Once Upon a Time returned this week after a short hiatus with the promise of revealing the identity behind the mysterious writer August Booth. But as we know from creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz’ previous work Lost, answers from this show don’t come easily.
The episode opened with August seizing in his bed, a act which prompted him to call young Henry Mills to accelerate their “plan.” This plan seems to involved breaking into Mr. Gold’s pawn shop to search for something, only to be caught in the act by Gold and making a hasty exit.
Though August and Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin are the focus of the episode, there is still the subplot revolving around the discovery of a very much alive Kathryn Nolan. Kathryn remembers her car crash and has vague recollections of being abducted and imprisoned, but not of the culprit. A confrontation between Regina and Gold reveals that the nefarious pawnshop owner was behind the act at Regin’s behest. When an angry Regina berates Gold for not killing Kathryn, claiming the pair had been allies since creating the curse together, Gold’s response of “were we?” makes the audience further question where his loyalties lie.
Though the episode does go back and forth between Storybook and the magical world, the Storybook side gives a bit of a glimpse into Mary Margaret’s life after her release from prison. First we see David Nolan visiting Kathryn to apologize for his affair, an act she has long ago forgiven him for. With that out of the way, he has the much more daunting task of apologizing to Mary Margaret for thinking she had killed Kathryn. After being blocked from her welcome home party, where we also see Gold realize that Emma trusts the mysterious August, as does Henry, David finally tracks down Mary Margaret later in the episode. Despite David’s heartfelt apology and rather hollow defense of his actions, Mary Margaret turns him away. She cannot more forward with him, claiming that something seems to keep poisoning their relationship and keeping them a part. Finally some reference to the curse!
There is a little scene of Emma confronting Sidney with the bug he had planted on her, an action that eventually led to his “confessing” to abducting Kathryn. But more on that later.
Most of the episode revolves around Mr. Gold and August. As we see various flashbacks into his life as Rumplestiltskin, the audience is led to believe that August may be Rumple’s son Bae. In the magical world, Rumple is now the new Dark One but he uses his powers to intimidate his neighbors. Bae hates the magic and vows to find a way to remove it from his father without killing him (unlike the dagger, which would take the powers but kill Rumple). His father agrees to this deal. Bae hears from a friend about an ancient power that may be able to help him, a power that turns out to be the Blue Fairy.
She gives Bae her last magic bean to send him and his father to a world without magic, our world, where they will both be safe and normal. Rumple is hesitant, but promises not to break his deal with his son. But when the bean creates a vortex into this unknown world, Rumple is too scared to leave. Bae yells at him, calling him a coward and a deal-breaker before he succumbs to the vortex’s pull, leaving Rumple alone and abandoned in their magical world. Though he confronts the Blue Fairy about a way to get to his son, she claims there is no way other than a curse with too high a price, a curse he could not manage on his own. Rumple vows to do nothing else and love nothing else until he finds his son again, making it clear to the audience why he helped Regins with the curse in the first place.
In Storybook, Gold begins to suspect that August knows all about him. He breaks into August’s room and finds a drawing of his dagger, the one thing that can kill him back in the magical world. He sees August talking to the Mother Superior of the local convent, a woman who in the magical world was the Blue Fairy, who informs Gold that August was in town looking for his father after a long separation. Gold even visits the local psychiatrist Archie and admits to having a son that he wronged and wants to apologize to.
Finally, as the episode came to a climax, Gold and August confronted one another. Gold revealed August to be Bae and, in tears, he apologized to his son. August asks if Gold still has his knife in order to see if he has really changed. After the two dig it up in the forest, Gold gives it to August as a sign of his trust. And this is when the real twist occurs: August is not actually Bae. He attempts to control Gold’s Dark One powers with the knife, not knowing, as Bae would, that they were in a world without magic. Gold grabs back the knife and threatens August, asking him who he is and what he wants. August will only say that he is sick, dying, and that he is there to make sure Emma breaks the curse. Gold lets him go, since he is dying anyway, claiming they have the same goal.
In the end, this episode seemed to revolve around parents and sons. In the final moments after Sidney’s fake confession, Emma confronts Regina with her disbelief and vows to take Henry away. And with that epic ending, the audience is still left with the lingering questions: where is Bae, and who is August?