Once Upon a Time Review: The Black Fairy (Season 6 Episode 19)

There’s a lot to love about Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 19, but chief among all is the incomparable Robert Carlyle.

Despite the fact that the episode called “The Black Fairy” fittingly focuses on, well, the Black Fairy, this is Rumple’s hour through and through. Carlyle’s performances throughout establish yet again why he’s always been the strongest performer on the show, consistently elevating the material, and why Rumple has always been its most complex, engaging character.

Even when you hate (or straight-up don’t understand) his choices, you’re never bored with him.

The flashbacks reveal the deep dark secret that the Black Fairy told Gideon she couldn’t allow her son to find out on Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 18 — the secret of why she gave him up.

To be fair, consolidating the reveals and twists of “The Black Fairy” to a single secret doesn’t do Fiona’s messy story justice. There’s a whole lot going on with Rumple’s backstory that he had no clue about, and it all proves that everything comes full circle.

Rumple has eerily recreated a number of his mother’s mistakes in his own life — because he wasn’t even aware she’d made them. You know what they say about those who don’t know history being doomed to repeat it.

Essentially, the Black Fairy’s story is one of a mother’s love gone too far. There’s no doubt that Fiona loves Rumple from the moment she sets eyes on him — that much is made clear quickly.

Unfortunately, being told that her son is the Savior and that he’s destined to die at the hand of a “great evil” proves too much for her to handle, to the point where she becomes that great evil. She first turns herself into a fairy, then plots to kill some harmless baby, then later plots to Dark Curse all the babies away to a land without magic in order to keep her own son alive.

Talk about ironic!

I could see that particular twist coming from the moment Fiona and Tiger Lily (revealed in flashbacks to have once been Rumple’s fairy godmother) discuss the great evil coming for then-nameless baby Rumple. By the way, I get that Fiona is absorbed in her quest to find the baby with the crescent scar (who, as it turns out, doesn’t even exist), But you’d think she’d have taken just a second to name the child she loves so much, right?

When Blue and Tiger Lily intervene, in flashbacks, in an attempt to convince Fiona (at this point, the Black Fairy) to give up her powers, she opts instead to sever Rumple from his Savior destiny so that they are no longer destined to battle one another. The parallels to what Rumple hoped to do to unborn baby Gideon at the beginning of this season are clear.

Fiona’s refusal to give up her own powers also mirrors Rumple’s repeated inability to do the same back when Baelfire was a child. Basically, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree where Rumple and his evil mother are concerned.

All of this history is revealed to the characters via Rumple’s dreamscape, which he inadvertently enters with Emma in an attempt to speak with Gideon and find out the location of his heart. This set-up allows for some seriously stunning performances from Carlyle. Even the small moment where he finds Gideon and tears up telling his son he’ll never stop fighting for him — that really got me. So lovely and emotional.

To be honest, I actually find Emma’s presence in this storyline to be a waste of time.

All she really does is attempt to foist some psychoanalysis onto Rumple while they’re in the dreamscape, waxing philosophic about how, as orphans, they both went through the same thing. But one thing is immensely clear after this installment — Emma and Rumple do not handle their shared childhood trauma the same way. Not a bit.

I’d mentioned in my review of Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 18 that I was hoping they wouldn’t whitewash the Black Fairy, un-villainizing her and making her sympathetic. While she is made marginally more sympathetic, the ending of the hour makes clear that she’s in no way a good guy.

Rumple confronts his mother in an emotional scene, after it’s revealed to all that he was born a Savior and was destined to battle his mother. Unfortunately, nobody sees the part of the story where Fiona severs Rumple from his fate — she shows that to him separately.

As soon as we see that, it’s obvious that Rumple (no longer the Savior, thanks to mommy dearest) won’t be the one to fight and defeat his mother. Which is why it’s not surprising when we find out that Rumple lied and the Black Fairy wasn’t defeated after all.

I hate the idea that Rumple is backsliding so epically, so I’m choosing to believe he is playing the long-con on his mother until it’s proven otherwise.

Why on earth would Rumple agree to help Fiona kill Emma, after a few kind words about how much she’s always loved him? And why would he betray Gideon and Belle yet again, after making so much progress with them? What a heap of garbage.

And I’m still not entirely sure what the point of killing Emma is. Is it just to amass the Black Fairy even more power? Or is there something more in it for her? Why does she keep talking about defeating the Savior marking the beginning of a happy ending for their family? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

In a significantly more lighthearted portion of the hour, Regina teaches Zelena how to get by without magic by giving her some driving lessons. The intention is that Zelena can drive herself, baby Robin, and Henry out of Storybrooke ahead of the Final Battle, so that Henry doesn’t die.

This subplot is great for a few reasons. For one, I’m always a fan of Lana Parrilla and Rebecca Mader’s sister chemistry and love their interactions. For another, it’s just pure comedy — that moment where Zelena shows up in the nick of time, during Regina’s protracted battle with the Black Fairy, to disarm the villain by hitting her with the car? Priceless.

But most importantly, it marks a major milestone in the sisters’ relationship: Regina is willing to entrust Henry to Zelena. That’s major.

Stray thoughts:

• We haven’t dealt with Rumple’s dad since Pan was defeated back in Season 3, but I love the added layer of complexity his character (and his character’s relationship with Rumple) gets in this episode. Specifically, that Fiona was legitimately the love of his life, and that he blames Rumple for her being gone.
• Captain Swan wedding next week! Ahhhhh!
• The moment where Killian asks Henry to be his best man is really sweet.
• LOL @ Granny being peeved when the gang ransacks her diner. There are more important things going on than your lunch rush, Granny! Like big bad Black Fairies to defeat, post haste.
• The show kind of glosses over just how Fiona manages to turn herself into a fairy. That should be difficult, shouldn’t it? Based on Tiger Lily’s reaction, at least. Some explanation would’ve been interesting.

What did you think of this episode of Once Upon a Time? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8/7c on ABC.

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