Murder Most Foul

"Now let's find out who murdered my father."

- David to Hook

"Murder Most Foul" is the twelfth episode of Season Six of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Jerome Schwartz & Jane Espenson, and directed by Morgan Beggs. It is the one hundred and twenty-third episode of the series overall, and premiered on March 12, 2017.

Synopsis
Before Hook takes the next step in his relationship with Emma, he wants to make sure David sees him as more than just a pirate. So when David asks Hook to help him uncover the truth about his father’s death, Hook agrees. Meanwhile, Regina works to acclimate Robin to life in Storybrooke, but soon discovers he has a dark side that makes the task much more complicated than she anticipated.

Starring

 * Ginnifer Goodwin as Mary Margaret Blanchard
 * Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan
 * Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills
 * Josh Dallas as David Nolan
 * Emilie de Ravin (Credit only)
 * Colin O'Donoghue as Hook
 * Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills
 * Rebecca Mader as Zelena
 * Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin

Guest Starring

 * Eion Bailey as August Booth
 * David Cubitt as Robert
 * Alan Dale as King George/Albert Spencer
 * Sean Maguire as Robin of Locksley (Wish Realm)
 * Raphael Sbarge as Archie Hopper
 * Wil Traval as Keith

Co-Starring

 * Matt Ellis as Francisco
 * Luke Roessler as Young David/Young James
 * Tara Wilson as Ruth
 * Jakob Davies as Pinocchio (Voice)
 * Bart Anderson as Innkeeper
 * Brandyn Eddy as Beer Carny
 * King Lau as Ticket Carny

Trivia

 * -|Production Notes=

Title

 * The title card features Pleasure Island's ferris wheel.
 * The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on November 1, 2016.
 * The episode's title is a phrase from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, where the Ghost of Prince Hamlet's father comments about his own death, saying "Murder most foul as in the best it is: But this most foul, strange and unnatural."

Production Notes

 * In the episode script, when Hook is trying to keep Emma from entering the garden shed, Emma says, "Hook. You forgot about something." In the actual episode, she says, "Hang on! You're forgetting something."
 * Originally, donkeys wearing hats were set to appear in the episode, a reference to The Adventures of Pinocchio, in which all boys sent to Toyland are turned into donkeys. The donkeys were brought in for the episode, dressed up in headgear and everything, but this ended up being cut from the episode.
 * The establishing shot of Storybrooke after the scene with Hook and David at the docks is reused as stock footage for the scene where Gideon is inside the clock tower in "Mother's Little Helper". The shot from "Mother's Little Helper" does not have any people in it (the original shot shows two extras walking past the clock tower), indicating that the new shot was created from cut footage from before or after the extras walked down on the street.
 * Ironically, the original shot is also stock footage, since Any Given Sundae, which was replaced by The Three Bears Day Spa in "Street Rats", can be seen.


 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Enchanted Forest flashbacks take place after "The Doctor", where Rumplestiltskin aquired the crystal ball that he uses in this episode, and years before "White Out".
 * They also occur many years before "The Stranger".
 * The Storybrooke events take place after "Tougher Than the Rest" and before "Ill-Boding Patterns".

Episode Connections

 * This episode depicts how Ruth and Robert were forced to give up their son James, an event that was referred to in "The Shepherd".
 * Prince James' life with King George is further explored in "The Shepherd" and "Tiny".
 * Emma defeated Gideon in "Tougher Than the Rest".
 * Mary Margaret and David had the Sleeping Curse placed on them in "Heartless".
 * The Evil Queen gave David his father's coin in "A Bitter Draught".
 * Hook proposes to Emma in "Ill-Boding Patterns". They get married in "The Song in Your Heart".
 * Regina brought Robin back from the Wish Realm in "Tougher Than the Rest".
 * Robin refers to Regina's alarm clock as a "demon box", similar to the way Aurora referred to a CD player at the inn as a "devil's box" in "The Snow Queen".
 * Mary Margaret mentions how she once kissed David's twin brother, which happened in "Souls of the Departed".
 * This episode explores the events surrounding the death of David's father, an event first referred to in "The Shepherd", and further elaborated on in "White Out", "A Bitter Draught" and "The Other Shoe".
 * The garden shed where David finds Emma's spell book and potion ingredients, is the same shed where Emma kept the dreamcatchers in "Dreamcatcher", and where Hook hid the magic shears in "Dark Waters".
 * Rumplestiltskin says to himself, "Someday may we all be reunited with our sons", a reference to how he was separated from Baelfire in "The Return". Mr. Gold is reunited with his son in "Manhattan".
 * Pinocchio's fate is revealed in "The Stranger".
 * According to August, he ripped out a few pages from Henry's storybook. The book was in August's possession between "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" and "What Happened to Frederick".
 * David finds out who really killed his father in "A Wondrous Place".


