"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.[2]
Recap
In the decades before the first curse began, Ruth and Robert are the parents of newborn twins David and James, who require serious medical attention, or they will die. When Rumplestiltskin shows up and sees them, he offers them a deal that results in Rumplestiltskin taking James, as part of a deal he made earlier with King George in exchange for giving the parents the medicine for David.
Years later, King George wants to know the whereabouts of Prince James. The news has Robert, who has become an alcoholic, convinced that finding his birth son will solve their family's problems. He is then given a coin by David (the same one that The Evil Queen returned to David in Storybrooke) as a sign of good luck in finding James. The first stop Robert makes is to see Rumplestiltskin, who asks for a hair strand from him. Rumple then looks into a crystal ball and located James to a place called Pleasure Island. As Rumplestiltskin gives Robert a ticket to the Island to find James, he takes the hair strand from Robert. When Robert arrives at the amusement park-themed Pleasure Island, he is met by Pinocchio, who already has met James. Pinocchio leads Robert to his birth son and explained everything about his real life. As they attempt to escape, the barkers go after them and they are caught. Robert and James are then handed over to King George. Robert pleads with the King to let James return with him, but King George decides to issue an order to have Robert killed.
The moments of Robert's death are later revealed. It turns out that on the night that Robert was scheduled to be executed, a group of pirates raided the carriage and stole gold and other valuables, then killed the guards. Robert begged for mercy, saying that he wouldn't tell anyone, but he ended up being killed as well. Robert's murderer was Killian "Hook" Jones, who then ordered his men to take Robert's body and the carriage to the side of the road, so it would look like an accident.
The mystery surrounding Robert's murder is starting to have a strange effect on David to the point of seeing visions, as his father starts giving David cryptic messages to find out the truth. Meanwhile, Hook has scheduled a meeting with Archie on how to propose to Emma, but is worried about the reaction from David. When Hook later sees David, he noticed how obsessed David has become with finding out who murdered Robert, and now wants Hook to help him, albeit reluctantly from the pirate. Later on, David sneaks into Emma's place to look for items to help him. Hook agrees to play lookout when Emma approaches and he convinced her not to go in the place. David then finds a spell book and with Hook's help tries to follow the instructions, and it leads them to a clue which reveals that Robert may be on Pleasure Island.
David and Hook go to see August to ask about Pleasure Island, but a concerned August removed the pages that could include more information about Robert. By now, Hook is starting to worry about David seeking revenge, but David turns on Hook by handcuffing him to a bike rack and drives away. David returns to the asylum to confront the now-jailed Albert and challenges him to a fight to the death, only to have Hook intervene and place Albert back in jail. David is heartbroken to learn that Robert died because he tried to do the right thing, and after being convinced by Hook, David decides not to kill Albert, and afterwards apologized to Hook for making a terrible mistake. Hook in return asks David for Emma's hand in marriage and David gives Hook his blessing.
In between the events, the Wish Realm Robin is starting to adjust to life in Storybrooke and after a heated Zelena confronts Regina about the Wish Realm Robin not being able to have any rights to her daughter and leaves, Regina checks on Robin and finds him missing and a picture of Keith, who Robin thinks is the Sheriff of Nottingham from his realm. Regina stops Robin from killing Keith by making him disappear. Regina tells Robin about his real world counterpart having a son and daughter in this realm, and they agree to start fresh with a kiss. Later that night, Regina visits a now awake Snow, and tells her that bringing Robin back was not only a mistake, but she is now starting to question how he managed to survive coming to the portal. She even questions why her kiss with Robin felt like she was kissing paper. It turns out that the Wish Realm Robin had a real reason, and an ulterior motive, when he steals a box from Regina's vault that he sees as powerful.
Hook is later confronted by August, who tells him about the real reason he tore the pages out of the book and gives them to Hook, and when he sees the pages, he recognizes Robert and realizes that he was the person who had killed David's father. Hook then hides the pages from Emma and after she kisses him, looks at the engagement ring and finds himself worried about how to deal with this situation, knowing that the man he killed was Emma's grandfather.
Deleted Scenes
Originally, donkeys wearing hats were set to appear in the episode, a reference to The Adventures of Pinocchio and its Disney adaptation, where all boys sent to the Land of Toys (renamed Pleasure Island for the Disney film) are turned into donkeys. The donkeys were brought in for the episode, dressed up in headgear and everything, and filmed in an enclosure in front of a green-screen,[3] but this ended up being cut from the episode.
Cast[2]
Starring
Guest Starring |
Co-Starring
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Trivia
Title
- The title card features Pleasure Island's ferris wheel.[4]
- The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on November 1, 2016.[5]
- The episode's title is a phrase from Act 1, Scene 5 of 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."[6]
Production Notes
- ABANDONED IDEAS: A wanted poster for young Prince James was created for this episode,[7] but it wasn't used on-screen.
- ABANDONED IDEAS: In the episode script, when Hook is trying to keep Emma from entering the garden shed, Emma says, "Hook. You forgot about something."[8] In the actual episode, she says, "Hang on! You're forgetting something."
