Once Upon a Time 2-12: In the Name of the Brother

Oh, we’ve got trouble, right here in Storybrooke. And I think the schedulers at ABC have been taking lessons from Cora and Regina. Yes, tonight was a good episode. It set some nice balls in motion while being very entertaining.

The back story was interesting but not really providing the usual twist I’d expect. It revolved around Frankenstein and took place completely in his black and white world. We first meet him at Christmas as his father gives presents to Victor and his younger brother. The brother, a war hero, gets a family heirloom watch. Victor gets a commission to be a doctor for soldiers on the front line. His father has been supporting his research, and he’s not going to do that any longer.

Enter Rumplestiltskin (who appears in color). He explains that in his world, they’ve got magic, but they can’t bring anyone back from the dead. So he offers to fund Victor if Victor can prove he can bring people back from the dead. With the amount of gold being offered, Victor immediately sets to work.

And that work involves digging up a body in the graveyard. Victor is doing just that when his brother shows up to stop him. Only a guard shows up as well, and he starts shooting. The brother gets shot and dies.

Thus Victor begins his work in earnest. He chars his brother’s heart at his first attempt to electrocute him back to life, but that’s when Rumple shows back up and offers a heart from his world which is much stronger. Hence the flashback we previously saw with them and Regina.

As we know, Victor brings his brother back, but things don’t go well. When he introduces him to their father, the monster freaks out. And when their father starts berating Victor, the monster lashes out and kills the father.

The last flashback scene is of Victor approaching the monster in the cell where he’s now holding him. He contemplates killing him, even holding a gun to his head. When the monster sees it, he obviously wants to die. But Victor refuses to shoot his brother, instead saying he will find a way to bring him back whole. Hence his question to Regina a few episodes back of where his brother is.

Much more interesting was what happened in Storybrooke. Let’s go there, shall we?

We start exactly where we left off last week. Belle is freaking out because she has no idea who she is and what’s been happening. But as Emma, Mary Margaret, and David show up, they start to worry about Hook and the stranger, both of whom are in bad shape after the accident. When no one recognizes the stranger, David is the one to figure out that he’s from out of town.

That sets off a panic attack. And when it is revealed that he could die if they left him alone, the group is divided on that. Dr. Whale, Leroy (Grumpy), and Ruby are in favor of just that, but Emma, Mary Margaret, and David convince the others that they need to perform the surgery.

Whale, however, has been drinking, a fact that we’re shown early and isn’t lost on the others. Instead of rushing into the surgery, he sits there looking at the stranger’s watch and then rushes out of the hospital. Ruby tracks him down easily enough, and finds him at the end of the pier about to jump off. When he does, she moves fast and catches him. They sit and talk, and we learn that the memories of what he’s done are haunting him. Ruby reveals she killed her boyfriend and comments that Regina actually did them a favor by making them forget the past. But she also says that they have a chance to start over. That works for Whale, who goes back to perform the surgery.

The others, meanwhile, have been holding on to the stranger’s phone. They used it to find out his identity. And it keeps ringing. The only id the phone gives is “Her.” Is it a wife? Girlfriend?

The surgery is successful. When the patient wakes up, Emma goes in to talk to him. He reluctantly admits that he was texting and saw nothing about what was happening right before the accident until he looked up and saw a man in front of his car. It is illegal to text and drive in Maine, but Emma decides to let him go with a warning. Everyone is thrilled that they have dodged this danger.

We have another couple of stories happening. Let’s look at Gold and Belle. Frankly, this was heartbreaking. Belle knows nothing about her past life, and Gold’s attempts to reach her fail. He uses magic to repair the bullet hole at the town line, but that just freaks her out. She is taken to the hospital for observation. First, Gold tries kissing her, but that doesn’t work. Then he tries to enchant the chipped tea cup. If Belle will concentrate on it hard enough, she’ll get her memory back. Only she doesn’t want to and throws it across the room in frustration.

