Spoilers Ahead
Once Upon A Time has been at its best this season with plot twists.
Enchanted Forest Flashbacks: Charming and Snow are about to announce their pregnancy to the kingdom, but moments before turning into flying monkeys, Aurora and Phillip reveal the witch’s plan to take their baby. Belle runs in to tell everyone that Rumple and Neal have morphed together, and the Charmings later visit him to find out how they could defeat the Wicked Witch. He doesn’t respond to them with useful information until Belle decides to speak with him and he states that the only thing powerful enough to defeat her is light magic. Snow, Charming, and Regina visit Glinda (Sunny Mabrey) but due to the vengeance in her heart, Regina’s unable to enter, and the Charmings come to understand that since Glinda’s magic isn’t powerful enough for Zelena, they must cast a curse to return to Emma – whose magic is most pure because she’s the product of true love. Because the curse requires the heart of the thing you love most, Regina’s unable to cast it because Henry’s not with her; therefore, Snow sacrifices Charming’s heart to do so. However, before the curse is complete, Zelena flies in and adds a memory loss ingredient. Snow then chooses to have faith in the fact that she and Charming could survive if her heart is split into two pieces which Regina agrees to and it saves Charming’s life.
Present-Day Storybrooke: Zelena makes Rumple kidnap Hook in order to threaten him about to quickening his pace or people will die. Emma, Snow, Charming, and Regina come to the realization that they need to break this current curse in order to figure out a way to defeat Zelena – finding the Storybook and making Henry believe. After an argument with Emma, Henry decides he wants to run away and Killian decides to help him – to protect him, but they’re attacked by flying monkeys. Emma, Snow, Charming, and Regina come in and once Henry touches the book, his memories are restored. Using her powers then Emma saves Henry from the Wicked Witch and when Regina kisses him, the curse breaks restoring everyone’s memories.
Snow and Charming define everlasting; no matter what life throws at these two they’ll find a way to be together – to be one, in sickness, in health, and even after death attempts to due them part. In “A Curious Thing” they did just that, overcame all obstacles and actually became one. Their momentary goodbye was essentially the most heartbreaking thing to exist and we hope it’s something that’s never seen again. Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas’ effortless chemistry and love always make their way onto the screen thus making their scenes most beautiful. Their hearts beat to the same rhythm and it’s now stronger than ever – there’s no connection quite as powerful. The villains on this show should learn their lesson by now. At the end of the day, Snow couldn’t sacrifice Charming, and luckily splitting her heart into two pieces worked wonderfully.
Once again, we were moved to tears by how far Regina and Snow have come. Lana Parrilla and Ginnifer Goodwin continue to evoke happiness through their astounding performances – and while last week’s moments were lovely – they went above and beyond tonight. As Snow was beginning Regina to split her heart into two pieces, the two women did an excellent job of reprising their roles as stepmother and daughter – Regina embodied that motherly figure while Snow’s vulnerability legitimately made her look like a child in need. If that’s not tear-jerker worthy, then we don’t know what is.
They’ve had quite a few scenes like this, some more gruesome than others, but it was the warmth with which Regina spoke that implied her care for Snow’s life. She may have spent years trying to kill her but she definitely doesn’t want to lose her now. The innocent, childlike unwavering faith that Snow professed her desires with and the apprehensive, motherly love that came over Regina when she considered the possibility that Snow may die made this scene one of the greatest ones in their history. It was raw, heartfelt, and effortlessly gorgeous. Regina continues to prove how terribly remorseful she is over casting the original curse through her choices to help the Charmings in every way that she can.
Regina and Robin may have their fastidious moments in the Enchanted Forest, but the Outlaw and the Queen are frivolously adorable in Storybrooke. They’ve connected wonderfully, and though we haven’t seen much of their relationship, the bond they share is undoubtedly a special one. They’re both each other’s second chance at love, and there’s no denying that when two souls connect the way theirs have, it’s something worth treasuring. Robin’s bold, kind, and understanding – he’s exactly who Regina needs to ground her at a place where she has more desires to do good than evil. And when Robin said “you can use mine for the both of us,” Maguire delivered that line with a promising tone. Although they haven’t known each other for long, Robin’s feelings for Regina are planted deeply within him, and he made sure she knew that she’s cherished by him. Henry then walks in on them, and when Regina’s expression goes from giddy to tormented, Robin instantly realizes the pain she must be in, and he once again attempts to show her that he’s there. Their relationship is growing by the second and we’re certainly pleased with the timing of everything – especially in their final scene when he introduced himself to Henry. There was such sweetness and valor in his tone – they may not have liked each other in the Enchanted Forest, but they’re not shying away from exploring their feelings and it’s pretty incredible.
