Chapter 12: In Which Cora Decides To Ger Her Learner's Permit

So...I would go into a lengthy explanation about why exactly I'm two weeks late with this review/recap of ABC's newest episode of "Once Upon a Time," 2x12: "In the Name of the Brother:... but you probably don't care, you're just mad it's late, and I don't feel like typing it out. So let's get down to it on this Superbowl Sunday.

What Happened:

NOT the Fairytale Land...

• It's Christmas in a pre-Technicolor land that consists of a mountain, a mansion, a graveyard, and two goats. The local [insert hereditary title here] is toasting his younger son, Gerhard, who's a dashing but bashful dude back from the war. He's got a medal that his Marquis/Duke/State Senator dad can't stop talking about, which makes his big nerdy brother Victor feel sad and ignored. 
• Victor's little bro gets a pretty watch from his dad that apparently the family's mother wanted to keep in the family. The dad says this extremely pointedly so that Victor may realize that he is definitely not talking about his eldest son when he says the word "family." 

Victor:

Victor and Gerhard's Dad:

("Oh, BTW, have this expensive commission I bought you. It's your ticket into a job that you not only will hate, but also a career field that really should be based on leadership quality and not be something that one can buy their way into." Parenting 101, everybody.)

• Victor's little brother is really supportive and sweet, and offers to give him the watch from their mother, telling him how important he knows Victor's scientific work to find everlasting life is. Meanwhile, Rumpelstiltskin's in the background like, 

"Look at all these people who look like they were filmed in the 1920s!"

• Rumpelstiltskin then materializes in the lab of dear Vicky and starts discussing magic, science, and resurrection. He then pulls out Hermione's magical purse and dumps three years' worth of Galleons at Victor's feet, exchanging the money for Victor's knowledge of resurrection. 
• Gerhard walks in on Victor digging up bodies! Victor tries to explain that it's the only way to experiment in his very specific line of scientific inquiry, but before Gerhard can tell him just how gross that is, he gets shot by the one other person in this semi-magical land: a soldier! 
• Victor tries to resurrect Gerhard, but the body's heart cannot take the copious amounts of electricity required. I get the feeling that Victor hasn't exactly tested this method before, not even with a rat or mythical amphibian. 
• Speaking of mythical amphibians, Victor's dad busts in and gives a long angry speech when he learns his youngest son his dead. The conversation culminates in him basically disowning Victor.

• We then segue --

(teehee)

• --into the lead-in to episode 2x05, "The Doctor," with Rumpelstiltskin appearing before Victor and telling him that he can get the Doctor a strong heart that can withstand the electrical shock. One other episode later, Victor has his heart and resurrects his little bro. 

• Then Gerhard reveals that he's lost a good deal of humanity and mainly talks in grunts, gives in more easily to his emotional instincts, and kills his dad in a fit of rage when said dad is a jerk to Victor again.  Victor is horrified at what he's created, Gerhard is horrified at what he's done, and the two brothers almost agree it's best if Gerhard dies right now. However, Victor, convinced that he can save his brother's humanity, storms off and locks Gerhard in a cell. 

That just happened, I guess...?

Storybrooke

• In the wake of the car accident at the end of the last episode, Belle screams at Mr. Gold to get away from her, and reasonably so (she's shot, he's creepy, let's move on). Mr. Gold uses magic to heal the bullet wound, then goes to beat up Hook. It takes David to wrestle him off of the plowed-down pirate. He and Emma then go to investigate the crashed car, which they realize has a "stranger" inside of it (I use quotes because Storybrooke has nearly all the population of the Fairytale Land, I highly doubt that Emma knows the face of every single citizen.)
• The unconscious man is brought to the hospital, where Dr. Whale is drinking. I'm not a doctor, but I learned from Grey's Anatomy that that is SO not allowed. 

