Once Upon a Time: Season Four, Episode Eighteen – “Heart of Gold”

First Aired April 12th, 2015.

While on the run, the Author (played by Patrick Fishler) comes across Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold (played by Robert Carlyle). Despite the Author’s distaste for Gold, he agrees to go with him to write the happy endings when Gold reveals he has a magical quill.

Gold visits the captive Evil Queen/Regina (played by Lana Parrilla) and tells her he has information about her lost love, Robin Hood (played by Sean Maguire). Flashbacks show Robin, Marian (played by Christie Laing) and their son arriving in New York City after leaving Storybrooke. Gold is furious they are living in his dead son’s apartment and tries to evict them but suffers a heart attack. Robin can’t stand by and watch Gold die and agrees to retrieve a potion hidden in a building that can save his life. More flashbacks show that Robin first stole it from Zelena/The Wicked Witch of the West (played by Rebecca Mader) on Rumple’s orders. However, the potion doesn’t work and Marian walks in and reveals she kept the real one, then reveals that she is really Zelena in disguise.

I’m not the biggest fan of the Author and his seemingly irrefutable influence over everyone’s free will so I was happy to see he wasn’t featured much in this episode. However, I do look forward to seeing his backstory in the hopes that it can makes the Author storyline more tolerable. The flashbacks within flashbacks worked really well for the episode because it was refreshing to take focus off the core characters. It’s always good when side characters are given more chances to shine and Gold and Zelena are two very interesting ones. Zelena’s presence in the flashbacks at first seemed like a one-off cameo from a popular character. Bringing her back into the main story was a great twist that is sure to bring more drama.

After Gold is intubated following a seizure, Zelena gloatingly reveals how she managed to stay alive. When she was stabbed by Gold in the season three finale, she didn’t die but her essence went into the time portal with Emma (played by Jennifer Morrison). Zelena watched Emma as she tried to fix the timeline and when Marian was rescued Zelena killed Marian and took on her appearance to get back to Storybrooke. Her plan was to make Robin fall back in love with “Marian” and take Regina’s true love away from her. But Robin never stopped loving Regina and Zelena realizes that she needs the help of the Author to get what she wants. Zelena tells Gold she will give him the potion in exchange for the Author giving her a happy ending.

OUAT has made a habit of killing off the antagonists at the end of each season and it’s refreshing for that cycle to be broken. When a character is killed off they are unable to continue adding to the series’ narrative, save for exceptions like flashbacks. And in a season where the theme is villains forming a team it was the perfect time to bring Zelena back. What made the reveal especially riveting was how the long lead-in throughout the season featured “Marian” with Robin. However, I doubt Zelena is going to get her happy ending because she did kill Gold’s son and he never got vengeance. I’m sure once Gold gets the Author to write his happy ending he’ll be sure to include a painful death for Zelena.

Regina uses Gold’s cell phone to call Robin and is shocked when Zelena answers. Zelena has continued to fool Robin and his son into thinking she’s Marian and promises to see Regina soon. Gold gives Regina the choice of helping him turn Emma evil to change happy endings for the villains or he will have Zelena kill Robin. Given how hard Regina has fought for her happy ending, I’m positive she’ll choose Robin over Emma. She might try and find a way around it but if given the choice between the two her happiness will win out. With all the drama surrounding her parents Emma is already on the edge and susceptible to being turned to the dark side, and Evil Emma should be fun to see.

Quotes & Thoughts

“You are quite possibly the biggest pain in the ass I have ever had the displeasure of writing about.”

Perhaps the key to defeating the Author is giving him a severe case of writer’s block.

“If this is New York I’d hate to see the old one.”

Why do all of these characters end up in New York City? It’s a great location but there are other places in the world.

If you enjoyed Manny’s return to Storybrooke, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

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