Recap Monday: #OUAT S4: Ep. 4

Once Upon A Time

Sundays, 8PM

Season 4

Episode 4: The Apprentice

Original Air date: 10/19/2014

“Love is a weapon, dearie. Always has been.” ~Rumple

There was kissing and hand holding and flirting and the sexiness of the raised eyebrow! *Eeeeep* Emma and Hook were just so dang adorable and cute in the latest episode of #OUAT we just can’t take it!!

Show in a Nutshell: Emma and Killian go on their first date which just made our hearts go all pitter-patter-like! It didn’t help that Killian wears clothes from this century FINALLY and looks sooooo dang SEXY in them!! *squeals* Rumple used Anna to get a very magical box that he plans on using to retain more power and blackmails a certain pirate we know and love into helping him get some of that power. The Charmings are busy taking care of a newborn and looking through old logs of names to help Elsa find out if Anna returned with the curse. The Snow Queen is nowhere to be found but is sort of trying to kill (or maybe just catch Emma’s attention??) Emma. Regina is still trying to find a way to cure Marian despite being in love with Robin and Henry is all about Operation Mongoose, determined to get Regina a happy ending with Robin.

FAVORITE HOOK QUOTES

 “Curses and Neverland may have given me experience, but as you can see I’ve retained my youthful glow.”

“I’ve got a date with Emma. Should things go well and she wants me to hold her, I want to use both hands.”

“I’ve only seen you go on one date and that was with a flying monkey. Thought I had to top that.”

Longer Version (with side comments): Zozo, the Dark One before Rumple took over the position, (really? THAT’S the name you give to the Dark One?? All we can think about is a big red nose and big clown shoes) is at a non-descriptive, decaying room where he is trying to steal this magical box (same one from the first episode that Rumple revealed to contain Mickey’s Fantasia hat) by fighting some ancient wizard who didn’t really offer much in the way of security. But Zozo gets taken down by an enchantment that was placed by the Sorcerer and the ancient apprentice explains no Dark One can touch the box because of the darkness in his heart. Zozo decides to cut his losses and disappears. The apprentice ominously stating, “no dark one will ever possess what is in the box.”

Oh but how wrong ancient apprentice was. Back in Present Day Storybrooke, Rumple has the box and he knows how to open it. Jumping over to our two favorite lovebirds, Emma shows up at the diner with Henry. After getting Henry’s blessing (and a little push), Emma nervously enters the diner where she finds Hook playing darts. He thinks the Snow Queen is up to her cold tricks again (Get it? *wink wink*) but she calms him down then proceeds to ask him on a date. Hook happily agrees under the condition that he gets to plan the date, “You know how to chase a monster. I know how to plan an evening out.” Hook then heads over to Rumple’s shop. He has a new deal for Rumple: he’ll keep his pirate mouth shut about the fake dagger if Rumple attaches back his hand. “Oh I see, blackmail brings out the romantic in you.” Rumple warns Hook that having his hand reattached may not be such a good idea since the hand belonged to Hook BEFORE he changed and there’s no telling how the hand will influence him.

PAUSE: So Hook’s hand can literally change his entire demeanor, personality, way of thinking simply by being reattached?? ONLY in Storybrooke would such a friggin thing be possible! Why do we get the feeling Rumple did something all dark magical-like to the hand way back when??

PLAY: So Rumple reattaches the hand. Back at the Charming’s apartment, they are working through looking through logs of names from everyone who was brought back from the Enchanted Forest to Storybrooke (again) to see if Anna is on the list. Emma gets all dolled up for her date and the dashing pirate arrives to pick her up and HE’S WEARING PANTS and a LEATHER JACKET!! *heart goes all swoony* *cue the near fainting spells* They depart before Papa Charming gives Hook—er, well, Killian—the awkward “don’t do anything to my daughter or I’ll kill you” speech.

Traveling Back in Time: Anna has found Rumple and pays him a visit at his castle. Rumple quickly does away with Anna pretending to be Joan and confirms her parents did pay him a visit on their journey before they died. But he will only give Anna the answers she seeks for a price. Anna jumps the gun and agrees to do anything to help her sister. Those are Rumple’s favorite words. Naïve princess *shakes head* Rumple tells Anna to go down to the foot of the dark mountains where an old man lives, “Prickly sort, probably eats children for breakfast,” and pour a certain potion into his tea. Before Anna ventures out, she has to sign the contract and Rumple promises to reveal the secrets she wants to know. Anna finds the old man and discovers he rather enjoys biscuits and tea for breakfast instead of children. He lets her inside and offers her some. Anna moves in to pour the potion in the tea but hesitates then pours the potion in the fire.

