Once Upon a Time reunites “The Brothers Jones” in this episode, but can Liam be trusted? If you ask Emma, the answer is no. If you ask Hook, it’s a resounding yes. To him, his brother is everything he wishes to be. But which of them is right? And what doesn’t Hook know about the past in what Hades has nicknamed the “Overworld”?
Also, Henry’s search for the quill continues, David has quite the encounter with a villain and Hades is hiding one wicked secret that could be vital to bringing him down.
4 Reasons Why No One is Shipping Once Upon a Time Couple Snow and Charming >>>
A Stormy “Overworld”
Back after their father sold them, Liam finds a way for him and Killian to be free men: join the King’s Navy, collect the signing bonus and combine it with what they have saved to buy their freedom. And their captain is fine with that — as long as he gets paid. He keeps Killian there as collateral while Liam goes off to collect the money.
However, when Liam returns, Killian has gambled away his silver to the Captain, which leaves him with a choice: leave his dead-weight brother and join the Navy or stay working for Captain Silver. Liam tears up his papers. “Come hell or high water, I cannot leave my brother,” he says.
When they realize that Captain Silver is leading the ship straight into a storm — and to the cursed sapphire, the eye of the storm — Liam chooses to mutiny, taking command of the ship. He has his brother tie up Silver and his men, while he goes off to find the charts to avoid the storm. But when he does, Hades finds him and proposes a deal: agree to let the ship sink so Hades can have the crew’s souls, and Hades will save him and his brother — and give him the cursed sapphire. If Liam gives it to the King, he’ll get what he wants, including the job with the Navy that he’s always wanted.
As the storm rages, Liam tells Killian to continue on the course into the storm. If they try to turn around, he claims, the winds will tear them apart. This is when he gives Killian his “lucky ring,” and Killian rallies the crew. He trusts his brother with his life, and so should they. But once the storm does tear apart the boat and kill the rest of the crew, Killian and Liam wash up on shore, and like Hades said, thanks to the cursed sapphire, they get naval commissions.
Brotherly Betrayal and Loyalty
Emma brings Hook home with her, but after she heals him, she doesn’t get the “It’s great to be back together” kiss she was expecting. Instead, he’s not sure he deserves to be saved. She was the Dark One for six weeks and only gave in out of love, while he plunged in headfirst in a second for revenge. To him, he was weak. Before she can even begin to convince him that he does deserve to be saved, Liam shows up at the door.
According to the other Jones brother, he has no idea what his unfinished business is, and since Hook is so sure his brother is a good man, he thinks it’s because Hades has rigged the game. Liam can offer them a lead on stopping Hades: a book with the power to defeat him. It’s the Underworld’s version of the storybook, they realize.
While searching the loft and coming up empty for the book, Liam confronts Emma and tells her his brother had a chance to die a hero and move on, but she took it from him. If he defeats Hades and has the chance to move on, Liam thinks she should let him go.
Hades then pays Liam a visit at his bar, and yes, he knows all about what they’re trying to do. He has eyes everywhere. But he can’t enter the Sorcerer’s mansion himself due to the light magic, so he wants Liam to destroy the pages for him or he’ll tell his brother why he’s down there.
While waiting for the key to the Sorcerer’s mansion, Emma tells Regina about Hook wanting her to let him move on. The problem, the former Evil Queen explains, is that Hook hasn’t forgiven himself. She knows how that is.
Once they have the key and enter the mansion, they split up, and of course Liam finds the book and tears out Hades’ pages. “I’m sorry, brother,” he says as he pockets them. After trying to talk to Hook about his brother and getting nowhere because he thinks he’s the same person he’s always been, Emma finds Liam moments after he’s dropped the pages in the well and shows him the ring he gave Killian that he gave her. He told her it belonged to a man much better than him, she says, so she can’t figure out why he’d lie to his brother.
When Hook joins them and Emma tries to get him to look at his brother’s hands as proof that he took the pages, he refuses. He thinks she wants to prove that Liam is a villain so he’ll feel like less of one and change his mind about their future together. But Hook has already decided that he’s not returning with her after defeating Hades. After Emma walks off, Hook sees the ink on Liam’s hand, realizes she’s right and gets confronted by a truth from their past: the crew Liam let die and his meeting with Hades.
Silver and his men bring the brothers to the fires of the Underworld, to “walk the plank.” Liam apologizes and tells Killian he wanted to be the perfect example for him. The problem is Hades isn’t so happy about others doing what he sees as his job and tosses Silver into the fire. Since Liam kept up his deal, he’s good in Hades’ eyes, but he refuses to let him kill his brother. Hades seems perfectly fine with tossing the other brother into the fire, and even though Hook catches him, Liam sees this as his way to make amends for what he did. After he slips out of Hook’s grasp, however, he finds himself on a boat, ready to set off to a better place, along with the crew he sentenced to Hades’ realm.
Hook’s unfinished business isn’t done yet, not until he and Emma defeat Hades, and so he says goodbye to his brother. Before he leaves, Liam tells him to tell Emma he’s sorry and he was wrong. She does want what’s best for him, and Hook has become a hero in a way he never could.
When Hook finds Emma again, he tells her what happened and has realized that perhaps he does deserve saving. Yes, he is planning to come home when this is over, and now they get to share that “It’s good to be together again” kiss.
Once Upon a Time: Why Belle’s Pregnancy Might Be the Worst Idea Ever >>>
De Vil-ish Fun and Painful Truths in the Sheriff’s Station
In order to get the key to the Sorcerer’s mansion, David and Snow White head to the Sheriff’s station, and fortunately James isn’t there. (Unfortunately, that means neither Snow nor David can punch him for that kiss.) However, soon after they find the key, Cruella shows up looking for James, and so David does what his twin did — he pretends to be his brother.
It turns out that James and Cruella have some sort of arrangement, but when David decides enough is enough when it comes to pretending to be his brother after some kissing and champagne, she reveals she knew it was him the entire time. See, he has none of the “damage” that James does, damage that David is responsible for. Their mother had to pick a favorite, and that favorite wasn’t James. But when Cruella does see some of that same damage, she declares that the twins are going to have “one hell of a reunion” when they do meet.
A Pen-sive Mood
Henry’s search for the quill begins when, out for a drive with Cruella, he spots something shiny in the woods. However, he only finds the Apprentice, who is in the Underworld because his unfinished business is Henry. He’s there to prevent him from making a terrible mistake. Yes, the pen can bring Cruella back, as rules are more flexible down there. As the Author, he should only use the quill to record stories. But Henry’s sick of sitting on the sidelines and wants to be a hero himself. The Apprentice tells him he’ll find the pen in the Sorcerer’s mansion, but the only way he’ll be able to move on is if Henry makes the right choice.
After he finds the pen, he retreats upstairs in the Charmings’ apartment, and David elects himself to be the one to try to get through to him. After learning that it seemed that all his brother wanted was a loving mother, David points out that people would give anything to have a family like Henry’s. Whatever’s going on, he has someone to talk to. It works, as Henry then tells everyone about the pen.
He wants to be the hero instead of the one heroes rescue, he explains to them, and he’s realized the right way to go about that: writing the stories as they are, starting with Hades’. He’s going to reconstruct his story because if Hades wants to hide it from them, they have to be on to something.
So what is Hades hiding? Well, as we see when he picks up the pages, he has a past with Zelena. “Our secret remains safe,” he says.
Once Upon a Time season 5 airs Sundays at 8pm on ABC.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.
