TV Recap: Once Upon a Time 4-8 - Smash the Mirror

Two hours!  Two glorious hours!  And we even got some answers.  And yet, those two hours aren’t enough.  And we have to wait two weeks to find out what happens next!  But for now, let’s glory in the two hours.

And get started with the flashback, which finally reveals how Elsa got trapped in the urn.

Ingrid hides the hat and then talks to the Sorcerer’s Apprentice to try to make a deal to find the other sister she so desperately wants.  The first sister will be Elsa.  However, the Apprentice says that the Sorcerer doesn’t make deals.

And so Ingrid returns home and starts trying to turn Elsa against Anna by lying about what Anna has been up to, claiming that Anna intended to use the hat to trap Elsa.  Elsa quickly see through the lies and comes up with a plan to trap Ingrid back in the urn.  Together the sisters hunt through the castle to find it hidden in the East wing, aka the former home of Ingrid and her original two sisters.  They also find a frozen Hans there (interesting twist).

The plan at this point is to lure Ingrid down to the dungeon to “banish” Anna, but Anna will spring the urn on her and trap her instead.  However, Ingrid has been on to them the entire time and traps Anna as soon as Elsa walks away.  She then takes a small piece of glass and uses the Spell of Broken Sight on her, which makes her see only the bad in others – in this case Elsa.

And so a freed Anna goes and confronts Elsa with the urn in her hand.  As she starts to list all the things that Elsa has done to harm her (and they are pretty accurate), Ingrid shows up, insisting that this is the real Anna and urging Elsa to destroy her.  Elsa won’t, however, and Ingrid winds up watching in horror as Anna opens the urn and traps Elsa inside.  Immediately the spell is broken, and Anna quickly what has happened.  Kristoff then rushes into the room, but Ingrid decides to embrace her role as a villain and freezes them both as well as the walls of the castle.

She also must have put the forgetting spell on Elsa because Rumple mentions it when he shows up.  Yep, we’ve hardly frozen the castle when Rumple appears and magically takes Elsa inside the urn.  He will exchange it for the Sorcerer’s Hat.

And so Ingrid goes to get it.  Before she can utter Rumple’s name three times, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice appears and warns Ingrid about the danger if Rumple gets a hold of it.  He also says that the Sorcerer is making an exception to his “no deals” rule because Ingrid has impressed him.  If she is as patient as she claims to be, she will find her third sister and be reunited with Elsa.  All she has to do it return the hat and walk through a door that has suddenly appeared new them.  She does, and finds herself in 1982 New York just as Emma is about to arrive.

Thus endeth the flashback.  Shalt we get to the present?  (Boy, being tired makes me silly.)

Emma’s powers are still out of control.  Henry finds her, but she accidentally hurts him.  The rest of the crew is out to find her and convince her that they love her and want her back, but they can’t find her.  And Ingrid is after Emma to embrace who she is.

Emma, however, turns to Gold and asks him to take away her magic.  He says he knows a way to do that, a powerful spell, but they must do it outside of town – at the mansion where he found the hat (not that he mentioned that detail to her).

So Emma calls Mary Margaret and reports in on what she is planning to do.  Hook immediately recognizes that it is bad and rushes out to confront Gold.  Gold isn’t in the shop, so Hook leaves Emma a voicemail confessing all he’s been up to this season and why.  He also reveals the truth about the dagger.  He then sees the map with the mansion circles and rushes out there.

Meanwhile, Elsa overhears a talk between David and Mary Margaret about how they will support Emma no matter what choice she makes, however, they sound okay, even happy (not that either will admit it) that Emma is giving up her magic.  Elsa knows it is a bad choice and uses a location spell from Regina to try to find Emma.

Yes Regina, has come over and winds up healing Henry after his injury from Emma.  They also have a heart to heart about how he feels being ordinary.  Regina points out that he has the Heart of the Truest Believer, and he’s responsible for much of what has happened in town, or as responsible as anyone else.

Then Regina goes and talks to David and Mary Margaret.  She convinces them that Emma needs to keep her magic, and so the group (including Henry) rush out to try to find Emma.