- REUSED FOOTAGE: Footage from the filming of the establishing shot of Storybrooke after the scene with Hook and David at the docks[9] is re-used for the scene where Gideon is inside the clock tower in "Mother's Little Helper".[10] 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.
- OBSERVATIONS: This episode reveals that Snow White is at least four years older than her husband, Prince Charming. In the episode flashbacks, David is six years old, and Rumplestiltskin uses a crystal ball to locate his twin brother, Prince James. This is the exact same crystal ball that Jefferson acquired for Rumplestiltskin in "The Doctor", an episode which takes place after the events of "The Stable Boy", where Snow was ten years old, according to "Shattered Sight" and "Sympathy for the De Vil."
Event Chronology
- The Enchanted Forest flashbacks take place after "The Doctor", where Rumplestiltskin acquired the crystal ball that he uses in this episode, and years before "White Out". (For more details, see the Enchanted Forest timeline)
- They also occur many years before "The Stranger".
- The Storybrooke events take place after "Tougher Than the Rest" and before "Ill-Boding Patterns". (For more details, see the Land Without Magic timeline)
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".
- Merida goes through a similar situation as David in "The Bear King"
Disney
- Pleasure Island is the name of the amusement park in Disney's Pinocchio.
- While he is on Pleasure Island, Prince James is wearing[11] a similar outfit to the Prince's from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- This episode contains a number of other references to Disney works. See the list of Disney references for more.
Lost
Fairytales and Folklore
- This episode is a rendition of The Prince and the Pauper story, with the pauper, the prince, the king, and the pauper's mother and father, and The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, with Prince Hamlet, King Hamlet/Ghost, Claudius, Francisco and Queen Gertrude.
- It is also a rendition of The Adventures of Pinocchio story with Pinocchio and Toyland/the circus being introduced.
- This episode features the ugly duckling from the titular fairytale, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, Robin Hood from the ballads, Rumplestiltskin from the "Rumplestiltskin" fairytale, and the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story.
- STORYBOOK CONTENT: When Robin looks through Henry's storybook, an excerpt from the short story "Rinconete and Cortadillo" Miguel de Cervantes (the author of Don Quixote), from the 1612 novella collection Novelas ejemplares ("Exemplary Novels"), can be seen. The exact same text appears on two different pages.[13] The English translation is taken from The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes,[14] an English edition published by George Bell and Sons in 1881. The storybook excerpt, which is blurred and very difficult to read, reads (text set in fuchsia is off-screen):[13]
respect to this of yours; we are now in the first country
of the world, and without doubt the customs of the place
must be in the highest degree judicious. Wherefore your
worship may be pleased to conduct us to the place where
this gentleman of whom you have spoken is to be found.
I cannot but suppose, from what you say, that he is
much honoured, of great power and influence, of very
generous nature, and, above all, highly accomplished in
the profession."
"Truly, Sir," rejoined Rincon, "all this is Hebrew to us;
we know no more about it than we do of flying."
"Let us be jogging, then," replied the new-comer, "and
on the way I will explain to you these and other things,
which it is requisite you should know as pat as bread to
mouth;" and, accordingly, he explained to them a whole
vocabulary of that thieves' Latin which they call Germ-
anesco, or Gerigonza, and which their guide used in
the course of his lecture,--by no means a short one, for
the distance they had to traverse was of considerable
length.
- An excerpt from the fairytale of "The Golden Bird" can be seen next to the illustration of Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham.[15]
- The same excerpt appears in dozens of episodes; read the article for Henry's storybook for a transcript.
- 🍎 APPLES: A pair of red apples is sitting on Regina's coffee table,[16] a reference to the poisoned apple from the "Snow White" fairytale.
- HIDDEN DETAILS: On Pleasure Island, statues of a griffin and a winged lion can be seen among the gargoyles that children throw bottles at.[17] 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.
Popular Culture
- BOOKS AS SET DRESSING: The School of Donne by A. Alvarez and a book about Queen Victoria are sitting in Regina's bookshelf.[18]
Props Notes
- "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")[20]
- "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[21] is pinned to the bottom of the board
- HIDDEN DETAILS: One of the tavern signs that are pictured on the board is the sign on the tavern that Queen Regina and Tinker Bell dined at in the Season Three episode "Quite a Common Fairy",[22] and where Snow White rallied the villagers many years later in the Season Three episode "Lost Girl".[23]
- HIDDEN DETAILS: Also pictured is the sign that was seen outside the tavern where Queen Regina found her soulmate in "Quite a Common Fairy",[24] and the tavern Robin Hood brought her to in Isaac's storybook in the Season Four episode "Operation Mongoose Part 1".[25] 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"[26] and on the Wish Realm tavern where Robin of Locksley is drinking in "Tougher Than the Rest"[27] and "Page 23".[28]
- REUSED PROPS: On Pleasure Island, a statues of a griffin can be seen among the gargoyles that children throw bottles at.[17] 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".[29] It also appears, painted in a different color, in Gothel's garden in the Season Seven episode "Eloise Gardener".[30]
- A stuffed tiger can be seen sitting next to the gargoyles.[31] The same tiger can be seen in Emma's nursery room in the Season One episode "Pilot"[32] and the Season Three episodes "Going Home"[33] and "The Tower".[34] The Underworld version of the tiger can be seen in the Underbrooke Swan house in the Season Five episodes "Devil's Due"[35] and "The Brothers Jones".[36]
- REUSED PROPS: The dagger David is using to threaten Albert Spencer[37] is the same dagger his original counterpart is wielding in the Season Three episode "The Tower".[38] The weapon is also used by Belle in the Season Two episode "The Outsider"[39][40] and by Alice in several episodes of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.[41][42]
- REUSED PROPS: The dagger Albert Spencer is using against David[43] is the same dagger Lizard is wielding in the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland episodes "The Serpent"[44] and "Nothing to Fear".[45]
Set Dressing
- ARTWORKS: Two illustrations by the eighteenth century German botanist Johann Wilhelm Weinmann are hanging on the wall in Regina's dining room.[46] The first one is Apocynum seu Fritillaria crassa monstrosa and is from the first volume of Weinmann's florilegium Phytanthoza iconographia (link to page), published in eight volumes between 1737 and 1745. Fritillaria crassa is an old name for the plant Orbea variegata,[47] a type of carrion flower. The other one is an illustration of a group of cocklebur plants, from volume 4 of Phytanthoza iconographia (link to page).
