We begin this evening in a special place in the alternate realm where people go to talk to the dead. Rumple has an ofrenda built for Belle (in keeping with the Disney/Pixar Coco theme of the marigolds on the title opener). He is telling her of his life without her and of Gideon’s exploits when suddenly he’s interrupted by Dr. Facilier, who has been lurking in the shadows. Facilier claims that he can speak with the dead on the other side and knows that Rumple is seeking Belle’s counsel as to whether or not Alice is the Guardian.

Rumple is understandably irked to have an eavesdropper and immediately attacks Facilier. The good doctor let him know that he has spoken with Belle and she wants him to test Alice. She also urges Rumple to be quick about it because she knows that without her around as his moral compass the darkness is likely to take over again.

Rumple sees a crocodile patch growing on his hand and he releases Facilier. As he storms out of the room, Facilier cautions him to be quick about finding his Guardian – because if he isn’t, Facilier will be there to sweep that dagger out of his hands.

Next we go to the police station at Hyperion Heights where Weaver and Rogers are preparing to interrogate Nick/Hansel the candy killer over his recent murders. Upon entering the room, it is clear that Nick is now dead, and Facilier left behind a piece of twined straw from his voodoo doll as a clue for Weaver. Weaver orders in immediate lockdown of the building and rushes to the evidence room in the basement where he finds the dagger gone. Why the hell he would keep the dagger in the most obvious place in Hyperion Heights, I do not know.

Across town, Tilly is attempting in vain to sketch the troll under the bridge when Margot arrives and offers to sweep her away to get her out of her own head for a while. Tilly accepts, tentatively asking if this is a date. Margot assures her that it is, and oh my God these two are just so adorable together! I swear to you I ship them as hard as I ever shipped Captain Swan. They are the saving grace of this season and thank God for them.

Over at Roni’s bar, Jacinda is sipping coffee while Henry eats what looks like half a cake. She’s berating herself for not having seen through Nick to know he was a psychotic killer on the inside. She urges Henry to share with her what Nick told her that night when he was held captive but Henry isn’t ready to divulge everything yet.

Back at the station, Weaver is going after the man who killed their suspect. Rogers understandably bristles at being left behind to do all the mundane police work while Weaver does his own thing. They clash about it and Rogers remarks that he’s never seen Weaver the way he is right now: scared.

Back in time again to the alt-realm. Rumple has sought out Alice as the glittering crocodile skin on his hand starts to grow. We watch with Rumple as Robin arrives to deliver a letter from Alice’s beloved Papa Hook. She also made a friendship bracelet for Alice and ohhhhh how sweet is that? Alice doesn’t have a bracelet of her own to trade so she gives Robin the white rabbit’s pocket watch from her adventure in Wonderland. They’re so cute and so flirty – I love it.

Just as Rumple is ready to make his move, alt-Hook (Nook?) steps out with his cutlass drawn. He refuses to let Rumple saddle Alice with any sort of test that might leave her being the owner of the Dark One dagger. Rumple tries to reason with him and asks that Alice be allowed to make the decision for herself.

Hook will have none of it – Alice is happy now that she’s found Robin and if Rumple is unable to heal his poisoned heart then he just wants him far, far away from his little girl.

Back at the police station Hyperion Heights, Rogers has pulled security footage from the bank across the street that shows the front of the station house at the time of Nick’s death, and it also shows both Dr. Facilier and Drew. Henry walks in to ask if he can speak with Nick. Rogers explains that Nick has died and he’s heading out to get some more information on what may have killed him. Henry begs to go along, hoping to find the paternity test that Nick showed him.

In the basement of Roni’s bar, Regina is cooking up Henry’s cure and she’s very nearly there. In strolls Rumple, who’s more than a little miffed to see her using magic. She lets him know that Facilier gave her the magic to help cure Henry and Rumple tells her that Facilier also kept some back for himself and used it to find his Dark One dagger after killing Nick. Regina refuses to believe this of the guy that she just suddenly hooked up with again after all these years and knows has been a terrible person.

She tells Rumple to stay out of it and to let her talk to Facilier – she will get it all straightened out. Rumple doesn’t look so sure. And I referred to them here by their actual names in the show because it bugs the hell out of me that Regina is still calling Rumple “Weaver” and Weaver occasionally refers to her as “Roni” and people were calling Zelena “Kelly.” If you’re woke you’re woke – people should be using your real name. This irks me unreasonably, but so did David calling Snow “Mary Margaret” after season one.

Margot and Tilly’s date is going really well. They’re sharing candy apples and living it up on the streets of Hyperion Heights. Margot begs Tilly to show her a little bit of her world now so Tilly leads her into a wonderful little bookstore/coffee shop and to her favorite reading nook in the corner where, she can “visit the entire world without having to take a step.” Robin shows off all the bracelets she’s collected around the world as Tilly oohs and aahs, wishing she could have those kind of adventures.

Back in the alt-realm, Rumple approaches Alice. Despite their previous friendship, Alice is reluctant to reach out to him at first due to a stern warning from her father about the Dark One. He promises her that he has a way to fix her father’s heart, but it’s in the possession of a dark and powerful magician. It’s going to be dangerous, so he leaves it up to her to decide if she ever wants to be with her father again. Of course, Alice says yes.

Alice goes to Facilier’s hut in the middle of the woods. Rumple steps out of the shadows to let her know that if she takes Facilier’s heart and crushes it, it will cure her father of his poisoned heart.

