Scramble To The Portal

Once Upon A Time, S02E09

Emma and the others went to search for squid ink in Rumpelstiltskin's jail cell, but were trapped there by Cora and Hook.  Regina and Rumpelstiltskin worked together to use magic that would destroy whoever came through the portal, fearing that it would most likely be Cora and Hook.  The past between Cora and Hook was also revealed.

It was obvious to me that finding that scroll with Emma's name written on it in a stalkerish manner was going to be useful for something.  I didn't think it would be able to melt away the cell's bars, though.  That was a little weird to me.  Weirder than Rump sitting in there many years ago writing down Emma's name.

Later, it was interesting that Emma went to Rump and pointed out that he could have broken out of that cell anytime he wanted, but he was just chilling out there plotting his revenge.  I would have never gotten to the conclusion, like Emma had, that Rump had written out her fate long ago.  Rump does have a past of using people like his puppets for some long-term goal that's not clear (like his hand in molding Regina into a powerful magic user), but I feel like a lot more people were involved in what's happened in Emma's life than just Rump.  August, for instance, played his part.  But I guess that scroll with her name on it written before she was even born freaked her out to make her supsicious.

I wonder what sort of magic Emma will be capable of now that there's evidence that her being a product of true love protects her from heart-ripping attacks and the like.  Rump had been interested in bottling "true love" in the past, so I feel like he'll become even more interested in Emma in the future now that he knows she has some kind of unique magic about her.  I wonder if he'll try to take advantage of her magic one day.

Speaking of the heart ripping thing, that fight around the portal back to Storybrooke was so dumb.  I mean, you would think that with Cora being the only one using magic that she could use something really big to wipe out Mulan, Snow, and Emma in one wave of her hand.  Mulan was fighting her pretty well for someone only having a sword, as well as Snow who only had arrows.  Then it was just weird to me that Emma wasn't cut in a deadly way within two seconds of fighting Hook when she has had no training to sword fight.  Hook should have destroyed her!  He clearly had the upper hand, but it was crazy that he had any problems with Emma at all.  It was funny when she knocked Hook out--didn't see that coming.  It was moving when Emma took the "bullet" for Snow when Cora was about to rip Snow's heart out.  Lucky for her that it didn't work.

Back in Storybrooke, I felt pretty bad for Regina.  She clearly wanted to do the right thing and help Emma and Snow the best way she could, but then Rump came along and poisoned her mind.  Don't get me wrong, though--I loved seeing them work together even if it was for something bad.  I knew that Regina wasn't 100 percent on board with Rump's "win-win" view of what they were doing, and I was happy that she was swayed by Henry's words.  The funny thing about that was that Rump was just standing around not doing anything.  I mean, he did blow Red away the second she tried to get close, but the real danger to his plan was Henry and he didn't do much to stop him from changing Regina's mind.  And after it was all said and done, he just quietly limped away to his store.  No one held him accountable for anything.

Anyway, Regina nearly kills herself after reversing the magic they put on the portal, and she got the short end of the stick at the end.  Emma did thank her and so did Henry with a hug, but after everything was good again, she didn't get an invitation to dinner.  Okay, so Regina isn't friends with anyone in town, really, but she did sort of look after Charming while he was under the sleep spell.  As much of a bitch that Regina was I couldn't help but feel bad when everyone joyously left Rump's store and left her there by herself.  It was just thanks for helping get Emma and Snow back, but don't you dare eat with us.  Really?  That was cold, ya'll.  Rump did not make it better by pointing out that Henry was just going to get closer to Emma, but Regina had little hope of even sharing a meal with him.  Talk about twisting the knife!  But I sort of liked that he had to stir the pot a little.

That was the part that made me the most outraged, while I was most moved by when Henry saw Emma coming out of the well and called her "mom."  I don't know if he ever has done that before, but he still calls Regina "mom," so it was just sweet to see Emma and Henry hug while he called her that.  I mean, it was like "Regina who?" at that moment, but Emma had worked pretty hard to get back to her son, so it was nice to see her achieve her goal.

