Once Upon a Time 6x13 "Ill-Boding Patterns" Review

SPOILERS

"Ill-Boding Patterns" was an okay episode, visiting the characters we ignored last episode. I enjoyed the fact that some parts felt like Season 1 and 2, but there were other parts I just did not enjoy. Let's get into it.

My first problem was Beowulf. You had to bring in Beowulf and his story and I was waiting for a huge Grendel showdown and it was the stupidest thing ever. Beowulf was reduced to a dickish wannabe hero who was "Dark One-ist" against Rumple and wasn't even grateful for him getting rid of the ogres because he used dark magic. Did we know beforehand Rumple was the one who killed all the ogres? I didn't remember if that's the case, and so that was a surprise. I loved the small scene in the tavern when the people were praising him until Beowulf has to go and ruin it. And he killed villagers to set up the villagers turning against Rumple. AND THERE WAS NO GRENDEL!! My eleventh-grade self was very disappointed.

Rumple and Baelfire, many years ago

Bringing back Baelfire was such a surprise and there were parts of that I really liked. I just missed his presence on the screen  and seeing Rumple acting loving and gentle and "I'm doing it for you, Bae." I didn't like this actor as much as the first one, but he got the job done. And I know they only brought him back to bring up the parallels between Bae and Gideon, but I still liked it. Again, it's some early-season stuff. Surprisingly, Gideon and Gold did not annoy me as much as I thought they would. Gideon did have a rough childhood, and Gold sort of did the right thing (?) by doing the dark act to keep Gideon from doing it himself. (Also, how did the clock face get repaired that fast? Magic? Well, yeah, probably magic.)

A shot of rum later, and there's a mangled proposal over with. He has to tell her, he just HAS to. It's stressing me out, and Killian is probably feeling a lot worse. I wasn't expecting it to happen this fast, and it just felt awkward. Emma will definitely forgive him, so why keep drawing it out? Speaking of mangled, I still hate Zelena, but Robin is growing on me. It makes sense that he would want to leave, and there's a part of me that thinks he should. But then again, he probably wouldn't fit in well with the rest of the real world, big-time thief and all. Partnering up with the Evil Queen is going to be good. So good.

As much as I am hating Regina getting constantly pummeled by the show runners, I can't have been the only person who got happy chills when the Evil Queen theme played at the very end! I'm predicting next week somehow Regina will find s way to bring the Evil Queen back into her, once she's complete she might be happier. Let's hope. Poor woman's had enough sadness for a lifetime.

7/10