The Audience:

• After two uncomfortable scenes in which Rumpelstiltskin kisses an unconscious Belle who doesn't remember him (hint: she wakes up. It's awkward, but she tells him to keep it in his medieval lederhosen. What does he think this is, a Disney movie from the Fifties?) and Hook hits on Emma and makes a bondage joke while handcuffed to his hospital bed. According to Hook, he has now gained his revenge on Rumpelstiltskin, since he hurt Belle-- the one thing Rumpel truly loves. 
• Meanwhile, Ruby, Grumpy, Snow, and David (most of whom are wearing black and/or leather jackets) are in the hallway of the hospital trying to guess the password of "The Stranger"'s phone. Ruby tells the group that since there are exactly ten thousand possibilities to what the password could be, they'll probably never guess it. 
• Somehow, we learn his name is Greg Mendel. The group freaks out about outsiders a little. Doctor Whale comes out and lets the group know that Greg has internal bleeding. Everyone looks extremely pointedly at Gold, but he refuses to heal Greg on the basis that he saw Gold do magic, and therefore knows far too much to live. 
• LeRoy/Grumpy agrees: he wants to outright kill Greg. 

Snow, Emma, Maybe David, Ruby, and Hopefully The Audience:

LeRoy/Aptly-Named Grumpy:

• Everyone shoots this idea down as fast as we would hope anyone labeled "protagonists" would. Snow uses her motherly instincts to quickly realize that Dr. Whale is drunk, but he goes to do surgery anyway. As he does, Greg's phone rings with the Star Wars theme, which is totally legal since Disney owns ABC and Lucasarts now. Someone is looking for Greg.
• In Rumpelstiltskin's shop, he holds the chipped cup. He turns around and finds Cora is there! She asks to be allowed to win back Regina in exchange for a way to find Baelfire, which is in a box. Cora then reveals to the audience that she was taught by Rumpelstiltskin. The two mages agree to a truce, and then seal the pact with a kiss, implying they were once in a relationship.
• While David asks Whale if he's drunk (Whale denies it), someone keeps calling Greg. He has the caller ID for this number labeled as "Her." Emma and the gang find Whale's pager in the trash and realize that he is not  in the Operating Room. 
• Across town, Cora sneaks into Regina's secret lair, magically disguised as Henry. She apologizes for the deception, then tries to convince Regina that she is sorry for her actions and forgives Regina for trying to kill her. She only framed Regina to show her what the townspeople really thought of the former Queen. Regina decides to bring Cora to town so that she can confess to everyone that she framed her daughter with Archie's "murder." Cora "agrees."

Because that'll actually happen.

• Cora marvels at modern technology while Regina drives her to, I dunno, the town square? (I would legitimately watch an episode where Regina teaches Cora to drive. If you agree, comment,we'll start a petition.) On the way there, Cora implies that Regina will always be an outcast...Henry will never really love her again. It's super sad. Cora says she wants her daughter back, leading to Regina hugging her (after pulling the car over, of course) and the two women allying to get Henry back.

I bet Lana Parilla could rock this song in "Once Upon a Time: The Musical."

• Ruby uses her wolf-tracking to find Dr. Whale. He tries to jump off the docks after throwing the watch from Gerhard into the water, but Ruby saves him and gives him a pep talk. They rush back to the hospital, where the suddenly-sober Whale saves Greg in surgery. Emma interviews him and learns that Greg was TEXTING WHILE DRIVING. 