Back in Storybrooke: Killian has taken Emma to a quaint Italian restaurant for their very first date together. *cue squealing and drooling and even more swooning because of that dang eyebrow Killian is always raising and his mischievous smile* Be still our beating hearts! Moving along, the date is going all cute and sweet when Will Scarlett appears. He tries to sneak out of the restaurant before Emma notices but ends up crashing into a waiter who ends up spilling all the contents of his tray onto Emma’s lap. Hook grabs Will by the collar and demands he apologizes to Emma. Emma tells him to relax and Hook realizes maybe his newly attached hand is up to no good already. Will dashes off and Emma almost chases after him but decides she doesn’t want to ruin her and Killian’s first date. Then her and Killian hold hands! *Eeeep* These two being all romantic-y is just too adorables!

Jumping over to Regina and Henry hanging out in Regina’s vault of dark magic underneath her father’s coffin (cause that’s not at all creepy), Regina is trying to find a spell to unfreeze Marian but so far she’s come up with no answers. Henry doesn’t understand why she isn’t happier considering Robin Hood is in love with her. Regina side steps the issue with the age old Mom speech, “You’re just too young to understand.” Given that she would have had to explain that Robin professed being in love with another woman while still married and while his wife laid next to them freezing to death, and that he is only staying with his newly frozen wife out of obligation, not sure Regina would have even been able to find a good enough way to twist that in her favor. Plus, hella awkward. It's like having the sex talk but imagine that underneath the coffin of your dead father. Hells no!

Back at the Charmings: Killian and Emma have returned from their date. More hand holding!! And Hook once again apologizes for overreacting about Will back at the restaurant. Emma invites him in for coffee but considering her parents, new baby bro, and Elsa are inside Killian takes a rain check but does asks Emma out on another date. They kiss (Eeep!) and Emma goes inside. Snow and Charming are sitting up, waiting. Snow wants to know all the details of the date, firing a round of 20 questions before Emma can even catch her breath, and Charming interjects he doesn’t want to know ALL the deets, just that it went well. Emma isn’t a girl to kiss and tell so she goes off to bed. It was so cute how uncomfortable Papa Charming was about his daughter being on a date and having a good night kiss and so cute how Snow was all excited, she practically bounced on the couch. It’s also a little weird . . . Okay, a lot weird considering Mama Snow and Daughter are pretty much the same age . . . Still there was a sweetness about it. 

Will Scarlett is trying to break into the library because you know, that’s what all drunk people do in a small town. Killian comes upon him and tells him to go home, there’s nothing worth stealing in the library. Will doesn’t listen and Killian’s hand goes all karate chop, taking down Will in one fell swoop. He manages to stop himself before things with Will go all cray cray bloody and threatens Will to keep his mouth shut about the incident.

Traveling Back in Time: Anna has returned to Rumple’s castle, having pretended to pour the potion in the old man’s tea. Rumple reveals it wasn’t poison but an antidote for the poison the old man drank the day before. Anna freaks out and wants to return to the cottage to help the old man but it’s too late, he’s been turned into a rat. Anna runs to the cottage to try to find the old man turned rat and Rumple meets her there. He confesses he knew all along she would never give him the potion. He just needed her to overcome her inner darkness and turn away so she could get the magical object (i.e. the box with the Fantasia hat) for him. Except Anna was never tempted to hurt the old man, she never fought off some inner darkness. Rumple tells Anna he hopes she likes living in his tower because that’s where she’ll be since she didn’t fulfill her end of the contract. Anna grabs a sword and tells Rumple to rip up the contract. He tells her the only way to do that is by killing him. Anna tries but she can’t. Rumple laughs it off though. By Anna thinking about killing him but turning away means she did in fact face her inner darkness. Rumple collects one of Anna’s tears onto the blade of his dagger which is what he needs to retrieve the magical box. 

Back in Storybrooke: Hook needs Rumple to take back his hand and return the hook but Rumple won’t give him back his hand, unless he makes a deal. He claims to have switched the fake dagger for the real one so Killian’s earlier threat about telling Belle the truth won’t work anymore seeing as Killian has no real way to tell if Rumple is lying. But he won’t make a deal with Rumple because Rumple wants Killian to owe him a favor later and Killian doesn’t trust him to let Rumple come up with the terms at a different time. Killian vows to find another way to free him of his cursed hand but Rumple dashes his dreams by explaining only his magic can remove it since his magic reattached it. Killian finally gives in and agrees to Rumple’s terms. Rumple tells him to meet him at the docks the next morning. Killian should have known that Rumple always has a trick up his sleeve, he always has a way to get what he wants. Our poor, sexy Pirate. 

