that you prefer?” he asks her in the sexiest voice imaginable. But for some strange reason, Emma is immune to Hook’s ridiculously attractive face and refuses to take advantage of the fact that his is handcuffed to a bed. Hook tells Emma that he does not regret forcing Belle to lose her memory. “I hurt his heart, Belle Is just where he keeps it.”
Back at his shop, Rumple gets a surprise visit from his old pupil Cora, and she offers him a truce so that she may brainwash her daughter without his interference. But what does Rumple get in return? A clouded glass globe that is said to help Rumple find “the one person in this universes that might still love you.” Ohh burn. Rumple agrees and Cora suggests that they seal the deal like they used to. Rumple and Cora then have an awkward, tension-filled, lingering kiss. Over at the hospital, Rumple tries one more time to trigger Belle’s memory. He shows Belle her talisman and Disney fans let out of squeal of delight to see the return of Chip! (aka the chipped teacup that Belle dropped in Rumple’s castle a long long time ago.) Rumple encouraged Belle to focus on the enchanted item, but Belle quickly becomes irritated that she cannot please this demanding stranger and she smashes the cup against a wall.
Meanwhile stumbling around the halls, Dr. Whale is drunk as a skunk and looking less than confident about emergency surgery needed to save Greg’s life. He runs into a distraught Rumple and practically begs him for his help. Rumple instantly refuses saying “I owe you nothing, none of you!” and then suggests that the better option might be to let the stranger die, especially since he probably say Rumple wielding a magic fire ball just before his accident. “ The gang (Emma, Snow, Charming, Ruby and Leroy) decide that they need to save the man’s life, especially since Greg’s cell phone keeps ringing with a call from “Her.” Clearly someone –who has been assigned a Star Wars ringtone – is missing this man.
Unfortunately it’s hard to perform surgery when the doctor is MIA. Ruby uses her wolf powers to track down Whales’ overpowering scent of alcohol and sees that he is at the end of the harbor and about to jump for it. She catches him just in time and the two “monsters” have a heart-to-heart. Ruby commiserates about the time that she ate her boyfriend and Whale complains that people often refer to Frankenstein as the monster and not the scientist. (#fairytaleproblems)
Ruby convinces her newfound friend to perform the surgery and Whale saves the man’s life. Emma then puts on her big girl sheriff pants and questions Greg about what he saw just before he hit Hook with his car. The balding man sheepishly reveals that he didn’t see anything because he was texting. Emma leaves the room quite proud of her interrogation skills, and we see that Greg finally calls “her” back. Looks like the outsider is a better liar than we thought because he begins his phone conversation by saying, “I was in an accident, and you’re not going to believe what I saw….”
Cora is on a quest to find Regina, so she does what any normal woman would do: she disguises herself as Henry and wanders around Regina’s crypt calling out like a sad wounded puppy. Regina let’s “Henry” into her super secret — but lavishly decorated — hiding from the world lair, and is shocked to see that is actually Cora. Sneaky! Cora tells her daughter that she forgives her for trying to kill her all those times and that she is sorry that she framed her for the murder of Archie. Regina is determined to clear her name and win back Henry’s love, but Cora points out that as long as Emma, Snow, and Charming are around, he will never fully be her son again. And just like that Regina has her mother’s shoulder to cry on, and Storybrooke now has two evil witches on the same team.
Over in the Charming loft, the royal family is just about to sit down for a decadent bowl of cereal, when Rumple arrives. Rumple says that he is cashin in his favor from Emma and declares that she is coming with him to find his son Bae. As Emma is trying to sort out the details surrounding her adult kidnapping, Rumple calmly tells the group, “If any harm comes to belle when I’m gone, I’m killing all of you.”
What did you think of this week’s Once Upon a Time? Were you yawning as much as I was? Cast your spell in the comments below!
Follow Leanne on Twitter @LeanneAguilera
[Photo Credit: ABC]
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