Exactly how far will Rumple go to have his son in his arms? Maybe we’ll find out in Once Upon a Time season 6, episode 9, “Changelings.”
We all knew a Rumple-centric episode was looming, and it has officially arrived. It brings with it the end of a pregnancy, a new family-tree revelation, a hint into Emma’s visions, and a new genie in a bottle. One or more of these things could prove to have disastrous consequences, while another may provide some relief.
Let’s see what Rumple is up to and try to figure out where his story will take him next, shall we?
Rumple the Horrible
Present day Rumple is up to his old tricks. He wants his child for his own, and this episode shows just how far he’ll go to get his hands on him. He sends Belle a message in the form of a fairy he caught and aged up in a matter of minutes. He wants her to fear him and his magic. This is my shocked face.
When they finally come face to face, Belle is able to talk him out of dosing her with the potion that will progress her pregnancy in a hurry, but that won’t stop him. Or does it? Moments after Belle tells him that taking their child from her will lose her love forever, Belle’s tea is spiked at Granny’s and kicks her pregnancy into it’s final stages. We later learn that we have the Evil Queen to thank for that trick, but after everything he’s pulled and planned, absolutely no one will believe he didn’t spike the tea himself.
Even in flashback
While present day Rumple is all about his baby, flashback Rumple steals other people’s babies (okay, maybe just Jack and Jill’s) and manipulates Belle as per his usual modus operandi. He leaves the baby in her charge for the day, and in an attempt to try and save the child, she finds out that the Dark One intends to summon the black fairy. He appears moments after she discovers his plans and takes the child, leaving Belle imprisoned and left behind.
Belle gets a visit from the Blue Fairy moments later, and she tells Rumple’s lady love that the black fairy was once a good fairy, but for reasons unknown, now she is a stealer of children. The Blue Fairy then springs Belle from her posh prison and sends her on her way to save the child and stop Rumple.
New genie in the house
While Rumple is wreaking havoc, Snow is hanging out with Jasmine and grading her kids’ schoolwork. Jasmine admits to Snow that Aladdin found a magic lamp, and it may very well be their only chance to get back to Agrabah. A quick rub of the lamp reveals that whomever was imprisoned within it’s walls has been freed, a pair of manacles all that remains.
In an ill advised move that will surely have lasting consequences, Aladdin dons the manacles and becomes the genie in order to grant Jasmine’s wish. We don’t however see Jasmine make the wish right away, because that would make way too much sense. If she had, the Evil Queen wouldn’t be able to steal the lamp and make a wish or two herself that will have disastrous consequences on the entire fairytale world, but more on that next week.
A better look
Also in this episode, Hook and Emma get the jump on Gold and use the opportunity to poke around his shop a bit. While looking for either his dagger or the shears he intends to use on his and Belle’s son, Emma stumbles across something else. A brief bit of contact with some item throws her into her visions and gives her a better look at the weapon protruding from her stomach.
The blade has a glowing red jewel in the handle, a gem that Emma gets a really good look at when she and Hook return to Gold’s shop later that night only to find it trashed and the sword laying on top of the rubble. They might not know much about what leads to the vision, but each piece of the story gets us closer to learning who is hiding under that cloak.
Meeting the Black Fairy
Twist alert! That’s right folks. Rumple succeeds in summoning the Black Fairy, and stops her in her tracks with a bit of squid ink. This gives him just long enough to question her about why she left her only son behind. That son is him. You’ve got that right. Here we have Rumple’s mother, in the flesh, right before his (and our) eyes.
We don’t learn anything about why she abandoned him, but we can only imagine that it was some twisted noble endeavor that turned horribly wrong and left her with a desire to steal children forevermore. We’ll undoubtedly get into the Black Fairy’s history with Rumple in a later episode.
His best chance
Belle visits her son in the dream realm a few times this episode and each time he gives her vague advice about how to keep him safe. Ultimately, Belle knows that the only way to keep Gideon out of Rumple’s clutches is to send him away with his fairy godmother. In one of the most beautiful and tear-inducing scenes (no, you’re crying!) we’ve had this season, Belle hands her son over to the Blue Fairy with instructions to take him away and keep him safe.
We don’t get any more clues than that. Surely someday we will see Gideon again, and for Belle’s sake, I hope it’s sooner. Rumpel arrives moments after the Blue Fairy leaves with the child, and he’s furious that Belle would abandon her child. She scoffs at his accusation and reminds him that she is only trying to keep their boy safe, and is giving him his best chance at a good life, even if it is one that she isn’t a part of.
And that’s all she wrote. All in all, Once Upon a Time season 6, episode 9, “Changelings,” was a bit of a downer, but it advanced the plot enough that we are definitely looking forward to seeing how all these plot threads will advance from here.