Next morning: Emma almost crashes into Granny’s diner when the street suddenly becomes covered in ice. The Snow Queen has decided to pay her a visit . . . Or more like play a game of cat and mouse. Emma chases after her but loses her. Over at the library, Belle calls Emma in because she’s found a drunk and sleeping Will Scarlett on the floor, hugging a book, having broken in through the window. Back the docks, Rumple wakes up Killian who had fallen asleep on a bench, discarded flask not far from him, and tells him it’s time. He then conjures up a broom. The same broom from Fantasia—you know, the one that walks and dances.

Traveling Back in Time: Rumple gets ahold of the magical box (Duh!) and Anna demands he keep his word since she helped him. Rumple reveals her parents did visit him. They were afraid of Elsa’s powers, of what they could do. But Anna’s parents weren’t able to find anything to help Elsa, to help make her normal until now that is. (Seriously?? Her parents couldn't have found a magical teacher just to help teach Elsa to control her powers?? No parents of the year award there). Within the magical box is a hat made by a powerful Socerer (i.e. Mickey! *hehe*) and the hat can steal magical power. Rumple wants to fully charge the hat with power which will make him even more unstoppable. But before he can proceed with his plan, the apprentice turned mouse bites him on the hand, where Rumple ends up dropping his dagger and Anna gets ahold of it. She politely commands Rumple to give her the magical box. Rumple has no choice but to follow orders but he adds a warning, “Remember Dearie, you can’t keep hold of that dagger forever, and you don’t want to be on the other end of it when I get it back.” Anna commands him to send her back to Arendelle along with the box, to never hurt her or Elsa, and to turn the apprentice back into a man. Rumple does as she commands. Anna returns back to Arendelle and after a sweet kiss exchange with Kristoff, she has to figure out what exactly to tell Elsa about the truth about her parents. This doesn't get resolved by the time the show ends which was a weird cliffhanger moment.

Back in Storybrooke: The magical broom leads Rumple and Killian to an old man’s house—the apprentice who had been guarding the magical box in the first place. Rumple opens the box and it transforms into the Fantasia hat. He uses the hat to suck in the wizard. Once back at Rumple’s shop, he detaches Hook's hand and returns the hook. Hook thinks their deal is complete but Rumple blackmails him, warning him he has the tape from the old man’s house and how does he think Emma will take the news that Hook helped Rumple. Hook decides he’ll take his chances, he’ll just tell Emma the truth about the cursed hand and why he did it. But Rumple confesses it won’t be that easy seeing as Hook’s hand was never really cursed in the first place. Every dark thought or deed Hook had was from within himself, not because of his hand. Hook doesn’t care, he’ll just take Rumple down with him. Rumple doesn’t think Hook has it in him. He tells Hook he owes him for the rest of his life for threatening to destroy the only light in his life (i.e. Belle). “So here we are, Captain, still in business together. I think you and I are going to have some fun.”

Over at the Sheriff station, Will Scarlett wakes up with a big headache and a hangover in a jail cell. Turns out he was clutching a copy of Alice in Wonderland when Belle found him but he pretends not to know what Emma is talking about. Hook arrives and quickly explains that his hand has been turned back into a hook because the Dark One’s magic wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. (Can't believe Emma fell for that?! Emma KNOWS Rumple is capable of pretty much anything, even with his power limits.) Charming tells Emma they have a problem. The name the Snow Queen has been using, Sara Fisher, can’t be found in any records. Emma was right, the Snow Queen came to town on her own. Emma wants to know what the hell for and what does she have to do with it?

Regina still hasn’t found a cure for Marian so Henry decides to distract her with Operation Mongoose. He thinks Rumple must know who the author of the Once Upon A Time Storybook is because he ended up with a happy ending with Belle. So Henry decides to go undercover, becoming Rumple’s apprentice in order to have access to the shop. It's sweet that Henry wants to help Regina but we're not sure how we feel about him using his grandfather to do it. I mean Rumple did help save Henry on more than one occasion and he did really love Henry's father and they made up in the end. Then again, Rumple seems to be up to his dark magic plans again so maybe it'll be good that Henry is close by to keep an eye on him??

We're all for Regina getting a happy ending because she's worked to change and all, but Robin's gotta be honest with his wife--when she comes back to life . . . again--first. 

For now, we'll just have to gush all over Emma and Hook. Except now we are VERY worried about Rumple using Hook to do his bidding. Emma will not take the truth well when she finds out.

Can't wait for next week's episode!!