Emma’s fear of opening up and embracing her happy ending continued to speak for her this week as she once again expressed wanting to leave for New York. However, it’s evident that deep down, it isn’t what she truly wants. No matter how great her life seemed to be in New York, she knows that the right thing for her, Henry, and everyone else she cares for is staying in Storybrooke.
Every relationship whether romantic or platonic is a favorite of ours, and the mother/son bond Henry and Emma share is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable ones. When Emma handed Henry the book and asked him to believe, Jennifer Morrison portrayed the scene in a superlatively heartfelt manner – she allowed the audience to feel Emma’s fear of change. Their life in New York was good – this moment meant that their bond may possibly change from what they’ve built and the painful yet hopeful expression Morrison wore was astounding. Though you could momentarily see the fear in her eyes of what Henry might think of her for lying, she masked the pain with the faith that they could continue to strengthen their bond with both sets of memories.
At the end of the day, Emma’s innermost desire is a happy ending – despite everything she’s been through and no matter how hopeless she seems at times, she’s never stopped believing in the chance that she could be happy. She takes chances and embraces the good things but like all humans, she falls. And though Killian certainly doesn’t enjoy keeping secrets from her, he saw Emma’s excitement over her abilities, and he tried to distance himself from her for her own good. Killian’s not a selfish man, hence he didn’t want to be responsible for taking away a part of her happiness he’s tried to help her embrace.
When Killian chose to help Henry run away with Mr. Smee, the act was his way of keeping the boy away from harm because he knew Zelena would be after him. Killian’s welcomed Henry as a son, and his fondness for the boy and he’d do anything to protect him. And ultimately, who even believes he was going to make sure Henry ran away for good – we took that scene as him trusting Smee to take care of the boy until it was safe to return. Just as Emma believed that keeping Henry’s memories away from him was for the best, Killian felt the same way about the curse placed on him.
Although both of their intentions were pure, they weren’t exactly the wisest – like the kindred spirits they are, they both waited until they were forced to confront the situation once and for all. Emma states that she can no longer trust him, but there’s definitely more than meets the eye in that scene. And what we found most fascinating is that when he was confronted about his cursed lips, he didn’t talk about his love or how broken he feels about not being with her – Killian once again made sure Emma knew just how virtuously powerful she is. He substantiated his love for her not by discussing how much it pained him but by uplifting her abilities and demonstrating his perpetual loyalty to her. O’Donoghue made certain the audience could see that Killian’s heartfelt decisions came from a place of love more than anything else. Though Emma’s angry at the moment, Killian’s someone she will undoubtedly trust again as she hasn’t forgotten his adoration for her. It’s only a matter of time before her walls come down.
In all honesty, we aren’t quite sure why the Charmings were so quick to judge Killian and the message scenario, but it simply seems as though just as everything in this episode occurred impulsively, their reaction did too. They’ll eternally be grateful for him bringing Emma back home, so it merely seemed intuitive. People fight and they say things they don’t exactly mean. Ultimately, Killian’s part of the Charmings, he has been for quite some time now, and the scene felt like a typical familial fight that will be forgotten about in the morning.
Fundamentally, it’s beautiful how Rumple was able to respond when it came to Belle though compelled and brainwashed his love for her runs so deep that she’s able to pull him out even for a moment. We certainly can’t wait to see these two reunite again.
Regina breaking the curse by kissing Henry’s forehead was an interesting way of going about things because, at the end of the day, Henry’s the one who’s essentially changed Regina’s blackened heart for the better. And while she’s made countless mistakes in the past, like everyone else, she’s entitled to forgiveness. Regina’s truly learned to love Henry selflessly when she felt the pain of losing him. Not to mention, Gilmore played Henry’s incomparable happiness of regaining his memories so well.
Additionally, we learned that even though the memory potion was meant for Rumple to take, Neal came out of him –this sounds so bizarre to write– and sent out the dove to find Killian Jones.
Next week we meet the new Charming baby and Dorothy. What are your thoughts on this week’s episodes?