Season 3, Episode 4:
Nasty Habits
Neal is reunited with his father in Neverland and the two of them join forces to rescue Henry from Peter Pan. Tinker Bell refuses to help Emma & Co. save Henry unless they have a plan to escape Neverland. According to Hook, Baelfire was the only one who managed to leave Neverland without Pan's permission so the gang goes to check out the cave he used as a shelter. They find a map, but one that's in a code only Neal knows.
Back in the fairytale land that was, a teenage Baelfire is lured away from Rumpelstiltskin by the music of the mysterious Pied Piper. The Piper turns out to be Pan himself, hoping to bring lost and neglected boys back with him to Neverland. Rumple rescues Baelfire and reveals that he knew Peter back when they were children.
Tropes
- The Atoner: Rumpelstiltskin tries to convince Neal that he is this, to no avail.
- Batman Gambit: Peter Pan is fond of these, using words alone to manipulate Rumpelstiltskin and Neal into doing what he wants them to.
- Be All My Sins Remembered: After Neal paralyses Rumpelstilstkin and leaves with Henry, the apparition of Belle tells Rumple that Neal should have trusted him. Rumple admits that he has hurt Neal so much that he doesn't deserve trust.
- Berserk Button: Peter Pan really doesn't like people trying to leave Neverland without his permission. It's one of the first times we've seen him truly angry.
- Call-Back: The squid ink which can be used to immobilize any magical creature.Neal: It can immobilize the most magical of creatures. At least for a little while.
- Chronic Villainy: Neal points out that even if Rumple is sincere about being willing to die for Henry while in Neverland, there is still no guarantee that he won't go back to his old ways if they do save Henry and get back to Storybrooke. Even Rumple isn't sure that he won't fall back into his old habit of self-preservation at any cost.
- Composite Character: Peter Pan is also the Pied Piper.
- Couch Gag: The title card features a Lost Boy dancing around the fire.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Bae is kidnapped by Peter Pan, who offers to let him go if he'll just say he wants to go back to his father. But Rumplestiltskin doesn't want to take the chance and removes him by force... only for Bae to reveal he would have gone back if given the option. He just destroyed the last vestige of his son's respect for him, All for Nothing.
- Emma and the others find the coconut candle with a star map that will lead them away from Neverland...but it's written in code that only Neal can read. And they believe he is dead. Emphasized not only by the cutaway to Neal with Henry and Pan, but by the earlier scene when Hook said they'd be lost like Neal if they can't find a way home, with a cut to Bae being lost to Rumple (in more ways than one) thanks to the Pied Piper/Pan. Much of the episode, in fact, revolves around mistaken beliefs and assumptions about Neal/Bae.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: The Pied Piper is seen playing a pan flute, just before it's revealed that he's also Peter Pan.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: David hopes that Snow would be able to move on if he dies.
- Kick the Dog: Pan and the Lost Boys, easily recapture Henry from Neal, and Pan mocks Neal that Rumple would've been able to protect his son against them, but who would protect Henry from Rumple?
- Mind-Control Music: Peter Pan has a pan pipe that plays music only lonely and neglected children can hear, and it makes them want to follow him. It doesn't work on Henry at first but when he starts to have doubts about being rescued, he starts to hear it.
- Poisoned Weapons: Neal uses poisonous squid ink on an arrow to immobilize Pan, who appears to stop it by performing his trademark Arrow Catch. Fortunately Neal poisoned the shaft of the arrow, rather than the tip.
- Psychotic Smirk: When Tinker Bell tells the group she couldn't find Greg's body, Regina's response is to give one of these.
- Reformed, but Rejected: Rumple becomes this to Neal, after Pan lets it slip about the prophecy. Neal is so scared for Henry's life that he traps his dad using the same magic squid ink. This is despite him having sworn, when he thought Neal was another vision and tried to kill him, that he would let nothing stop him from saving Henry—because even if that desire is real and sincere now, it could change in the future. See Chronic Villainy.
- Remember the New Guy?: Peter Pan has become this, now that it is revealed that Rumpelstiltskin knows him well just as Hook does. Apparently Pan was lurking around all along and never mentioned until he becomes relevant to the season's plot.
- This Means Warpaint: Rumpelstiltskin puts warpaint in the shape of claw marks on his face to symbolize him embracing his monstrous side.
- Visual Pun: Mysterious Piper's instrument of choice? Pan flute.
- Wham Episode: Pan and Rumple knew each other as kids. Pan knows about the Seer's prophecy, and thanks to him so does Neal.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Rumpelstiltskin is reunited with Baelfire who he presumed was dead, father and son are finally working together to get Henry back and actually succeed! Everything seems to be looking up... and then Bael learns of the prophecy that Henry will be Rumple's undoing and he knows his father's nature only too well.
