Okay, so the flashback in this episode. Oh, good gravy! Total mindblown moment. Anna’s first stop on her quest through the
Enchanted Forest/Misthaven was the farm where Charming lived with his mother,
Ruth, back when he was simply David the Shepherd (and with long hair, which was
so unexpected.) If that wasn’t
surprising enough, it turns out David was actually pen pals with Kristoff (how
did those two meet? I can’t imagine it
being very easy for non-royals to visit other kingdoms. Unless Kristoff’s ice selling business was a
global franchise?) Anyway, Anna’s
arrival at David’s farm came at the perfect time, as the land is under the
control of the tyrannical Bo Peep (so nursery rhyme characters also exist in
this world? Who's next? Humpty Dumpty?) who is apparently running a protection riot. Anna, not one to accept this, encourages
David to stand and fight, even teaching him how to use a sword (which explains
how he knew how to swordfight upon being instigated as Prince James). But David lacks the spirit to fight back and
goes into a whole sob story about how his father lost his fight with
alcoholism, which ultimately led to his death.
(Hmm. Was this one of the reasons
why he disliked Killian so much in the beginning? Because his habit of overindulging on rum
reminded Charming of how his dad was an alcoholic? Or am I just overthinking this?) However, Bo Peep then goes and captures Anna,
which of course gives David the motivation he needed to stand up to Bo Peep and
successfully defeats her. Now that
everything is fine and dandy on David’s farm, Anna continues on her way, with
Ruth suggesting that Anna seek out Rumpelstiltskin. (Because of course Ruth
knows about him, since he did take David’s twin brother away.)
As for what’s going on in Storybrooke, after finding Anna’s necklace
in Gold’s shop, Elsa decides to place up an ice wall around town to prevent
anyone from leaving until she gets to the bottom of things. The ice wall knocks over the power lines, resulting
in a town-wide blackout (which Charming starts getting calls about the instant
it happens. Does everyone in town have
the sheriff station on super speed-dial?)
Emma and Charming head off to check it out and come across Elsa’s ice
wall, with Killian joining them seconds after they arrive. (Awww.
Emma actually called him up to ask for his assistance. Does this mean she considers him an
unofficial deputy?) As they’re
investigating the ice wall, we get two moments in which Killian and Charming both
try to discuss where Killian stands with Emma.
Killian once again bluntly reminds Emma that she still needs to take an
occasional break from her duties to live her life. When Emma deflects Killian’s words when she
spots Elsa moving around by the ice wall and moves in to get a closer look,
Charming takes his chance to have the whole ‘what are your intentions with my daughter?’ talk. Which begs the question- does Charming
remember his old buddy, ‘Prince Charles’ and the talk they had? If so, does he know that ‘Charles’ was
Killian? It doesn’t seem so, as Killian
has to once again remind Charming how he frequently risks his life for Emma,
something he’d never do for someone he’d see only as ‘loot,’ and that Emma has
equal say in whatever they become.
Anyway, Emma approaches Elsa and begins to ask her what’s going
on. While some might wonder how Emma
doesn’t seem to know about Elsa and Anna when everyone in Storybrooke is
obviously familiar with Disney movies (Nealfirebagelperson mentioned Disney’s Mulan when he met the genuine article)
it does make sense when you remember that in OUAT’s timeline, it’s still 2012,
and Disney’s Frozen might not have
even been announced yet. Emma and Elsa’s
conversation is interrupted when Killian and Charming approach, and Elsa,
getting understandably scared when Charming impulsively draws his gun, causes
an avalanche that traps her and Emma inside an ice cave. When their initial attempts at helping
unblock the ice cave to get Emma out fail, Charming suggests that they seek out
a magical solution, since magic is what initially made the ice. They go to Gold/Rumpelstiltskin to ask for
his help, but he’s not exactly forthcoming.
But when Charming mentions that Elsa is looking for her sister and found
Anna’s necklace at Gold’s shop, he’s able to figure out how to find Anna, as he
recognizes the picture of the necklace from Belle’s files and realizes Anna is
the young woman who helped him in the past.
(Because Anna had been using the pseudonym of ‘Joan’ during her mission
in the Enchanted Forest/Misthaven, Charming hadn’t realized until that moment
that they were the same person.) They go
to Bo Peep, who is now the town butcher, to get her staff, which will help them
locate Anna, who Bo Peep branded as one of her ‘sheep’ during the Enchanted
Forest flashback.
