Once Upon a Time Recap: Rumple’s Shocking Original Destiny Is Revealed
This week on ABC’s Once Upon a Time, the reason behind the Black Fairy abandoning her son after childbirth laid bare a shocking truth about Rumplestiltskin’s original destiny.
After Rumple just barely revived Blue using the stench of an unhatched dragon’s egg, a “concerned Snow White” was revealed to actually be the Black Fairy, who poofed away with Blue after the good fairy let slip one clue about the location of the other half of the powerful wand.
While Regina (when not teaching Zelena how to drive stick shift!), Charming and Emma sought out the wand piece (eventually discovered beneath the jukebox at Granny’s), Rumple traveled to the dream realm with Emma and Gideon, where Rumple might be able to speak freely to his heart-less son. Except, it was not Gideon’s dream that Rumple and Emma arrived in, but Rumple’s — their first stop being the meager cabin where he was born, to Fiona and Malcolm.
In flashback, we learn that when Fiona gave birth to her perfect boy, the Blue Fairy and Red Fairy (aka Tiger Lily) arrived to report that the newborn is gifted with great light magic, and thus is destined to be a Savior. But with that fate comes the “bad news” that during that same winter, a great evil will be born, destined to vanquish the Savior in a “final battle.” Fiona likes this news not one bit, so she studies up on fairy lore and, after stealing Red’s wand, turns herself into a yellow/(gold?) fairy. With Tiger Lily, she then sets out to find the “evil” baby born with a crescent scar, destined to be her son’s killer, with no luck.
In the dream realm, meanwhile, Rumple comes upon the basket and blanket which were once his. Nudged by Emma to let himself be vulnerable and channel memories through the objects, Rumple looks on in the Sacred Fairy Vault as his mother works to craft a powerful spell. Tiger Lily though realizes that it’s a dark curse she is brewing, one that will banish the evil one (and others) to a “land without magic,” leaving her son safe. When Tiger Lily tries to intervene, arguing that it’s the Savior’s job to die, so that others may live, Fiona plucks out the fairy’s heart. As Fiona transforms into the Black Fairy, she realizes that from the crescent scar on her own wrist, from where Red zapped her earlier, she is destined to battle her own son one day. “Evil was not born this winter,” Tiger Lily observes. “It was made! You are the great evil!”
That, however, was not the whole story. Once back in Storybrooke, Rumple confronts his mother with the truths he has gleaned, at which she shows him the rest of the story, in which Fiona, after realizing her dark fate, stole the Shears of Destiny to sever her son’s Savior ties, keeping them from having to battle one day. Red promptly banished the Black Fairy to the dark realm, then delivered her son to Malcolm. He, though, sees the once-perfect boy now as only a reminder than he has lost his wife, and thus he will saddle him with the name Rumplestiltskin.
After sharing that memory with Rumple, the Black Fairy tried to justify her motivations, though they came out sounding exactly like that which led Rumple down his own path as the Dark One — protecting family, trying not to lose a son, etc. “You sentenced me to life of cowardice,” he lamented, feeling somewhat robbed of a Savior status. When Rumple notes how their family history spins “like a dark, endless wheel,” the Black Fairy interprets that as him coming to understand her actions. “I love you, and now we can finally be a family — if you’ll forgive me,” she says. “Can you?”
Rumple’s answer, it at least appears, was yes, seeing as after delivering his mother’s plucked, black heart to Emma & Co and declaring the Black Fairy banished, he later meets up with her in secret. A “happy ending” awaits their family, the Black Fairy says, although “a Savior still stands” in their way. “Tomorrow is a very special day for Emma Swan…. It’s the day she dies.”
Emma, however, believes tomorrow to be the day she weds Hook, who in a happier scene invited Henry to be his best man.
What did you think of “The Black Fairy” and its bombshells?
Great ep up to the very end when Rumple is, AGAIN, the cowardly betrayer. Not enough he’s being a traitor to Bael’s family, but again he’s betraying Belle. Rumple would NEVER forgive Mom that easily after finding out she severed his destiny as a saviour, and sentenced him to a life of a coward just to save himself, despite his growing affinity for the dark side of things.
But at least tonight’s ep felt like the old S1&2 OUAT i loved so much. How come I have a feeling Rumple’s choice tonight will end up with Gideon being the one to die in the season finale? Either him or Belle…or possibly his grandson, Henry. One thing is probably for sure–tonight’s decision will result in the death of one of Rumple’s loved ones, and probably NOT one of the other good guys!
I just hope it’s not Rumple who has to sacrifice himself, AGAIN! I’d much rather see the last season missing Snow, Charming, or Emma herself than Rumple. :D
Porque nos los dos? Why not both?
I think rumple is playing his mother
Yes, I think you are right, especially after reading the other commenter’s thoughts. He must be playing Fiona…or so I hope! aybe e really IS trying to reclaim the savior role!
Rumple is probably going to double cross his mom. The prophecy itself states he’ll be the one to battle her. And this “him being the Savior all along” twist is yet another case of Once trying to imitate LOST, though as usual they didn’t set it up very wel
As usual. Really? They are amazing at setting things up. Fantastic!
Matt, Snow White is NOT the Black Fairy!! Her name is Fiona.
You obviously know what I meant, but I edited the text to make it painfully clear JIC.
Also, Blue was the one who banished the Black Fairy to the other realm – not Red.
Also Emma wasn’t looking for the wand, she was with Mr Gold in the Dream Realm
I thought Peter Pan was Rumple’s father. Am I remembering that wrong?
Good point
Malcolm turned into Peter Pan in season 3 when he chose magic and youth over Rumple and fatherhood.