I was hardly moved by Snow reviving Charming with her kiss.  I was especially annoyed at the dwarves standing around looking sort of worried that Snow's kiss might not work.  Um, we all know that it will!  The sleeping curse has been broken so many damn times.  It's almost like when has it ever been permanent?

In the past, it was interesting that both Regina and Cora tried to use Hook.  He eventually sided with Cora because she knew more about the curse than Regina did and her knoweldge better suited his plans for revenge.  But besides that, it was a nice change of pace to see Regina in her queen mode again.  I feel like it's been a while since we've seen her like that.  For some reason, I really enjoyed her outfit with all that bling hanging down her back.  It's a sharp contrast to the stuff that she wears around Storybrooke.  She may have been really wicked back then, but at least she had some style.

Anyway, who would be surprised that Cora was the Queen of Hearts?  I mean, I figured that out as soon as I saw Regina toss her mother into a magic mirror--you had to know where she was going.  It does make me think of that one time when Regina went to Wonderland and was trying really hard to avoid the Queen of Hearts.  Was her mother the ruler then?  I feel like I need to revist that older episode now.

Another interesting part from the past was Cora's change of heart.  She seemed shocked that a daughter who pushed her into another world to escape her might want her dead (really, Cora?  That surprised you?), but she easily decided not to murder Regina when Regina confessed her love for her mother and the reasons why she had to have her killed before she went to Storybrooke.  I'm surprised that someone as cold as Cora would be moved by that.  Especially since Cora's heart doesn't even seem to be in her body (or maybe she just put it in her butt or something--it's so weird).

The end where Cora and Hook came into the bay or port or whatever of Storybrooke on a big ship was kind of dramatic in a good way.  I like that they arrived somewhere that isn't going to be obvious to someone.  Damn them for leaving that kind of cliffhanger!  

I liked this episode, but I wish the fighting was a little better.  I just always think that Emma should be killed in every fight she has.  Well, at least with anyone magic.  I'm eager to see what kind of magic Emma can do, especially if it will help fight against Cora.  I'm really excited about Cora and Hook entering Storybrooke.  The next episode has got to be super explosive! I can't wait!

Emma Meets The Mad Hatter

Once Upon A Time, S01E17

This week we were taken into Wonderland and learned about the back story of Jefferson, aka the Mad Hatter.  In Storybrooke, Emma tried to get MM back to her cell before the arraignment next morning, but got abducted by Jefferson instead who wouldn't let her go until she mads him a magic hat that would let him get back to his old world.

It probably took me longer than most people to figure out who Jefferson was supposed to be because I was only thinking of fairly tales that mostly came from the Grimm variety rather than other stories of magic and fantasy.  The last thing I thought he would be from was somewhere like Alice and Wonderland.  I've never heard of the Mad Hatter having a daughter (actually, I've never heard of his background story period), so the scenes of him and his daughter threw me for a loop.  Not even when Jefferson pulled out his magic hat to transport himself and the Queen (whom he called "Regina," something I thought was odd until later) into the passageway into different worlds.  I just simply thought he was a magician until they went through a mirror-like door, and they were walking through tall grass and mushrooms.  Yes, it took me until then to realize "This must be Wonderland" and the smoking caterpillar confirmed my theory.

I liked that through Jefferson and the Queen's recovery mission in the Queen of Hearts' garden we learned that the two queens were sort of rivals.  I thought perhaps they might have been sort of friends (both being unreasonably cruel rulers), but after the Queen revealed that the box she retrieved actually held her a shrunken version of her father (whom she returned to full-size with a piece of mushroom), it looked like they were considerably enemies.  It's unclear to me, however, why the Queen chose to get her father at that time (I assume it's around the time Snow was going to save Charming?) or how long the Queen of Hearts had kept him prisoner there.

Even though we don't have much time to understand the relationship between Jefferson and Grace, I felt for him when he was trapped in Wonderland and wouldn't be able to keep his promise to return to her in time for their tea party.  Queen Bitch had to rub it in that she was double-crossing him by throwing his own words back at him about family being important and said that if he really cared about Grace, he should have never left her in the first place.  She has a lot of nerve.  Worse than her basically sticking her tongue out at him as she left him there, Jefferson was taken to the Queen of Hearts who had his head cut off when he didn't answer her question.  She's about as sympathetic to Jefferson's desire to go home as the other queen was and told him if he wanted to go home to make another magical hat.  It was nice how they explained why he was a "mad hatter" by the fact that after being stuck in Wonderland he became obsessed with making another hat that would send him home (he looked damned crazy with the thousands of hats surrounding him in that one scene).  It was no wonder that in Storybrooke he was just as nutty (although I'm not sure why he has awareness of his former self unlike everyone else except Mr. Gold).