• This is not okay, Greg!!!! This is dangerous! This is how people like Hook wind up in the hospital!!! Unfortunately, Emma only cares about getting Greg out of town ASAP, so she lets him off with NO CHARGES, since he can't remember anything about the magic usage. Yeah, he'll never suspect that something's up in this town. 
• Rumpelstiltskin goes to talk to Belle, to whom he gives the chipped cup. As she sees it, he's a creeper who won't leave her alone and she doesn't know why. Therefore, it's not really surprising that she throws the cup against the wall. It's still rather sad, though (and if you read my review last week, you'll know that I don't even like Rumbelle).
• The next day, Rumpelstiltskin takes out a magical globe from the box that Cora gave him. He pricks his finger and uses the plot to make a map on the globe that pinpoints Baelfire's location. 
• At the Royal Family's apartment, Henry demands to know what happened the night before, since he slept through it all. Nobody tells him, it's delightful. They do mention that it involved Dr. Whale/Frankenstein, which freaks Henry out; according to Henry, the story of Frankenstein is definitely not in his book-- it's not even a fairytale. He theorizes that this means there could be people from many different worlds in Storybrooke, not just The Fairytale Land. 
• Rumpelstiltskin arrives and cashes in Emma's favor that she promised to him a very long time ago, back in Season 1 (I honestly forget what it was for. If you comment and let me know, you get a virtual ice cream cone). He demands that Emma comes with him to go outside of Storybrooke and find Baelfire.

Roadtriiiiiiiiiiip!!!!

• Back in the hospital, Greg wakes up, calls his wife, and tells her that something is odd about this little town he's found himself within...

What I Thought

   Does anyone like Stir Fries? 

   I do. The chicken, the rice, the veggies, be they bok choi or broccoli or celery, sometimes noodles...all of it. There's not one favorite part, because every little part of the stir fry is already so mouth-watering. When put together, it's just this big, delicious, amazing experience for my taste buds. 

   That's kind of how this episode was for me. There were a lot of wonderful little moments all chained together to make an excellent show. "Once Upon a Time" has an ensemble cast, and it really knew that this episode. We got to see Regina go through some progression that, while heart-wrenching, made sense for her character. Fans of Emma and Hook as a couple got some interaction between the two, while Rumpelstiltskin finally took a step closer to reaching his ultimate goal. In the flashback scenes, the writers gave us an episode that resembled some of the quality ones from Season 1, especially given that the black and white scenes paralleled the emotional chaos Whale was going through in Storybrooke. There were some fun group scenes in the hospital, like when Grumpy, Ruby, Snow and David were trying to guess the phone password. Everyone got a moment, and I felt that the writers balanced it all really well. 

   Other than Victor's dad's terrible acting, there really wasn't that much I didn't like. Ruby got a lot of fun moments this episode. I love that she knew the number of possible passwords, and I adore that she got to save the day by finding Whale and saving him from suicide. It was good to hear that the writers weren't forgetting about past continuity: Ruby talks about the fact that she ate her boyfriend, and that she's had to deal with it. She sort of laughs off the explanation, but you can tell she's trying to play it cool. Ruby definitely strikes me as one of the most down-to-earth characters to me. She's able to see that The Curse had some benefits (I have a feeling Snow or LeRoy would have shot down this line of thinking immediately), which demonstrates that she can think objectively. At the same time, Ruby acknowledges that dwelling on the past does nothing, and that everyone in Storybrooke should make the best of the new beginnings fate has given them. This was a really cool example of how a character can shine in an episode without being the focus of the flashbacks. Indeed, one could make the argument that Whale is not the main character, and instead serves as a means to tie together the wonderful moments that all of the other characters get. Whether he is the chicken binding the veggies and carbs together, or just the teriyaki sauce, I think it's safe to say that this was a delicious stir fry, and I eagerly await the next serving. 

   (Speaking of vegetables, Greg's last name is Mendel. Greg Mendel is the name of a scientist known for his experiments involving genetics and peas. I guess the science vs. magic theme got itself an Easter Egg this week.)

My Score:

8/10.

The flashbacks weren't intriguing, but there was a lot of fun to be had in Storybrooke this week.

My Questions:

• Were you as excited as I was by Henry's theory regarding other worlds? What other characters are likely to show up now that the "fairytales-only" restriction has been lifted?
• How strict will Gold hold Emma to the favor? Does the roadtrip only end once they find Bael?
• Is Henry going to resent Emma for leaving him so soon after coming home?

