Flashback time – to a long time ago in Arendelle to when
Ingrid buried the hat-box-thing (that steals magic, hereby called the Fantasia
Hat). She then goes to the Enchanted Forest to tell the Sorcerer’s Apprentice
(who doesn’t lie her because she embraced the dark side of the Force) that she
has his boss’s hat. He tries to threaten her with a sword that doesn’t really
impress her much and she presents what she wants – happiness, a third magical
sister to join herself and Elsa.
To the present and Storybrook where Emma is still
shooting off magical sparks in her car. Henry tracks her down (somehow) telling
her how running from people never fixes anything so she zaps him with magic
(accidentally. Honest :P) Henry tries to reassure her but Emma panics and tells
him he has to leave.
To be fair, if I were Emma I’d have trouble not zapping
my blood relatives as well.
Ingrid drops in to do her recruitment pitch but Emma
drives off.
The Charmings, Elsa and Killian gather together for angst
and whining, as they do and Henry joins them to explain how pear shaped
everything has become. Elsa decides to exposition which throws us into
flashback world where Ingrid told Elsa a somewhat edited version of events on
how their sisters will always hate them for being magic and special and
occasionally freezing people to death. Anna is in prison and totally evil.
Elsa goes to the prison, gets rid of the guards and makes
it clear that she doesn’t believe aunty Ingrid and is definitely team Anna. They
hatch a plan to put Ingrid in the urn. They go searching for the urn (“helped”
by Kristoff and Anna) and find the urn (and Hans’s frozen body).
They work their way through the castle, hiding from the
guards (for some reason) while Elsa angsts about her parents trying to take
away her magic while Anna tells her how her magic makes her special and she loves
her sister with magic.
Sadly for them, Ingrid outsmarts Anna (which, admittedly, is not exactly a difficult feat) and chains Anna up. They then discuss old legends including the creation of the magic mirror that makes whole kingdoms hate each other. She uses a piece of the hate mirror on Anna. Angry Anna goes to confront Elsa with the Urn but Elsa rightly realises Anna has been spelled. Ingrid tells her to freeze Anna – and Elsa refuses. Anna puts Elsa in the urn
Ingrid isn’t happy with this turn of events and plays to
the idea she’s being persecuted because Anna and Kristoff look at her like she’s
a monster (hah must be all the monstrousness). Ingrid freezes the whole castle –
Anna and Kristoff included. This may have killed them – or so Rumplestiltskin
thinks when he appears. He wants the hat Anna took from him and to make sure he
gets it, he vanishes the urn full of Elsa Ingrid has. Oh Rumplestiltskin, the
source of all the evil everywhere!
Rather than trade the hat the sorcerer’s apprentice
arrives to continue Elsa’s deal with the Sorcerer for the third sister, not yet
born (Emma), Elsa and herself. She gives the apprentice the hat in exchange for
a door to the real world and a scroll leading her to her “third sister.”
Back to the present and Emma hiding in Gold’s shop which
amuses Gold rather a lot because her random magic is setting all kinds of
artefacts to moving and glowing. She wants Gold’s help learning how to control
her magic, thinking he’s the only one she can’t hurt (that’s some excellent
common sense there Emma, applause!). Gold, who seems to be rapidly becoming
Team Evil again, shows her a spell to permanently remove her magic. They
arrange to meet at the old manor to perform the spell. When she leaves, Gold
promptly screws up the spell since it’s obvious he’s going to use the Fantasia
Hat.
Meanwhile Robin has spent the night in Regina’s crypt and
they’re all lovey-dovey though Regina won’t go with him to his camp (because camping?
Hell no!) because they still want to keep their relationship quiet. Regina
regrets not going to him when Tinker Bell said and it’s all very fluffy. She
also remembers harsh reality – both the fact Robin is married and that things
tend to end badly for her. She shows him the book, tells him her belief that
she can’t have a happy ending because of it and her task to track down the
author.
Regina hurries to the Charming residence when she learns
that Henry has been hurt. When David is a bit surly Regina lets him have it
with both barrels which is always wonderful to see. She’s also brought a locator
potion for them to find Emma (the Charmings waffle around all night. Regina
gets stuff done).
Regina goes to see Henry and heals him and Henry brings
the flip side of everyone angsting over having magic – he feels useless because
he doesn’t have magic. And Regina counters that everyone has their own gifts
and talents.
Emma calls Mary Margaret to tell her she’s found a way to
make it all better, getting rid of her magic forever. Even Mary Margaret
realises that’s probably not a good thing but Emma hangs up. Killian figures
out what’s up and tries to contact Emma privately – never ever trust Gold.
David and Mary Margaret discuss whether they should try
and talk Emma out of giving up her magic (with a side order of Mary Margaret
emphasising how Emma was born that way and whether she should accept it).
Regina leaves Henry and she and Mary Margaret almost have a serious discussion
about her Robin Hood dilemma when David arrives and she hears about Emma’s
magic stripping plan. Regina thinks this is a bad idea (in fact, to quote in
awesomeness “this could be the worst idea you’ve ever had – and you hired the
Wicked Witch as your nanny”. Regina, as ever, is awesome). Regina has an excellent
scene drawing on her own regret – trying to convince Henry he wasn’t special,
that he was “crazy” over his stories, encouraging him to be “normal” rather
than support him in his specialness.
They’re convinced and set off to find Emma – only to find
Elsa has already taken the locator potion. They set off using their own
tracking and Regina and Mary Margaret continue their discussion (Regina snarks
gloriously at Mary Margaret’s endless “hope!” refrain). Mary Margaret drops goodness
and hope everywhere (and nicely points out she’s also slept with a married man
and so isn’t joining in the judging) while Regina has some wonderful cutting
insight (if you do good for redemption, is it really good or self-serving?). Mary
Margaret of all people even dismisses the idea of good/evil as overly
simplistic.
