Look Who’s Back – Once Upon a Time: ‘Heart of Gold’ Review

<p>You can take Robin Hood out of Sherwood&comma; but you sure can&&num;8217&semi;t take Sherwood out of Robin Hood&comma; much less in<em> the<&sol;em> hood&period; It can&&num;8217&semi;t be easy munching on mac &&num;8216&semi;n cheese crammed in a New York apartment with your wife and kid when you&&num;8217&semi;re used to a fairytale kingdom drowning in gold coins&period; Robin&&num;8217&semi;s a new guy in town and he learned the hard way about alarms and police&period; The heart wants what the heart wants and what Robin&&num;8217&semi;s sure wants is kinda off-limited for a married man&period; But what if he wasn&&num;8217&semi;t as married as he thought he was&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Spoilers &lpar;Sort of&rpar; Follow<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I can forgive Robin for hardly making the jump to the modern age without much grace to show for it when we&&num;8217&semi;re introduced to his new life of domestic bliss in<em> Heart of Gold<&sol;em>&period; Sure&comma; he doesn&&num;8217&semi;t know New York&comma; but wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t he do some research before busting into a locked store&quest; For an episode in which we saw Robin Hood origin story&comma; he sure doesn&&num;8217&semi;t pull off any heists out of<em> Ocean&&num;8217&semi;s 11&period; <&sol;em>Fingerprints are a thing in 2015&comma; man&excl; He does know when to pull his punches on pickpockets&comma; though – but not who to keep as his iPhone lock screen&comma; apparently&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;05004724&sol;OUAT-S4-Heart-of-Gold-Robin-Hood-and-Family-BagoGames&period;png"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-81271 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;05004724&sol;OUAT-S4-Heart-of-Gold-Robin-Hood-and-Family-BagoGames&period;png" alt&equals;"OUAT S4 'Heart of Gold' Robin Hood and Family BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Where they failed with showing Robin&&num;8217&semi;s burglary talents&comma; they highlighted his code of honor nicely&period; It turns out that old Mr&period; Gold&sol;Rumplestiltskin has a more literal broken heart of his own and needs a favor from Sherwood&&num;8217&semi;s finest to nab a potion&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not a stretch that he would assist Rumple&comma; just like it isn&&num;8217&semi;t a stretch that he would try to find a happy ending with Marian&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s unfortunate because the couple doesn&&num;8217&semi;t have any chemistry in any time period – which could be an intentional decision to make the relationship between Robin and Regina more appealing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Robin&&num;8217&semi;s was hardly the only heartbroken man in Manhattan this episode&period; His conversation with Gold&comma; despite being all over the good and evil map as it is&comma; was so admirably genuine for the show&&num;8217&semi;s standards&period; We don&&num;8217&semi;t often get glimpses of the true Rumplestiltskin and any time we do&comma; Robert Carlyle brings so much nuance and power to it&period; His performance never ceases to make you question everything you know about his characters and no less here&comma; especially with a certain green lady&period; Yes&comma; if you saw <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;oh-baby-once-upon-a-time-best-laid-plans-review&sol;">last episode<&sol;a>&&num;8216&semi;s post-credit promos&comma; you already know who I&&num;8217&semi;m talking about – a disservice to the season&&num;8217&semi;s biggest twist&comma; honestly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;OUAT-S4-Heart-of-Gold-Zelina-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-81238 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;OUAT-S4-Heart-of-Gold-Zelina-BagoGames-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"OUAT S4 'Heart of Gold' Zelina BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As for the big plot point of our episode&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m not terribly thrilled with the idea of retroactive continuities&comma; much less in a show so notorious for it as <em>Once Upon a Time<&sol;em>&period; But Rebecca Mader&&num;8217&semi;s so delightfully evil it&&num;8217&semi;s hard to pass up a chance to see her at her finest again amidst some kinky bedside blackmail with an unprecedentedly helpless Rumple&period; Though her rush of a flashback to Robin Hood&&num;8217&semi;s past &lpar;and Will Scarlet of all people&rpar; is just another black spot on the series&&num;8217&semi; notorious &&num;8220&semi;Guess who knows how&quest;&excl;&&num;8221&semi; track record&comma; she&&num;8217&semi;s exactly the character that deserved a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;phrasepicker&period;com&sol;second-chance&sol;">second chance<&sol;a> next to Pan&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s all too convenient that she never showed he true colors any earlier &lpar;did Marian ever really talk that much&quest;&rpar;&comma; but she&&num;8217&semi;s the match that the show needs in light of its <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;oh-baby-once-upon-a-time-best-laid-plans-review&sol;">dwindling supply of Queens of Darkness<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;OUAT-S4-Sympathy-for-the-Deville-BagoGAmes&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-81237 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;04&sol;OUAT-S4-Sympathy-for-the-Deville-BagoGAmes-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"OUAT S4 'Sympathy for the Deville' BagoGAmes" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s true that Zelena&&num;8217&semi;s return couldn&&num;8217&semi;t come at the worst possible time&comma; however&period; With Maleficent&&num;8217&semi;s kid and the Author both running around in the world&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s hard to backtrack over old ground&period; While I love any chance at throwing more femme fatales Rumple&&num;8217&semi;s way&comma; at this point&comma; the detour isn&&num;8217&semi;t building suspense – it&&num;8217&semi;s just threatening to kill the series&&num;8217&semi; momentum&period; When you open with a follow-up to a cliffhanger&comma; you generally expect something to&comma; you know&comma; happen&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Robin Hood&&num;8217&semi;s origins slowed the series way down to the kind of break it needed even at the cost of throwing so many of its arcs under the bus&period; Though I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t want <em>Once<&sol;em> to make a habit out of bringing up the past&comma; Zelena&&num;8217&semi;s wickedly good self is is worth it&period; If there&&num;8217&semi;s one more person we can add to our Author hunt&comma; than by all means&comma; go for it&comma; girl&period; But I just wanna know where our Wizard of Oz is&period; Remember him&comma; <em>Once<&sol;em>&quest; You almost married Emma off to his flying monkey ass&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Once Upon a Time<&sol;em> airs Sunday nights on ABC at 8&sol;7 Central&period; Catch all the latest episodes at <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;abc&period;go&period;com&sol;shows&sol;once-upon-a-time">ABC&period;com<&sol;a> and all the latest reviews here at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;yoshis-wooly-world-is-getting-amiibos-made-out-of-yarn&sol;">BagoGames<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;