Good point #
Peter Pan = Malcolm, there was an episode in season 3 dedicated to this.
peter pan is rumple’s father…Malcolm became peter pan
Rumple has to be playing Fiona, right? He has absolutely no reason to want Emma dead, with his family finally being in tact. I assume (hope) he’s going to double cross his mom. The Rumple-as-Savior revelation was good — didn’t see that coming! — but the BEST part of the ep was Operation Best Man. That’s exactly what I wanted to happen! Plus Hook being all old fashioned and charming and HAPPY as he said his goodbye to Emma… I could just melt. The musical/wedding will be the death of me.
One less shipper then…
I’m not saying I saw the Rumple=Savior thing coming, but I’m not at all surprised. From day one this has been the Rumple-show. This is the main thing that annoys me about this show – is that’s it ALWAYS comes back to him.
More evidence to support the predictions based solely on rumors that other people have stated in other threads: Regina asked Zelena to take Henry and baby Robin to NYC if things got bad in Storybrooke. My guess is that actually comes to pass and maybe a new dark curse (again ugh) stops time in Storybrooke while the kids grow up elsewhere, with the two new cast members playing Henry and Robin 10ish years older than they are now.
I agree something like that is going to happen, but there is no way that the Hispanic girl who was cast as the 10 year old could possibly be the daughter of Zelena and Robin Hood. That’s been throwing me off.
Me too, I wondered if it was Jasmine & Aladdin’s Daughter, he was a Saviour after all.
Yet another curse? Ugh
Ok really good episode, it didn’t drag at all & this was great storytelling. Can we just think about poor Rumple, he had the crappiest parents ever!
Zelena has grown on me so much & I really didn’t like her at all, first I thought it was the actress I didn’t care for but I see now she was deliberately being written as shrill & annoying, sorry Rebecca Mader. Regina teaching Zelena to drive was very funny & that’s one of the things Once does so well, finding the humour among all the darkness. Much in the same way Buffy did, I predicted long ago they would get the children out of town, after taking them to Camelot & the Underworld it’s refreshing to see them making a sensible parenting decisions ;)
why always New York?
This casting of an older dis-illusioned man must be a grown up Henry, that just leaves the question of the little girl…
My prediction is there’s going to be another curse, Emma & Killian will get married & then be cursed not to remember each other, sound familiar?
There are so many parallels between them & Snow & Charming, I could totally see them doing this.
Season 7 will be them finding their way back to each other which, I have to say I wouldn’t mind as Snow & Charming in that very situation in season 1 was what got me invested in the first place. There was a certain filming photo which led me to this conclusion & I’m curious to see if I’m right..
Hoping the musical is good, I’m sure the wedding will be emotional, why so orange?! For Killian to assign a mission to Henry was dead cute, operation best man, first I thought he’d have asked Smee but I’ve lost track, is he in Storybrooke now?
Can we safely assume this will get a season 7 now Matt? getting a bit close to the wire…
Whose heart did Rumple show the others??
Could it have been his own?
I doubt it considering his heart was basically restored by the apprentice.
I wonder is it the blue fairy’s heart??
This was a good episode overall, though if I want to nitpick, who would teach someone to drive today on a STICK shift? Yes, those cars exist, but they are kind of rare today, and most people drive the automatic, which is much easier to learn.
Maybe in America. In Europe most cars still have a stick shift.
It’s always been alluded that Storybrooke is a little rustic, I took that as the meaning behind the car, I live in England & hardly anyone drives an automatic.
Right, no… sorry but are you f’ing kidding me?! Six whole seasons, Emma’s going around touting her so-called iron-clad superpower of always being able to tell when someone’s lying to her and now – NOW, of all times, she goes on brain cell hiatus (along with everyone else at that diner! I mean, have they met Gold?!) and just takes his word for it when he shows up with that heart?!
This actually was a very good episode but that last bit was just an insult.
I will agree with you there, I could tell he was lying.
The jukebox could tell he was lying! Incredibly sloppy on the writers’ part, imo.
Totally agree with you there. I thought why did they believe Gold without question? Don’t they know who he is? C’mon! Never take his word on anything.
And yet he said it himself. “Everyone always trusts me” (or something like that). Stupid.
Really was very interesting episode. Confirmed some notions that I had coming into this part of the season regarding Rumple and the Dark Fairy. Also explains why Blue was very adamant about not allowing the dark fairy to return. Rumple is the ultimate trickster, so I wouldn’t count this as another moment of cowardly behavior. As long as Belle, Gideon, and his dagger are safe he’s happy. I feel he still sees the dark fairy as a threat to his family so I’m not counting him out yet
totally with you! The scene with him and the BF at the end was very out of place…even for rumple ;)
My gut is telling me after watching this last night, that Rumple will not allow Emma to die and he will die as will his Mother. I just just have a feeling that his character might be coming to an end.
Told a friend of mine and her daughter last month that Charming would walk Emma down the aisle, didn’t think Snow was going to do it but I love it. My friend asked who Hook would have as Best Man and I had a feeling he was going to ask Henry. Loved that scene between Hook and Henry then with Hook and Emma. Really good episode last night.
I don’t know if you guys have realized, but Rumple’s been all against killing the Black Fairy BEFORE getting Gideon’s heart back, so my guess is he’s playing Fiona just so he could get his son’s heart from her. Great things to come…
I think the Black Fairy did not tell Rumple the complete truth. What she told him doesn’t make sense of her fear of what the Blue Fairy knows. There has to be something more that puts her in a bad light.
Am I the only one who doesn’t really trust Blue? I never have, she’s a bit dodgy.
I knew the heart Rumple delivered was not his mom’s because he will always be evil and he again lied to Belle and his son. Plus, you did not show him killing his mom which meant it did not happen. I will stop watching this show if Emma Swan dies. The Black Fairy should have died. I hate when series never lets there be a happily ever after.