In this episode, we finally get some answers to the whole secret evil thing that Snow and Charming did. Let's dive right in to a plot summary and then I'll talk about some of the brilliant things this episode did.
Snow and Charming find a unicorn in the woods, and touch its horn to get a glimpse at their child's future. They're worried about the potential for darkness in their child. Charming sees a happy and beautiful baby, but Snow sees a different vision - she sees a teenage Emma rip her heart from her chest and crush it. Snow and Charming know they need to find a way to protect their child. They run into a peddler who tells them that Maleficent, in dragon form, has laid an egg. The peddler advises them to go through the forest to avoid Maleficent. They do so, and find themselves at the Apprentice's cottage.
The Apprentice says that he can take the potential for darkness away from their child, but only if they find an equally unformed and innocent vessel to put it into. They are appalled at the idea of harming another unborn child, but then Snow gets an idea - what about Maleficent's egg? Snow and Charming go to take the egg. Maleficent begs them not to take her child, and Snow promises that they will bring the egg back. The Apprentice transfers the potential darkness of Emma into the egg, but then starts to send the egg into another world. Cruella and Ursula show up to try and rescue the egg, but they are also sucked into the portal.
Snow and Charming are haunted by the terrible thing they have done. They took Maleficent's child away from her permanently. Charming says that they have to work extra hard to bring good into the world, to attempt to atone for their mistake.
In Storybrooke, Regina takes a photo of the page from the book as a way of stopping the villains from learning that the page is magic. When she goes back to show it to Rumple and the others, Rumple immediately notices a glare on the picture that suggests magic. Maleficent puts a sleeping curse on the whole town so that they can get to the page. Henry is immune, because he's already been under a sleeping curse. He takes the book to the Sorcerer's mansion to keep it safe. Regina tells the other villains to stay back while she gets it from Henry, but Cruella and Maleficent insist on coming with her. Regina gives Henry a look, and Henry hands over a fake page (one that Emma had made earlier).
Mary Margaret and David arrive shortly after, and say that they should take the page from Henry to keep it safe. Henry tells them that he's also found a key to unlock the door! They can let the Author out! David says no, taking the key and the page from Henry. Mary Margaret and David had earlier decided that for Emma's safety, they should destroy the page and trap the Author permanently. After all, the Author might be able to corrupt Emma! That's the whole reason they did what they did all those years ago. However, at the last minute, Mary Margaret realizes that she can't keep lying like this.
Regina and the others show the fake page to Rumple, who immediately knows it's fake and realizes that Regina isn't really on their side. Maleficent puts her under the sleeping curse as well, and they take Regina to her vault. Rumple says he has something up his sleeve that will make Regina be on his side once and for all.
Mary Margaret and David come clean to Emma, who is very upset. She runs off, but Hook follows her to tell her some good news - August, who was in bad shape after all of the magical transformations he's been through, seems to be doing better. Emma goes back to see him, and finds her parents there. August tells them that there's more than one Author; there have been several throughout time. The one that's in the book now was the last. He had the task of writing down the stories, but he also had the power to manipulate them, and he started to grow corrupt. So, the Apprentice trapped him in the book.
Emma decides to release the Author, even though Mary Margaret warns her against it - this Author has the capacity to turn her to darkness! Emma uses the key and the Author appears - it's the peddler who set Snow and Charming up to take Maleficent's child! Before Emma can ask him anything, he runs off. Emma follows, but can't find him.
Rumple tells Maleficent what happened to her child (it was her price for putting the sleeping curse on the whole town). Apparently, once in our world, Maleficent's daughter was adopted by a nice couple who decided to name her Lily. (For those who don't remember, Lily is the name of Emma's best friend from way back in the day.)
Wow! Lots of great stuff! Tons of new information and a few genuinely shocking twists.
If I were to have a few little complaints... the identity of the Author could have been better. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't a throw-away character who only appeared for the first time in this episode. This is a difficult thing to complain about, since I'm not entirely sure what would have satisfied me. But this wasn't it.
Also, this is a small thing, but I felt like Ursula and Cruella were just an afterthought in the flashbacks. We now have an explanation as to how they ended up in our world but outside of Storybrooke, but it seemed like it was tossed in here. Why did they get sucked into the portal but not Snow and Charming? How convenient of them to show up just at the right moment for that to happen. It just sort of annoyed me.
But mostly? This episode kicked ass. First of all, I love the plot twist about Lily being Maleficent's daughter. I knew that Lily was going to have to come back into the story at some point, but I wasn't expecting that at all. Nicely done.
Then there's the full truth about Mary Margaret and David's past actions. I really admire the fact that they didn't pull punches. What they did was dark. In order to protect their child, they committed a heinous crime. Even though they didn't know how bad it was going to be, they still knew a lot of it. I like the way this plot line, coming before the first big Curse, doesn't challenge the continuity in any way. The episode explained why we had never gotten into any of this before - Snow and Charming made a conscious effort to set aside their darkness and be good people for their daughter's sake.
I love Regina's continuing journey. She seems, for the time being, firmly committed to the side of good. She's forced into her most difficult challenge yet, as she has to play Evil right in front of Henry. But the two of them have gotten so close recently, what with Operation Mongoose, and I loved how they had that moment of silent communication between them, and then Henry turned over the fake page. Lovely! Now, however, it looks like Regina's time as a double agent is over. The bad guys have her at their mercy. I'm really excited to watch where this goes.
Hook and Emma were not the focus of the episode, but they managed to have two hugs, and a cute discussion about jealousy! I love how happy they are together, and how much they clearly care for one another. I loved the fact that Hook's jealousy over August didn't turn into a stupid misunderstanding subplot. Hook was a little bit jealous, and Emma was totally honest with him and cleared up any jealousy he might have. Hook then tried hard to listen to what Emma said, and made a point of referring to August as Emma's "friend." They're so much better at this communication thing than most of the other characters!
Speaking of August - I'm still just so ecstatic that he's back. I'll admit I'm a bit confused about why he knows so much about the Author. However, it's just so lovely to have him back. What Emma told Hook about her friendship with August was just so sweet. He was the exception to her normally closed-off life. Now, she has lots of exceptions. She has a whole family and a loving relationship.
I could keep talking about this episode, but I think I've hit all the major things I wanted to mention. I really enjoy everything that's being set up here. I can't wait to see what the Author does next. Even if I was a bit disappointed about his identity, I loved that he ran off. That wasn't what I would have expected.
See you next time!
9/10
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