Emma goes to visit Hook and demands to know where Cora is. He’s less than forthcoming. And if I am interpreting his lines correctly, he basically admitted that he went after Belle in order to hurt Gold just like Gold hurt him. He didn’t want to take Gold on personally. But Emma points out that Hook is hurt (broken ribs we know of for sure) and off his feet and handcuffed to the bed while Gold is healthy and on his feet.

Speaking of Cora, let’s get to her and Regina. Emma has been trying to track Regina down, so they can tell her they’ve learned the truth, but she can’t find her at all. Meanwhile, Cora goes to Gold to get a bead on her daughter. She proposes a truce, and as a sign on her end, she offers him a globe that will show him where his son is. Along the way, Cora congratulates Gold on getting Regina to enact the curse so that he could come to this world and search for his son. Gold doesn’t deny it at all, so that theory is correct.

Cora goes to Regina’s house and sees pictures of Regina with Henry as well as a hand print he made for his mommy.

Meanwhile, Henry goes back to the crypt to try to find Regina. She is in there hiding behind a wall. He calls out to her, and she reveals her hiding place, so glad that he’s come. She tries to explain that she had nothing to do with Hopper, and Henry assures her that “I’ve always known.” Wait a second. When it sinks in, that stops Regina. And in a puff of smoke Henry turns into Cora.

At first, Regina is really strong, explaining that she is trying to prove that she has changed. And if Cora wants back in Regina’s life, she will have to do the same. The apologizes Cora offers for all the things she did wrong, going back to forcing Regina to marry the king, weren’t enough. The first step in this reformed life Regina is demanding? Driving into town to explain what really happened to Hopper. I was so impressed. I wondered if it could really be that simple.

Of course it couldn’t. As they hit town, Cora happens to find that handprint, which sets Regina off. But then Cora pokes where it really hurts. Mary Margaret and David will never forgive her for what she’s done. And Emma will always be part of Henry’s life. It will never go back to how it was. Regina breaks down and starts crying. And Cora reveals she has a plan for how to change all that.

Gold, meanwhile, pricks his finger and uses the blood to activate his globe, which seems to work. I couldn’t quite tell where his son is, but some point on the US’s east coast was lighting up.

All this took place in one night, and the next morning, David, Mary Margaret, and Emma return to their loft, where Henry demands to know what has been happening. They mention that Whale is Dr. Frankenstein, and that gets Henry thinking. Frankenstein wasn’t in his book, which means he’s from another realm. So then how many other characters from other realms are in town?

Before they can really contemplate this, there is a knock at the door. It’s Gold, and he announces that he is calling in his favor from early in season one where he didn’t take Cinderella’s baby. He wants Emma to go with him to find his son. And if anything happens to Belle while he’s gone, he will kill the rest of them.

And now we get to the final scene. The stranger is in his hospital bed, and grabs his phone to call Her. “I’m doing okay, but you’ve got to listen to this. You won’t believe that I saw.”

So he did see something as he entered town and lied to Emma. Great. What does that mean for the residents of Storybrooke? Their secret is definitely going to be out now. That’s going to be interesting to watch.

Meanwhile, why does Gold want Emma with him to search for his son? Is it because she knows the outside world? He sure didn’t seem interested in that last week when he was planning to leave before Belle got shot. And the obvious conclusion I drew from all this? Gold’s son has to be Henry’s father. I don’t see how else it could play out. I wonder if Gold knows that or not. It would certainly explain how Pinocchio got Henry’s dad to back off so quickly with whatever he showed him. And I realize all this reverses what I was saying just a week ago in the comments, but I’m back on board with this theory.

And what are Cora and Regina going to be doing? Without Gold in town, that’s going to spell big trouble. Even if Gold were in town, if he honored his agreement with Cora, he’d stay out of things.

The next new episode isn’t for 3 weeks. Let’s just say right now it’s going to be a long three weeks.

Thoughts? Theories? How do you think Regina will go after getting Henry back? Hit me up in the comments and let me know.