Next Week:

The giant returns, and he's lost weight! Rumpelstiltskin and Emma argue over what to watch in cheap motels while on their roadtrip!

(Disclaimer: As always, I've used a lot of gifs, cultural references, memes, and photos. If you or someone you know owns/made one of the gifs/photos/etc., comment below and let me know- I'll take it down, if that's what you wish. I don't claim ownership of any of them, I just browse Tumblr and other sites for ones that fit my blog. Also, I own none of the media I reference. "Once Upon a Time" belongs to ABC, the Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling and whoever made the movies, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to Disney, "New Girl" belongs to Fox, "Les Miserables" to , um...I dunno... etc., etc...I own nothing. This blog is for entertainment purposes only!)

Chapter 5: In Which Regina Dresses Like a Jedi Padawan.

Tonight we were treated to a special Halloween episode of ABC's "Once Upon a Time:" 2x05, "The Doctor." While it's certainly no "Scream" or "Nightmare on Elm Street," this episode had its share of creepy, as well as good ol' fashioned Storybrooke...science? Read on for my "muahaha"-filled recap and review!

What Happened:

Fairytale Land (Past)

• Regina begins her Sith Lord training with Rumpelstiltskin in the same outfit Hayden Christensen wore in "Revenge of the Sith," only with a lighter color-scheme. I guess she was a fangirl. 

Overlarge leather vests and billowy sleeves are what's hot this fall.

• Anyway, enough fashion talk. Rumpelstiltskin tells Regina to freeze a unicorn, which she does. He then insists she take its heart, which she is uncomfortable with, so Rumpel does it for her before telling her to kill it by squeezing the heart. Regina cannot bring herself to do it, leading Rumpel to ask her what is holding her back from killing.
• Later, Regina tells Rumpelstiltskin that she wants to learn magic so that she can bring back Daniel, her dead boyfriend that her mom killed via Heart-Grabbing. Suddenly Jefferson, aka The Mad Hatter, shows up, and the audience is like,

• This is Jefferson in his fabulous days before his band tanked, when he wore all the eye shadow he wanted and all his fangirls wore top hats to see him play the drums. 
• FabJeff gives Rumpelstiltskin a glass ball, which is from another world or something. Rumpelstiltskin has this amazing moment where Jefferson is all, "You want the magic ball or not?" and Rumpy's all, "Mmmmmmokay" and snatches it. SOLID GOLD. (see what I did there? ;) )
• FabJeff reminds Regina that she is in fact married to a king which does in fact make her a queen and can therefore make queenly deals of queenly power. The deal essentially boils down to "You let me drive a carriage w/o a license and jailbreak my iPod, I get you a freaky witch-doctor thang to bring back your Stable-Man." 
• Later FabJeff introduces Regina to Doctor Whale's Fairytale-Land Counterpart, Victor, who's rocking the buttons and he doesn't care because he's almost as fabulous as Jefferson and that's saying something, I mean really, the two of them could do commercials together. 
• Dr. Vic tells Regina that he needs a heart to bring back Daniel, and just in the middle of the dramatic scene an ad for Wreckit Ralph comes on screen. I was not pleased.

"What the heck Pixar I mean normally I love you but Regina is making a character-shaping ethical decision here, come back when Henry's onscreen or something!"

• Regina takes Dr. Victor and FabJeff to her old house and shows them her mom Cora's secret vault of hearts. Dr. Vic picks one and they go on their merry way to do the experiment to bring back Daniel, whom Regina has kept in peak (albeit dead) condition via a spell. Unfortunately the experiment doesn't work 
• Now that she has nothing to lose, Regina goes to Rumpelstiltskin, kills some poor chick he was teaching, and tells him she's ready to learn all magic, including the dark kinds. Little did she know that Rumpelstiltskin paid Dr. Victor off to make the experiment a dud, ensuring his apprentice was in the right mental state to be EEEEEEEEEVIL. Dr. Victor heads back to his own world where technicolor hasn't been invented yet, but resurrections have...that's right, folks, Dr. Victor/Dr. Whale is a modernized Dr. Frankenstein, and he manages to bring back his dead brother using the heart he took from Cora's vault (of course we all know how THAT turned out.)

