Once Upon A Time, S02E14
Wow. This episode was incredible. I actually realized that Baelfire might be Neil when I saw that they were in New York City. Before I had thought that they were just going to that airport, but going to a different city. It's weird that I didn't immediately think New York City. I'm just glad I had gotten to that conclusion before Emma had chased Neil down the street otherwise I would have kicked myself for not piecing the obvious clues together.
I can't believe that Neil is Baelfire, making Henry Rump's grandson. Henry has some kind of amazing blood ties and non-blood ties (if you count Regina and her mother). Also, Emma is firmly connected to Rump more than ever now that Rump is her son's grandfather. She's never going to be rid of him. I really like that they decided to do this. Baelfire's identity has been something I've wanted to know for the longest time, and it was satisfying to know that we've already seen him, but we just didn't know who he really was.
I don't blame Emma for not telling Rump right away about Neil. The reunion of that father and son was inevitably going to make the father-son reunion of Neil and Henry, and Emma didn't want any part of that. I was just scared when Rump knew she was lying and started to threaten her even without magic. He's still pretty scary without fire coming out of his hands.
Neil, even with his abandonment issues, has some nerve giving Emma crap about hiding Henry from him. He can go straight to hell, as far as I'm concerned. I know that Neil only acted as August had told him to, but I could give two craps about that. That's actually another lie that he kept from her--knowing that she was the savoir. I don't think her ending up in jail for his crimes while pregnant was such a small thing that she should have been looking for Neil a long time ago. Yeah, right! I would never want to see his punk ass again! Anyway, Neil being involved would have stopped Henry from ending up in Regina's hands and Henry bringing Emma to Storybrooke. So if Neil was so damn concerned about following August's advice to get her to Storybrooke, he didn't need to know about Herny in the first place. I was pissed that he wanted to be outraged.
Still, I got a little teary-eyed hearing that Neil went sleep every night seeing his father let him go as a boy. That's damn harsh. No wonder he turned out to be a thief who would send his girl to prison. I can't imagine the kind of trauma that put upon him. I would hate to see that happen to Henry (although, you can't feel too abandoned when you think your father's dead to begin with).
I was disappointed in Rump's first words to Neil. Instead of talking about the struggle he went through to be reunited, he kept talking about making up their separation with magic. What the hell was he thinking?! Who wants to have magic turn them back to fourteen so their father can raise them again? That's so messed up. Rump could have done so much better. He didn't show that he had changed at all. And he has changed, to some degree. I never thought that Neil and Rump would get off to a good start, but Rump pretty much killed their reconciliation before it even began. Damn. I hope that he finds another way to redeem himself with Neil. I really want him to show that from the first moment he held Baelfire, he just wanted to be there for him.
In the past, I felt bad at how manipulated Rump was by his own fate. Once that seer had put the fear of the future in him, he was doomed to be the father he never wanted to be. It's so damn sad. Milah was so quickly disgusted with the way he had injured himself so he could come home alive to his son, and his cowardly decision to desert the war only put him the fast track to become the Dark One. Rump's story is such a tragedy because all he wanted was to not be a coward nor an absent father. His efforts to avoid that put him directly on that path.
The past also showed that Rump will be undone by Henry one day. How ironic that the boy the seer foretold ended up being his grandson. Rump declared that he would just kill him, but is he going to live up to that promise? He'd have a lot of people against him if he tried. Maybe Henry will be the one to break him of the Dark One status or something. Those futures are so vague, it's not quite clear whether Henry is a life-threatening danger to Rump or not.
Speaking of Henry, I hated that he didn't quite understand why Emma lied to him. Even if she was being selfish, she did have a decent reason for being so. Likening her to Regina is a bit childish. If he thinks everyone is just going to tell him the truth all the time, than he's a bigger child than he looks. Maybe Henry could have handled the truth, but Emma sure as hell couldn't. And if Emma did tell him about Neil, we know Henry would have sure as hell went looking for him. He's that kind of gun-ho kid. It pisses me off. He has no idea the pain that Emma went through. Him thinking his father was a dead hero isn't so bad as the reality. Get over it, Henry. As if Neil in your life would have made everything better (then again, maybe so because he might not had to live with Regina).
Back in Storybrooke, it was sort of weird to see Regina, Cora, and Hook hanging out together semi-publicly. They were all at least in the library (which is closed, granted) looking for that book. I think that Cora is straight-up playing Regina. She's probably after Rump's power, not seeking to use it to destroy their enemies. Hook isn't going to get anything out of helping them. He's been played like a damn fiddle. I would have loved to see him go to New York and fight Rump fairly. Rump probably could still kick his ass with just that cane, I bet.
Regina was a moron in this episode, though. Not just for believing that her mother is just going to use that power to get Henry back, but for openly using her powers to go through Belle's purse. What the hell? I knew that was going to be a problem, but I hoped it wouldn't be. Nope. Greg got it all on video! Damn. Well, the only good thing is that perhaps Regina will get involved in keeping Greg quiet later on. If it's just left to Charming and Snow, I don't think they'll be able to keep a lid on the town's secret for much longer.
Also, Charming sounded like such an idiot when he was getting confused about how it was possible he was Henry's grandfather and Rump was too. Um, duh! Charming is really lucky he's brave and good with a sword because he's sometimes a moron.
Can't wait to see if Rump can get somewhere with Neil. With the way he started to repair their relationship, Rump has a very long way to go. Emma also needs to smooth things over with that moron Henry. Sure he feels hurt that he's been lied to, but Emma's situation is too complicated for me to feel that Henry was betrayed severely. Henry's getting to meet his father, so he should get over already. Now that Neil has been named Baelfire, and Henry has been named Rump's grandson, it's unknown whether Rump will still see Henry as a threat and do away with him for his own sake. Rump probably has a greater threat from Regina and Cora, who are conspiring to find the dagger that can kill and control him. I'd hate to see Snow and the others get killed, but it would be entertaining to see someone use Rump as a puppet for a while. That could make a really awesome story down the line.
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