After last week’s bait-and-switch as to the identity of the enigmatic author August Booth, Once Upon a Time took a completely opposite route this week by giving us the answer to that mystery in the opening scenes of this week’s episode.
Yes, August Booth’s identity has been revealed. He is Pinocchio.
The episode opened with the familiar story of Geppetto and Pinocchio escaping from the belly of a whale and the Blue Fairy turning Pinocchio into a real boy. The scene then flashed to August in his room in Storybrooke calling Mr. Gold to make a meeting to talk about Emma. While trying to leave the room, August’s leg suddenly went stiff, causing him to fall and reveal that his left leg was made of wood, consequently revealing who he really was.
Though August was the focus for this week, no episode of OUAT is complete without some Regina drama. After a quick showdown with Mary Margaret, who knows Regina is to blame for her imprisonment but who forgives her, citing Regina’s incredible loneliness, the mayor must deal with Henry. The boy tells Regina that he also knows about her involvement with Kathryn’s kidnapping and that she will not be able to keep Snow White and Prince Charming apart, that the curse will end and good will win.
Being confronted by two people in the span of five minutes pushed the former Queen into action. She set up a complicated ruse wherein her car battery died next to David’s place of work, getting him to help her get home and then inviting him in for dinner. Knowing that he would not initially agree, Regina had planted a fake note from Henry about his missing dinner, playing on David’s sympathies. It’s no surprise how Regina became the villain of an entire world, she certainly plans ahead. After the meal she gives David a version of how she found him back when he had been an unconscious John Doe, a story that implies fate brought them together. Despite her flirting and David’s reciprocating, when she leans in to kiss him he pulls back, saying things are fine as they are. When he quickly leaves, the mayor takes out her anger by breaking a mirror. Things are not going Regina’s way.
The rest of the episode is all about August and how he escaped the curse but still made his way to the Real World. When August visits Mr. Gold’s pawnshop, he finds Geppetto working on a clock. Gold already surmised who August is and had set up the meet to get a reaction. After Geppetto leaves, August asks for Gold’s help with Emma, who is too wrapped up in trying to get custody of Henry to listen to him about the curse. Gold still has lingering trust issues, and makes the first comment in the episode connecting Pinocchio’s penchant for lies to August’s. However, when Emma comes to Mr. Gold for help, he says that she cannot prove Regina has done anything wrong. Gold says he is not the man to assist her in this, an act that sends Emma to August in search of the “big picture” that will help her defeat Regina.
Through flashbacks to the Magical World, we see how August arrived in the Real World. The Blue Fairy visited Geppetto and explained about the Evil Queen’s curse. She asked Geppetto for his help, saying that the only way to save Pinocchio was by protecting Snow’s baby. The fairy takes the father and son to the last enchanted tree in the world, explaining that it has the power to bring two safely to the non-Magical world. This should send up red flags, since in the pilot she told Snow and Charming it could only protect one. But all questions are immediately answered when Geppetto demands that Pinocchio be given the second spot. Though this causes a fight between Geppetto and his old friend Jiminy, the Fairy agrees. The scene from the pilot is revisited where the Blue Fairy informs Snow and Charming that there is only room for one of them while Geppetto watches his son.
The flashback continues to Emma’s birth and the Blue Fairy rushing to tell Geppetto that he must let Snow go through with the baby. Once again Geppetto refuses, saying that they must have face in their “savior” Emma and that his son would guide her to help her achieve her destiny. Gepetto tells his son to promise that in 28 years he would make Emma believe and that one day he would find him and be proud of the man Pinocchio would become. And with that, young Pinocchio was sent through the wardrobe to the Real World.
Pinocchio arrived in the Real World through an old tree in the midst of a forest, immediately frightened by his surroundings and an airplane overhead, and was followed a moment later by the newborn Emma. At some point later the two are in a children’s home together, where Pinocchio has obviously been caring for Emma despite hating being there. He can stop her crying and cheers her up with just a look. But when an older boy gives Pinocchio the chance to escape from the tyrannical adults of the home, he apologizes to Emma, giving her a kiss and leaving her for the next 28 years.
Back in the current day, August takes Emma on a trip outside of Storybrooke with the promise of telling her his story. After going to the diner where she had been found as a baby by a mysterious seven-year-ld boy, August admits to having been that boy. He takes Emma into the woods where they first appeared in this world and explains that that was where he really found her, using his knowledge of her embroidered baby blanket as proof of his honesty. August tells her the curse is real and that she is their only hope. But Emma refuses to believe. Even when August shows her his wooden leg, she sees it as flesh. Her denial is so great that it stops her from seeing the truth. Emma nearly breaks down, saying that she doesn’t want them to need her and that she cannot be responsible for everyone else’s happiness. She can barely handle fighting for Henry right now. If she is their only hope, then they’re all screwed. Then she leaves August alone in the woods.
Feeling defeated, August goes to see the one person he has been avoiding: his father. After giving Geppetto (known as Marco in the Real World) advice on fixing a clock that he claims to have learned from his father, he seeks some advise. August laments the fact that he doesn’t think he’s the man his father wanted him to become, and that he was not able to fulfill a promise he made. Geppetto/Marco says that to him, it would be enough that August tried to come through and that if he was his father he would still be proud of him. August then offers to assist Marco for free, saying he just feels like fixing things.
In the final moments of this second heart-wrenching father/son episode in a row, Emma goes to visit Henry in the middle of the night and asks whether he wants to live with Regina or her. When he says he wants to be with her, he offers to take him away from Storybrooke and then drives off with him, ending the episode with an abrupt cliffhanger.