Storybrooke

• Sheriff David clocks Dr. Whale because he and Snow White slept together that one time when they were all cursed and she was technically single so Whale really wasn't doing anything wrong...Our Hero, everybody. 
• David informs Whale about his quest to find a portal to the Fairytale Land. Whale then bursts in on a psych session, in which a weepy Regina was telling Archie/Jiminy Cricket about how she's quitting magic cold-turkey in order to win back Henry. Whale demands that Regina send him back to be with his brother, to which Regina replies she only brought the living to Storybrooke. 
• As soon as Whale shuts the door and leaves, Archie asks her if that's true- that all the dead Fairytale citizens stayed in their homeland. Regina then gets a priceless moment where she looks right at Archie and tells him she brought who SHE wanted (her dead dad and Daniel.) It was her curse, after all. 

• David brings Henry to the stable to meet his horse, then makes up this half-baked story about how shoveling a horse's excrement around bonds horse and rider. The audience doesn't care, but the plot tells us, "This is important later, just stick around, okay???"
• Regina discovers Daniel's grave is empty, so she goes to her secret prison underneath the hospital, where she finds Dr. Whale, weak and short one arm. He informs her Daniel has indeed been resurrected, but is now a monster. 
• Regina tells David what happened, and the two of them somehow figure out where Daniel's going: the stables. 
• In the stables, Henry is being lazy, big surprise, and is working on his horse's hairstyle instead of cleaning up like David told him. Suddenly Daniel shows up, all zombie-esque, and advances towards Henry.
• Luckily Regina and David save Henry. Regina manages to awaken Daniel's humanity, but he is in so much pain that he begs her to kill him. Regina turns him to dust, finally deciding to let go of her lost love. 
• While Regina goes to see Archie again, the injured Whale goes to see Rumpelstiltskin, who (after making Whale admit that science cannot do what magic can) heals his arm. 

Fairytale Land (Present)

• The Disney Princess Brigade (Aurora, Mulan, Emma and Snow) arrive at The Sanctuary town, only to find out the town has been massacred by Cora, again with that gross Indiana Jones 2-Heart-Grabby-Thing. The only survivor is Kilian, who has apparently been disguising himself as the town blacksmith to spy for Cora (his ex-girlfriend that doesn't quite get they're through.) 
• The next five minutes of the show are as follows:

Kilian:

"They'll NEVER suspect who I REALLY am!"

Emma:

• The DPB learn he is Captain Hook/Kilian Jones, a spy for Cora. They wanna leave him to get eaten by ogres, but he tells them he can help find The MacGuffin of Season 2, a magic compass to lead them back to Storybrooke. (What is a MacGuffin, you might ask? Think...the One Ring, The Sorcerer's Stone, etc. Something that is important to the characters simply because it will get them where the plot needs them to go.)
• The group comes across a beanstalk, the top of which is home to a giant who, according to Kilian, has the compass.

What I Thought:

          Let's start with what I liked: the Regina backstory. It was really awesome to see Regina and Rumpelstiltskin back in their glory days, learning and teaching respectively. (Can I just say that Rumpel's actor, Robert Carlyle, knocked it out of the PARK tonight? Like, seriously, he was fantastic, even with his small role in this episode.) Regina had an intriguing storyline about doing something bad with good intentions; she knew her mother had taken those hearts from living people, and that she was using dark, evil magic, the likes of which her mother used to control and her teacher used to kill. Regina clearly believed this was all permissible if it meant she could resurrect someone who she loved. It's an interesting and debate-causing topic, and I liked seeing that play out on screen. Ultimately the show seemed to say that since Regina was corrupted in the end, it's not possible to use dark methods for something good, but it's by no means definitive, given that Regina might very well NOT have become morally comfortable with killing if the experiment had worked and restored Daniel to her. 

