‘Once Upon a Time’ review: Captain Hook, Baelfire, and one awesome episode

The moment we heard that Captain Hook would be introduced in the fourth episode of “Once Upon a Time” this season, we knew that we were in for something rather awesome. What we did not realize at that moment was just that this was also going to be a Rumpelstiltskin episode, and one of the best in the two-year history of the show. The irony here? It contained no Snow White, no Emma, no Evil Queen, and very little Henry. If this is not evidence to you of the strength of the supporting cast here, we really don’t know what is.

What we learned in this episode is also something that is incredibly important in the mythology of some of these characters. We were led in the previews to believe that Captain Hook was a villain far worse than Rumpelstiltskin, and we really found it was the opposite as we saw Robert Carlyle’s character rip out the heart of a woman that was once his wife. He did this after claiming that the woman he “loved” was more of a coward than him for abandoning his son … who also happens to go by the name of Baelfire.

As if we needed more evidence that the mysterious man played by Michael Raymond-James in the first episode was Rumple’s son, we had it more or less here through some of Rumple’s comments at the end of the episode. (Granted, we still could be wrong.)

While we found out all of this information through the backstory of Rumple as the “crocodile” responsible for taking off his hand, the present story was equally exciting as we saw this character try and redeem himself from his past mistakes when it came to his relationship with Belle, but it just couldn’t happen as he still would not open up to her. This led to Emilie de Ravin’s character nearly getting her brain wiped free as we saw her father (with the help of Hook’s old ally Snee) try to send her across the border of Storybrooke underground, only for Rumple to save her at the last minute.

The good news from the end of this excellent hour? That we eventually saw Belle find her new calling away from Rumple and everyone else as the town librarian of Storybrooke. In addition to that, she managed to find it in her heart to forgive the man enough to try and take things slow with him while living on her own terms. As for the bad news, Captain Hook is still in the fairy tale world, and with Cora’s help, they are working together to make it to the tiny Maine town to get revenge on the people who wronged him.

What did you think about about Hook’s character, and about this episode as a whole?