BWW Recap: A New Apprentice Emerges on ONCE UPON A TIME!

On this week's episode of ONCE UPON A TIME, we witnessed the power Rumpelstiltskin's magic can have over the people around him. Hook's budding relationship with Emma prompts him to pay a visit to Rumpelstiltskin in order to get his detached hand back. Though Rumpel complies, he warns Hook that reattaching his hand may restore bits of the man he once was when he originally had his hand. Unfortunately, Rumpel's prediction proves to be true, and Hook's cunning, slightly violent attitude begins to resurface. Hook panics, and tries to convince Rumpelstiltskin to remove his hand once again. But, as always, Rumpel insists that his assistance must come with a price, and forces Hook to make a deal with him; Hook must aid Rumpel in tracking down the Sorcerer's Apprentice. The pair locate the Apprentice's home, and Rumpel uses the Sorcerer's hat to suck him into the hat's vortex of sorts, trapping him within the hat indefinitely. When their job is complete, Rumpel removes Hook's hand in exchange for his hook at the Captain's request. But Rumpel reveals that Hook's hand had no power over him after all; the anger that emerged within him was actually all in Hook's head, meaning that the ruthless pirate in him isn't actually gone.

In a flashback to the Enchanted Forest, we were able to spend some more time on Anna's journey to locate her parents. Anna goes to see the Dark One, who tells her that her parents came to visit him recently. But, the Dark One refuses to tell Anna of her parents' motives unless she makes a deal with him. Unaware of Rumpel's scheming nature, Anna agrees to his terms.

Rumpel instructs Anna to poison the Sorcerer's Apprentice, who happens to have the Sorcerer's hat that Rumpel desires. But Anna's morals get in the way, and she doesn't poison the Apprentice. Unfortunately, Rumpel tricked Anna, and revealed that Anna's mission was actually to give the Apprentice an antidote to poison the Dark One had already bestowed upon him. To Anna's horror, the Apprentice is transformed into a mouse. Rumpel then tells her that she must be trapped in his tower forever in order to abide by the terms of their contract.

Once Anna is imprisoned, Rumpel breaks his word and tells her the details of her parents' visit. It turns out that her parents were afraid of Elsa's powers, and were searching for a way to remove them. After a bit of a scuffle with Rumpel's dagger, Anna obtains the dagger, and figures out that the dagger is Rumpel's weakness. She realizes that Rumpel must want the Sorcerer's hat so he can use its magic to remove the power of the dagger over him. Anna uses the dagger to force Rumpel to send her home, along with restoring the Apprentice back to his human form.

The ending of this episode was my personal favorite this season because we came full circle. The episode opened with a shot of the Sorcerer's Apprentice sweeping the floor of his lair, and the episode closed with Henry sweeping the floor of Rumpel's shop after agreeing to become Rumpel's own 'apprentice' of the pawn shop. Henry plans to get close to his grandfather with the hopes of discovering the identity of the author of the 'Once Upon a Time' book for Regina. If you ask me, I think Rumpelstiltskin is the author of the book. That would explain why he knows so much about every member of the Storybrooke community, and has insight into the future of the town. But would Rumpel really reveal such precious information to Henry?

Though we didn't see a lot of the Snow Queen this week, we discovered that the Queen did not come to Storybrooke with the original curse. If she didn't cross over with the curse, how did she get to Storybrooke? Could her magic really be that strong that she could cross worlds by her own will? Not many have been known to do that, not even Rumpelstiltskin. I can't help feeling like Emma has something to do with her presence in Storybrooke. Emma's light magic is pretty powerful, so it's possible that the Snow Queen could want some of that power for herself.

On the subject of Anna and Elsa's parents, I have a bad feeling that Rumpel lied to Anna about their motives. According to Anna, the girls' parents never showed any signs of fear towards Elsa's powers, so why would they seek to remove them? But then again, why would Rumpelstiltskin make that up? I'm hoping we get to meet Anna and Elsa's parents this season, because it's possible that we already know who they are. After all, many residents of Storybrooke are related!

This episode was really tough on our good friend Captain Hook. Now that Rumpel has some blackmail over him, it's going to be easy for Rumpel to force Hook into participating in his evil schemes. But what's scarier than Rumpel's power is Hook's own inner darkness; Hook's ruthlessness is still a big part of him, and it doesn't seem to be going away. Will Hook's demons ultimately impact his relationship with Emma?

Will Henry unlock the mystery behind the infamous story book? Will Anna ever discover her parents' motives for leaving Arendalle? Will Rumpelstiltskin's selfish actions come back to haunt him? Find out on next week's ONCE UPON A TIME, Sundays at 8pm EST on ABC!

Below, check out a sneak peek at next week's episode titled 'Breaking Glass':