Moral conundrums are tricky...

          The other character I loved in this episode was Jefferson. The earliest in his life we had seen him was right around the time he lost his daughter, when his days making deals with Regina were long gone. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed seeing him in his hey-day, making one-liners, being a rambunctious and fun-loving wildchild. That makes sense, given this is probably before he had a daughter, and having children is supposed to make most people more mature, or so I hear. 

          Now I suppose we have to talk about what I didn't appreciate, and that was Regina in Storybrooke. I know I've said before on this blog that I really like her being on the side of the angels now, but I still wanted her to retain her bad attitude and tough streak. Regina didn't feel that way tonight. I know the episode was about her finally giving up her first love, but that really didn't serve as an excuse to me to see her constantly on the verge of tears, talking like she was her young self again, unable to do what she had to do until the last minute. Remember when Regina killed her father, someone she loved, to get something she cared about (revenge)? I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't instantly lash out at Daniel, despite her love for him, with magic when she saw him threatening the person she cares about more than anything else in the world: Henry. Just because she was dealing with the loss of someone she loved is no reason why Regina shouldn't be tough! She's a strong person; just like Emma fought a dragon when Henry was on death's door, and Mulan protected Aurora when Philip was about to receive the Dementor's kiss, I believe Regina could  and should have functioned better despite her feelings for Daniel. 

My Score:

6/10.

The Fairytale Land Regina shined, but Storybrooke Regina disappointed me.

My Questions:

- Okay, Daniel's well and truly gone, Graham's dead, and Philip is cursed...is it possible we might start to see characters break the tradition of "One True Love" and have new romances? People like Emma, Regina, and Mulan deserve to move on- after all, people don't just love the first person they kiss forever!

-Does Kilian have little utensils he can attach to his hand? ( I think the cartoon Hook might have...)

-When are Aurora and Mulan going to discuss Philip again???

Next Week:

Emma's criminal past is revealed, and present-Emma fights a giant!!!

(As always, I just use gifs and pictures I find on Tumblr and other websites. If anyone made/owns one of the gifs/knows who does and feels that I should not have used them, let me know and I will take it down. This blog is made for entertainment purposes only; I own nothing.)

Chapter 2: In Which Regina At Last Proves to Everyone How She's Awesome and Why She Should Be Idolized and Adored

It's that most-awesome night of the week once again, and this Sunday night I'll be reviewing/recapping the latest episode of ABC 's "Once Upon a Time": 2x02, "We Are Both." Sit back and enjoy!

What Happened:

Storybrooke/Our World

• The dwarves try to figure out if they can cross the Storybrooke boundary. Unfortunately they learn that they cannot without losing their memories from the Fairytale Land and reverting to their Storybrooke selves, as Sneezy learns all too well.
• While August awakens in his puppet form in his room in Granny's inn, the town is in chaos; all of its residents are confused, asking various questions ranging from "Ermahgerd, help me I'm having a crisis of identity" to "Teehee I'm Doctor Whale and I'm a total creep."
• Charming/David goes to see Regina and asks her about Jefferson's hat.  In the ensuing conversation, Charming implies Regina needs magic to keep control over Henry.
• The dwarves show up and announce to the town that Sneezy has been re-cursed, increasing the panic that David has to deal with. Henry tells everyone "he can help them," which bugs me because honestly, Henry? You have no idea what these people are going through, b/c you're not a fairytale character- you haven't just discovered you have two dual identities...He is SUCH an insensitive little child.
• Ruby asks David what he plans to do; David replies that he's not sure yet. Ruby has a look in her eyes that says, "Of course you don't. Because nobody in this town has a lick of sense except for me."
• Meanwhile, Regina is sitting  in her house attempting to use magic ("Light, damn you!" C'mon, Regina, it's Levi-ooooo-sa, not Levi-oh-SAH.) Suddenly Jiminy/Archie Hopper shows up and offers his help to her as a counselor/moral guide, but she turns him down. Which is sad, because I feel like these two could totally be BFFLs for life. Regina then goes to see Rumpelstiltskin in his shop, asking him for her mother Cora's spellbook. He initially denies it to her, but she then blackmails him with the knowledge that the Fairytale Land still exists (contrary to what Regina told the Royal Family last episode.)
• While Regina absorbs the magic from the book like she's smelling Pillsbury cookies. I guess magic travels through the nose.
• Henry gives David a pep talk. David has pronoun issues and tries to figure out if he's David or Charming, and what parts of himself come from which personality.
• David/Charming then goes to talk to Rumpelstiltskin, who whines about how nobody knocks on his door before coming in (I have the same problem, Rumpel. Don't worry, it gets better.)  David asks for a way to find Jefferson via his hat, and Rumpy gives it to him, though David is coy about who he's trying to find. In exchange, Rumpy asks that he and David agree to stay out of each other's ways for the foreseeable future. David also mentions that nobody can leave time without losing their identity, which angers Rumpelstiltskin, presumably because it means he can't seek out Baelfire.
• David follows the hat that Rumpy enchanted, resulting in him finding Jefferson stuck under a car. The two talk, and Jefferson basically tells him that while the Fairytale Land still exists, it's impossible to get back. He's not very helpful, honestly. Just like he wasn't helpful in establishing a new ship for Emma. (If you don't know what shipping is, go to Tumblr. Now.)
• Regina storms a town hall meeting, showing off her newly-returned magic powers. Henry is actually rather brave here and offers to leave with Regina if she leaves everyone alone, and she gladly takes him up on the offer. (Ruby is actually pretty epic here; she stands up to Regina as a leader when all the other authority figures are gone.)
• Ruby tells David that Regina took Henry, and he chooses to help his grandson instead of pursuing Emma and Snow. He goes to Regina's house, where Henry has just tried to escape (via a blanket ladder that's QUITE elaborate- how long had the kid been planning to climb out his window?) and had a severe talking-to by Regina in which she reveals just how similar to her mother she really is, offering Henry power through magic. Henry also pointed out how disturbed he had been by Regina making him feel like a liar and/or a crazy person back in Season 1, when she made him see a psychiatrist.
• Regina realizes how much like her mother she is being, and decides she wants to seek redemption. To start herself on that path, she lets Henry leave with David, telling him she wants him to love her because he wants to, not because he's afraid of her or is forced to.
• The panicked crowds try to leave Storybrooke, but David stands on the back of a truck and discusses how he feels that he is both Charming and David, just as the other citizens of Storybrooke are both their original fairy tale selves and their new Storybrooke counterparts. The citizens are rather quickly pacified and all go back to their daily routines.
• Regina hides away the spellbook; Gold stares at the town boundary; Henry tells Gepetto where to find August, but August is no longer in the inn; Henry and David have a bonding moment.