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

 * Pleasure Island is the name of the amusement park in Disney's Pinocchio.
 * While he is on Pleasure Island, Prince James is wearing a similar outfit to the Prince's from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode is a rendition of "The Prince and the Pauper" story, with the Pauper, the Prince, and the King, and The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, with Prince Hamlet, King Hamlet/Ghost, Claudius, Francisco and Queen Gertude.
 * It is also a rendition of The Adventures of Pinocchio story with Pinocchio and Toyland/the Circus being introduced.
 * This episode features Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, Robin Hood from the ballad, Rumplestiltskin from the Rumplestiltskin fairytale, and the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story.
 * On Pleasure Island, statues of a griffin and a winged lion can be seen among the gargoyles that children throw bottles at. A griffin is a legendary creature which has the front half of an eagle and the hind half of a lion, while the winged lion is a mythological creature that resembles a lion with bird-like wings.

Lost

 * The time on Robin's alarm clock is 8:15, two of the Lost numbers.

Popular Culture

 * The School of Donne by A. Alvarez and a book about Queen Victoria are sitting in Regina's bookshelf.


 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * The bulletin board that David puts together, is full of notes, including:
 * "Ringsgate"
 * "First or last stop depending whether entering or leaving"
 * "Everett Gibson"
 * "The bea[two obscured characters]e made note of these escape attempts x2 times"
 * "The Tuffet"
 * "Jameson Irving"
 * "Hirco ceruus" (Latin for "goat stag")
 * "The Vale"
 * "No body [sic] saw him on his [obscured] through broad
 * "The Crooked Fox"
 * "The celebrations ended at dawn"
 * "Harriet Haywood"
 * "He was there all afternoon"
 * "Edith Thorne"
 * "Taver [sic] the bend"
 * "East Riding"
 * "High street"
 * The information card for David's good luck charm is pinned to the bottom of the board
 * One of the tavern signs that are pictured on the board, is the sign that was seen outside the tavern where Queen Regina found her soulmate in the Season Three episode "Quite a Common Fairy", and the tavern Robin Hood brought her to in Isaac's storybook in the Season Four episode "Operation Mongoose Part 1". The same sign was used on a village building when Snow White and her friends were "celebrating" the Evil Queen's birthday in the Season Five episode "Souls of the Departed" and on the Wish Realm tavern where Robin of Locksley is drinking in "Tougher Than the Rest" and "Page 23".
 * Excerpts from "Rinconete y Cortadillo", a short story by the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, can be seen next to two illustration of Robin Hood in Henry's storybook (the exact same text appears next to two different pictures).
 * An excerpt from the fairy tale of "The Golden Bird" can be seen next to the illustration of Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham.
 * On Pleasure Island, a statue of a griffin can be seen among the gargoyles that children throw bottles at. The same statue appeared on top of the Underworld grave that Hook, Emma and Mary Margaret were hiding behind in the in the Season Five episode "Her Handsome Hero". It also appears, painted in a different color, in the witch's garden in the Season Seven episode "Eloise Gardener".
 * A stuffed tiger can be seen sitting next to the gargoyles. The same tiger can be seen in Emma's nursery room in the Season One episode "Pilot" and the Season Three episodes "Going Home" and "The Tower". The Underworld version of the tiger can be seen in the Underbrooke Swan House in the Season Five episodes "Devil's Due" and "The Brothers Jones".

Set Dressing

 * Two illustrations by the eighteenth century German botanist Johann Wilhelm Weinmann are hanging on the wall in Regina's dining room. The first one is Apocynum seu Fritillaria crassa monstrosa and is from the first volume of Weinmann's florilegium Phytanthoza iconographia, published in eight volumes between 1737 and 1745. Fritillaria crassa is an old name for the plant Orbea variegata, a type of carrion flower. The other one is an illustration of a group of cocklebur plants, from volume 4 of Phytanthoza iconographia.
 * Apocynum seu Fritillaria crassa monstrosa can also be seen in Regina's hallway in the Season One premiere "Pilot" and in Regina's kitchen in the Season One episode "An Apple Red as Blood".

Costume Notes
Camille Saroyan]] on the Bones episode "The Hope in the Horror".
 * Emma's engagement ring was picked out by Colin O'Donoghue himself, because the show creators felt that nobody knows the character of Hook better than him.
 * Regina is wearing a Ted Baker Tarala dress in Rhubarb (no longer available).
 * A black version of the dress was worn by the character [[w:c:bones:Camille Saroyan|
 * Emma is wearing a Zara Check Coat. She wears the same coat in "Page 23", "A Wondrous Place" and "Mother's Little Helper".
 * While at the Mills House, Mary Margaret is wearing a Theory Damaris Silk Blouse in Pearl Pink. At the end of the episode, she is wearing a Theory Livilla Top in Pearl Pink.
 * The shirt Hook is wearing underneath his jacket and vest is a Scotch & Soda Long Sleeve Circle Print Shirt.


 * -|Goofs=

Goofs

 * The expiration date on Emma's license plate says 2009, even though it said December 2011 in "Pilot" (which takes place in 2011), and 2014 in "Lily".
 * By the end of the episode, while under the sleeping curse, David has been being seen taking deep breaths, even though it is said that one cannot show any sign of life under that curse.