Recap: ONCE UPON A TIME People Were Running Off With Babies

Episode 609 “Changelings”
Written by David H. Goodman & Brian Ridings
Directed by Mairzee Almas

In this episode, there was a manual, squid ink, and a new Genie!

In flashback, Belle (Emilie de Ravin) found Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) with a baby he took from a couple who turned out to be Jack (Nick Hunnings) and Jill (Tammy Gillis), presumably prior to Jack breaking his crown. The baby was going to be used to summon the Black Fairy (Jaime Murray), who was known to take children. He used squid ink to freeze her, and he began questioning her about taking babies. And we found out that Rumple is the son of the Black Fairy. And his father was Peter Pan. No wonder he’s so screwed up. The Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) recruited Belle to return the child, which she did.

In Storybrooke, Gold captured one of the nuns (Jacky Lai) and had her tied up. She wasn’t tied up very tightly. I’m just going to pretend that she couldn’t get out of the very loose rope because of the magical enchantment. There. Plot hole filled. And I let out a sigh of relief. You’re welcome, show creators.

The Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) showed up and witnessed the “message” Gold was sending to the others. Using a magic powder, he caused her to age and become extremely old (Edwina Shuster). And he reminded her that she was supposed to kill Zelena (Rebecca Mader) on his behalf.

Belle was in the library where she discovered a manual on how to defeat the Dark One. She opened it up, and it said to follow the red thread. She looked up and found a glowing red thread that led her into a dream state, one where the glow wasn’t radioactivity. She found her unborn son (Giles Matthey) grown up (Morpheus) who explained that the thread was what Gold wanted to cut with the magic shears. Then she woke up from the dream, laying on the book.

It turns out the book was written in squid ink. This gave the idea for Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) to go to Gold’s shop and provoke him. That provided the distraction for Emma (Jennifer Morrison) to use squid ink on Gold to freeze him. As they searched the shop, Emma had more visions (surprise, surprise) that stopped the search and allowed Gold to get away with the aging powder. Those visions seem to come in the nick of time to stop our intrepid heroes from getting things done. It has me wanting an end to the story line since they’re too convenient.

At Granny’s Diner, Belle started having contractions and realized the tea she was drinking was tainted with the aging powder. And her son appeared to her in a dreamlike vision saying that she knew what to do. She gave birth, named him Gideon, and handed him off to the Blue Fairy to take him away to keep him safe. I guess naming him Morpheus would have made it too obvious to Gold.

It turns out that the Evil Queen was the one who put the spiked Belle’s tea. Emma went to Gold’s shop, found the sword she saw herself being killed with in her vision and took it. Regina (also Lana Parrilla) threatened to crush her won heart in order to kill the EQ. And when Jasmine (Karen David) summoned the Genie for help in finding Agrobah, all that came out were a couple of gold bracelets proving the Genie had been freed. So Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) put them on to become the Genie.

So he has been the Savior, and is now the Genie. Now I want to see Aladdin become the Dark One so he can claim the Once Upon A Time super power trifecta.

Once Upon a Time airs Sunday nights at 8/7c on ABC.