Synopsis of 4×04: Gold unlocks the Sorcerer’s hat, Hook blackmails Gold and gets his hand back, Emma experiences first date awkwardness, and Anna is tricked by Rumple.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Storybrooke
Emma finds Hook playing darts at Granny’s. She proceeds to awkwardly ask him out, but Hook takes the lead and decides to plan the date himself. Emma goes out to find her bug in a pretty large puddle of water. While that’s not normal in the real world, it is pretty weird in Storybrooke too. As soon as Emma leaves, Hook goes to Gold to get his hand back. Gold warns Hook that his hand could go all Idle Hand, on him, but Hook isn’t having any of that nonsense. After a nice bit of blackmail, Hook gets his hand back, so he can, um, hold hands with Emma.
Enchanted Forest
Anna finds Rumple, and immediately puts her foot in her mouth by asking about his skin and what’s wrong with it. No matter, this is the slightly nicer Rumple, so he takes it in stride instead of outright killing her, or turning her into a snowman. He sends her on a quest to find a man that eats children for breakfast and put something in his tea. He makes her sign a deal contract, which she doesn’t read. Amateur.
Anna finds the man, and he turns out to be a really sweet old man who doesn’t eat children. After a nice little chat, she finds out that he’s not an evil guy and does a great job of not poisoning him. This is where we all know the deal with Rumple is going badly and something is going to go down.
Storybrooke
Enchanted Forest
Anna reports backs to Rumple, lies about giving the old man all the poison, and finds out that she killed this man. Rumple shows her that it is too late for the old man because now he is a mouse (Mickey, anyone?). Dang it, Anna. You basically just gave Rumple the keys to the one thing that he wants, or so Rumple thinks. Sadly for Rumple, she’s as pure as the driven snow, but hey, now he’s got a new tower prisoner. The only way she can get out is by killing Rumple. She can’t do it, and ends up giving Rumple exactly what he wants, the power to take The Sorcerer’s Hat. Way to go, Anna.
Storybrooke
Hook goes back to Gold and wants him to take his hand back. He tries to blackmail Gold again, but can’t, and now he has to do something for Gold. They strike a deal and meet on the docks the next morning. Gold whips out a broom that walks and leads them to his “old friend.” This is where I lost it guys, the walking broom, the music. It was all just too perfect. Anyway, Gold and Hook force their way into The Apprentice’s house. Gold does something that causes a couple tears to shed.
Over at the sheriff’s station, Will Scarlett is in the slammer. Emma tries to interrogate him, and whips out a copy of Alice in Wonderland. Right through the heart, and straight to the feels. During all of that, David makes note that the Ice Queen’s name doesn’t appear in the census for the town, which means she didn’t come by curse. This means she had to come on her own, and has some motive for being there.