Time for a history lesson back to Agrabah, suffering
under the yoke of Jafar, with poor people turned into rats for stealing (honestly
this seems like a terrible way to deal with any problem, creating a plague of
rodents).
Jasmin sneaks into the city to find someone she is sure
can help her – Aladdin, the thief who can help her steal the Diamond in the
Rough. He’s not exactly eager to help the dedicated Princess, but when she
threatens to frame him for theft he gives in and joins her to the cave of
wonders
Along the way we get some interesting little hints at more depth. While Jasmin is furious that Aladdin is so selfish, Aladdin points out that their city wasn’t exactly a utopia before Jafar arrived and really Jasmin only cares because Jafar has breached her happy rich bubble as a princess. It’s a nice analysis and suggests more nuance than Once Upon a Time usually applies to their monarchy. Of course, we could point out that we’re getting a nuance of a less than perfect but not outright evil royalty with Jasmin and the Sultan but not the oh-so-pure-and-inept Snow White.
In the cave we learn the obvious truth – Aladdin is the
Diamond in the Rough and he even has magic, Saviour Magic. He can save Agrabah…
though Jafar shows him the cost of that, Jafar shows him that Saviours have a
short shelf life. He has a solution to that – the sheers of fate. They will cut
Aladdin from his destiny as a Saviour – no longer a hero but no longer doomed
to die.
Of course he doesn’t take it and swoops in to rescue
Jasmin. Though Jafar leaves him with the sheers for the future. He also is
still out there doing mischief. Despite chemistry Jasmin and Aladdin don’t
become a couple because they’re focused on duty- or Jasmin is. She’s taken
Aladdin’s words to heart and won’t run off with him when there are still flaws
in their kingdom to address.
In the present Emma finds Jasmin, following birds and dead
oracles. She’s sure that Jasmin isn’t the killer though because of that rarely
remembered lie detecting power. Instead it gives Jasmin chance to talk about
Aladdin the Saviour which offers Emma hope: because Aladdin is apparently
alive. Aladdin alive means all Saviours don’t die. It means maybe Emma’s
visions won’t come true, maybe Emma can live.
Except the Evil Queen is out there causing all kinds of
chaos. She kidnaps Archie and pressgangs him to be a babysitter for little
Robin while assuming Archie’s identity and spilling Emma’s secrets to her
family.
EQ then returns to her wooing of Zelena – promising again
the family she wanted. A sister that accepts her as Wicked. A sister who will
let her be who she is. And she offers a future for her daughter Robin, a
daughter who will accept her Wicked mother. A daughter who may become Wicked
herself: unlike Regina who EQ thinks failed to be accepted by Henry because she
tried to be something she wasn’t.
Hmmm, y’know this could be a glorious storyline about
self-acceptance and being yourself except, y’know, evil. But they do seem to be
drawing a distinction between “evil” and “wicked”.
Back to the Charming family and we have the effect of Emma’s
revelation. Snow and Killian are both well and truly upset that Emma has been
keeping secrets from them
Ok, look I hate this narrative. Emma isn’t “keeping secrets”,
she’s choosing not to share deeply intimate, personal issues she isn’t ready to
share or discuss. That isn’t secrets, that’s boundaries. That isn’t being
secretive, that’s having some sense of privacy, some sense that there are some
things you get to keep to yourself, some things you get to think about and
process before you share. Sometimes you get to keep part of your life to
yourself, even with family.
Regina and Emma also have a minor issue when Regina
realises that she isn’t in Emma’s vision and could be the enemy – but they get
past it quickly because they’re more mature than that and Regina has a new
finding spell to look for Aladdin, one using Saviour magic
But when they get there, they find a corpse. It not only
crushes Jasmin, but it crushes all their hope that being a Saviour isn’t a
death sentence. It’s a really brutal depiction of desperate hope dashed. But
Jasmin and Henry have their own guilt as well – both them encouraged Aladdin
and Emma respectively to embrace their role as Saviours. Aladdin and Emma
wouldn’t be Saviours if not for Jasmin and Henry. In effect, they handed out
death sentences
Which leads to an awesome scene with Henry and Emma –
because even if this kill Emma, she wouldn’t change anything. She wouldn’t give
up the family she’s found, the literal magic she’s discovered – it is worth the
cost.
Except twist – Aladdin is still alive. He is still alive
because he has those sheers and used them, cutting off his destiny and,
apparently, dooming Agrabah. But with this decision he now has a chance to
pursue romance with Jasmin, something they couldn’t do when they were both duty
focused: except Jasmin still apparently thinks there’s something to save.
Aladdin offers the shears to Emma but after some
difficult deliberation she decides no. She’s the Saviour, this is who she is.
And they can find another way – they can find another way because she trusts
her family, she has a support net unlike Aladdin. She is willing to take the
risk and, to stop someone using the shears against her, she passes them to
Killian to get rid of them
Of course he keeps them. Of course he does.
I’m leery – while I’m interested in the idea of the
sacrifices of the Saviour and the emotional conflict I’m very concerned about
the potential storyline of Good Saviour vs Bad Saviour. With the epic, heroic,
self-sacrificing Emma contrasted with the failed, selfish, in need of
redemption Saviour Aladdin. Especially in this show which has a truly epic problem
with the treatment if POC – and already had a shed load of problems with
the whole pure Snow
White vs evil Regina
