This week on ABC’s Once Upon a Time (Sunday at 8/7c), Captain Hook comes out of hiding — and in short order threatens to complicate arch enemy Rumplestiltskin’s future with no fewer than two loved ones.
Whereas the fantastical drama’s winter premiere focused largely on the Charmings, Regina and new arrival Cora’s own making of mayhem in Storybrooke, “This Sunday there’s a lot more Rumple, a lot more Belle and a lot more Hook,” series cocreator Adam Horowitz assures. “Now that we’re back in Storybrooke, our main players are all sort of readjusting to this new world — with the added complication of Hook and Cora and the craziness they’re bringing to town.”
As suggested by one preview clip, Hook’s agenda upon making his presence in this realm known in part involves Rumplestilstkin’s main squeeze from past and present, the beautiful Belle. Is she the Storybrooke power player’s Achilles heel? “Belle is certainly a major factor in this episode,” Horowitz says, noting that the flashbacks to the fairytale land that follow the book-loving princess, Mulan and the gals’ battle with a beast called the Yaoguai (rhymes with Mogwai). “We take a new look into her past, but she also figures prominently into the Rumple-and-Hook [feud].”
All told, Horowitz says the episode “The Outsider” — guest-starring Ethan Embry (Can’t Hardly Wait) as the titular “test subject” Mr. Gold uses to experiment with the town line’s memory-sapping qualities — revolves around the questions of “what does Hook want, what does his quest for vengeance against Rumple mean, and how will that affect Rumple’s quest to leave town” to find his son Bae. “Will he even be able to leave town?”
The answer to that last question, as glimpsed in promos/the image above, would seem to hinge on whether a bloodied Hook pulls the trigger on his adversary as he prepares to venture into the outside world. Right?
“Promos can be cut in funny ways…,” Horowitz notes with a grin. He then adds: “There’s some hopefully exciting stuff this week.”