- IT KEEPS MOVING: Apocynum seu Fritillaria crassa monstrosa can also be seen in Regina's hallway in the Season One premiere "Pilot"[48] and in Regina's kitchen in the Season One episode "An Apple Red as Blood".[49]
- IT KEEPS MOVING: The illustration of the cocklebur plants could also be seen next to Regina's bedroom window when she woke up in Storybrooke for the first time in the Season Two episode "Welcome to Storybrooke",[50] but it could only be seen from far away and not very clearly.
- ARTWORKS: In Regina's living room, there is an illustration called "Ghiandaia nucifraga, volgarm: Nocciolaia. = Pica nucifraga; Caryocatactes Willug",[16] from the second volume of Storia Naturale degli Uccelli Trattata con Metodo e Adornata di Figure Intagliate in Rame e Miniate al Naturale. Ornithologia methodice digesta atque iconibus aeneis ad vivum illuminatis ornate (Natural History of the Birds Treated Systematically and Adorned with Copperplate Engraving Illustrations, in Miniature and Life-Size) (link to page), a work by the eighteenth-century Italian physician and ornithologist Saverio Manetti. It was published in five volumes between 1767 and 1776 and was illustrated by Violante Vanni and Lorenzo Lorenzi. Nucifraga caryocatactes is the scientific name of the spotted nutcracker.
- IT KEEPS MOVING: The same picture appeared in Regina's bedroom when she woke up in Storybrooke for the first time in the Season Two episode "Welcome to Storybrooke".[51]
- BRAND INFO: A Royal Albert Val D'Or coffee pot[52] and creamer[53] are sitting on Regina's coffee table during her conversation with Robin of Locksley.[16] The teacups and saucers[54] are from the same series.[55]
- Rumplestiltskin has the same teacups, saucers and creamer in his castle, but with added blue paint.[56] ("Skin Deep," "Heroes and Villains," "The Savior")
Costume Notes
- 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.[57]
- BRAND INFO: Regina is wearing[58] a Ted Baker Tarala dress in Rhubarb[59] (no longer available).
- A black version of the dress was worn by the character Camille Saroyan on the Bones episode "The Hope in the Horror".[60]
- BRAND INFO: Emma is wearing[61] a Zara Faux Fur Check Coat[62] (no longer available). She wears the same coat in "Page 23",[63] "A Wondrous Place"[64] and "Mother's Little Helper".[65]
- BRAND INFO: While at the Mills house, Mary Margaret is wearing[66] a Theory Damaris Summer Silk Blouse in Pearl Pink[67] At the end of the episode, she is wearing[68] a Theory Livilla Top in Pearl Pink.[69] (Both are longer available.)
- BRAND INFO: Hook is wearing[70] a Scotch and Soda Long Sleeve Circle Print Shirt[71] (no longer available).
- SECONDHAND CLOTHING: The shirt was also worn by the Seattle persona of Hook's Wish Realm counterpart in the Season Seven episodes "Chosen"[72] and "The Guardian".[73]
Filming Locations
- The scenes at the Pleasure Island amusement park were filmed on a green-screen set.[74] Parts of the set was real, while the rest was added digitally in post-production.
Goofs
- The expiration date on Emma's license plate says 2009,[75] even though it said December 2011 in "Pilot"[76] (which takes place in 2011), and 2014 in "Lily".[77]
- By the end of the episode, while under the sleeping curse, David has been seen taking deep breaths, even though it is said that one cannot show any sign of life under that curse. ("An Apple Red as Blood")
International Titles
International Titles | ||
---|---|---|
Language | Title | Translation |
French | "Le Vrai Meurtrier" | "The Real Murderer" |
German | "Mord ist das Geheimnis" | "Murder is the Mystery" |
Italian | "Un assassinio scellerato" | "Murder Most Foul" |
Portuguese | "Crime Sujo" | "Dirty Crime" |
Videos
References
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