Once Upon A Time S04E04 Recap: The Apprentice

A long Time Ago…A wizard swept his own floors when the Dark One paid the Sorcerer’s Apprentice a visit. The dark one easily knocks his away, but the Apprentice warns that he does not know what he will release by opening the box. And the dark one is not Rumpelstiltskin, but another. Luckily the Apprentice was not the only thing that that sorcerer put his faith in, and the box repeals his blade. The spell repeals anyone who has succumbed to the dark spell, and no dark one will ever possess what is inside the box.

Now. Rumpelstiltskin waves his knife over the box, and the Sorcerer’s hat appears.

Regina and Henry arrive. He’s not sure he’s comfortable, but he wants her happy.

Emma surprises the delectable Hook. She’s thought about what he’s said about being a survivor, and asks him out to dinner. He thinks that he’s the one who should be asking her out though. He will accept on one condition. She let him plan the evening. She knows monster planning, he knows how to plan an event. Emma allows him to do so, and finds her car in a puddle.

Gold finds Hook waiting for him in his shop. He wants another deal. For his silence, he wants his hand back. Gold has kept it for many years in a jar to warn him he should have finished the job. Hook wants to be able to hold Emma with both hands if given the chance. Gold warns him that the hand belongs to the man he was, cunning, and selfish. Reuniting him with his hand could yield devastating results, but Hook doesn’t believe him and threatens to tell Belle just the type of man she married. Gold gives him back his hand, letting the consequences be his own.

Snow has stacks of curses to go through to help Elsa find Anna. Emma is all pretty in pink for her date with Hook. Snow snaps a picture, doing the mom thing. And I suppose I’ll need to call him Killian now that he’s hookless. He arrives rose in hand, wearing some modern black duds. The pair leave in a hurry before David can give him the dad speech. Hook promises that she’s in good hands, which is what worries him. David wonders if he was too hard on Killian, but her really did nothing. Elsa was much harder on Kristoff when he started dating her sister.

Anna paid Rumplestilskin a visit, and he already knew who she was. Knowing names is sort of his thing, and he knows all about her, and why she is there. Elsa thinks that their parents went off to the strange land because of her, but Anna hopes to find the truth. Their parents did come to see him, but he can’t just come clean without a deal. He wants her to put a spell in someone’s tea, a nasty child eating beast. She asks what the potion is, hesitating to do the job, and he presents her with a lengthy contract.

Potion in hand she goes to the cottage. It’s the home of the apprentice. He invites her in for tea, and she notices that he’s making biscuits, and not eating children. She tells him that she is on a quest and she’s gotten turned around. He invites her to stay as long as she wishes. Anna approaches the tea on the fire, but she cannot poison it. She pours the potion into the fire.

Robin and Marion have a Lady and the Tramp moment, and Emma and Killian sit down for some Italian. He’s only seen her on one date, and that was with flying monkey where he proposed to her, right before trying to kill her. Killian offers to order some drinks, but Emma is refraining from imbibing, thinking that the Snow Queen will crash their date after finding the suspicious puddle under her car. Killian doesn’t think that’s proof. He didn’t take her out so they could worry about the Snow Queen, but to have a good night. Will spots Emma, and tries to make a break, but its not a smooth one, and bumps the waiter, who spills drinks of Emma. Killian grabs him with his pirate hand, demanding an apology, but Emma assures him its ok. Emma recognizes the dashing rogue as the one who ran off at the ice cream shop. He runs off, but Emma doesn’t give chase, refusing to let him ruin their night. Killian stares out his hand, and Emma tells him that it’s okay, it was only a glass of wine. He apologizes, not knowing what got into him.

Henry looks over some of his mother’s ingredients. They’re looking for something to unfreeze Marian, and she isn’t sure that she has anything strong enough to counteract the Snow Queen’s magic. Henry asks if its guilt because true love’s kiss didn’t work since Robin still love Regina. No one had to tell him, he realized it for himself. He thinks she should be happy about it, but she isn’t exactly, and thinks maybe it’s something that he’s too young to understand.

Emma had a good night. Killian actually made her forget that Storybrooke was under siege for once. She offers to let him come in to have coffee in the very full house, and he asks her out for another date. They share a steamy kiss, and his hand draws his concern. Snow and David are sitting up waiting for her. They want to know all the details of the date, well Snow does, David would like an edited account. Emma gives nothing, heading off to bed. She seems happy Snow notes, and David thinks maybe Killian really has changed.

Killian runs into Will, trying to break into a shop. He tells him there isn’t anything inside for him to steal, but when he doesn’t heed Killian’s warning, Killian’s pirate hand throws a few punches before Killian gets control of himself. He warns Will to keep his mouth shut, and Killian wonders if Gold was right.