While Charming and Killian go off to seek help, Elsa and Emma start
to bond over the fact that they both have magical powers they can’t always
control. But this bonding is cut short
when the cold starts to get to Emma and she begins to lose consciousness. When Elsa uses the walkie talkies to inform
Charming and Killian of how Emma is starting to freeze to death, poor Killian
starts to PANIC, and even initiates his original tactic of chipping away at the
ice wall with his hook in his desperation to reach her. If Charming hadn’t stepped in to stop him,
I’m sure Killian would have continued to try breaking though the ice wall that
way, regardless of futile it was or how long it would take, just because it
meant he was actually doing something instead of sitting there doing
nothing. I wouldn’t have been the least
bit surprised if Killian actually started to cry right here. Once again, he’s faced with the possibility
that someone he loves will die, and he’ll be powerless to stop it. This is Liam and Milah all over again, but
this time, it’s quite possibly worse. At
least with Liam and Milah, Killian had been able to hold them one last time. He was able to be there when they died. But this time? Emma could die in a place where he couldn’t
reach her, and she’d have no one but a complete stranger with her. I imagine the very thought of that was
destroying him. Which makes their
reunion hug so well-earned when Charming, using his past encounter with Anna as
inspiration, manages to convince Elsa to hold it together and melt the ice so
Emma could be freed.
The subplot with Snow left me feeling a bit iffy. I got the impression I was supposed to think
she was out of line when she had her ragequit moment, but I was completely on
her side at that point. Okay, so the
power in Storybrooke went out when Elsa’s ice wall knocked over the power lines. Fine, I can see how that would be mildly
inconvenient to people. But even so, why
is it Snow’s job to fix it? What
happened to the guys from the power company that Emma mentioned back in ‘Dreamy?’
Were they just all out for a smoke and a beer? Even if those guys managed to escape the
second curse and remained back in the Enchanted Forest fairy tale land, there
had to have been someone else who was monitoring the power plant. (Unless they were the members of Zelena's flying monkey brigade that the Nevengers seemingly killed at the Storybrooke pier?) Again, when did it become Snow’s job to fix
the power? Even if it was her job, she just popped out a baby a
few days ago. There is a little
something called maternity leave, guys.
So I don’t fault her at all for blowing up at everyone. Plus, she had a point. Everyone in that town was a child of the
Enchanted Forest fairy tale land. It
wasn’t as if they’d never lived without the convenience of electricity
before. And besides, a power outage
isn’t a dire emergency, just a minor inconvenience. They can survive a few hours without it. I grew up in the Land Without Magic, and
we’ve lost power a few times in my lifetime because of high winds and
snowstorms. And you know what? I survived.
So why can’t the people of Storybrooke?
In a related story, how did adding gasoline to the tanks fix the
problem? The power lines were down. Fuel doesn’t magically put them back up
again. Unless those were the emergency
generators? I really do not know.
There was one small throwaway moment that made me go ‘awwwwww.’ Baby Neal’s mobile is a flock of sheep. Obviously a reference to his father’s humble beginnings. So, yeah, that was cute. But the scene were we see this also had a bit
of oddness thrown in, when Regina informs Henry that she doesn’t want to see
him because she’s still in a funk over the whole Robin situation. The thing that makes this odd was that the
message was sent via crow. So, now
everyone sends messages by bird? Did
Snow and Charming start a trend? Even if
they did, they’re currently in Storybrooke, not the Enchanted Forest. We’ve
seen they have cellphones. So why
use a crow? Regardless, Henry becomes
morose over the fact that his other-mother is pushing him away, and I don’t
blame him. For the majority of the past
three seasons, Regina’s mind was primarily focused on Henry and keeping him in
her life. All of season 1 had her being
all ‘Henry’s MY son, and I’m not sharing
him with anyone!’ In season 2, we
saw her trying to stay a part of Henry’s life, and she even relapsed into her
season 1 mindset during the second half.
And through all of season 3, she was focused on getting Henry back,
either from Pan or the magical-induced amnesia.
But now that she’s got boyfriend trouble, she starts pushing him away. At the end of the episode, Henry gets the
inspiration he needed from Grandpa Charming’s whole ‘we don’t give up’ speech
to march over to Regina’s mansion and state he’s not going to let her push him
away. Good for you, Henry.
Episode ends with Elsa trying to bring down her ice wall, now that
Emma and company are going to help her locate Anna, who is still missing, but
thanks to Bo Peep’s staff, they know she’s still alive somewhere. Problem is, Elsa’s magic doesn’t work, which
confuses her as she’s supposed to be the only one with ice powers. Except we then see that’s not true, as the
woman who works at the local ice cream shop also has the same abilities.
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