Storybrooke Jefferson is just as miserable, trapped in a beautiful house by himself while he can only look into other lives through telescopes (glad he's not using it for creepier reasons).  He was suspicious from the beginning, wandering around in the woods at night, but he seemed like just a lonely guy until he drugged Emma's tea.  His offer of a hot beverage was fishy to me anyhow, but Emma didn't seem to think so and drank with little hesitation.  When she woke up later tied and gagged (and also did he remove some of her clothes??), I'm sure she won't be making that mistake again.

I was pretty impressed by the way Emma smashed her cup with a pillow and used the shard to free herself.  Guess she wasn't a private detective for nothing.  She was at least skillful enough to not immediately get caught by a weirdo who was not only sharpening scissors (I don't care if he makes hats--was there a need to do that right then??) but had also tied up MM in another room.  When I saw that, I was hoping that Emma would throw a chair out a window and they would just hope for the best and jump out of there as soon as possible.  This has to be the creepiest situation that Emma and MM have been in thus far.

Things looked worse when Jefferson had them at gunpoint before the two could escape, and he seemed to only have plans for Emma (MM was tied up again, but he claimed it was for her own good).  I thought he was simply working for Mayor Bitch at first (based on their previous connection in the other world), but then it just turned out he wanted her to make him a working hat.  At this point, I was wondering if the line between Storybrooke and the magic world would be broken if Emma started to believe in what Jefferson was saying. I started thinking that this might be the moment when Emma truly believed what Henry was talking about, especially when she said that she would love to think that MM was her mother.  Instead, Emma was just playing around with Jefferson and whacked him over the head while his guard was down.

I wasn't too worried that Emma and MM would make it out all right, even when Jefferson was rolling around with Emma and almost looked like he was going to shoot her.  I didn't expect MM to knock him over with a chair and then kick him out of the window, though.  That was pretty cool.  However, they were less freaked out that Jefferson was gone when they looked below.  If it was me and a seemingly maniac like him was holding me against my will, I would have been a lot more cautious as to whether he was still around.  Of course, I'm pretty sure that Emma's hat had "worked" and he had been sent to another world, but MM and Emma didn't know that.  They were way too relieved at his disappearance.  Also, why did Emma keep the hat and throw it into her car?  Evidence?  She need a reminder of the horrible night she and MM shared?

I was unexpectedly touched when Emma was telling MM how important she was to her and asking for her to have faith in her (once again).  Since Emma gave her the car keys and let MM choose whether to flee or stay, I knew that MM would definitely stay.  It was a great moment when MM was in her cell right where she was supposed to be, and Mayor Bitch couldn't believe it.

I'm not sure what the deal is that Mayor Bitch and Mr. Gold have.  Is he just pretending he will help MM in court or is he leading the Mayor on about whether he is on her side?  I might just have missed something in another episode (possibly when Mr. Gold was in jail himself).  Either way, I'm worried about whether Mr. Gold will really help Emma out like he promised or if he's playing for Mayor Bitch's side (at least for now, anyway).

Emma held onto Henry's book at the end, so I'm starting to think she is little by little believing in the other world. Either that or she was really captivated by Jefferson's story and just had to see if what he told her matched up to anything in  the book.  I dunno.  Hopefully it does mean she will soon be a "believer."   She may be even sooner if Jefferson pops out of that hat sometime.

So MM should be going to court in the next episode, I guess.  If Mr. Gold isn't going to actually defend her, then she is going to be in deep shit.  I suspect that no matter what happens Emma will do whatever she can to make sure her "family" doesn't end up on death row.  I wonder if next time we will see Snow go to save Charming or if it will be about another lesser character.  Either way, as usual, I'm eagerly waiting to see this story unfold.