In many ways this is Henry’s episode – but also Regina
and Emma’s episode and shows how awesome the three of them together can be.
But first we have Snow and David tag-teaming each other’s
sleeping curse. Surprisingly the whole town is not celebrating about having
half of their sogginess being reduced. At least the sogginess is somewhat
reduced by David in that vest – but I’ll never understand people who dress in
so many layers to sleep (is Snow dressed in a cardigan to bed?) What we do have
is Regina’s guilt because of what her alter ego has done to the charmings
(really, reducing the sogginess by 50% isn’t nearly good enough if it also
comes with this much angst)
Thankfully Emma is there to stop any of Regina’s thoughts
of sacrificing herself – because if she is doomed because of her Saviourness,
she needs someone she can trust to step up. And the only person she trusts to
get that done is Regina. And rightly so.
So the plan is to let Henry escape some of his teenage
angst (despite the awesome advice from his mothers) and use him as bait to trap
EQ, who still thinks of herself as his mother, in an enchanted mirror
A nice idea – but the EQ is very very cunning and turns
the tables on them with Emma and Regina now trapped in the magic mirror with no
way to communicate with the outside world and no magic
They’re in a bad place
But not as bad as the EQ would have been because, as Emma
points out, they have people out there who will try to rescue them. This has
always been a theme of Once Upon a Time
but is more so this season – and it’s an interesting one. Especially in this
era of superheroes and in a genre that specialises in awesome protagonists or,
occasionally, protagonist pairs, here we have a group that has repeatedly sent
the message that strength rests in your family, strength rests in the people
who have you back, who stand besides you, who care about you. I think the lone
hero trope is overplayed and this is a really nice change – especially when we
consider that, as the “Saviour” it would be easy to play the lone hero
narrative.
With them trapped, EQ pretends to be Regina to play
mother to Henry – and show the part of Regina she is that raised Henry. The harsh,
tough, critical part of Regina. The one that is uncompromising. The one that makes
hard choices. And part of that, of course, raises the question of how much she
is right? I mean, obviously some of the things she presents to Henry are
generally harsh and uncompromising and not good things for a child to learn –
but not all and maybe not when we remove the extreme she pursues. How much of
Regina’s drive, her determination is EQ?
She continues to play Regina to the Charmings, trying to
push Henry to become more harsh, willing to make what EQ terms “hard choices” –
the same choices she made, the same choices that Cora taught her: to do what
you must for power.
But is she also following Cora’s other lesson? “Love is a weakness”. Rumple reminds her of this but her attachment to Henry does suggest she’s not taking it entirely. Is this a build on what was raised with Hyde and Jekyll? That there’s more complexity to simple “good and evil”?
I think it may be because also in the mirror dungeon with
Regina and Emma is Huge Asian Stereotype, the Dragon. HAS is someone Emma
belatedly remembered because he may be able to break the Charming curse (he
says he can’t. Or he doesn’t want dual sogginess either). But he also says that
the conflict he commented as raging inside Regina was kind of meant to stay
there. Obviously this could be a comment on the dangers of unleashing an
unfettered EQ but could also apply to the fact that you can’t just rip out a
part of yourself without consequence, that there is value in that part
As the EQ continues with her regal demands of Henry, he
quickly guesses that she isn’t actually Regina and, with some hasty crafty
actions with henry and Violet let them put some space between them and get Violet
out of EQ’s sight.
EQ promptly tries to manipulate Henry. Because she not
only locked HAS The Dragon in the mirror prison, but she also kept his heart –
and now uses him to try and kill Regina and Emma. Henry can stop this – if he
will destroy the Dragon’s heart. If he will kill an innocent. If he will
embrace the EQ’s – give up morality and hurt innocents to see her own aim
through
Henry is completely torn by this as he sees the dragon
threaten his mothers – the temptation to kill the dragon is high. Even with
Henry outright telling Regina not to “Darth Vader him” which is nifty because
layers, pop culture and reminding us that Henry, in this world of fairy tales,
is us, the real world person. But goodness wins (of course. I mean if he has
killed the dragon, Snow would have exploded. Damn that would have almost made
it worth it) and Henry break the mirror at the same time as Emma and Regina manage
to focus the dragonfire on the mirror (by working together – refusing to allow
each other to sacrifice herself for the other. Again fighting against the whole
idea of the sole noble hero).
Emma and Regina are freed… the Dragon just kind of
disappeared. Has he vanished? What’s happening to him? Does no-one care?
EQ leaves, defeated but is determined still to turn Henry
to her side.
Meanwhile, Belle continues her task to try and get away
from Rumple – her plan is to get the Sorcerer’s Wand, give it to Zelena and
have her open a portal so Belle can escape to the Enchanted Forest and be away
from Rumple. Zelena isn’t entirely sure why she should be on Belle’s side but
is persuaded by the idea that both of them are repeatedly disappointed by
people they care about. Belle by Rumple and Zelena by Regina. And that’s
definitely going to become a complication
Belle and Zelena turn to Aladdin to convince him to steal
the wand from Rumple to put this plan in motion (using lots of evil Zelena
manipulation). Jasmin isn’t a fan of this – because they have a mission to save
Agrabah but Aladdin comes through. This is turned into a learning moment for
Jasmin that just because you have a mission doesn’t mean you can ignore people in
need around you and dismiss their issues
Which is nice – or would be if one single damn person in
Storybrooke gave a shit about their quest to save Agrabah. Anyone? Anyone at
all? Instead it comes off as “major character’s random thefts matter more than
your entire kingdom” or “no-one cares about your suffering city of brown people,
this white lady needs you”. We need more from these two, we need more people to
support these two to make this message work.
Rumple continues to be the worst: he decides to chain
Belle with a gold bracelet so he can always find her. His declarations of love
continue to be the very essence of an abusive relationship. At this point I
really really don’t want to see Rumple Redeemed, even if he is a Magnificent
Bastard. There is too much here to just have it all shovelled aside without a
long, arduous redemption trip.
While Rumple tried to kill Zelena we’re belatedly
reminded that she actually healed him once with her magic and has left an insurance
policy: hurt her, he hurts himself. Rumple reminds them that this isn’t
security – he’s very very good at loopholes
Contrary to what we’ve seen with him and Hyde. But then,
Rumple’s intelligence seems dependent on his evil. As we see with him accepting
EQ’s sexual come ons and planning to turn her against Zelena
