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"After successfully adding a new layer to Regina in previous episode &amp;#039;The Stable Boy&amp;#039;, this week&amp;#039;s Once Upon a Time instalment continues in the right direction with a further intriguing look at Rumpelstiltskin&amp;#039;s backstory and his son Baelfire (Dylan Schmid). Robert Carlyle has regularly shown that he is one of the best things about the ABC drama, and as the last Rumpelstiltskin-centric episode &amp;#039;Desperate Souls&amp;#039; proved, the more Carlyle the better.    &amp;#039;The Return&amp;#039; is a continuation of &amp;#039;Desperate Souls&amp;#039; - Rumpelstiltskin is still The Dark One and consumed by his power, going so far as to turn someone into a snail and squashing them when Baelfire suffers a scraped knee. He&amp;#039;s an intimidating presence, and carries the dagger that can kill him at all times. His begging son, wanting his old father back, makes Rumpelstiltskin shake on a deal: Rumpelstiltskin will give up his magic if Baelfire finds a way to get rid of it. What happens by the end can be easily foreseen given Gold&amp;#039;s penchant for always honouring his deals (and in Storybrooke, Gold even says he&amp;#039;s only ever broken one agreement), but it&amp;#039;s no less gutting. Baelfire obtains a magic bean (the last one, natch) that temporarily opens a portal into a land with no magic(!!). Rumpelstiltskin, unwilling to give up his magic, breaks his promise and fails to follow Baelfire into the portal but immediately regrets it when it closes. He&amp;#039;s lost his son. It&amp;#039;s a truly effective scene. But just as great was the reveal that the fairytale curse was actually planned by Rumpelstiltskin this far back in the chronology. It was the separation with his son that compelled him to find a way to what we know as Storybrooke. He has been plotting all this time to find enough power to unleash the curse in the hopes of being reunited with Baelfire. Like with Regina in &amp;#039;The Stable Boy&amp;#039;, this episode gives Rumpelstiltskin/Gold an extra dose of depth and satisfactorily explains how he came to be the person he is now. The fairytale events tie back into the events of Storybrooke neatly. August, who up until now has been an insignificant peripheral character, finally gets some meaty stuff to do - when confronted by Gold, he admits that he&amp;#039;s Baelfire. Gold touchingly begs for forgiveness. August, however, reveals his true colours when Gold digs up the dagger and August tries to command him. But in a land with no magic, the dagger is powerless.   Indeed, August is not Baelfire (his lying surely only adds fuel to the speculation that he&amp;#039;s Pinocchio) and it turns out he was desperate for magic to cure whatever terminal illness he has. Gold lets him go but not before encouraging him to keep trying to convince Emma that the fairytale stories are real. It&amp;#039;s too bad that the rest of the episode isn&amp;#039;t as interesting. The Mary Margaret/David situation doesn&amp;#039;t progress (and is getting tiresome when it&amp;#039;s obvious they&amp;#039;re going to get back together at some point), while Regina is back to her old cold and one-dimensional self when she gets Sidney (Giancarlo Esposito) to confess to Kathryn&amp;#039;s kidnapping. Emma then lays down the gauntlet, telling Regina to her face that she will get Henry back. After a middling run of what felt like rather inconsequential episodes, Once Upon a Time is picking up pace as it heads towards the season finale. The lack of progression on the Emma front is mitigated this week by a welcome abundance of Gold and some noteworthy character development. For this reason, &amp;#039;The Return&amp;#039; turned out to be an enjoyable hour. What did you think of the episode? Leave your comments below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/once-upon-a-time/review/a378132/once-upon-a-time-the-return-recap/>