Once Upon A Time, S02E16
Snow, Charming, Rumpelstiltskin, Emma, and Neal holed up in Gold's pawn shop to protect themselves from the upcoming attack from Cora and Regina. Rumpelstiltskin told Snow that the only was for them to defeat Cora before she came to steal his powers was to use the black magic candle to kill Cora first. In the past, Cora and Rumpelstiltskin's first meeting was revealed, as well as Cora's determination to rise to power and get revenge on those who had humiliated her.
It was amazing to me that with so little defense with Rump being indisposed that Cora and Regina weren't able to get Rump much faster. Of course, that would be no fun for the viewers, so there was enough time for Rump to teach Emma some magical techniques before they were attacked. I liked seeing Rump have to rely on Emma and him yelling at her when she was using magic in the wrong way (using her head too much). It would be cool if he continued to teach her some things, even though I don't think her parents would much approve of her learning from the Dark One.
Then again, Snow herself decided to use the candle to save her family, so she shouldn't be able to judge. I really liked when she told Rump that she should just let him die and then control Cora to make her do the right thing when she got her hidden heart. That actually would have been the least evil thing for her to do, I guess, but Rump easily played the grandfather card. How sneaky of him to only care about being Henry's grandfather when it could save his life. Like he gives a damn about Henry right now. I love that they have this bond to Rump that prevents them from getting rid of him out of convenience.
Undoubtedly, the best part of Rump edging closing to death while Regina and Cora loomed closer to the shop was when Rump called Belle. I'm fairly sure it wasn't some kind of act because I doubt he would lie there and talk about his true feelings with an audience if he didn't have a choice about it. I was starting to get worried that he would end up dying by Cora's hand any moment and got teary-eyed when he was telling Belle all about how wonderful of a person she was but didn't know it yet. It got even more emotional when Neal was touched by Rump exposing his human side and the two of them embraced each other. I know that Neal is still far from forgiving him, but I loved seeing the healing process start! It was then that I felt like I wouldn't be able to keep watching if Rump did indeed meet his end in this episode.
Thankfully, Snow did the "wrong" thing and used the candle over Cora's heart and gave the heart back to Regina. It did leave a bad taste in my mouth the way Snow had to tell Regina that she could get her mother's love if she put her heart back into her body, knowing that once she did Cora would die. I never liked Cora, even after hearing her back story, but I felt for Regina when she had about a minute to enjoy her mother's loving gaze before she crumpled down to her death. It was either her or Rump, and I'll choose her over Rump any day.
I'm worried about Snow, who made it very clear that she was the one who made Cora die by bursting in the room to warn Regina way too late. I would say that they were sort of even, but it was Cora who killed Snow's mother, not Regina. So it doesn't feel very much like justice in Regina's position anyway. I'm just glad that Snow did regret her actions before she had to see Cora dead. I would have hated her to be happy about Cora's death. Regina's definitely going to go for her blood, which I'm not looking forward to. Maybe Rump, who's now part of the extended family, might lend a helping hand? They're always getting flicked away in a second when faced against magic, so it would help to have someone magical on their side (if Emma's not going to be that person).
Cora's back story was certainly intriguing. I never thought she would be that girl in the Rumpelstiltskin tale that we know. It all started when Eva, Snow's mother, tripped and embarrassed her in front of several people. That was a horrible moment for Cora, but to hold onto that grudge for so long that she would hurt every person along the way is insane. However, you can't ignore that Rumpelstiltskin was mostly to blame for Cora turning into the monster she was. He was the one that taught her magic and how to remove hearts. He was a fool, for many reasons, for trusting and falling in love with her.
From that earlier scene when Cora first came to town and Rump and she kissed, it was evident that something had been between them once. Still, I hoped that Rump was not going to get involved with her when I was watching the story in the past. Frankly, I thought it was a little gross to see them kissing and such. Ugh. It's mainly because you know what kind of person Cora turned out to be. It doesn't help that if it's not Belle, it seems wrong to me, even though what Cora and Rump had was many, many years before Belle even came into the picture. I hated the momentary coupling between Cora and Rump even more when Cora easily chose power over her love for him.
Amazingly, Cora seems to be the only one who's ever bested Rump in one of his contracts. She got him to revise the document to better serve herself and when she told him that she was leaving him, Cora reminded him that she didn't owe him a child or anything else now. That was impressive. She had taken out her own heart (instead of that hateful father-in-law of hers) and made sure that she would stick to her decision to keep climbing the ladder without her love for Rump getting in the way. Wow. It's amazing that she got away with it, that is until it came full circle when she tried to take Rump's power away. It seemed kind of appropriate that after double-crossing him in the past and trying to take away his Dark One powers that Cora was the one who ended up dead. She spent all of her life fighting to be on the top and finally it was her own undoing. If only she had just lived happily with either Herny, who gave her Regina, or Rump, who would have given her true love. Her demise would be a sad ending, if I liked Cora better.
It also caught my attention that Cora was once a queen. I knew that she and Regina were sort of well-to-do in the past, but it never occurred to me that they were former royalty. I guess eventually all that spinning straw into gold didn't allow the kingdom to thrive forever. If not, I would wonder why Regina would have to marry that other king to become a queen. She should have been able to become a queen in her own country. Now I'm interested to know what went wrong after Cora married Henry. It's obvious that she kept tabs on Eva so she could find a chance to get back at her, but not so clear what happened in the time between Snow and Regina meeting for the first time. Her story introduced a lot of new questions for me.
Loved this episode. There was a lot of suspense around whether we would see Rumpelstiltskin die and whether Snow would cross over to the dark side and kill Cora. Since the latter happened, I'm concerned about the war between Regina and Snow that's started (or rekindled). If Regina hated Snow before, she's going to increase that hatred my tenfold now that Snow was the one responsible for Cora's death. I feel for Regina who never got her mother's love, but I also feel for Snow who won't be able erases that black mark on her conscience. Hopefully, Snow won't let her guilt and regret make her more susceptible to Regina's attacks. She can't afford to let her lapse in judgement make her vulnerable. As for Rumpelstiltskin, it was unnerving to see him with Cora in the past, but I'm glad in the present he showed his love for Belle and it made an impression on Neal. With Rumpelstiltskin still having a long life ahead of him, I want to see him continue to make progress with his son. There's nothing more I'd love to see than the two of them repairing their father-son bond.
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