Wow. What an episode
last night. Several mysteries resolved
and a few plot points wrapped up. Not to
mention some heart stopping moments along the way.
I just hope I remember to cover everything.
We will start in the Enchanted Forest
of the missing year. The first scene
takes place as Snow and Charming are about to announce Snow's pregnancy to the
rest of the kingdom. Regina is trying to talk them out of it,
saying it is too dangerous with Zelena on the loose. Belle arrives and shares the news about Neal
and Rumplestiltskin. Aurora and Phillip
are there as well, and they finally confess that Zelena has been blackmailing
them into spying for her. Which is when
Zelena shows up and turns them both into flying monkeys. Nope, never saw that coming. She then confirms that Snow's baby is the one
she needs and takes off again.
We then flash forward eight months as the new counsel of war
is trying to determine what to do about Zelena.
Snow is almost ready to have the baby, and she doesn't want to lose it
to Zelena. The decision is made to go
see Rumple. Since he helped with the
last threat (Regina ),
maybe he can help with Zelena.
The party to see him consists of Snow, Charming, Regina , Belle, and Robin
Hood. I must say that watching Regina and Robin bicker
in the flash back was rather fun.
Anyway, they arrive to find an out-of-his-mind Rumple who is trying to
deal with having two people in his head.
Belle is able to get through to him long enough to get a name that might
help - Glinda. Yes, from Oz. She's been banished to Enchanted Forest ,
or at least the outskirts.
Rumple's weird directions turn out to actually be helpful,
and the trio of Snow, Charming, and Regina
find the location. Unfortunately, Regina isn't pure of
heart enough, so she has to stay behind.
Even more unfortunate, Glinda can't help them. She and Zelena used to be friends, but
Zelena's magic grew too dark. It's also
too powerful. The amulet that she wears
is what channels it. If someone can
break that, Zelena will be much weaker.
And the only way to do that is with good magic - the product of love.
Naturally, the trio immediately think of Emma since she is
the product of true love, but there is no way to reach our land - no way but
through the curse. Regina can't cast it since it would require
the sacrifice of someone she loves the most, and she wouldn't sacrifice Henry
even if he were there. Charming makes
the suggestion - Snow should cast it, sacrificing his heart in the bargain.
Naturally, it takes some convincing to get Snow to go along
with this, and eventually she does. Regina pulls out
Charming's heart, and the Snow holds it over the cauldron and crushes it.
Just then, Zelena flies in and adds her own touch to the
brew, a forgetfulness potion that will cause everyone to forget the last
year. That will mean they won't know who
Zelena is and they won't remember they need Emma to stop her. It also means that Snow will be searching for
Charming.
However, Snow comes up with plan of her own. She has Regina
rip out her heart and split it in half, giving half to her and half to
Charming. It works, and Charming is
revived in time for the curse to come.
Meanwhile, Zelena goes and brews two memory restorer
potions, one for her and one for Rumple.
Only, before Rumple drinks it, Neal comes out and sends it off to Hook
so he can go find Emma. Then Rumple
comes out again before the curse strikes.
Meanwhile, in the present day Storybrooke, Zelena is putting
the pressure on Hook to kiss Emma, thereby stealing Emma's magic. If Hook doesn't kiss Emma soon, Zelena is
going to start killing those Emma loves, starting with Henry.
Speaking of Henry, he catches Regina and Robin in the middle of
kissing. Henry's on his way to the
dinner while the rest of the group holds a counsel of war. They decide the best way to figure out how to
defeat Zelena is the break the curse. To
do that, they start looking at ways it was broken before. Emma has tried kissing Henry, and that hasn't
worked. So, they need to get him to
believe in the truth first, which means finding that story book. Last time that Henry needed it, it just
appeared in Mary Margaret's closet, so that's where the group starts
looking. Mary Margaret finds it in a box
that Emma had just looked in. That leads
to Emma confessing to her mother that she plans to leave when this is over
since she still thinks their life in New
York was better.
Could this uncertainty about Henry getting his memories back be why Emma
couldn't find the book?
Meanwhile, Henry is tired of being lied to about what is
happening, so he decides to run away.
Hook catches him trying to steal Emma's bug, and he suggests another
way. Smee is going to take him by boat
back to NYC. Just as Smee has almost
spilled the beans about who everyone is, the flying monkey attack starts. Hook kills two or three of them before he runs
out of ammo in his gun. Fortunately,
Emma used the tracking app between her and Henry's phones to track him down,
and the rest arrive in time to kill the remaining monkeys. Naturally, Henry is a little freaked out by
what he's just seen, but Emma offers him the book, explaining that all will
make sense. As soon as he touches it,
Henry remembers everything. (Anyone else
love it when he turns to Regina
and says, "Mom!")
