Season 7, Episode 13:
Knightfall
Rogers strikes a deal with Eloise despite Tilly’s fair warning, while Ivy struggles to find herself after Victoria’s death. Meanwhile, in a faraway realm, Hook confronts Captain Ahab over a legendary magical talisman which can free Alice, only to learn that his quest may have unintended consequences.
Tropes
- Adaptational Villainy: Captain Ahab. Although he is the reason all the characters (except Ishmael) die in the original novel, it comes from a mad obsession and misplaced vengeance, not deliberate evil or malice—he actually treats most of his crew quite well aside from this, and is thus more of a Tragic Byronic Hero. But in this episode, while the reason he won't give up what Hook seeks is because he wishes to use it against Moby Dick, he's also portrayed as an arrogant blowhard who deliberately taunts Hook about "going soft" and no longer being a great and feared pirate, something the book's captain (and Melville himself for that matter) would have had only contempt for, as Book!Ahab was not a pirate. And while part of his motivation in the end is to keep Hook from releasing the Dark One from his prison, it's clear all he really cares about is humiliating Hook and ruining his reputation, and getting back at him for winning the fish hook from him (although at least this last bit is in character, since it relates to his revenge quest).
- The Atoner: Ivy, or so it appears at least; after a pep talk from Henry, she chooses to reach out to Jacinda and Lucy, and although there is some snark and residual resentment, they eventually share a heart-to-heart and even a hug, and she claims she wishes to fulfill her mother's last wishes and save Anastasia from Gothel. Whether this is true or she's just using Henry to get back at the sister she still feels stole everything from her remains to be seen.
- Backstory: For Wish Hook and Alice, including the explanation for how his heart was poisoned and how the exchange of the rook and knight chess pieces took place (although we also learned some of this in previous episodes).
- Chess Motifs: Aside from the rook and knight mentioned above, the entire episode symbolically makes it clear how much Wish Hook has been a pawn for Gothel (and still is, in her Eloise persona). And of course the rook, as a castle tower, is a perfect symbol of Alice's predicament.
- Clear Their Name: Not believing the way things look, both in the baker's hospital room and Tilly's street hideout, Rogers swears to do this for Tilly.
- Cloudcuckoolander: If Season Six, Episode Ten "Wish You Were Here" didn't prove it enough, this episode hammers the nail into the coffin, lowers it into the ground and buries it under about fifty foot of soil. Years of imprisonment has definitely sent Wish Rumple off the deep end on a sledge that is rapidly picking up speed with no signs of stopping.
- Continuity Nod: Wish Rumple makes reference to his and Hook's backstory regarding Milah when he mentions how they both know "a pirate won't ever let go of what he has without a fight."
- Couch Gag: The title card features Ivy's doll.
- Deal with the Devil: In order to gain the magic he needs to free Alice from the witch's tower, Hook enters into one of these with Wish Rumple — information on how to obtain an artifact that will free any prisoner from their confinement, magical or otherwise, if he will agree to use it to free Rumple from his cell too. In the end thanks to Ahab's taunting, he doesn't go through with it, but the result is still devastating.
- Dramatic Irony: Aside from the way the dream listed in the trope below comes true, and the fact Hook has to work with Rumple to accomplish his quest, there's the fact he actually wins his duel with Ahab — but it's this very victory that ruins him. Also, what saves his life is the rook Alice gave him, but his whole detour with Ahab was not only a betrayal of the "white knight" he promised to be for her, it resulted in the dream coming true and their separation — i.e., she protected him but he failed to do the same for her.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Alice has dreams of Gothel returning and casting a spell to curse Hook's heart and separate them; Hook swears he will keep them from coming true, but they end up doing so anyway (if not the way she dreamed it) precisely because of his actions.
- Duel to the Death: Ahab ends up calling for one of these from Hook — not because he cheated him, but because he believes Hook is no longer a worthy foe or villain, instead having gone soft as a coward. Unlike before with Rumple, it's a pistol duel.
- Failed a Spot Check: Weaver happens to be looking away when Eloise taunts Tilly over the interrogation room's video camera.
- Foregone Conclusion: Given he's still imprisoned approximately two decades later, Hook is definitely not going to free Rumple. Why and how is the point of the episode.
- Honor Before Reason: Hook's Fatal Flaw. Even though he willingly gave up the Jolly Roger and the pirate's life to raise and protect his daughter, and even though he promised he would return to her as soon as he had the means to free her, Hook can't help succumbing to Pride when Ahab taunts him — not just about giving up his ship or "going soft" but that he's actively working with his Arch-Enemy the Dark One instead of killing him. This leads to the duel mentioned above... and despite winning and surviving it, the cost is still great.
- Internal Reveal: After backpedaling in her attempts to get her parents together (thanks to learning of the curse on Henry's heart), Lucy confesses all to Regina... who in turn admits to her she believes her and is awake, so they agree to join forces and find a way to save Henry while still breaking the curse.
