'Once Upon a Time' Season 2, Episode 12: 'In the Name of the Brother' Recap

Police sirens light the night as Gold heals Belle’s gunshot wound with magic. This frightens her even more, her memory gone.

Emma gets out of the car to check the situation. Hook’s ribs are broken. Mr. Gold tries to do worse, but James and Emma pull him off of Hook. When the ambulance arrives, Emma sends them to the man in the car—the man from the outside.

“Looks like the world just came to Storybrooke.”

At the hospital, Dr. Whale is paged to the E.R., but he ignores the call, drinking liquor and thinking back on memories. He remembers holidays with his family—his father giving him and his brother gifts. His brother gets a watch passed on from their dead mother. His father purchases Victor a commission, but he and his brother argue for the right to stay home and continue working on his experiments.

Emma orders a nurse to find a room and hide Hook. Dr. Whale comes in to comfort the distraught Gold as Belle is taken away.

Back to him and his brother. His brother tries to give Viktor the watch he was given, but he refuses it. Rumplestiltskin, as the Dark One, peers out at the exchange from behind a bush.

Belle is unconscious as Gold stands over her. He kisses her on the lips, and she wakes with a smile. However a moment later she is screaming. Nurses rush in to comfort her and Gold rushes out yelling apologies.

Hook isn’t in good shape either. Emma asks him where Cora is as he wakes, chained to the bed. He tells her he doesn’t know where Cora is, and flirts with Emma. Emma scolds him for hurting Belle.

“I hurt his heart,” Hook corrects. “Belle’s just where he keeps it.”

Outside, Snow White, James, Ruby and Leroy try to break into the strangers’ phone. Emma comes out and cracks the code—from his pictures, he seems a normal man named Greg. Everyone begins to panic, especially because Regina is missing and no one knows where Cora is.

Dr. Whale comes out to tell them that the stranger is bleeding into his chest, and probably won’t survive. He appeals to Gold to heal the man, but Gold refuses, especially because he saw Gold throwing magic. Gold says they’ll be better off if he does die.

They go to a private room to discuss what to do with the man. Do they let him die? James tells Dr. Whale to prep for surgery, and they can worry about Storybrooke later.

“Anyone else notice he’s drunk off his ass?” Snow White points out.

Greg’s phone rings. Someone is looking for him.

Flashback to Victor Frankenstein, packing up his lab. Rumplestiltskin has come to see him. He is interested in how he does what he does. His land has witchcraft and magic, but it can’t restore life. He offers to pay for information on how Frankenstein brings back the dead. They strike a deal, and Frankenstein tells his assistant to bring back the equipment; they’re staying.

In his shop, Gold seems nervous. He peeks out a window, and when he turns around, there is a box at the center of his shop. He walks to it slowly.

Cora greets him from aside. She tells him it’s a peace offering, and she wants Regina as a trade. For his son.

Gold opens the box, and within in a smooth white globe, which will apparently find Bael.

“I want you to find the one person in this universe who might still love you. After all I’m doing the same thing,” Cora tells him. She calls him “Master.”

She asks for a truce, and they seal it “like they used to”—with a kiss.

James sees Dr. Whale staring at a watch in the lobby. He asks if he’s okay, and Whale reassures him he’s not drunk. He tells him to get on saving the man.

Flashback to Frankenstein digging up a body. His brother comes up, horrified to have found him doing this. He doesn’t approve of what he does—not like that. Soldiers shoot at them, and they run.

They leap into a carriage, and Frankenstein tries to explain. However, his brother faints—he has been shot.

Greg’s phone is ringing again, “Her.” They stand over it, arguing whether or not to answer. Snow wants to know how long the surgery will take—they see an aid, and ask if it’s nearly done. The aid says he is looking for the doctor. He never went into the surgery, no one can find him.

He calls him, and in a pile of laundry, the pager goes off.

They have Ruby sniff Whale’s coat to try and hunt him, which smells “boozy.” James tells them that Whale has been in a weird place since he brought back Regina’s fiance and lost his arm—news to Snow and Emma, who were in the other world at the time.

Back in Frankenstein’s lab, he is struggling to bring his brother back to life. He cuts him open, but his heart has been fried. His father comes in, and sees his dead son. Frankenstein tells him it was an accident.

“I did this for you too father. I wanted you to have two sons again.”

“And now I have none,” his father snaps back.

Cora is at Regina’s house, going through her things. She checks out Henry’s room. Henry, meanwhile, heads to the mausoleum. He pushes aside the coffin of his grandfather, and calls for his mother. Regina hears him from her secret room. She uses magic on the mirror and sees him. She pops the door and lets him in.

They hug. Henry tells her he knows that she was framed, he knew the whole time. She asks how he knew, and Henry turns into Cora.

Frankenstein has his brother preserved in liquid. Rumplestiltskin appears and asks if it worked. He tells him there are hearts, where he comes from, that can withstand anything. He wants him to go put on a show for someone named Regina, and then he will give him a heart that will survive.

Cora tells Regina she understands why she did what she did, and tells her she loves her. She apologizes for making her marry the king.

Regina, however, isn’t thrilled she was framed for killing Archie. Regina wants to take her to town to clear her name.

Whale stands on the pier. He throws the watch into the water as Ruby comes up behind him. He goes to jump, but she grabs him.

The heart that Rumplestiltskin has given Frankenstein has worked. He goes to tell his father the good news, and brings in his shaky brother. His father brings up a candle to see him more clearly, but the brother panics at the flame, murmuring.

“He is a monster! What a fool I was! That’s not my son!”

He begins to shove Frankenstein, but the brother/monster comes to his rescue, knocking down and punching his father over and over. Frankenstein stops him.

“You’ve killed our father,” Frankenstein says quietly.

On the pier, he explains to Ruby that every time he tries to save a life, someone else dies. Ruby reminds him that she ate her boyfriend, but this is their chance to start over.

Regina drives Cora to town. Cora shows her the handprint of Henry she took from Regina’s house. Cora tells her that the people of the town no longer like her, or trust her. Henry no longer sees her as his “mommy” like he did when he made her the handprint. What does she want?

“My son back.”

Cora offers to help her, and Regina gives in, letting her mother hold her.

Whale comes back to perform the surgery.

Flashback to his brother. Frankenstein tries to talk to him, but he goes to strangle him. After a moment, the monster recognizes his brother, and stops, rocking in the corner in shame. Frankenstein pulls out and cocks a fun. He aims it at his brother but can’t pull the trigger. His brother pushes the barrel against his head, but Frankenstein tells him he will still save him.

Dr. Whale comes out of surgery and tells everyone the man will live. Emma goes in to talk to him.

In Belle’s room, Gold shows her a chipped teacup, trying to jog her memory. She gets too worked up when he talks about magic, and she throws the cup across the room, smashing it.

The man, Greg, is awake when Emma goes in to see him. She asks him to state what happened, but he says he didn’t see anything—he was texting. He only remembers hitting Hook.

In his shop, Gold pricks himself on the contraption Cora has given him. He puts his blood on the sphere, and it turns into a globe, the blood making out the continents, showing him where his son is.

At home, they tell Henry what happened. He is confused, because Frankenstein isn’t in his storybook.

Gold comes in suddenly, ready to cash in the favor Emma owes him. He tells her to pack her bag, she’s going to help him find someone.

In the hospital, Greg calls “her” to tell her he was in an accident… and she won’t believe what he saw.