TV Recap: Once Upon a Time 4-19 - Lily

I’d figured out a few weeks ago who Maleficent’s daughter was, and that we’d be meeting her before the season was over.  It just made sense.  So from that stand point, last night’s episode wasn’t a huge shock.  On the other hand, that final scene?  Never saw it coming.

Our flashback involves teenage Emma and her friend Lily.  Emma has finally landed in a good home when Lily shows up.  Lily manages to work her way into Emma’s new family, claiming to be a friend from a foster home.  However, when Emma sees a news report, she figures out the truth, Lily has run away from her rich adopted parents and is a wanted fugitive thanks to a convenience store robbery that her boyfriend talked her in to being part of.  Emma tries to get Lily to leave, but Lily says he needs her necklace, the only thing she has from her birth mother, which she left behind at the empty house where she and her boyfriend are squatting.

Emma returns from getting the necklace to find Lily gone and her foster parents very upset.  They’ve figure out who Lily really is after Lily stole a bunch of money and disappeared.  Emma is on her own again.

Lily finds runaway Emma and tries to convince her to join forces, but Emma isn’t having any of it.  Lily explains that it seems all her choices turn bad when Emma isn’t around, but somehow things work when they are together.  Emma is so mad at losing a home she actually loved that she isn’t willing to listen, however.

The final scene in the flashback features Lily riding on a bus by herself.  Suddenly, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is sitting next to her.  He reveals he is about to break a promise (made to the Sorcerer in the first scene of the episode) and explain to Lily why her life is the way it is.

End flashback.

Before we take a road trip outside of Storybrooke, let’s deal with what is happening there – Gold is after Belle’s heart.  Despite my theories last week, it looks like Regina really had taken Belle’s heart and, we learned this week, asked Maleficent to guard it.  However, Gold was smarter than that and used Will Scarlet to steal it back.  Once Belle’s heart had been returned to her, Gold apologized for not working to make her happy every day of their marriage and walked out, saying that he was leaving Belle and her heart for Will to guard from now on.

Now for the road trip.  Mal has asked Emma to track down Lily, and a shocked Emma has determined that Mal’s daughter is Emma’s childhood friend.  Meanwhile, Regina wants to go to New York to get Robin Hood away from Zelena disguised as Marian.  And so this unlikely duo set off.  They track Lily to an apartment where she lived until an accident killed her two years ago.  Emma loses it when she gets the news since the man who delivers it basically says that Lily brought it on herself by her behavior.

However, when a wolf suddenly appears in the road, forcing Emma to do a quick skid that costs her a tire, Emma and Regina find themselves at a roadside diner.  One of the waitresses?  You guessed it – Lily as an adult.  She’d faked her death to get away from some bad people who were after her.  At first, Lily says that her life is great with a husband and kid, but Emma sees through that right away.  (Really, Emma’s “power” to know when someone is lying comes and goes at the will of the writers.  It’s so annoying.)  Emma steals Lily’s time card to get her address (has anyone had their address on a time card ever?) and Emma and Regina go to Lily’s trailer.

Sure enough, they don’t find any evidence of a husband or kid, but they also find a shocker on the wall – a wall of pictures and notes that make it obvious Lily knows the truth about her parentage and is trying to track down Storybrooke.  (We didn’t get the flashback scene of Lily and the Sorcerer’s Apprentice until after this revelation.)  And then Lily steals Emma’s car.

Emma steals another car, and Emma and Regina go off chasing down Lily.  They catch her, and Emma and Lily go at it.  Just as Gold predicted, this appears to be another step down the road of darkness for Emma when she pulls her gun on Lily, ready to shoot her to protect Emma’s family in Storybrooke.  Yes, that includes the family she is still mad at.  However, Regina is able to talk Emma down from shooting Lily, who was actually ready to be killed to put her out of her miserable life.  With Emma promising not to turn her back on her friend now, Lily agrees to go with them back to Storybrooke.

Of course, there’s still the matter of Robin Hood.  Regina learns that her leverage against Gold is no longer safe, so the trio race to NYC.  There, they find Robin home alone, and Regina tries to explain to him what is really happening.  He doesn’t seem ready to believe it until “Marian” returns home from the store.  At first, she denies everything, but then she changes form, revealing the truth to Robin.  However, instead of being happy, he’s frozen in horror – almost literally.  And a delighted Zelena reveals why – she’s pregnant.

End of episode.

I never saw that coming.  I knew it wouldn’t be so easy to get Robin away from Zelena, but I was not expecting that at all.  How are we going to deal with that?  I wouldn’t put it past Zelena to lie about it, but you never know.

Meanwhile, Emma is clearly going down the dark path.  I love Regina trying to reign her in.  Their friendship is just wonderful.  But can she stop Emma?

And what is Lily’s agenda really?  It looks to me like she is holding a grudge, and Emma’s willingness to trust her will come back to haunt everyone in Storybrooke.

Plus, despite how upset Gold looked at the beginning of the episode when observing Will and Belle together and how he tried to threaten Will inside the shop, he is giving up his claim on Belle.  Why?  What’s that all about?  Does he feel the author will get him with Belle anyway?  Or does he think he is beyond all hope?  But if he feels that way, why is he still working with the author?

Once again, they are creating a villain (well, villains) I can’t see any way to defeat.  We only have three hours of the show left this season, and I am worried about who will be left standing when the season ends.  Hang on to your seats, I think we’re in for a bumpy ride.

Thoughts?  Theories?  Hit me up in the comments.