Gold goes to see Ingrid and it’s clear she intends to use
her sister ribbons to somehow bond Emma to her – which won’t work so well if
Gold takes her magic. Ingrid is not amused and tries to freeze Gold which doesn’t
work out because he’s the Dark One and not impressed by the icy shenanigans. He’s
trapped her in a magic circle by taking the Urn’s magic. Gold assures her it’s
temporary but will give him chance to betray Ingrid – and Emma.
Killian runs to Gold’s shop, realises that Emma has been
there and calls her to warn her about Gold stealing powers with the Fantasia
hat, that it will suck Emma in as well and that Gold has been lying to Belle,
Killian even throws in his own lies - and gets her voicemail.
In her little prison, Ingrid finds she can use the evil
mirror’s magic to track Emma – and mess with her car. She forces Emma off the
road and then appears as an image to try and talk Emma out of meeting Gold.
Emma decides listening to the villain is a bad idea and continues on to see
Gold.
Time for a Knave break because Will is awesome. Robin
drops in to see him at Granny’s. Robin has stolen the fairy tale book and wants
Will’s help tracking down the author – Will points out magic only came to
Storybrooke when the clock tower started ticking again and Regina’s curse was
broken. That tower is over the library. So it’s off to the library for some
oblique Wonderland references and Robin have a page appear magically in his
backpack. He calls Regina to tell her that she has to drop everything to come
see it – because the writers need SOME way to get her magic out of the upcoming
confrontation.
At the manor where Gold is to meet Emma, Gold sets up the
hat in a room as Emma enters the building. He meets her and tells her she just
has to go in the magic room. She has doubts and he kind of skillfully talks her
out of them – saying it would definitely stop her hurting people and he would
never do it because he’s selfish. He even repudiates all the good things he’d
do because he always always chooses power and that Belle is probably wrong
about him. While Emma always does the right thing. He does look awfully
conflicted at least
Outside, Gold is confronted by Hook who challenges him.
Gold casually ties him up and points out he has Emma’s phone (because he’s Gold
and a Magnificent Bastard). Elsa has a better plan though, sneaking through
another door. She talks Emma down with her own experience which she’s just
realised – it’s not just the love of family that lets her control her powers,
but also self-acceptance; loving yourself and embracing your power. She takes
Emma’s hand and there’s a wash of nifty CGI and all the sparkles caused by Emma’s
out of control magic stop.
Outside again, Gold isn’t super happy but as well as a
hat full of power, to escape the dagger he also needs the heart of someone who
knew him from before he became the Dark One. Hello Killian, kinda sucks to be
you. Gold takes Killian’s heart but doesn’t kill him – because now he can turn
Killian into a puppet. He rushes in for a happy reunion with Emma though she
can kind of sense his concern with his super-intense gaze (that’s just the
eye-liner Emma). He collects the Fantasia Hat.
Emma, in control of her magic, puts on a light show for
the family. But Elsa has escaped her cage and casts a spell over the yellow
ribbons of sisterhood she has – 1 appearing around Emma’s wrist, the other
around Elsa’s. Elsa says she can feel it funnelling their magic away.
Ingrid gloats to Gold that with all three “sisters”
having embraced their powers, Ingrid now has the magic of all three, giving her
enough power to use the town-wide mirror hate spell. She also thinks she may be
able to match Gold. May. Gold warns her against that she leaves – she decides
against stopping him. With him gone – she unleashes the mirror spell.
Back to Regina and Robin (the theft of books is turned
into a cute couple thing). The page he found looks like a page from the book –
and it shows Robin and Regina kissing. It’s a replacement for the page on the
book – to replace the page where Regina walked away from Robin
when Tinkerbell showed him to her. Robin believes it’s a sign of hope –
that the book can be written several different ways.
While I am really not a fan of this ongoing Frozen fanfic, I am glad that they have kept one of the more important themes of the film – the trust and love of sisters. Last episode, someone tried to turn Ingrid’s sister against her but Helga wouldn’t hear of it – trusting her sister. This episode tries to turn Elsa against Anna but, again, Elsa won’t believe it. I’m glad to see it because too often we see women at odds in the genre and the whole “complete stranger tells me stuff, I now hate my family” is a ridiculously common trope that gets on my last nerve. Trusting loved ones is really something that shouldn’t be so rare in the genre.
I’m in two minds about the whole Robin/Regina storyline.
On the one hand it hasn’t gone nearly as badly as I expected and, unlike Gold,
Regina hasn’t sunk back into evil villainy. Regina has been pretty damn awesome
in nearly every scene she’s been in. But she hasn’t been in that many – she’s
very much sidelined in this story which, in part, is one of the frustrating
ways this show deals with Regina’s (and Gold’s) powers. They did the same thing
facing Peter Pan last season – tried to find reasons to stop Regina using her
magic to fix things because she is such a powerful protagonist
I like Regina’s storyline, but it’s a tacked on addition
to the main plot (Frozen obsession and they need to let it go stop). I
also quite like how Mary Margaret and Regina can have deep conversations while
still including passive aggressive little digs – because you know you would. And
I love how Regina’s cutting insight often cuts through the fluffy mush Mary
Margaret tends to throw out
I would like to know why all the guards of Arendelle are
following Ingrid and not Elsa or Anna. Maybe because they’re so used to random
supposed royalty being given command in this ridiculous place? Or maybe they’re
just desperate for a ruler who isn’t a shut in or an incompetent?
I’m part cringing over Gold’s storyline and part
cheering. He has always made a magnificent villain
