Once Upon A Time : The Apprentice Recap

Synopsis of 4×04: Gold unlocks the Sorcerer’s hat, Hook blackmails Gold and gets his hand back, Emma experiences first date awkwardness, and Anna is tricked by Rumple.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Storybrooke

Emma finds Hook playing darts at Granny’s. She proceeds to awkwardly ask him out, but Hook takes the lead and decides to plan the date himself. Emma goes out to find her bug in a pretty large puddle of water. While that’s not normal in the real world, it is pretty weird in Storybrooke too. As soon as Emma leaves, Hook goes to Gold to get his hand back. Gold warns Hook that his hand could go all Idle Hand, on him, but Hook isn’t having any of that nonsense. After a nice bit of blackmail, Hook gets his hand back, so he can, um, hold hands with Emma.

Later at the Charming Apartment, the darling Charming Parents are being adorably awkward as they send Emma off on her first date with Hook. It’s painfully cute to watch them take pictures, comment on her pretty dress, and give a “be good to my daughter” speech. Emma escapes their overly protective parental instincts to go off on her date.

Enchanted Forest

Anna finds Rumple, and immediately puts her foot in her mouth by asking about his skin and what’s wrong with it. No matter, this is the slightly nicer Rumple, so he takes it in stride instead of outright killing her, or turning her into a snowman. He sends her on a quest to find a man that eats children for breakfast and put something in his tea. He makes her sign a deal contract, which she doesn’t read. Amateur.

Anna finds the man, and he turns out to be a really sweet old man who doesn’t eat children. After a nice little chat, she finds out that he’s not an evil guy and does a great job of not poisoning him. This is where we all know the deal with Rumple is going badly and something is going to go down.

Storybrooke 

Hook takes Emma to a restaurant that isn’t Granny’s. Anyone else surprised that there’s another restaurant in Storybrooke? Will Scarlet just happens to be there, stumbles into CaptainSwan’s table and spills wine all over Emma’s pretty dress. She chooses not to chase him after he runs off because nothing is going to ruin this date, not even Hook’s evil hand. Which, by the way, apparently is starting to get a mind of its own. Later, they end their date on the steps of the Charming Apartment. Hook officially asks Emma for a second date. They kiss their good nights and Emma goes in to find the Charming Parents awake and waiting on her. Naturally, Mary Margaret is much more into the details than David, who wants to know nothing. It’s, again, super adorable.

Enchanted Forest

Anna reports backs to Rumple, lies about giving the old man all the poison, and finds out that she killed this man. Rumple shows her that it is too late for the old man because now he is a mouse (Mickey, anyone?). Dang it, Anna. You basically just gave Rumple the keys to the one thing that he wants, or so Rumple thinks. Sadly for Rumple, she’s as pure as the driven snow, but hey, now he’s got a new tower prisoner. The only way she can get out is by killing Rumple. She can’t do it, and ends up giving Rumple exactly what he wants, the power to take The Sorcerer’s Hat. Way to go, Anna.

Anna does get it out of Rumple that her parents did visit him, and asked if there was anything that could take away her power. He tells her that there was nothing before that could take away Elsa’s power, but now there is. The hat can take away powers, and once fully charged, he will be the most powerful person of all. The Apprentice jumps out and causes Rumple to drop the dagger. Anna grabs it and realizes that she is in control of Rumple. She makes a demand of Rumple that could have been better thought out, but hey, at least she was able to make a command that was halfway decent. Rumple is forced to send Anna back to Arendelle.

Storybrooke

Hook goes back to Gold and wants him to take his hand back. He tries to blackmail Gold again, but can’t, and now he has to do something for Gold. They strike a deal and meet on the docks the next morning. Gold whips out a broom that walks and leads them to his “old friend.” This is where I lost it guys, the walking broom, the music. It was all just too perfect. Anyway, Gold and Hook force their way into The Apprentice’s house. Gold does something that causes a couple tears to shed.

Over at the sheriff’s station, Will Scarlett is in the slammer. Emma tries to interrogate him, and whips out a copy of Alice in Wonderland. Right through the heart, and straight to the feels. During all of that, David makes note that the Ice Queen’s name doesn’t appear in the census for the town, which means she didn’t come by curse. This means she had to come on her own, and has some motive for being there.