Anna returns to Rumpelstiltskin with the empty vial. She claims that she poured it into the tea, and that he drank every last drop. He says good, then he’ll live. Huh? She thought what she was giving was poison, but he says that he drank the poison yesterday. Anna admits that she didn’t give it to him, that she needs more antedote, and to go to the cottage and help him. Rumpelstiltskin shows her in his little magic ball the Apprentice clutching his stomach before changing into a rat. They go to the apprentice’s cottage. She should have listened when she had the chance. The hex was set by someone challenged by their inner darkness, like her, and overcome it. But she was never tempted by the inner darkness, she doesn’t think that she has one. Now she’ll have to stay in his tower, per their deal. Elsa will become the monster that people fear, with her sister gone, and the wedding will be off. Anna grabs a sword off the wall, ordering Rumple to rip up the contract but he won’t, and the only way she’ll be free is by killing him. She can’t do it. She may not have considered dosing the old man, but she did consider killing him. She sheds a tear, and Rumple collects it. He needed the tear of someone who faced their inner darkness and turned it away. Anna sees him for the monster he is, using love and turning it into a weapon. Love is a weapon, few people know how to wield it. Rumple heads below, and he opens the Apprentice’s box with ease.

In Storybrook, Gold goes to leave, and Killian joins him in his car. Killian no longer wants the hand. He can no longer control the hand, and he wishes to be rid of it before it overtakes him. Gold will not, even as Killian threatens to tell on him again. But after his last threat, he gave Belle the real dagger he says. Gold wants a deal to remove the hand and restore his hook, and since his magic put the hand back in place, its only his magic that can remove it again. He wants to make a deal, and Killian has little choice but to make one.

Emma’s yellow bug slides across a strip of ice. She goes out to meet the Ice Queen. She’s been following her, and Emma wants to know why. When the town baddie leads you on a merry chase, you don’t go after her, but Emma does just that. The Ice Queen loses her, as Belle calls with a situation. Will is passed out drunk in the library.

Gold meets Killian bright and early at the docks. He’s ready to pay the piper so to speak, and Gold has a broom for them to follow.

Rumplestiltskin returns from below, Anna wants her answers. The King and Queen did come to see him, they came to find a way to take her powers. Anna knows that her parents loved Elsa. He thinks that they feared her, they always wanted her to be a little more normal. He didn’t have the power to do that, until now. The hat collects power, and once the hat has collected all of its power, he will be unstoppable. The mouse, the apprentice used his entire life to stop people like Rumplestilskin. The mouse drops down from above, biting him. Rumple drops the dagger, and Anna grabs it. She discovers the dagger’s power. Rumple wanted to use the hat to free himself of the dagger but to keep his power. He warns her that she doesn’t want to be on the other end of the dagger when he gets it back, that she cannot hold it forever. Anna demands him to send her back home with the hat to Arendelle, to never harm herself or Elsa, and to turn the mouse back into a man. He sends her off, retrieving the dagger.

The broom leads Killian and Gold to the home of the Apprentice. He is less than welcoming to the pair, but Killian forces him to take a seat before them. Gold presents the hat box to him, and he’s surprised to see that he has the hat. All dark ones had failed before him to get the hat, but he thinks that he will never have enough power to use the hat. Gold has big plans, and tells the Apprentice that he won’t be around to see them. The hat sucks the apprentice inside.

Sven sits pouting, when Anna arrives back. He missed Anna, but not as much as Kristoff did. Anna returned Sven wants a carrot. Kristoff asks what the matter, he took a bath. It has nothing to do with his smell. She failed her mission. Her parents did leave because of Elsa, they wanted to take her powers with the box, and now Anna has no clue what to tell her.

Back at the shop. They’re done, and now Killian wants to be rid of the hand. Gold takes the hand, but tells him that the deal isn’t done. He saw Gold use the dagger, so he knows that the one Belle has is a fake. But now Gold has surveillance video from the Apprentice’s house, which looks pretty damning, and moreso after Gold removes himself magically. Hook had to be rid of his hand, so that he could be the more caring individual that he’s become. But Gold tells him that the hand was never cursed. Hook doesn’t believe him. Gold tells him the hand is nothing more than a lump of flesh, that it gave him permission to be what he is. Not the puppy dog that he pretends to be chasing after Emma. He is a ruthless pirate. He threatened to go after Gold’s love, and for that he will pay for as long as he lives. Hook wonders if he is willing to take Gold down with him, but Gold is sure he and the Captain will have plenty of time to have fun.

Will wakes in a jail cell. Emma doesn’t take his village idiot act for a moment. He claims that he did a little celebrating after getting away from her. He broke into the library and was found with a copy of Alice in Wonderland, and a torn out picture of the Queen of Hearts in his pocket. He doesn’t give her any insight why any of that happened. Please oh please do not bring the Queen of Hearts to Storybrooke, she was one of the lows of Once Upon A Time in Wonderland. Emma turns her attention to the shiner, right as Hook arrives, but he claims that too is a mystery. Hook tells Emma that Gold’s magic wasn’t what it was cracked up to be hence, the restoration of his hook. Emma gushes over their date and leaves Will in his cell. Emma wants to go after the Snow Queen, but David has found that the name she’s using, Sarah Fisher, isn’t in any census records. She didn’t come by curse.

Regina has gotten no where with the curse. Henry may not understand all the workings of her heart, or whatever with Robin, but he does understand Operation Mongoose. They need to find the author, make him change it. Henry thinks that the answer lies with his grandfather, Gold. He was able to get a happy ending with Belle. He has to know something, and so he’s going undercover.

Gold is surprised by Henry’s request for a job. Henry tells him that he’s the closest thing he has left to his father, and Gold is touched. He agrees to let the boy hang out a couple of days a week, provided that he stay out of the back room. Gold hands Henry a broom, and allows his apprentice to get to work.