- Laughing Mad: As already seen in the original trip to the Wish Realm in Season Six, being locked up in the dungeon indefinitely after the depowering of the Evil Queen has not been good for this Rumple's sanity.
- Manipulative Bastard: Ahab. When he fails at his first attempts to play on Hook's pride by claiming he's gone soft and is no longer a legend or even a threat, he gets him to claim he will use Maui's fish hook to kill his crocodile, then secretly follows Hook to the dungeon where Rumple is being held and exposes him for a liar for agreeing to free him instead. Then by playing on his hatred of Rumple, he gets him to commit to a Duel to the Death to prove he is still a blackguard and killer.
- Manipulative Bitch: Gothel, meanwhile, proves to be this yet again. In the past, she takes advantage of Hook's deviating from his promised path to curse Ahab's bullet, so that even though Hook survives and wins, his heart still gets poisoned so that he is separated from Alice; she then taunts Alice about this, thus revealing his betrayal and breaking her heart. In the present, she refuses to reveal anything about the one killing cult members until Rogers reveals to her the truth about himself via one of his paintings (thus getting into his head, exactly as Weaver and Tilly warned him against).
- Mythology Gag: Maui's fish hook appears, although here it has the power to break through any prison rather than enabling transformation, and it's somehow found its way into Ahab's hands.
- Operation: [Blank]: After Lucy reveals to Regina about the storybook page, and they agree to work together to save Henry while still reuniting him with Jacinda, Regina says they need to do just like Emma and Henry did, with walkie-talkies and an operation code name. Lucy comes up with "Operation Hyacinth" after the flowers Henry gave her mother.
- Pocket Protector: Hook is saved in his duel by the rook Alice gave him, making the bullet "only graze him". Subverted however in that the bullet still gives him the Curse of the Poisoned Heart courtesy of Gothel.
- Pun-Based Title: Referencing Hook having given a white chess knight to Alice while promising to be such a protector for her, then his "fall" from grace by letting himself be drawn into a duel with Ahab instead. Also, Gothel makes it literal by magically blasting him out the tower window in the dream.
- Red Herring: Eloise sends Rogers and Weaver to a flower shop where the next cult victim supposedly works, with the description of her specific favorite marzipan candy which would be used to poison her. They arrive at the store and find the candy container...only to learn from the florist that his wife died years ago; the whole thing was a distraction to toy with them.
- The Reveal: The one killing the cult members? Tilly — or so it appears, anyway, as she is holding the scalpel that presumably killed the baker, she has a Room Full of Crazy with a large rendition of the Coven of the Eight's symbol with two of its spokes crossed out in red, and she has good reason to want to kill them (in Hyperion Heights, Weaver claims the cult took her father, while in the Enchanted Forest it was Gothel who cursed Hook's heart).
- The Rival: Ahab to Hook, at least insofar as whether they remain dedicated to their path of vengeance against the beast who wronged them. Ahab claims they're no different but that Hook has lost his edge, just as Blackbeard did back in Season Three. This is apparently what happens when you build up a great legend as a cutthroat, black-hearted scourge of the seas and then abandon it. It's also a nice bit of Showing Their Work, since Word of God from J. M. Barrie revealed that he based Hook and his vendetta with the Crocodile on Ahab and Moby Dick.
- Sex for Solace: Ivy attempts this with Henry, but he rightly calls her on this being over her grief for Victoria and wanting to fill the void in her life, not any true feelings, and that it would be bad for both of them.
- Trojan Prisoner: Well, she isn't a prisoner (yet), just a suspect and informant, but Eloise otherwise acts as this when she comes in to the police station to give evidence regarding the cult killings, since the whole point is to get into Rogers's head, distract and mislead them regarding the next target, and even, it seems, manipulate a Frame-Up.
- Villain Has a Point:
- Ahab has a very good point that Hook releasing the Dark One from his cell, even if it's only to keep his word and obtain something to help his daughter, is not a very good idea.
- By the same token, Rumple has a good point that the captain's call-out regarding abandoning revenge and going soft are just Ahab trying to goad him into something dangerous.
- Gothel tries to pull the same thing by stressing how Hook never would have ended up cut off from his daughter if he hadn't given in to Honor Before Reason with Ahab, but the fact she made this happen by poisoning the bullet makes her point fall flat.
- You Have to Believe Me!: At first played straight, then subverted. Tilly claims to Rogers that something bad is going to happen, but all she can do is babble about the chess game and her "feelings", causing him to dismiss her. Weaver says he believes her when she comes back and points to Eloise as the source, but doesn't do anything to follow up on it other than warn Rogers not to let Eloise get to him. In the end though, when they find Tilly standing over the baker's bleeding body, still ranting and with scalpel in hand, neither of them believe her to be the killer, instead accepting her crazed chastisement for not listening to her before and then planning to help prove her innocence.
