REVIEW: Once Upon a Time, S6 Ep16 – Mother’s Little Helper

This week on Once Upon a Time, Emma and Gideon try to bring down the Black Fairy. Henry’s author powers take a dangerous turn, and Hook makes a deal with an old enemy to try and find his way home.

We finally learned more about Gideon after he asks for Emma’s help in defeating his nemesis (and grandmother), the Black Fairy. More than just him recounting painful childhood experiences, we finally see these play out in grim detail as we witness the deviousness and cruelty of the Black Fairy. She’s also flamboyant in her evilness, a family trait Rumple inherited apparently. Everyone in that family has such a flair for the dramatic.

Emma points out that he didn’t have to try to kill her so many times if all he really needed was her help, but Gideon made some excuse and being of such a forgiving (and gullible) nature, the Savior tried to join forces with him. For a while they had some interesting bonding moments, facing down a giant spider together and using their magic. (Why are there always giant spiders in every fantasy realm?). But it turns out, the spider was a diversion! And Gideon was really spinning a web around Emma (literally and figuratively).

And he proved Emma’s suspicions about him being evil despite his potential for goodness. Luckily for her Rumple comes to her rescue, though his act of generosity may have only been to prevent Emma from targeting his son. But Gideon has proven to be very difficult to redeem, and both Rumple and Belle sit down to try and figure out how they can save him. Because the more chaos he causes, the more difficult it is to justify anything he has done.

But there are always twists within twists. It turns out Gideon was good all along but acting on the orders of the Black Fairy, who was controlling him after stealing his heart, as powerful sorcerers on Once Upon a Time are wont to do. Mind control and memory loss, the eternal Once Upon a Time plot devices, as well as parental abandonment issues.

The struggle between Emma and Gideon caused a rift between realms just long enough for the Black Fairy to make her way to Storybrooke. I’m looking forward to the terror she will inflict. We’ve spent several episodes with characters talking about how evil she is, and though we caught glimpses of her awfulness in flashbacks, it will be interesting to see how she manages to ruin everything in the present day.

Meanwhile, there were two minor subplots happening. Hook tried to make a deal with Blackbeard (could he really not ask the help of Aladdin and Jasmine?) to use a magic bean to get back to Emma. But nothing is ever straightforward on Once Upon a Time, so by some weird twist, Hook ends up in Neverland. Fun.

In another storyline that will probably pay off later this season, Henry has a weird, authorial-power-induced seizure. Regina is concerned and so consults Isaac (who knew he was still in Storybrooke this whole time?) and he gives them an ominous warning.

The final chapter of the book has been written and it is going to be about the Savior’s last battle. But since it hasn’t been confirmed that this is the last season of Once Upon a Time, I’m pretty sure that our heroes are going to find a loophole to this doomsday condition. And I’m betting it has something to do with defeating the Black Fairy.