TV Recap - Once Upon a Time 4-9 - Fall

Were you paying attention tonight?  Because they snuck in an answer to a question from last season they’d never offered.  Plus they mentioned that Mary Margaret and David are sharing a heart.  It’s always nice to know that they haven’t forgotten those little details.

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get to it.

We will start in Arendelle where Anna and Kristoff are waking up from being frozen.  It seems that Ingrid’s spell has broken and they are now free.  Guess it didn’t reach their heart’s in that time.  Unfortunately, it has also unfrozen Hans and his brothers, and Hans is still intent on taking over the kingdom.  Anna and Kristoff manage to escape, and Anna is certain that if they can find the urn that Elsa is trapped in, that she can regain the kingdom.  Her idea is to find the wishing star she’d read about in her mother’s diary and use it in connection with getting the urn back from Rumpelstiltskin.

The last she knew, Blackbeard had the wishing star, so the pair go there to try to buy it from him.  He demands his weight in gold, which Anna quickly agrees to.  However, it was a trap.  Hans got there first and Anna and Kristoff are captured and put in a chest to be thrown overboard.  See, Blackbeard was once made to walk the plank, and a mermaid rescued him, so he’s not taking any chances.  And so, with their hands tied behind their backs, Anna and Kristoff are thrown overboard in the same spot where Anna’s parent’s ship went down.

And while they are talking, Blackbeard just happens to slip in that Anna and Kristoff (and presumably the entire kingdom) were frozen for 30 years.  That means they are now alive in the same time our characters are trying to find them in Storybrooke.  He also mentions that his ship is the Jolly Roger.  So now we know who Hook sold his ship to last season to get the bean that brought him to New York to fetch Emma.

So let’s leave this duo in a precarious situation and go check in with our friends in Storybrooke, shall we?

Because they aren’t fairing much better.  Ingrid has cast the spell of shattered sight and it will hit the town at sunset.  There is a counter spell, but it needs hair or something from someone who has had the spell cast on them before.  Suddenly, finding Anna is a high priority, especially since getting out of town is still not an option.

And so, while the nuns/fairies start trying to create the cure, Elsa and Emma put a locator spell on Anna’s newly recovered necklace.  It leads them to the library and the tunnels under town before hitting a cave in.  Elsa is ready to blast through it, but Emma cautions restraint.  They head back to town to consult with Grumpy.

He says the dwarves can definitely get them through the blockade, but Regina reminds them there just isn’t time.  Meanwhile, the fairies have determined that they can use Anna’s necklace to create an antidote.  But it would mean destroying it, and it is Elsa’s one shot at finding her sister.  Everyone tries to find another way, but finally Regina convinces them this is the only way, and Emma asks Elsa for the necklace.

However, Elsa gives them a fake, and then takes off to follow the trail again.  As soon as the others realize it, Emma takes off after her and catches up just as Elsa blasts through the blockade.  The duo find themselves on the beach.  The locator spell is flashing harder than ever.

And suddenly, it stops.

Now we know that it is because Anna and Kristoff are in the trunk at the bottom of the ocean.  Kristoff has managed to untie their hands (the old exposed nail behind you trick), but the water is still rushing it.  Anna’s given up, but Kristoff hasn’t.

Elsa, frustrated, wishes that Anna were here with her.  And that necklace of Anna’s Elsa is holding?  It’s the wishing star.  Next thing Elsa and Emma know, the water at the beach in front of them is boiling and a flash throws them back.  Then a chest appears and out come Anna and Kristoff, very much alive.  There is a very joyous reunion, and then they rush to Granny’s, where the fairies have set up shop to create the antidote.

At this point, we need to talk about what Gold and Hook have been up to.  Gold has gotten a promise of safe passage out of town for himself, Belle, and Henry.  Before he goes, he wants to fill up the hat so he can be free from his dagger and still take his power with him.  He enlists his slave – Hook – to do the dirty deed.  And the target?  The fairies.  Getting all of them in the dinner will be enough to give Gold the power he needs.  Never mind the fact that they might create a cure so that no one will be in danger in town – Gold wants what he wants.  Belle has been helping the fairies, but he finally gets her out of there and then Hook goes to work, sucking every last one of them into the hat.  The last to go is the Blue Fairy, but he finds her in the end.  He then returns the hat to Gold and asks if he can now get his heart back, but Gold refuses, thinking he might have more use for Hook before Hook is destroyed with the rest of town.

This means that when Anna, Kristoff, Elsa, and Emma arrive at the diner, no one is there.  There is no hope for the town.  As the spell descends, the citizens do their best to protect themselves, locking themselves in private places either with bars (Mary Margaret and David in jail) or magic (Regina in her vault).  There are some great tender moments as people are doing this, essentially saying their goodbyes.  The only ones free are Elsa, Emma, and Anna, who are immune – Elsa and Emma because Ingrid wants them as her new sisters and Anna because she’s had the spell cast on her before.  This trio will need to figure out a way to reverse it on their own.  And the episode ends as the spell hits the town.

I must say, if we are going to have a spell destroy the town again for the umpteenth time, this is a pretty creative one.  Plus it will allow for some people’s true feelings about each other to come out.  That will be fun next week, based on the previews.  And I think it will bring some things to the surface that will have to be dealt with as the story progresses.

I failed to mention that the bottle that Elsa and Anna’s mother threw into the ocean as her ship sank also showed up on the beach after the trunk did.  I still want to know what is in that note and how it will save them all.  You know it contains something important or they never would have created it in the first place.  It’s just good storytelling.

But I can’t tell you how happy I am that Anna and Elsa have been reunited, and they have both lost 30 years.  I was hoping they’d figure out a way to reunite them like this, but I was having a hard time coming up with ways that would work.

Somehow, we need to save Arendelle and Storybrooke.  I’m not quite sure how that can happen, but I am looking forward to see how it plays out.  And with only two episode left in this arc of the show, it should be a wild ride.

Any theories on how they will save the day?  Hit me up in the comments.  And I’ll see you next week.