Well, wasn’t
this an interesting episode? We find out
how Hook’s quest to kill Rumpelstiltskin got him involved with Cora in the
first place. It turns out that when
Regina pushed Cora through the mirror portal, she wound up in Wonderland. (Oh, I get it. Through the Looking Glass. That’s clever!) But Regina knows that her curse will
undoubtedly suck up Cora anyway, so she enlists Hook to travel into Wonderland
himself in order to kill Cora once and for all.
Which brings me to my main grievance with Evil Queen Regina in this
episode. You claim you know all about
who Hook is, and yet you give him the one-time opportunity to remove someone’s
heart? You even have the gall to remind
him he’s seen it done before?! Lady,
what is your problem? You of all people
should appreciate how that’s undoubtedly a touchy subject with him. ANYWAY, upon entering Wonderland, we see Cora
has done a great job of intergrading herself in that world, even becoming the
iconic Queen of Hearts (how fitting).
But because Cora had hidden away her own heart in an undisclosed
location (you can do that?), Hook is unable to remove it from her. Cora convinces Hook to join forces with her
instead, and she creates a magical barrier that shields a portion of the
Enchanted Forest from Regina’s curse.
Which explains how Phillip, Aurora, Mulan, and the people who once lived
at the refugee camp remained behind.
That was a
really clever move Mary Margret/Snow used to get out of Rumpelstiltskin’s
cage. But it did remind me of something.
Yeah,
Rumpelstiltskin could have used the squid ink to get out of that cell whenever
he wanted. I suppose it’s not too
surprising, considering who we’re talking about here. And I understand he wanted to be taken up in
the curse, which would explain why he stuck around. But that means he left that scroll behind,
knowing that Emma would one day be in that predicament and would need the squid
ink to escape. Well, if he’s that
omnipotent, he must know that they would succeed in getting out and eventually
stop Cora from taking the portal to Storybrooke. Which just begs the question of why he’s
trying to close the wishing well portal.
What does he have to gain from keeping Emma and her mother from
returning? Especially since he ends up
needing Emma’s help in a few more episodes.
So, let’s
talk about the best scene in this episode- the fight at Lake Nostros. First of all, so much for your vow that you
were done with Emma, Hook. Let’s think
about this for a minute. On the one
hand, we have Emma. Someone who, prior
to this moment, has only used a sword once when she was fighting Cora’s army of
heartless zombies (I’m not counting the fight with Dragon Maleficent, since
Emma pretty much rejected using the sword until she threw it at the dragon),
and it’s certainly her first time in an actual duel. On the other hand, we have Hook- a
professional pirate with 300+ years of experience under his belt. I think it’s safe to say he’s not just a
sword master, but a grandmaster. I’m fairly certain, unless a future flashback
proves otherwise, the only time he hasn’t won a duel was when he went up
against Dark One Rumpelstiltskin, and that probably shouldn’t even count
because Rumple kept cheating by teleporting himself out of the way. Criminy, this is the same man who we’ll see
in a future episode taking on a dozen of Evil Queen Regina’s soldiers by
himself and coming away without a scratch.
So yeah, Hook was either letting
Emma win or at least going super-easy on her.
While I’m no expert, there were plenty
of opportunities where he could have killed her had he wanted to. Instead, he chose to not only take a quick
time-out to prevent Aurora’s heart from falling into the whirlpool (while using
Emma’s leg as an anchor to keep himself from falling into the whirlpool as well;
even when those two are on opposing sides, they still manage to make a great
team), but also be all smug and throw out a blatant double entendre at Emma. Even
the part when Emma appears to knock him out.
We find out in a later episode that he witnessed the moment when Cora
tried to remove Emma’s heart. How could
he have seen that when he was supposed to be lying unconscious? Try and explain that one, you big faker!
Speaking of
the scene when it’s revealed Emma’s heart cannot be taken, that was the moment
when they decided that they were done being subtle with Emma having powerful
magical abilities and just hit us over the head. Remember the electrical wires that sparked
when Emma first arrived in Storybrooke?
Or how Jefferson’s magic hat didn’t activate until Emma touched Regina’s
shoulder in ‘Broken?’ The fact that those little hints kept popping
up keeps me from labeling it as a Deus ex Machina moment. It was also nice to see that little conversation
between Emma and Gold/Rumpelstiltskin at the end, when Emma was thinking that
she was nothing more than a pawn in all of this, prompting Gold to inform her
that he simply took who she was into consideration when he was planning
everything out. That scene just
reminded me of a quote I came across once.
Something about how we’re only destined to do the things we would have
done anyway. I’m not quite sure who said
that originally, but I rather like that quote.
And it’s so fitting for this scene.
This episode
was a really good character development moment for Regina. Throughout this season, she has been trying
to prove to Henry that she can be a better person, and a much better mother to
him. Here, she faces her first real
hurtle in her transformation. With
David/Charming still under the sleeping curse, they have no way of knowing if
Mary Margret/Snow got their message about the squid ink in Rumpelstiltskin’s
old cell. As a result, Regina is left
unsure if Emma and Mary Margret/Snow can defeat Cora and make it back to
Storybrooke. She knows it’s entirely
possible that they could fail and Cora could come through the portal into town,
which is something she doesn’t want to happen, and for good reason. This leads to the episode’s moral dilemma- She
could either do nothing in the hopes that Emma and Mary Margret/Snow will
succeed in defeating Cora or she could take no chances and simply force the
portal back to Storybrooke to close permanently. The second option would undoubtedly kill
whoever was traveling through it at the time, meaning it is entirely possible
that Regina would kill Emma and Snow by closing the portal. It doesn’t help matters when Mr.
Gold/Rumpelstiltskin starts going all Grima Wormtounge on her by pointing out
that if Emma doesn’t make it back, then she will go back to being Henry’s sole
mother. Because of his manipulation,
they very nearly force the wishing well portal to close. (Was Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin using the same
wand he’d taken from the Fairy Godmother in ‘The Price of Gold’ in this scene?)
Thankfully, Henry manages to convince Regina to do the right thing in
the end, and it all pays off. But
seriously, there was no reason why they couldn’t have invited her to go with
them to Granny’s. I think I’ve made it clear
how I felt about this character throughout season one, and how I nearly raged
at the screen whenever she popped up to muck things up again whenever the
protagonists were enjoying a small victory.
But here? That was kind of
insensitive of everyone to just go skipping off together while leaving Regina
in the lurch. For the first time since
the show began, you actually feel bad for her.
And that’s something.
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