The Crocodile

The Crocodile is the fourth episode of Season Two of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It is the twenty-sixth episode of the series overall, and premiered on October 21, 2012.

Synopsis
Belle's disgust over Mr. Gold's continuing thirst for power comes to a head, and she threatens to leave him if he can't change his evil ways; the dwarves pick up their axes and try to find Fairy Dust in the Storybrooke mine; and a reunion with an old acquaintance could prove to be Belle's undoing. Meanwhile, back in the Fairytale Land that was, Rumplestiltskin attempts to save his wife, Milah, from being kidnapped by a band of cutthroat pirates.

Recap
Belle has a bad dream about Rumplestiltskin choking Leroy as the Dark One, when Leroy insists on Mr. Gold returning his axe.

After waking up, she goes outside and sees him in the basement spinning gold, and putting a thread of it into a beaker. Rump the baddie still exists inside of Gold.

In the Fairytale past, Rumplestiltskin finds his wife carousing in a pub. She despises him since he didn’t fight for the ogre wars. She tells him to go home because 'it's what he's good at.' However when she sees Baelfire she wordlessly goes home.

In Storybrooke, Belle confronts Mr. Gold about doing magic: “You don’t need power, you need courage, to let me in,” she says.

Milah has been kidnapped by the captain, Killian Jones, who tells Rumplestiltskin to fight him for her. Rumplestiltskin is too scared to fight him and so loses his wife, no matter how much he tried to reason with the pirate.

The Dwarves and David are seen digging underground in Storybooke to find fairydust in order to rescue Mary Margaret and Emma whilst Henry and Ruby looks on.

Back in the past, Rumplestiltskin is already the Dark One when he meets William Smee who says he trades in “hard to find objects,” like a magic bean that can transport one between worlds. Killian Jones enters.

In Storybrooke, Ruby commiserates with Belle about love. Granny may have a room in the diner, and as for work, Ruby suggest the library since Belle loves books. However, when Belle is peering through a boarded-up library window, she meets William Smee's Counterpart who kidnaps her.

The captain calls Rumplestiltskin a crocodile when he jostles him. But he’s the Dark One now, and scary. Jones says that Milah is dead. Rumplestiltskin asks for a duel the next morning at dawn. When they do fight, Rumplestiltskin literally holds one hand behind his back as he swashbuckles the dishy but mean Jones. Rumplestiltskin disarms him and says that having his wife stolen was like having his heart ripped from his chest, and begins to take Jones’ heart, when Milah, dressed like a pirate, yells “stop!”

In Storybrooke, William Smee was working for Belle’s dad, Moe French. He looks confused when she says she chose to be with the Dark One. He tells Smee “Do it.”

Nobody wants to help Mr. Gold, who sought help from David, who is now the Sheriff. Mr. Gold also seeks relationship advice and finds out that relationships should be about honesty. Not just literal truth but honesty of the heart.

Milah confesses that she fell in love. Rumplestiltskin is understandably furious. He’s about to kill Jones when Milah shows him Smee’s hat, and says she has the magic bean. She’ll give it to him for their lives.

Ruby smells Belle’s shirt to track Belle, once David convinces her to help. It takes them to Belle's father’s shop, “A Game of Thorns.” They realize that he must have sent Belle across the town line, to forget him, and must be using the mine tunnels since the other crossings are guarded.

On board the pirate ship, Rumplestiltskin confronts Milah about leaving Baelfire. She admits she was the coward. “I never loved you,” she says. Rumplestiltskin becomes angry and rips out her heart out before he crushes it, thus killing her. Jones says he’s still a coward, so Rumplestiltskin cuts off Jones’ hand. Jones’ grabs a hook and stabs him but it doesn’t work. Jones will become Captain Hook, and Rumplestiltskin was "the crocodile".

Mr. Gold magically pulls the mine cart back that is sending Ruby across town lines. She thanks him but rejects him, and her father.

The next day, Ruby teaches Belle to eat pancakes, and hands her a little box that has the key to the library. Gold is inside. He says she’s right about him. He is a coward. He explains about using magic to try to find Bae, and break the curse. He says goodbye and begins to walk away. She says, “Have you ever had a hamburger?” She says she hasn’t, and says maybe they could have one sometime.

In Fairytale Land, Rumplestiltskin was tricked—the hand he cut off didn’t have the bean. Jones offers Smee his life, in return for scrubbing the deck as they go to Neverland before Jones puts on the hook.

In Storybrooke, a tied-up Smee has no information on the whereabouts of Killian Jones for Mr. Gold.

We see Killian Jones on a shore with Cora. She’s got a bottle with the ashes of the wardrobe. She can go to Storybrooke to see her daughter. “And I can skin myself a crocodile,” says dishy mean Jones.

Appearances

 * David Nolan
 * Belle (Storybrooke)
 * Ruby
 * Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold
 * Henry Mills
 * Leroy


 * Cora
 * Killian Jones (Captain Hook)
 * Doc (Storybrooke)
 * Walter
 * Dopey (Storybrooke)
 * Happy (Storybrooke)


 * Bashful (Storybrooke)
 * Baelfire
 * Milah
 * Moe French
 * William Smee/William Smee (Storybrooke)

Trivia

 * The opening title card features Captain Hook's ship.
 * In the original tale, Captain Hook's hand was cut off and thrown to a crocodile, who enjoyed the taste of Hook so much that he continually sought him out. Hook was only able to be warned of the approaching creature by the sound of a ticking clock the crocodile had also swallowed. In this version, Hook's hand was cut off by Rumplestiltskin in order to get the magic bean he held. Rumplestiltskin also said, "Tick tock, dearie! Tick tock!" when Milah begged for him to leave Hook alone and to let her explain.
 * This is the first mention of Neverland.
 * This is the first episode in which Emma Swan, Mary Margaret Blanchard and Regina Mills do not make an appearance, and as of this episode no character has appeared in all episodes of the show.
 * The scene when Gold gives Belle the key to the Storybrooke Library is a reference to the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast where the Beast gives Belle his library. Moreover, Belle's love for books is confirmed in this episode, just like the Disney adaption of her character.
 * In the library scene, Mr Gold quotes Sir John Lubbock's famous utterance 'We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth' from his book The Pleasures of Life.
 * The smoke in this episode is red, contrary to purple which is the color of Magic.

The Crocodile