Once Upon a Time
In Neverland, Felix leads Neal to Pan's camp. Neal manages to get his hands loose and punches him out.
"I'm not a boy anymore, Felix. And I sure as hell ain't lost."
The kid who plays Baelfire in flashbacks is definitely getting older. It's getting more and more noticeable.
It looks like Baelfire was the one who gave Rumpelstiltskin the idea to build a castle.
"I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost you."
I'm still wondering just who or what the Belle that Gold is seeing in Neverland is going to turn out to be.
Gold: Things are different now.
Belle: How are things different?
Gold: Now I have nothing to live for.
"You think you see a good man, but in time you'll see the monster."
Tink is giving the group information about Pan's camp, and they're trying to figure out the best way to get in.
When Regina hears that Greg is dead, she just grins.
Tink tells them that she won't help them into Pan's camp until they come up with some type of escape plan to get off of the island.
Only one person has ever escaped from Neverland without first getting permission from Pan in order to do so: Neal.
And now Neal and Rumpelstiltskin have run into each other.
Of course, Rumpelstiltskin immediately thinks that he's just seeing things again, like with Belle.
In the flashbacks, Rumpelstiltskin comes home to find Baelfire gone. He tracks him to Hamelin. Where children are disappearing because of music from a pipe played by presumably Peter Pan the Pied Piper.
Neal tells Gold that Robin Hood's debt to him has been repaid, and he immediately realizes that means Neal was back in their land.
... and now Neal just used a shell to call a giant squid to the shore. So that they can extract the ink in order to use it to immobilize Pan long enough to get Henry back.
Hook tells Charming that it's starting to become obvious that something's wrong and asks why he hasn't told his family yet.
Yeah. Hook's totally keeping something to himself about the poison.
They go to the cave where Baelfire lived when on Neverland, to try and find a clue as to how he made it off the island.
In Hamelin, Rumpelstiltskin watches as children and teenagers (all boys) climb out their windows after hearing the sound of pipe music. They go to where a fire is burning and dance around it. Rumpelstiltskin follows to try to find Baelfire.
Shockingly, the piper is Peter Pan. I totally didn't see that coming. Because this show is so subtle. Really.
Based on Pan calling Rumpelstiltskin "laddie," it sounds like Rumpelstiltskin's first meeting with Pan might have been when he was a boy. Which, you know, had already been implied by the doll from a couple of episodes ago, the one that Rumpelstiltskin said had been his last present from his father.
Yep. Pan and Rumpelstiltskin definitely met when he was a child. Before Pan had Lost Boys.
Only boys who feel unwanted and unloved can hear Pan's pipe.
"You're not afraid Baelfire will be taken from you. You're afraid he will leave."
Henry: I'm not like them. Or you.
Pan: Sure you are. You're still a boy.
Henry can't hear Pan's pipe when he plays it.
Neal is good at drawing. He inherited it from Milah, according to Hook.
Emma figured out the clue Neal left to escape Neverland. He left a map. A map of the stars.
Rumpelstiltskin goes into Pan's camp to try and cause a diversion, but Pan knows that Neal's out there too. Neal shoots at him with the arrow, but he cancels it. Except Neal put the ink on the arrow's shaft, not the tip, because he knew Pan would do just that.
Pan tells Neal about the prophecy and tries to convince him that Rumpelstiltskin wants to kill Henry, not save him.
After getting away with Henry, Neal tells Rumpelstiltskin to explain to him what's going on. He does.
Rumpelstiltskin: You have to trust me.
Neal: How can I?
In the past, Rumpelstiltskin pulled Baelfire away rather than make a deal with Pan.
"He can't be any worse than you."
Pan told Baelfire about the deal. Rumpelstiltskin didn't give him a choice, but Baelfire tells him that he would have chosen to come with him if he had trusted him.
"You're my happy ending. This is. Because it's my redemption."
Neal doesn't trust him, because he's already shown so many times that self-preservation wins out. So he uses the ink on Rumpelstiltskin, takes Henry, and heads into the jungle.
Rumpelstiltskin: Without my power to protect you, Pan will capture you both.
Neal: I'm sorry, but I have no choice. We're safer without you. Goodbye, Papa.
Back in Baelfire's old home, Hook tells them that he taught him how to read the stars. Except Neal's the only person who can read the map, because it's in code.
"I never stopped loving him."
Elsewhere on the island, Neal stumbles across Emma's old camp. Except Pan catches him before he can get to them.
Pan tells Neal that he didn't escape Neverland. Pan let him go.
Now that he knows Neal is alive, Gold's not certain whether or not he's still going to be willing to die for Henry when the time comes.
"Habits can be broken, can't they?"
Henry doesn't have a clue that anything happened. He vaguely remembers hearing Neal's voice, but he assumes it must have been a dream.
... and now Henry can hear Pan's song when he plays his pipe.
This entry has been crossposted to Dreamwidth, and it currently has
replies there. Comment on whichever site you prefer.