TV Recap: Once Upon a Time 4-6 - Family Business

Sometimes, it’s the little things in life.  Tonight?  It’s the fact that the Snow Queen finally has a name!  She’s Ingrid.  I can stop typing Snow Queen a million times a recap.  Yes, as I said, it’s the little things.

With tonight’s episode, we are past the half-way point of the Frozen arc.  And we are getting more answers, but we’re still left with a bunch of questions.  I’m very intrigued to see where they go with all of this.

The episode flashback centered around Belle in her time before she first met Rumpelstiltskin and gave us a bit more insight into why she went with him in the first place.  We start out with her and her mother in the castle library as the Ogres are about to attack.  Unfortunately, they aren’t able to get out in time, and they are forced to hide under a table.  Just as an Ogre has found them, Belle blanks out.  She comes to remembering nothing, but quickly learns that her mother died.

Now here’s where I had an issue with the plot of the flashback.  Anyone knows that a parent’s first instinct is to protect their child.  So even though Belle’s father won’t tell her what happened to her mother, we can safely assume that.  But Belle doesn’t go there and instead sets out to get her memories back.  This takes her to Arendelle and the Rock Trolls.

It also takes her across Anna’s path.  We pick up the Frozen character backstory just as Anna has returned from her trip.  She tells Elsa that it was a wasted trip and she learned nothing.  However, she is surprised to see that Ingrid is there and claiming to be their aunt.  Automatically suspicious about Ingrid, Anna sets off to visit Grand Pabbie and learn the truth.

It’s at a stop at Oaken’s supply store where Anna and Belle’s paths cross.  Since Anna is heading to see the rock trolls, she invites Belle to go along with her.  The trolls live up the side of a cliff (which was news to me), but they make it up.  Grand Pabbie takes the memory from Belle’s head and gives it to her as a rock.  If she will steep it with her tea in the library back home, she will gain her memories back.

Then it is Anna’s turn.  She is surprised to learn that Ingrid is not only her mother’s oldest sister, but there was another sister as well.  One day, the two older sisters vanished, leaving only Anna and Elsa’s mother.  No one knows what happened to them, but Anna’s grandparents had Grand Pabbie take everyone’s memories so that no one would remember either of the two oldest girls.

As Anna and Belle head down the mountain, a storm comes up and a giant wind knocks into them.  Belle’s memory rock comes out of the bag it is in and lands on a ledge, but Anna is dangling on the edge of the cliff as well.  Belle tries to get her rock first, but it falls and breaks.  Then she goes to rescue Anna, but Anna falls as well.

However, Ingrid shows up and whisks Anna away.  When Anna wakes up, she’s in a cell and confronts Ingrid, who confesses her plan.  She wants a family back.  She thought she might get that with Anna and Elsa, but Anna isn’t like the two others, so Ingrid is going to keep her locked up and look elsewhere to find the third for her new family of sisters.  And Ingrid isn’t sure she can trust Anna since she found the Sorcerer’s hat on Anna.  Anna claims she’s innocent and just got it to keep it from Rumple, but Ingrid takes it and leaves.

Meanwhile, Belle goes home and her father finally tells her the truth – her mother died protecting her from the Ogres.  That gives Belle the courage to pursue an option she read about on her journey – Rumple.  She is willing to make any sacrifice if it means the people in their kingdom will be safe.

Shall we move on to Storybrooke present?

We start with everyone watching the video that Emma found last week.  As the implications sink in, they decide to head out to find Ingrid.  However, Henry provides a new clue for them to pursue – her ice cream truck.  The truck is found outside of Robin Hood’s camp.  Inside, there is a locked cabinet, and inside that is a file on Emma from the six months she spent at the home Ingrid was running.  That six months is the longest Emma spent at any home.  Emma is even more surprised to find that she wrote nice cards to Ingrid, and Ingrid even kept Emma’s school artwork.  And then took her memories.  Among the things that they find is a scroll in a language no one recognizes.

