Last night’s ONCE UPON A TIME came as a complete surprise for me. I have never been a huge fan of Charming flashback episodes, so when I saw the promo for it last week, I have to say I wasn’t too excited about it and thought it would be only be an okay episode. However, “Murder Most Foul” turned out to be not only entertaining in its endless twists and turns, but a testament to how fantastically well these characters are being written and developed.
The episode starts with our heroes celebrating Emma’s and Regina’s safe return to Storybrooke. David steps outside for a moment and that’s when he starts seeing his father’s ghost. And here’s the kicker, he had always thought that his father was a drunk, who didn’t care about his family at all and that had died in a ditch somewhere because of his alcoholism.
But here’s the thing, we actually find out why David was separated from his twin brother – and that was because his parents made a deal with Rumplestiltskin in order to save at least one of their children – and that David’s father tried to get little James back when the boy ran away to Pleasure Island, in an attempt to get away from the king. With Pinocchio’s help, he found little James, but the King found them before they could leave the island, and ordered the boy’s father’s death.
Back in Storybrooke, David is determined to find out what happened to his father and why he keeps seeing his ghost, so he enlists Killian’s help to sneak into Emma’s place to get a book of spells and ingredients to make a potion, so that they can track his father’s last steps. Killian is so not on board with this plan, because here he is, trying to prove that he’s a changed man and that he is worthy of Emma’s love, but her father wants him to revert back to his pirate ways. He helps David against his better judgement, and what follows their mission is just hilarious, as a prince and a pirate try to do magic without having any magical powers. The moment when they’re debating how to stir the potion counter clockwise was easily one of the funniest scenes of the season.
But they do find out that David’s father was on Pleasure Island and, thus, seek Pinocchio’s help. Our good friend Pinocchio sheds some light on the last few hours prior to his death and how he was stone cold sober, as he tried to find James to bring him back home. That nearly undoes David, because he had spent his entire life thinking his father was a drunk, careless bastard, who had walked out on him and his mother. So when he finds out that he had actually been trying to bring his family back together, and that the King had ordered his death, he is hell bent on having his revenge.
Killian tries to stop him, but David handcuffs him to a bike post and goes straight to the King, determined to kill him and avenge his father. He challenges the King to a duel, but Killian – bless his heart – gets there just in time to stop his friend from doing something he would most definitely regret later. It takes a while, but David finally understands why Killian was trying to stop him and finally sees him for the good man that he is, and not just a pirate. And that’s all that he wanted all along, because our baby Killian was terrified about asking David for Emma’s hand in marriage.
That scene was just so sweet and funny and heartwarming, that I had tears in my eyes and a smile so big, that my cheeks hurt. So he finally has Emma’s father’s blessing and a ring – all he needs to do now is actually propose. My CaptainSwan heart was nearly singing with joy at that point, but of course, they had to go and stab us in the back with such an unexpected twist, that made my head spin.
It turns out that Hook saved David’s father, only to murder him right afterwards, just so he wouldn’t tell anyone that he had killed the King’s guards. And that’s definitely going to come back and bite him in the ass.
Other highlights:
- Killian going for a session with Archie, so he could talk to him about how to convince David that he was a good man, worthy of marrying his daughter. The look on Archie’s face when Killian showed him the ring was all of us watching that scene. Archie is definitely a CaptainSwan shipper;
- Regina finally realizing that this is not her Robin and that he will not be able to replace him;
- Emma and Henry spending some quality time together. After so much stress and drama, they deserve a little bit of fun.
- Regina and Snow being besties. Not only that, but this episode highlighted just how far all these characters have come and how much they have grown and developed. While I’m not always super happy with their creative decisions, these writers have really done all of their characters justice and they treat them with the utmost respect. Unlike other shows.
- CaptainCharming is the best BrOTP in television. I just absolutely adore their friendship and how far they have come since they first met.
ONCE UPON A TIME returns next Sunday, March 19, at 8/7C on ABC.