Alice snatches the heart out of Facilier’s chest and holds it, but is unable to go through with the killer blow. She flees the house and Rumple follows up to let her know that this was a test – and she passed with flying colors. She is the Guardian.

Ahead in H-town, Regina rushes over to confront Facilier about the dagger. After a little bit of hemming and hawing he finally tells her that he does not have it – but it took her three tries to get that answer out of him so none of us are sure if she should believe it. She does (of course). As she walks out, Facilier turns and sees Rumple in the doorway.

Rumple pulls a gun on Facilier, and demands to know where the dagger is. Facilier reasserts his innocence and points out that murdering him in cold blood is going to keep Rumple even further away from his reunion with his beloved Belle. Then with a wave of his hand he poofs Rumple back out to his car – and Rumple is clearly disconcerted by being taken unawares. He speeds off, tires squealing.

Rogers and Henry, meanwhile, open the sealed police tape on Nick’s apartment door and begin to look for clues. Henry finds the paper from the hospital identifying him as Lucy’s father, as Drew suddenly emerges from the back room.

Rogers gives chase and body-slams him against the wall, demanding to know why he’s in Nick’s apartment and why he saw him on footage from the security camera outside the crime scene. Drew immediately starts singing like a bird, giving up Facilier / Samdi as being the real killer.

Over at the coffee house, Margot and Tilly are sharing hot cocoa when Margot produces a rainbow colored bracelet much like the one she gave her in the alt-realm. This starts an immediate buzzing Tilly’s head. Margot does her best to help, but Tilly – who’s sure that she looks like a crazy person – runs off.

Weaver, meanwhile, has broken into Roni’s basement and into the locked cabinet where she keeps the bit of magic that Facilier gave to her. Using magic on a map of Hyperion Heights, he locates his dagger.

Back in the alt-realm in the room with the ofrenda, Alice is ready to take on her role of Guardian and rid Rumple of the dagger forever. He’s not entirely sure how that’s going to happen but she seems to know, pulling the dagger to her and drawing all the darkness out of him. His name disappears from the dagger, which begins to morph into a ball of energy.

Just as Alice is about to take it all in, Rumple reaches in and pulls the dagger out of her grasp, returning his name to it. He couldn’t bear to see Alice stuck in a life of immortality. It would have been just another tower to imprison her. He wants her to live and laugh and love and grow old with someone at her side and he vows and he will find a way to rid himself of the dagger without sacrificing another person. Alice tells him that she knows who he is inside and she swears she will find a way to help him with his cause.

Several months later we notice Rumple observing Alice with Robin from afar and when he turns to g,o he runs into Hook, who has heard what Rumple did to save his daughter from a lifetime of lonely immortality. He vows to Rumpelstiltskin if there’s ever anything he can do to help him he will do it because he owes him a great debt. then he offers his hand in friendship and a startled Rumpelstiltskin takes the hand.

Ahead in Hyperion Heights, Rumple has his map in-hand and is looking for his beloved dagger. He runs into Tilly at the troll statue and she is visibly upset about hearing this constant voice in her head. Rumple finally realizes what she may be listening to and searches her backpack, finding the dagger. Tilly has no idea how it got there. Rumple is upset at the knowledge that Tilly/Alice is the one and only Guardian.

Over at the police station Rumple carefully replaces his dagger in the evidence room.

Because you know it disappeared from there before, so that’s a good place to put it back, I guess. In storms Regina, furious that Rumple took the last of her magic – the only magic that could have saved Henry. Rumple makes no excuses. He believes he did what he had to do. This is the final straw for Regina and she’s severs all ties with Rumple.

Upstairs, Rogers is carefully stroking his beard as he looks over Nick’s evidence file. Henry comes in to thank him for letting him into Nick’s apartment (where he removed evidence from a sealed crime scene). Rogers shows Henry the autopsy results: Nick’s heart was stabbed from the inside – a phenomenon that clearly cannot have taken place. Our stalwart detective is clearly aware that things are not as they appear to be in Hyperion Heights.

Tilly finds Margot at the bar and she brings a peace offering. I paused the playback on this 4 times and still can’t figure out what the hell it is she’s got in her hand. It looks like it’s perhaps flower arranging foam with candy stuck in it. She tells Margot that sometimes she has good days and sometimes she has not-so-good days and she doesn’t want Margot to have to see her on the not-so-good ones. Margot reassures her that she wants to be with Tilly on all of her days and then she puts the bracelet back on Tilly’s wrist. Awwwwwwww.

And we end tonight at Jacinda’s place, where a very, very nervous and confused Henry finally shares with her the bombshell that Nick dropped in his life. He hands her the paperwork that proves he is Lucy’s biological father and Jacinda’s mind is blown as she realizes all this time Lucy has been right.

I’m giving this one 4 dark daggers out of 5.

I’m glad to see we’re finally moving forward and people are getting answers to some of the nagging unanswered questions that have been lingering since the beginning of the season. We’re moving closer to a culmination, and while it’s kind of a sad thing, it’s a good thing. I’d like to see these loose ends tied up.

My thoughts:

Holy cow, can Rumple please take that dagger seriously? It reminds me of Season 4, when Belle was schlepping it around in her purse. Lets put it in a form-fitting case in the basement with everything else that came over from the other realm! I. Love. Robin. And. Alice. What the hell is Facilier up to? And why is Regina still trusting him? I miss Zelena. And Ivy. Especially Ivy. Looks like we’re finally getting the Gothel/Alice confrontation next week. I hope it doesn’t disappoint.

What did you think of the Guardian reveal? And are you even remotely interested in how Jacinda processes this new information?