The Fairytale Land

• A young Regina is running away through the woods when her mom Cora catches her with vines and tree branches (NOTE: This episode takes place shortly after "The Stable Boy", the episode last season in which a young Regina lost the love of her life at her mother's hands.) Regina and Snow White have a bit of bonding time, in which Snow demonstrates she has no boundaries and is totally content with trying on the jewelery of others. Age is no excuse, the concept of a personal bubble is not a difficult one. Regina is then disturbed when she has a vision of herself using magic to choke the young Snow in revenge.
• Regina tells her dad that she is being corrupted by her mother and her magicks. It's really sweet to see their relationship in its early stages like this, how even then he was her confidant. Regina learns from her father that Cora got her powers from a spellbook, given to her by Rumpelstiltskin.
• The young Regina meets Rumpelstiltskin (she really can't pronounce his name, it's quite amusing), and he greets her naive cluelessness with an offer of magic, giving her the same spellbook we saw earlier. Regina is hesitant to use the book, lest it be Fifty Shades of Grey disguised so that Rumpy can get more people to read it. (He just wants somebody to discuss it with, it's not his fault, really!)
• Rumpelstiltskin continues to talk to Regina, explaining that he and her family are connected. He senses Regina's power, and there's a TOTAL Harry Potter moment when Rumpelstiltskin says something along the lines of "You have great power, great potential, if you choose to use it" and Regina's all "Never! I wanna be in Gryffindor!" and Rumpy's all "Mmmm. That's what EVERYONE says, at first..."
• Rumpel gives Regina a mirror to push Cora through, saying it will transport her to another dimension- I thought it was our world at first, but that can't be right, as we'll see later.
• Cora is kind of a jerk to Regina on her wedding day, telling her how to live her life and that one day soon the king will be dead and Regina will be an all-powerful genie. Or something.
• Regina uses magic to shove Cora into the mirror, and is horrified because she's being EXACTLY like her mom, who she just declared she would never be like. It's very tragic and Shakespearean.
• Regina sets out to leave the kingdom, but Rumpelstiltskin interrupts her on the way. He makes her admit that she enjoyed using magic and is scared by it, then convinces her to be his apprentice. She asks him why he wants to teach her, and he says she might be of use to him...
• In the present times of the Fairytale Land, Aurora and Mulan have taken Emma and Snow prisoner. They take them to their safe haven, where after a brief scuffle (in which Snow smacks around Aurora and Mulan smacks around Snow, thus giving us our Character-Development-of-the-Week for the Disney Princess Brigade) Emma and Snow are thrown into a prison called The Pit, in which Cora is also held. There are no snakes within.

My Thoughts:

I didn't really care that much about the Fairytale Land segments this week- I always just assumed Regina picked up magic on her own, and so seeing her learn it in this episode didn't intrigue me all that much. The main thing we learned from those segments was that Regina and Rumpelstiltskin were once Master and Apprentice, Sith-style, which is a new twist on their relationship that I enjoyed learning about. Hopefully we can see more of that this season.

What I loved most this week was Regina's beginning on her path to redemption. She put away her spellbook, gave up her son to the husband of her archenemy, and outright stated she wanted to redeem herself. I think we can safely say Regina's beginning to seek a place on the side of the angels, and I for one will welcome her there. All the Regina nay-sayers out there MUST see this episode. It proves once and for all that Regina loves Henry, and that's awesome. (I for one think that The Great Curse would have still been broken if Regina had kissed Henry's forehead instead of Emma, but I could write a whole post about that. ) I hope to see Regina working with David and the rest of the RF in the future.

On a related topic, Regina's actress, Lana Parilla, was EXCELLENT this week. She's an excellent actress who can successfully portray Regina at her different ages, along with her different stages of character development. There were subtle differences in her behavior in this episode alone that I simply loved.

My Questions:

-Why did Rumpelstiltskin offer to train Regina? What does he hope to get out of it? It can't be Baelfire-related, because there's really nothing Regina can do that Rumpy can't...is there?
-What would happen if Regina or Gold left the town? They never had Storybrooke identities, since they always carried their true memories...
-Why did Henry have a cell phone? He's ten. Like, seriously.
-Did Emma and Snow even TRY telling Aurora and Mulan who they were, to avoid the whole prisoner treatment?
-Why does David hold his sword like Sora, from Kingdom Hearts?



Next Week:  Henry gets more quality time with David, Snow meets Lancelot (who looks epic) and there is sexual tension (possibly, maybe, not really, whatever), Ogres pop up (which will be interesting to see on a TV-show budget, but I have faith in this show), and Snow freaks out extremely loudly (it sounds like somebody grabbed her in a haunted house, which makes sense because she'd so be that person that whacks the poor actor kid working as a skeleton when he goes "boo!" This is odd, because one would think that if one was hiding from ogres, one would want to be as quiet as possible, but whatevs.)

My Score:

8/10