Once Upon A Time, Season 2, Episode 14, “Manhattan”

 

Or better title, “Who's Yo Daddy?”

Rumpelstiltskin enters his cottage and gives Mela the good news that he's been called up to fight in the ogre wars. She's afraid because well, duh, it's ogres and everything, but he convinces her his heroism will bring great honor to their little abode.

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Emma, Mr. Gold and Henry arrive at Bellfire's apartment in NYC.

The Mayor and Cora have a mother/daughter chat in the bedroom. Hook shows up and the Mayor explains to him (and us) that they can't leave Storybrooke to run down Mr. Gold, but Cora tells them this is the perfect time to use the one thing that he's defenceless against—the dagger.

Emma sees a guy take off out the fire escape. She yells to Mr. Gold and Henry that this MUST be Baelfire.

Of course it is.

Emma switches into Charlie's Angels gear and manages to tackle him after three blocks.

Yes, I totally called it! It's Emma's ugly faced boyfriend.

'Neil' tells Emma that he has never forgiven Mr. Gold for abandoning him.

Emma freaks out since Henry is now officially Rumpelstiltskin's grandson. He denies knowing who she really was when they met, but only found out her true identity after August showed up and opened his wooden box of doom, and showed him one neatly typed line, “I know you are Baelfire.”

I can't believe I've been writing it wrong all this time.

She says, “You gave me up because of Pinochhio”

Man, if I had a nickel for every time I said that.

Emma decides to keep Henry's existence a secret. Then for symbolic reasons, she rips off the necklace that was part of the key chain Neil gave her, and tells him it was a reminder to never trust anyone.

But, alas she has to keep her promise to Mr. Gold and deliver Baelfire.

Rumpelstiltskin is asked to guard a prisoner that can help turn the tides of the ogre war.

I hope he doesn't mess this up.

He lifts the flap and sees a child with their eyes sewn shut.

My kids screamed at this scene.
 

 

She begs Rumpelstiltskin for water. He is resistant, but when the little girl tells him Mela is already pregnant, he is intrigued. He gives her water and she tells him his actions on the battlefield will leave his son fatherless.

He gets angry since the whole point of going to war is to prove he isn't a coward, but he didn't sign up to die before his son is even born.

Emma calls Mary Margaret for advice about Baelfire. She tries to convince Emma to tell Henry the truth, but when Emma joins Henry and Mr. Gold, she tells them Baelfire got away.

The Mayor decides to pay Belle a visit in hopes of finding the dagger with his name. She puts Belle to sleep magically and then makes all the contents of her purse whirl through the air.

For the record, Nancy Drew could have done the same thing without magic.

The Mayor finds a slip of paper with a numerical code. With help from Cora and Hook, she searches the library and finds a hand drawn map...a treasure map.
 

Despite Emma's objections, Mr. Gold breaks into Baelfire's apartment.

Rumpelstiltskin learns about the next days battle and the little girl's prophecy is coming true. Convinced he's gong to die the next day and leave his son fatherless, he purposely breaks his foot in order to be deemed unfit to fight.

In Baelfire's apartment Mr. Gold can tell Emma is lying to him. He gets all up in her face for breaking their deal when Baelfire bursts into the room.

Rumpelstiltskin limps home to find Mela holding baby Baelfire. He's overjoyed but she confronts him about hurting himself on purpose, and bringing shame on their family. He asks her what he was supposed to do.

She's disgusted with him and says, “You could have fought. You could have died.”

Man, if I had a nickel for every time I said that.
 

 

Baelfire demands Mr. Gold leave his apartment. Mr. Gold picks up on the obvious clue when she calls him 'Neil'. After a lot of shouting, Henry comes out of hiding. Baelfire does the math and asks if Henry is his son.

Emma drops the bomb shell leaving the three fellas gobsmacked.

Greg, the guy who ran Hook over with his car, is allowed to wander the hospital and take videos with his phone. While the Mayor was unnecessarily making Belle's purse hover in the air, he managed to film it and e-mail it to his wife.

 

Cora and the Mayor take give each other high fives after Hook decodes the treasure map. Once they have the dagger, they will control the Dark One, and then he can kill Emma, Mary Margaret, and anyone else they don't like. Henry will go back to live with the Mayor, la dee da, and all will be as it should.

Yup. That's iron clad.

Mr. Gold tells Baelfire that there is no greater pain than regret. He propositions Baelfire to return to Storybrooke where, surprise... there's magic! Then they can start over and forget all that Dark One nonsense.

But Baelfire isn't buying it and he reminds Mr. Gold how he let him get sucked into the vortex instead of giving up magic.

Rumpelstiltskin wanders the forest as the Dark One. He meets up with the seer, who is now a young woman. He blames her for being light on the details about her first prediction. She tells him he will find his son again, but the path won't be an easy one and it will take many years.

He gets tired of her riddles and decides to take away her power of sight so he can 'see' for himself.

Baelfire and Henry bond on the fire escape as Mr. Gold watches, reliving all his mistakes.

Before she dies, the seer tells Rumpelstiltskin that a boy will lead him to his son, but the boy will be his undoing. After hearing that Rumpelstiltskin vows to kill this 'boy'.

Well, that's unlikely now, isn't it.


Stuff I Liked About This Episode

Emma's eye make-up.

Cora's 'modern' look. Seriously, check out the lovely wavy hair.

FINALLY seeing what August was hiding inside the box.

Stuff I Didn't Like About This Episode

If Mr. Gold can magically fix Dr. Frankenstein's severed arm, why can't he fix his limp?

How I misspelled Baelfire's name in every previous recap.

How the Sheriff is still missing.

There were no unicorns.