Captain Hook and Rumplestiltskin face off over a woman and a magical bean, while Mr. Gold and David search for Belle, who has been kidnapped. Here is a recap and review of “The Crocodile.”
Recap:
Belle confronts Mr. Gold about not changing his wicked ways then runs off to Granny’s diner, where Ruby suggests she look for a job at the library. While snooping around the library, William kidnaps her. Gold goes to the acting sheriff, David, to help find Belle. Ruby, who has been taming her wolf side, tracks Belle to her father’s shop. William, under her father’s order to erase her love of Rumple, places Belle in a mine car set to cross the town line. David and Gold get there in time to draw her back with magic. Belle’s memories remain, but she does not want to be with Gold or her father. Regardless, Gold opens up to her and confesses that he picked out the curse because his son escaped to this world.
Rumplestiltskin finds his wife, Milah, hanging out in a pub with Captain Killian Jones. After Rumple takes her home, she complains that she does not enjoy her life. Killian and his crew set off with Milah onboard, with Rumple assuming she was kidnapped. Later, Killian tells Rumple that Milah has died, but she appears during their sword fight and stops Rumple from killing Killian by using the magic bean that he desires as leverage. Milah confesses that she never loved Rumple, so he rips out her heart and cuts off Killian’s hand to steal the magic bean; however, Rumple does not realize until too late that the bean was in the other hand. Killian replaces his hand with a silver hook and tells William they are going to Neverland. In present day fairytale land, Captain Hook meets with Cora and they discuss their plans to travel to Storybrooke.
Review:
“The Crocodile” contained some interesting set ups for future episodes as well as a the long awaited introduction of Captain Hook, but in and of itself may have been somewhat lacking, depending on your opinion of Rumple and your desire to see the other main characters.
With captain hook looking like that (yeah, you know what I mean) and with him being perhaps a more well known figure than Rumple, it comes as a surprise that his introduction was more focused on Rumplestiltskin than himself. His origin was indeed revealed, but only through the lens of Rumple. Judging by photos from next week and Colin O’Donoghue being upgraded to a series regular, there will be more Captain Hook coming our way, hopefully playing to his own character’s story. From what we saw of Hook in this episode, it will no doubt be a memorable version.
Rumple/Mr. Gold is difficult to sympathize with on occasion because of the way he presents himself. He excuses his actions, or lack thereof, by saying that he is a coward, but more than once antagonizes someone with or without magic. In the end, he says that magic is his crutch (he carries a cane, connection?), but he puts no effort into weaning himself off, even for his love. The moments that he has a heart fall flat because he has not garnered enough trust to convince anyone that he is not working an angle. It would almost be a relief if Rumple/Mr. Gold reverted to his old wicked ways because that fits his actions and inner qualities so much better.
As much as I try to jump onboard with Rumple and Belle as a couple, their relationship does not click. Maybe it’s just because we need a refresher on the reasons they fell in love, but there seems to be no happiness surrounding them. Everyone deserves an epic love story, but considering Rumple’s lack of willingness to change and Belle’s almost fragile spirit, they may not be the best fit, at least right now.
The budding friendship between Ruby and Belle proved to be a nice substitute in the absence of Mary Margaret and Emma, who were probably off having grand adventures, or teaching the Enchanted Foresters about turducken. It is exciting to see Ruby slowly being brought to the forefront as a character and helping with the town problems instead of being hidden away in the diner. Ruby could use a friend around Storybrooke, and Belle could be just the compliment.
One beautiful and probably underrated aspect to this episode was David stepping up as sheriff, becoming the leader he was destined to be. The curse compressed his heroic side and last season his actions did not live up to his name, so it is almost as if he is now growing up and figuring out how to be a family man.
The little homages or reminders of the characters’ fairtyale counterparts make this show engaging on more than one level. Reminding the audience that Belle loves books. Recalling Ruby’s other self as the Big Bad Wolf. Reinventing the crocodile. The only thing I wish they added to this episode would have been placing Grumpy aboard Captain Hook’s ship to nod to Lee Arenberg’s role in Pirates of the Caribbean.
The ending provided the most exciting part of this episode and will set up an interesting dynamic in the future. What is Captain Hook’s connection to Cora? And why would Hook want to go to Storybrooke? Perhaps Hook is chasing after the crocodile…and Peter Pan. Considering that, in the Disney version, Peter Pan and the crocodile both oppose Captain Hook, it seems reasonable at this point that Baelfire could be Peter Pan, having escaped to another land.
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1 Comment
I was disappointed in the episode, and you’ve pretty much nailed why. Pre-dark one Rumple in Desperate Souls was a much more sympathetic character than the one in this episode. I felt more sorry for Smee last night than I did Rumple
So many say that Rumple and Belle have great chemistry. I just don’t see any.
I do like the start of a possible friendship between Ruby and Belle. They had Ruby be friends with Ella, but she was only around for two episodes and we didn’t really get to see much of that. So this would be good since Red’s best friend from the Enchanted Forest, Snow is back there for now.