However, guess who should appear but Zelena, ready to make
good on her threat to kill Henry. She
starts choking him, but Emma is able to magically call some light which weakens
Zelena to the point where she has to leave.
In the after math of that battle, Regina kisses Henry, and that's what breaks
the curse this time. Now everyone
remembers the last year. Robin Hood
shows up and comments on how differently he and Regina
are getting along in Storybrooke than they did in Enchanted Forest . Henry is thrilled that his mom is dating
Robin Hood.
And Emma, David, and Mary Margaret turn on Hook. Now that they have their memories back, David
and Mary Margaret know they didn't send Hook to get Emma for them. And since Zelena implied that Hook was
working for her, and Hook won't tell anyone (still) what that was about, they
were giving him looks like they don't trust him. Not that I can blame them. I mean, we know better, but based on what
they know, they have no reason to trust him.
The final scene takes place at the cemetery as Henry is
saying goodbye to Neal. Mary Margaret
and David are there as well, and when Henry and Emma start walking back toward
them, Mary Margaret goes into labor. The
baby is coming, which means that Zelena's plans are about to start in full
force.
As I said, a lot happened.
Now, we just need to figure out where they will go forward from here,
right?
How many flying monkeys does Zelena have? And were any of those killed ones we know
like Little John, Aurora, and Phillip?
Then again, it seems like she was talking to Walsh is Storybrooke, so
may be they can regenerate?
If Emma can break the curse since she is the product of true
love, does that mean that the baby can as well?
Does this make he or she perfect for the spell? Or will the baby be Zelena's undoing and not
Emma like everyone thinks now? That
would be interesting.
I loved that it was Regina 's
kiss that broke the spell this time. In
fact, with as happy as they are making her right now, I'm beginning to worry
for her safety. I hope nothing happens
to her, but it wouldn't surprise me at this point. Maybe a sacrifice like Gold made to end of the
first half of the season?
I can't believe it was Snow who cast the curse. But I am wondering if they had already
tweaked it so that they wouldn't lose their memories or if Zelena's potion did
that for them. After all, when
originally cast, it was only Regina
and Gold who remembered who they were.
This time, everyone remembered who they were, just not the details of
the last year.
Are they ever going to go back to the darkness growing in
Mary Margaret's heart? They seem to have
dropped that, and I wish they would wrap that up at some point. Last week and this week would have been good
times to deal with it. However, if that
is the only dropped plot point (and it seems to be at the moment), I'm not
complaining.
And I guess the book just magically appeared back before
season 1. I sure thought that August had
something to do with that.
So what did you think of the episode? Any theories of your own on what is coming
next?
Next week we get to meet Dorothy and maybe find out a little
about Glinda and Zelena's relationship.
That should be interesting.
Loved this episode (I'm saying that a lot about this second half of the season!). We sure did get a lot of answers in this one.
ReplyDeleteI thought for sure when I heard that Glinda would be on that she was the one to send them back to Storybrooke. Why I didn't know but it's what I thought. I can see why Snow thought it would be good to go back and find Emma but of course that witch Zelina spoiled it with the memory curse.
I really liked the answers and thought it was great that it was Neal coming out of Gold to send Hook on the mission to find Emma. I'm glad Henry has his memory back and that he has connected with Regina. And I'm liking the change in Regina. Back in Enchanted Forest (or wherever the heck they were), she wasn't doing evil anymore but she wasn't very nice. She really redeemed herself by showing her emotions over Charming sacrificing himself and then taking Snow's heart and breaking it in two. So, yeah, which side has the black (dark) spot on it? I agree, they've kind of dropped that aspect. And I saw nothing wrong with the heart when Regina took it out and was holding it. Oh well.
I also agree - I hope our friends who have been turned into monkeys are OK!
So, looking at next's weeks preview I see Dorothy and Zelina at a well and I see water :)
Yes, the change between the Regina of Enchanted Forest just before the new curse and the Regina of now is very different. She was on their side, but she wasn't being very nice about it. I think that was some of the funniest stuff of the episode.
DeleteHonestly, I think they've dropped the dark heart, so I'm not expecting it to come back. But, as I keep saying, if that is the worst thing they drop, I'm not really going to complain. With as complex as the story is, they do a very good job of giving us answers and tying all the lose ends together.
I sure thought Dorothy and Zelena were going to be in a flashback, yet it did look like Zelena was melting. I hope they explain that one, because if she just melts, it seems like we could have defeated her in an episode or two at most.