Episode 1.17: Hat Trick
Could he get any broodier? |
In Storybrooke,
MM has escaped from jail and Emma has gone out to look for her. She meets an
elusive man called Jefferson and gives him a lift back to his mansion. He
invites her in and offers a drink; Emma, Emma, Emma. Surely as Sheriff and more
importantly as a single, attractive young woman, you should have learnt by now
not to accept drinks from strangers? Clearly not. She’s knocked out and when
she wakes up, tries to escape. Who does she find behind a door when she’s
looking for a way out? Only escaped fugitive Mary Margaret. Jefferson finds
them, makes Emma tie MM back up and drags Emma away for a special task that he
has in store for her …
Jefferson needs
Emma to make his hat work so that he can return to his own land. Somehow, he
knows that she is the saviour who can restore magic to Storybrooke and he is
desperate enough to trap her in his home with his hat until it works again.
Emma is still a non-believer and isn’t giving up that easily …
Jefferson in
fairytaleland is The Mad Hatter. He lives with his young daughter (so many
single-parent fathers in this show!) in straitened times. When the Evil Queen
asks him to help her retrieve a lost item, he can’t help but accept. Using his
magic, spinning hat, they enter a portal where they find themselves in a kind
of halfway-area with numerous doors into presumably different realms. Only two
can pass through; only two can come back. The door that they take takes them to
– you guessed it – the land of Alice in Wonderland. While they don’t meet the
eponymous Alice herself, they do encounter the Queen of Hearts who is less than
happy to see intruders in her garden. The Mad Hatter is horrified to learn that
the item that they came to retrieve was the Evil Queen’s father – he is
captured while Regina and her father escape, leaving him trapped in Wonderland
forever …
Like the wonder-woman
she is, Emma knocks crazy Jefferson into unconsciousness and escapes with MM. A
daughter-to-mother pep talk results in MM agreeing to return to jail with Emma
so that they can sort out MM’s charge legitimately in order to beat Regina. We
then see a furious Regina confronting Mr Gold as to why MM hadn’t disappeared
on finding the key … it seems that MM isn’t Mr Gold’s only client …
Episode 1.18: The Stable Boy
Episode 1.18: The Stable Boy
Now I see where the phrase 'Like mother, like daughter' comes from |
This episode
sees Regina’s very scary mother take centre stage as we discover the reason for
Regina’s hatred for Snow. It’s an interesting one – I mean, Regina, a normal human
being? Really?
Regina is a
daddy’s girl; understandable since her mother is an even bigger bitch than she
becomes. Her mother is the one with magic and very unhappy that her daughter
isn’t making the most of the opportunities that she’s been given to find a good
match for herself. The reason: Regina is in love with Daniel, the stable boy,
but too terrified to tell her mother of their secret relationship. One day
during a clandestine meeting, Regina hears the terrified screams of a young
girl astride a horse she cannot control, and Regina rides to the rescue. Who is
the little girl, I hear you ask. Snow White, of course.
Snow’s father is
overcome with gratitude and proposes marriage to Regina (fast, right?) as he
can see that she will be a good mother to his orphaned child. Snow is ecstatic;
Regina, less so. One night, Snow happens upon Regina kissing Daniel in the stable
and angrily confronts Regina about it. Regina confesses her love for Daniel and
Snow (in her naivety) is so enthusiastic that she wants to go and tell her
father right away! Regina makes Snow promise not to tell anyone else, but what
good is a promise if it isn’t broken?
Regina’s mother,
like the manipulative bitch she is, manages to find Snow’s weak spot so that
she blurts out the truth. What happens next is so horrible that I seriously
considered feeling sorry for Regina, but then thought about it a little and
couldn’t find it in my cold, black heart to do so. Regina’s mother bursts into
the stable just as Regina and Daniel are about to run away. Understandably, she’s
angry, but (pretends to) give her consent to the match. As she and Daniel are
coming together for their pseudo-welcome-to-the-family hug, she sticks her hand
in Daniel’s chest and squeezes, stopping his heart. The one thing running
through my head during this scene was: WHY ARE YOU STILL STANDING THERE REGINA?
DO SOMETHING!!!
In Storybrooke,
Regina urges MM to confess. MM, of course, has no knowledge of their previous
history in fairytaleland, so is completely bewildered as to why Regina hates
her so much. She agrees to a meeting with the DA to iron out some details
before the trial and King George (DA) manages to make her blurt out that yes,
MM did want Kathryn gone. Way to cement your jail sentence, MM.
