Once Upon A Time Recap S3E14: The Tower

Charming is in a tower, and he finds a beautiful nursery, one that shouldn’t be there. It’s all wrong. Emma is an adult, but she needed some place to practice she says. She asks him to teach her to dance for the ball, and he does. She’s a natural, and its everything he always wanted, but she never got it. She should be there, but she never got to because he failed her. The nursery turns dark, and she begs him not to fail the next one as she’s sucked through the wardrobe. In terms of dreams, that one sucked. It’s a bright and sunny day, and Snow is pregnant, but in a grat mood. She tells him that she’s pregnant, as if he couldn’t tell, and he tells her he’s thrilled, but he doesn’t look it.

Nine months later. They know who the enemy is now, they have to formulate a plan. Regina is worried about Henry while the others want to play Nancy Drew. Regina volunteers to protect Henry, and Emma tells her to maintain the cover story.

Zelena goes down to feed Rumpelstiltskin. He’s spinning hay into thread, and not exactly enjoying his cage. She taunts him, unlocks the cage. While she holds his dagger he cannot hurt her, he must remain obedient. He’s hearing voices in his head again, and he longs for death. But Zelena wants him to keep up appearances, he goes back to spinning, but she stops him. She thinks the spinning is bringing the madness. She uses his own blade to shave him, something she learned to do from her father. They’re in a new land of opportunity. Rumple knows that she’s not really concerned with appearances, and he wonders just what she’s up to.

Zelena pays Belle a visit in Gold’s shop. She asks after Gold, but Belle tells her that he died. She is looking for a baby gift for Mary Margaret. With the familiar name, Belle lets down her guard, and Zelena puts a spell on her so that she can steal something from Gold’s vault.

Charming , Hook and Emma look over Regina’s office for clues. Charming sees a partial footprint, and finds some smooshed holly berries. They give him a clue, but Mary Margaret calls him away. Emma sends him off, and she and Hook can look into the lead.

Past. Charming drinks deeply from a hidden flask. Robin catches him, with a quiver of gold tipped arrows, a gift from the Queen for helping her break into the castle. The castle for now is the best place for his son, so he’ll remain for now. Charming is worried about having another child. He thought he did what was right to save Emma, but the new baby is filling him with dread. He needs to support Snow, but fear is eating at him. Robin tells him of a root that could help him overcome fear, that looks like stars. After his wife died, Friar Tuck told him of it, but he never tried it. He warns Charming that the forest is haunted, but he’s not going to let a few ghosts stop him.

Snow tells Zelena of how she met Charming. Charming arrives, and he’s not sure she’s trustworthy. She thinks that they may have been friends over the last year, but he’s not sure. He has a bad feeling, and Zelena is busy drugging the tea as Snow tells Charming if anything feels wrong they can always change their mind.

Past. Charming goes to find his Night Root, filled with its beautiful starry crystals when he hears a cry for help. Further in the woods he finds a tower. He climbs the vines on the tower, because that is of course what you do, when he comes to a rope made of dark black hair. Inside is a beautiful girl with some serious amount of hair. He’s the first person Rapunzel has seen in many years. She left her kingdom to find the Night Root. She feared becoming a leader, knowing she would never be like her parents. Her fear overwhelmed her, and the nightmares would overtake her. She took the Night Root, but it didn’t work. When she tried to return home, a witch came and put her in the tower. Charming vows to save her, but Rapunzel knows that the witch will never let her leave. She does the crazy Ring still fast motion walking.

Zelena tries to get them prepared for the upcoming baby. She reveals some of Snow’s anxieties, one that she hasn’t even told to Charming yet. Zelena tells them that if they have any fears, its best to just get them all out into the open, but Charming says that he has none. Zelena tells Snow that she’s lucky to have such a fearless husband, and suggests he gets back to his search. Charming heads out, sword in hand to where the berries should be in the forest. The witch is there in his truck’s mirror. Just what did Zelena drug him with?

Regina treats Henry to some ice cream, she’s trying to bond. He tells her that Storybrook is great, New York is bigger but makes you feel lonely. Henry tells Regina that he doesn’t think its just the case that brought her to Storybrook, that she was running away from her boyfriend Walsh. Regina asks if he liked Walsh. He liked how happy it made her and the chance of having more than two place settings at dinner, Regina assures him that soon he’ll have family coming out of his ears.

Hook slashes about with his Hook, and Emma thinks he’s compensating. She asks him about his other adventures and travels, but he doesn’t want to talk about it. He dropped everything to come and save her and recover her memories. She’s grateful, kind of.  Hook presses her, asks if she was really in love with the flying monkey. Emma tells him that she was considering Walsh’s proposal. Hook is glad to hear that her heart was broken, if only because it means that it still works. Come on Captain Swan, let’s get these two together already. The pair find a farm house.

Charming is searching the woods too, where the holly berries are, but where as Hook and Emma were unbothered in the woods, something is messing with him. He’s on alert, and sword in one hand, cell in the other tries to call Emma. She doesn’t answer so he leaves her a message, he thinks he found his witch.

Rapunzel frets over the witch finding Charming. The witch wants her, but Charming knows that he can save her. He makes a swipe at the witch, but she’s outsmarted him. She isn’t below like he thought but above him. She throws him across the room.

Now the witch comes face to face with Charming, and knocks him out.

Emma and Hook creep around the house like some peeping Toms. There’s a bicycle around back, that looks vaguely familiar, ala Wizard of Oz, when Emma spots a storm cellar. Hook stops her from entering, not because of fear, but for pure strategy. She goes to call Regina, and hears Charming’s message.

Charming gets to his feet, and plunges the sword into the witch. Past. He goes to stop the witch, but it is her. In their scuffle, Charming and Rapunzel’s fear fly out the window. Now. The witch is him. The root allows you to conquer your fear, by turning it into you and making it corporeal. Past. Charming urges her that she has to face her fear. He tells her that she has to cut away her hair, to meet her fears head on. She has to face her future, or die. The fear climbs up Rapunzel’s hair towards her as Charming hangs from the vines below, and she finally uses his sword to cut her own hair. Now. Charming keeps saying that he will battle his fear, that he will die to protect his family. As he sees Emma’s bug, he knows that he fears being a bad father, but he won’t let it stop him. He kills his fear, and it disappears as Emma, Hook and Regina arrives. It wasn’t the witch, but himself. Regina knows that the witch is toying with them, and Charming is ready to send the Witch back. She just made a big mistake.

Rapunzel finishes the story of her brother’s death. His death made her so unsure of her ability to rule, and worried that her parents would not forgive her for her brother’s death. They return to the castle, and Rapunzel’s parents are there. They rush to embrace their daughter. Snow asks why he was in the forest, and he admits that he was afraid because they lost Emma twice. He fears that he cannot do this, but Snow is confident, and they will do it together.

Hook asks him about the fear. When he mentions that it knew of his deepest fears. Until he admitted his fear he couldn’t defeat it. Because he used the sword to help defeat his fear, it took a token of it. Tokens can be very powerful things, and Charming’s sword is missing.

Zelena prepares to leave, and Snow tells her how thankful she is to have her there. With the year lost, she was ill prepared for the baby coming, and now with Zelena’s help she’s far more prepared.

Hook, Emma, Regina and Charming go back to the storm cellar. The lock is now broken. They head inside, and find Gold’s cage. Emma wonders if it’s for the flying monkeys, but Charming finds straw, and some that is gold. They know the inhabitant was Rumpelstiltskin, and it brings a smile to Regina’s face.