History Recap / OnceUponATimeS6E13IllBodingPatterns

* CallBack: This whole episode serves as one to [[Recap/OnceUponATimeS5E17HerHandsomeHero Her Handsome Hero]], specifically to Rumple's belief that while Darkness cannot be turned into light, but Darkness ''can'' be used ''for'' light. Throughout the episode, both past and present, we see Rumple trying to use the darkness to do good, such as ending the Ogres' War in the past, or draining the Blue Fairy's magic and darkening his heart in the present so Gideon wouldn't have to.

* HeroicSacrifice: Of a sort not involving death -- Gold being the one to drain Blue and reforge the sword, so that only he will be corrupted further by darkness, not Gideon. Ironically, then, absorbing darkness/committing an evil act proves to Belle that Gold really can do the right thing and redeem himself... and so can their son.

** Regina appears in the woods and Wish!Robin thinks she's there because she knows he stole her potions, but she just went where the original Robin used to go to think.

** Wish!Robin also claims he just isn't fitting in in Storybrooke and needs more time to adjust, to throw Regina off the scent...but this turns out to later be his genuine motive in wanting to leave town, although the reason behind ''that'' (wanting to find new places to go, new people to rob) is not what he says or she thinks.

** Gideon hugs Rumple after being given the memory potion, as if in gratitude for having his horrible experiences about to be wiped away...only to use the embrace to take the dagger and, after revealing he's immune to the potion, using it to command Gold to not stop him from what he wants to do.

* BloodMagic: Inverted from the usual example--in this case it is the blood and magic of a ''good'' being (the Blue Fairy) that was needed to create a [[InfinityPlusOneSword weapon]] of [[LightIsGood pure light magic]]. Then played straight as the process of taking it to ''re''-forge the sword would kill Blue or at least render her comatose.

** In flashback, Rumple uses a potion to make Bae forget how he forced his father to kill Beowulf. In modern times, Rumple tries to use it to make Gideon forget his dark childhood but it doesn't work.

* DoWrongRight: Even if he's being made to by the dagger, Gold's choice to help Gideon recreate the sword is still doing a bad thing for the right reason--because him taking Blue's magic instead of Gideon means the latter won't be further darkened, because he totally agrees with Gideon's goal of destroying the Black Fairy (just not his methods), and because by doing so he's hoping to keep anyone else from being hurt and eventually saving both Emma and Gideon. He's rewarded with trust and a reconciliation with Belle.

** Beowulf, rather than facing Grendel (or dying against him, as Rumple and Bae first think), is ''posing'' as Grendel--and in trying to rid the land of Rumple's darkness becomes as much a villain as he was a hero before.
** Originally Rumple really did try to do good, and resist the power of the dagger, but was forced into using magic by Beowulf...and in the end it was ''Bae'' who made him kill Beowulf as punishment for what he tried to do to them and for killing the villagers, so that he was the one who set Rumple farther on his dark path.

* GreatOffscreenWar: Averted; apparently the budget this season is much higher than in Season Two, since the Ogre War is depicted with lots of extras with armor and weapons, flaming catapults and arrows, and much-more impressive effects for the ogres than the one Emma, Mulan, and Snow fought.

* HeroicSacrifice: Of a sort not involving death--Gold being the one to drain Blue and reforge the sword, so that only he will be corrupted further by darkness, not Gideon. Ironically, then, absorbing darkness/committing an evil act proves to Belle that Gold really can do the right thing and redeem himself...and so can their son.

** Rumple says it word for word to Bae--from his son's perspective, trying to justify his killing of Beowulf, but the audience knows Rumple actually meant giving Bae the memory potion to keep him innocent, so he wouldn't know he ordered him to kill him.

* ItsAllMyFault: Zelena apologizes to Regina for going behind her back and trying to escape Storybrooke with Wish!Robin, but Regina quickly takes the blame instead since she's the one who brought a man to town who didn't really want to be there, just because she couldn't let go of the man she loved and believed she could turn him into him. Regina then cops to being never able to escape what the Evil Queen--what ''she''--did.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Wish!Robin points out to Regina that he just can't keep living in a town where he's constantly reminded of a man who he isn't and can never be.

* LoopholeAbuse: Gold is forced to swear via the dagger that he will not try to stop Gideon. So when he shows up at the lake...it's to ''help'' him, by draining (but not killing) Blue for him, so that he won't be further corrupted.

** Zelena assumes Wish!Robin is there for their daughter but he wants her to break the spell around Storybrooke so he can leave.

** Gideon relates how the Black Fairy used one of these after discovering him reading ''Her Handsome Hero''--leaving his cell door open while she went to whip and torture another stolen child. His inability to overcome his fear so as to run out and intervene in his mind proved him a failure, a coward who wouldn't have what it took to be a hero. This is why he believes he needs the sword.
** Regina also believes this was what finding Robin in the Wish Dimension was, a test to see if she could overcome the loss and choose to move on without him...and she failed it.

** While not precisely a villain, Wish!Robin is certainly a murdering and thieving scoundrel who cares next to nothing for Regina, nothing at all for anyone in Storybrooke, and would do just about anything to escape it (and the reminders of the good man he thinks he can't be). He teams up with Zelena to do so.
** Then, after the plan to break through the protection spell fails, and the Evil Queen uses the lingering AntiMagic on him to change back to herself, she offers to team up with him to show him what Storybrooke can really do for him.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The Evil Queen is still in her cage, which Zelena intends to take with her out of town. She returns her to Regina, who intends to take her persona back. Instead, the Queen escapes and takes a bite out of Robin to absorb his anti-magic venom and transform into human.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: After hearing Hook confess to having done something awful in his past, being afraid to confess it to Emma because he thinks she'll hate him, but very much wanting to anyway, Archie gives him this speech--that this very fact proves he has changed, is the man Emma loves and wants to marry, and that only by telling her can he prove it to both of them. But in the end Killian chickens out thanks to her finding the engagement ring.

** Bae says this to Beowulf after not only finding out there was no Grendel, he was the one killing villagers, and he had lured Rumple there to kill him, but that Beowulf intended to expose them to the village so that no one would believe them and they'd be forced to move. It prompts him to order his papa to kill him...

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Or Your Queen is Not in Her Cage--when Zelena uncovers the cage holding Cobra!Evil Queen, it's empty because she escaped.

Gold attempts to help Gideon avoid the taint of dark magic by sharing the story of how he fell into darkness himself. Meanwhile, Emma learns that Hook is keeping a secret from her, while Zelena and Robin make a dangerous duo.

Gold tries to sway Gideon by sharing the story of how he fell into darkness himself.

* TheReveal: The magic sword of light magic which is the only thing known at this point that can hurt the Black Fairy (or Emma, or the Evil Queen but not Regina), turns out to be Beowulf's legendary sword, Hrunting. Fitting, considering some of the details of the original epic.

* DidYouActuallyBelieve: When Zelena and Robin fail to break through the town barrier, Regina asks "If I had the ingredients to break this, do you really think I'd still be in town?"

* KeepingSecretsSucks: What Killian discovers. Thanks to still not being able to confess to Emma, and the Evil Queen being back to her old self, he's about to find out it sucks even more when they're no longer kept.

** Then, after the plan to break through the protection spell fails, and the Evil Queen uses the lingering AntiMagic on him to change back to herself, she offers to team up with him to show him what Storybrooke can really do for him. [[UnholyMatrimony And maybe more]].