In the meantime,
August has come along to help Emma emancipate MM. He suggests that they head
down to the Toll Bridge where the heart was found and what do they find? A shard
of snapped-off shovel. In the middle of the night, the pair practice their
B&E skills on Regina's garage only to find a broken shovel whose jagged
marks match those of the segment they found! Breakthrough, I hear you say; not
quite. Emma returns the next morning with a warrant in hand, only to find a
shiny new shovel instead. Logically, Emma concludes that August is working
alongside Regina as he was with her the previous night, but he protests his
innocence. I’m still divided on this one.
As MM is taken
away in cuffs, Mr Gold remarks rather ominously “there’s still time for a
little magic” … Emma discovers (finally!) that Sidney is working for Regina and
Mr Gold’s ‘magic’ is revealed … Kathryn is ALIVE!
The girl who
plays Snow as a child is so so so like Ginnifer Goodwin it’s scary. It’s not
just that they look-alike; they do the same facial features, the same body
language, the same tonal inflections when they speak. I had trouble believing
that they weren’t related or even the same person. It’s great, but she’s a
little too intense at times.
Episode 1.19: The Return
Poor, sweet, innocent Baelfire ... |
So. As Kathryn clearly
wasn’t dead, whose heart had been found and how had the lab got the results
wrong? The trails will all lead back to Regina and it won’t look good on her
and she knows it.
In fairytaleland,
Baelfire doesn’t like his father’s new powers. The other kids shun him and he
knows that his father gets up to bad, bad things. They strike a deal: if Bae
can find a way of getting rid of his father’s power without killing him, Rumpelstiltskin
will do it. Rumpelstiltskin is clearly devoted to his son, but doesn’t have
much faith that he will find a way.
Bae finds the
answer with Reul Ghorm, whom we otherwise know as the Blue Fairy. The only
solution she can think of is to send them both to another realm – a realm
without magic. With the help of the last ever magic bean in existence (maybe we
won’t be seeing Jack then) Bae opens the portal. Rumpelstiltskin, however, has
changed his mind. Now that he’s experienced such power, he’s understandably terrified
of a life without it and refuses to jump with his son. Bae slips through just
as the portal closes and Rumpelstiltskin immediately regrets his decision. He
calls on the Blue Fairy to find a way of being with his son, but nothing will
be able to bring them back together … except for a curse …
In Storybrooke,
Booth wakes from a nightmare and I had the unshakeable thought that he was Bae – it makes a lot of sense.
He, alongside Regina, Mr Gold and Jefferson know of the other world and ever
since he arrived in Storybrooke, he has been trying to get Emma to believe. He
was the one who had Henry’s book when it ‘disappeared’ and we’ve seen him give
very precise and foreboding advice to both Henry and Emma. When we see that
August recruits Henry to distract Mr Gold while he sneaks into the back of his
shop to search for something, my suspicions about August were more validated.
Mr Gold is very
curious about Booth and asks Emma about it at MM’s welcome home party as she is
vindicated after Kathryn’s mystery reappearance. I love Emma’s attempt to
describe August: “a typewriter wrapped in enigma wrapped in stubble.” God, I
love the stubble. Not quite so much as Graham’s, but almost. At the same party,
Emma turns David away at MM’s request. The next day, David catches MM in town
and tries to tell her that he’s sorry for not believing her before and that
“I’m human. I fell for it”, but to no avail. Despite knowing that he loves her,
MM can’t bear for them to be together because “it’s like something in this
world doesn’t want us together” and “keeps pouring poison between us”! If only
she knew how accurate this statement is! I just want to cry.
Look at all that stubble-y goodness! |
In a rare show
of vulnerability, Mr Gold turns to Archie for advice. Mr Gold might not want to
pour out all the lurid details of his complicated past, but Archie knows that
honesty can’t go wrong. So Mr Gold and August meet in the woods and both pour
their hearts out in what is really quite a sweet scene. Mr Gold begs for his
son’s forgiveness and then they have a big reunion hug where actual tears are
involved … only it turns out that August isn’t Bae, because no way would
anything be that easy. Interestingly,
Mr Gold doesn’t seem to want to punish August in any way for impersonating his
son … that was kind of surprising, but I guess seeing as Mr Gold wants to see
Emma save Storybrooke for whatever ulterior reasons he has, then it makes sense
that he wants August to continue in his role trying to convince her.
In other news,
Emma returns to her office and finds a distraught Sidney and a gloating Regina.
Knowing that all the trails will lead back to her, Regina has persuaded Sidney
to confess to Kathryn’s kidnapping and botching up of the lab results. Emma
sees right through the façade, but what can she do? And the sad thing is:
Sidney is madly in love with Regina. How much more of a bitch can she get?
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