TV Recap: Once Upon a Time 3-2 "Lost Girl"

I should have seen it coming.  I mean, it wasn't like they tried to hide it or anything.  And yet, I couldn't figure out who Emma was any more than she could.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We actually had a flashback tonight, so let's start with that.  It involves what Regina does when she learns that Snow is still alive.  She jumps for joy and throws a party.  Yeah, okay, so in reality she flew into a rage.  What did you expect?  She went to confront Snow and convince her to leave the kingdom.  Take Charming and the dwarfs and head out to live in exile somewhere.  Snow's not stupid and so decides to take Regina up on her offer.  The dwarfs are right with her.

The only person who knows better than this is Charming.  He knows that Snow can do this, and since she won't see it herself, he turns to Rumplestiltskin to try to change Snow's mind.  But Rumple doesn't seem to have any ideas - at least at first.  When Charming comes back to camp, he's heard of something - a magical weapon - and leads Snow to it.

This weapon is Excalibur, not a surprise if you saw a preview for the episode or paid attention to the hint they gave.  Only the true ruler of the kingdom can pull it from the stone.  Charming demonstrates, and can't do it.  Snow tries, and after a hard tug it comes out.

Armed with this new confidence, she goes to face Regina the next day at the deadline.  When Snow announces they aren't leaving, Regina goes into full choke mode on Grumpy.  But Snow draws Excalibur and rushes Regina.  Regina does her normal smoke move trick, but Snow swings around behind her and nicks Regina.  Snow once again says that they are not leaving.  Regina says they will face each other again on the battle field.

End of flashback?  Not quite yet.

Snow goes to Rumple to pay Charming's debt for getting the information on the sword.  Only Rumple never told Charming about the sword.  He did that all on his own.  Rumple still takes Snow's necklace since even his time comes with a price.

Furious, Snow heads back to camp to confront Charming.  But when Charming explains he only did it to show her what he already knew, she quickly forgives him.

Meanwhile, we get a fun couple of scenes as the dwarfs first accuse Charming of only marrying Snow for her kingdom but coming around after her second confrontation with Regina.

Meanwhile, over in Neverland….

Our crew of five is hard at work fighting threw the jungle and just barely getting along.  They find the plant that produces the poison that Hook tried to use to kill Gold.  Only he gave Gold a concentrated dose.  In the wild like this, it would be a very slow and very painful death.

They make camp, and while they are sleeping, Pan appears to Emma.  He gives her a map that will lead them right to Henry, but to reveal anything on it, Emma must accept who she really is.

And so she tries.  She really does.  However, even admitting she is the savior isn't enough to reveal anything on the map.  So Regina finally takes it and puts a tracker spell on it, leading them straight to Pan.

Only Pan was expecting that and it's a trap.  (Should have listened to Hook.)  The Lost Boys attack with arrows tainted with poison and swords.  Our heroes do a good job of fighting them off.  Charming is grazed with one of the arrows, but it just goes through his jacket - it doesn't hit him.  Emma attacks one of the boys and comes face to face with him, but won't actually hurt him.  Then Pan calls the boys off.

Back at camp, Emma is still trying to solve the riddle to reveal the map.  Mary Margaret goes to her to talk to her, and Emma starts opening up.  The reason she didn't hurt the boy is because she sees in him the same feeling of abandonment and loss she felt every day as a kid growing up in foster care.  And as she tearfully confesses to still feeling like an orphan, the map reveals itself.

They now have a location for Henry, on the other side of the island.  But as they start breaking camp (and really, were they carrying that much stuff and I just missed it or where did the rest of the camp stuff come from?) Pan shows up again.  He congratulates Emma on figuring out the map.  Then he says that he will work on Henry's own abandonment issues so Henry won't want to leave the island by the time Emma gets there.  He also comments on how Emma hasn't forgiven her own parents yet (which goes along with refusing to call Mary Margaret mom earlier in the episode).  And he promises that by the time they get to Pan's hideout, he intends to make Emma a real orphan.

And that's when we cut to the final scene, which shows Charming going off by himself.  He pulls up his shirt to reveal a wound.  Yes, the arrow did graze him, and the poison is beginning to work in his system.  I saw that coming a mile away.  Hoped I was wrong, but not at all surprised.

Meanwhile, Gold has his own subplot.  First of all, he cuts his shadow free and gives it the sword that could kill him, telling it to hide it some place where no one, not even Gold himself, knows where it is.  And I need to confess I was wrong.  What we saw last week was definitely someone's shadow and not a wraith.

Anyway, he is still playing with the crude little doll he got from the Lost Boy Emissary last week.  While his back is turned, someone sneaks into camp and takes it.  That someone?  Belle.  She delivers the news that the cloaking spell worked and everyone in Storybrooke is safe.  But Gold doesn't trust her, fearing Pan conjured her up.  Only it wasn't Pan.  It was Gold himself.

They take a walk, and Gold pours out his dilemma.  He's afraid that ultimately he will leave Henry behind in order to save himself, much like his father did to him.  But Belle reminds Gold how much he's regretted doing the same to Bae.  Besides, Gold doesn't have to be like his father.  Gold agrees and drops the little doll over the side of the cliff as Belle walks away.

However, talking back through the forest, it falls from the sky on top of him.  He sets it on fire only to find it in the next clearing.  So he picks it up and puts it in his pocket next to his heart.

Considering how much I'd been hearing about Magic Mirror/Sydney Glass returning to the show, I'm a bit surprised he got one scene where he was mainly talking.  Of course, he also has to work on Revolution now, so that's probably one reason why - no time for any more than that in the schedule.

I'm really surprised they are going with the abandoned kid angle for both Emma and Henry.  I mean, I know it is real, but any time you deal with adoption it can be so controversial.  I am anxious to see where this part of the storyline goes.  I think it will be rich fodder for character development.

So the last time we saw someone with this poison, it took Snow killing Cora to save him.  How are they going to save Charming this season?

Will Gold do the right thing in the end?  How is saving Henry going to be his undoing?

I honestly didn't figure out what Emma had to admit about herself until that scene started.  Considering they told us in the episode title (Lost Girl), I felt a little silly that I hadn't picked up on it already.

Not quite the number of funny lines this episode as last week, but I enjoyed it.  Thoughts?  Answers to my questions?  Hit me up in the comments and let me know if you liked it or not.

And don't forget Thursday night is the premier of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.  I'll be back with a recap of that on Friday evening.