Gold sets out on his own and confronts Ingrid, warning her that Emma knows about their past.  Ingrid isn’t worried, saying that’s what she wanted at this point.  They talk, and it’s obvious that Ingrid isn’t going to back down on anything, and Gold has no leverage over her.  So he leaves with Ingrid threatening him to stay away.

Belle and Elsa decided to go back to the library to continue research there.  Elsa is still hoping to find some kind of word about Anna.  As Elsa gets frustrated at not finding anything, Belle finally decides she’s had enough and goes home because her conscious over the past is getting the better of her.  She is going to try to find out what she can from Ingrid to make up for her lack of heroics when Anna needed her last time.  Gold, having just returned from his talk with Ingrid, doesn’t want Belle to go and certainly doesn’t want to help.  However, Belle uses her dagger to force Gold to go along.  And rather than reveal his lie, Gold is forced to go along.

They hit Ingrid’s cave and Belle goes in alone.  She starts searching for some kind of clue when she hears a voice calling to her.  It’s her reflection in Ingrid’s mirror.  But this reflection gets Belle to doubt everything and everyone.  It taunts her by planting the idea that Gold gave her a fake dagger and no one in town thinks she is at all heroic.  At this point, Gold comes in saying that Ingrid is coming.  Belle lashes out at him, but Gold is still able to whisk them away to his shop where he finally calms Belle down enough to see through what the mirror says.  Although he does have to do some fast talking when Belle thinks he came in to the cave against orders.  Gold points out he was ordered to keep watch, and he came inside to warn Belle after learning that Ingrid was coming.

So Gold goes back to the cave to once again confront Ingrid.  As Ingrid dismisses him again, Gold whips out the hat.  He reveals he knows about the mirror and its power to get people to doubt their friends and turn them on each other.  He says if this mirror is used on anyone he cares about, he will collect Ingrid in the Sorcerer’s hat.

While out at Robin Hood’s camp, Regina confesses to Robin that she has tried everything and everyone she knows to free Marian from the spell she is under.  In fact, she tried to capture Ingrid to get her to undo the spell.  At this point, Marian’s only hope is for Robin to forget about Regina and fall in love with Marian again so true love’s kiss will work.  (Of course, true love’s kiss wasn’t the love that was needed in the movie, but with Marian frozen, I’m not sure what act she could do.)

So for the final scene, Belle confesses about her past encounter with Anna to Elsa, but Elsa has other exciting things to share.  Buried in the library, she’s found her family tree and learned that Ingrid is her aunt – an aunt she doesn’t remember…again.  And she also finds references to the third sister.  Only that sister looks like Emma.  That’s when Elsa sees the scroll that we found earlier.  She can translate it, and it looks like a prophecy about Emma taking the place of the missing sister.  So how did Ingrid get it?  And will it come true?  The gang figures out that Ingrid might be planning to use the mirror to get everyone to turn on themselves so only she, Elsa, and Emma are left to rebuild that family Ingrid is looking for.

And with that realization, we fade to black.

So I’m still wondering just where Anna is.  Is she even in our world or has she been in Arendelle all this time?  I’m really beginning to worry that she is okay.

I loved Regina tonight and wanted to cheer when she told Robin to forget about her and fall back in love with Marian.  That’s showing the kind of woman she is now and the little changes she has indeed made.  I like that.

But what is the deal with this prophecy?  Where did it come from?  Is it at all accurate?  It did get Emma as the savior right.  What else might there be to it?

And I’m wondering if Ingrid is the one who trapped Elsa in the bottle.  Elsa didn’t want to go along with her plan the last time around, so she took away her memories and trapped her in the bottle until now so that Emma would be around.  Then again, did Ingrid take Emma’s memories for the same reason – that Emma has already rejected Ingrid’s plan once?

What kind of deal did Ingrid and Gold make?  When did they do it?  Plus I’m wondering if Ingrid last had that hat, how did it wind up in the house where Gold found it?  Was that Ingrid’s house?  If so, how could it appear for the new curse but Emma and Ingrid meet when Emma first arrived in Storybrooke.

Being at the half way point, I feel like I should have more concrete theories on where they intend to go next with these characters, but I don’t.  So please feel free to share yours with me while we wait for another clue or two to come next week.