Meanwhile, Gold has trapped Ingrid thanks to ashes from the urn, a spell that will wear off eventually but will keep her from stopping Emma.  Ingrid finds a way to project herself via her mirror, and this projection tries to warn Emma, but Emma doesn’t buy it.  Still, it does give her enough doubts that when she shows up at the mansion, she questions Gold long and hard about this spell.  Gold has the hat set up in the next room; all Emma has to do is walk inside.

Gold leaves and finds Hook about to rush in and stop Emma.  Gold uses a hose (or vine, but it looked like a garden hose to me) to trap Hook and keep him from stopping Emma.

However, Elsa, who arrived separately, gets in.  She pleads with Emma not to give up her magic.  Elsa also explains the second part of controlling your magic.  Not only do you need the love of someone you love (Anna for Elsa and Henry for Emma), but you also need to love and accept who you are – magic and all.  When Emma does that, she immediately has control over her powers again.  She goes outside where her happy family is ready to embrace her.

Meanwhile, Gold has realized his plan has failed.  But he reveals to Hook what the secret ingredient is.  Once the hat has enough power, he needs to give it the heart of someone who knew him before he became The Dark One.  The only person like that left is Hook, so Gold takes out his heart.  But the hat isn’t ready, so Gold doesn’t crush it yet.  Instead, he is going to make Hook his slave first.

We also got a bit more on the magic book.  Regina tells Robin Hood about it as they spend the night together.  Robin sets off to see if he can gain any clues, enlisting the help of Will Scarlett.  Will thinks he’s seen something in the library, so the two head over there.  Only they are getting nowhere with the research until Robin finds something in his satchel that wasn’t there before.  He quickly calls Regina to come take a look.

When Regina shows up (from the party tracking down Emma), she finds the new page is a picture of Regina and Robin meeting in that pub all those years ago.  It’s page number 23, and page 23 in the book is the one that shows Regina walking away from what could have been her first meeting with Robin all those years ago.  Obviously, the message is there is hope, and Regina can still make new choices that will give her a happy ending.

Gold promised that the urn dust he used to trap Ingrid wouldn’t last long, and it didn’t.  Once Ingrid is free, she goes to the three ribbons and magically puts them on the three “sisters.”  Emma is putting on a magic fireworks show for her family when Henry spots the ribbon.  Elsa has one, too, and they both feel a pulling, as if the magic is leaving them.

And Gold shows up at Ingrid’s place.  She explains that now that Emma has accepted her powers, the three are truly sisters, and she can use their power to create her Spell of Broken Sight over the entire town.  She and Gold have a one upsmanship contest about how is more powerful.  Gold leaves, and Ingrid unleashes the spell.

End of episode.

So we learn why Anna trapped Elsa in the urn (which was much like I suspected).  We learned how Gold got Elsa and the urn and how Ingrid got to our world and time.  Of course, I’d love to know how she didn’t age in all that time.  I’m also wondering how this fits with the impression I’ve had if it wasn’t stated outright that Ingrid knew so much about the hat because she had it for so long.  Did I just misunderstand that part?  And why couldn’t Anna or Ingrid just open the urn and let Elsa out?  Are Anna and Kristoff okay somewhere?

I’m kicking myself for not realizing who Gold was going to have to kill.  Of course it would be Hook.  Who else would he enjoy so much?

And I hate a theory on the author of the book.  My guess is the Sorcerer wrote it.  That’s how new pages appear magically.  And how it turns up in weird places.  I’m sure we know who the Sorcerer is, but I can’t place my finger on quite who it is.

Really, this was a great episode.  We got lots of revelations and story with more time for characters to have heart to hearts.  Plus there were many very funny lines from the episode.  I left out many of the heart to heart chats, but you need to go back and watch the episode for that reason alone.  I’m hearing some of those scene were reworked scenes that were cut from earlier episodes.

The only thing we were missing was Belle, which is funny since so much happened at the shop and the library.  She couldn’t show up in one of those scenes?

Still, I liked it and think the show should be on for two weeks every week.  Unfortunately, we do have to wait two weeks for our next fix.  Until then, let me know if you have any theories on who the Sorcerer might be.  And is he connected to this mysterious mansion owner or not.