Once Upon a Time: Fall (4x10)

Oh my God this is going to hurt so bad I can just feel it coming and I don't want to deal with this I can't handle it noooo! Plot? Let's do the plot before I explode.

Ingrid is casting the Spell of Shattered Sight. She tells Rumple that it will take hold by sundown. Rumple has a proposition - if she will allow him to leave with Belle and Henry, then he will leave her alone to be with her "sisters" Elsa and Emma. If she refuses him, then Rumple will make it his life's mission to make her miserable. Ingrid agrees to let Rumple go.

Everyone else is trying to figure out a way out of this Curse. Emma suggests that they simply get out of Storybrooke, but Ingrid's ice wall won't let them escape. Belle sets to work with the fairies to try to come up with a spell. They can use Anna's necklace, which Elsa recovered from the ice, to make a counter-spell. Since Anna has already been through the Curse, she'll be immune. Using the necklace will take a long time. It will be faster if they can find Anna herself, and use her. When the Charmings tell Elsa to hand over the necklace to the fairies for their spell, she tricks everyone by putting rocks in a bag and handing it over. She runs off with the necklace, using it to track Anna. She is convinced that she will find her.

Meanwhile, Rumple forces Hook to hide and wait for him to remove Belle from the company of the fairies. Once Rumple manages this, Hook uses the Hat to suck up all the fairies, including the Blue Fairy. Rumple tells Hook that he'll be dead in the morning. Rumple then kisses Belle goodbye and locks her up in the shop where she'll be safe.

Elsa's desperate wish to find Anna finally works out - as she wishes that Anna was with her now, a portal opens in the sea, and Anna and Kristoff both emerge. They all rush to get to the fairies so that Anna can help counter the Curse, but of course nobody is there. They then go to the sheriff's station. Mary Margaret and David lock themselves up in the cells so they won't hurt anyone when the Curse hits. Emma takes baby Neal. Kristoff chains himself to the desk as well. Hook shows up, and he and Emma share a "tearful goodbye kiss."

Meanwhile, Regina warns Robin of what's going on, so Robin and Will disperse the camp to make sure nobody kills anyone else. Regina seals Henry away somewhere safe, so that nobody can get to him. She tells Robin to get far away from her, because she is about to become her worst self. In her case, that's pretty darn bad. The Spell of Shattered Sight takes effect, and the episode ends on this cliffhanger.

We also get to see how it is that Anna and Kristoff got pulled to Storybrooke with the force of Elsa's wish. After thirty years of being frozen, Ingrid's frozen magic wears off and Anna and Kristoff awaken in the castle. Hans and some of his men immediately show up, but Anna and Kristoff are able to escape. They decide they have to find Rumple, since they believe (rightfully) that he has the urn with Elsa inside it. They decide to go talk to Blackbeard, the pirate and captain of the Jolly Roger. They want to get a "Wishing Star," so they can wish for Elsa. When they get to the ship, however, Hans and his men have beaten them there and betrayed them. Anna and Kristoff are put inside of a trunk and dumped into the ocean to drown. They also learn that it has been thirty years since they were frozen by Ingrid, which makes Anna all the more worried about Elsa. As the two of them hope for a miracle while the trunk fills with water around them, they are suddenly pulled through to Storybrooke by Elsa's wish. Turns out, the necklace was the Wishing Stone!

Okay, I must complain about a few little things. As is my prerogative.

First of all, I'm confused about this Wishing Stone business. How did it get to be in the necklace? When did Elsa and Anna's parents get it from Blackbeard? Or did they? Maybe I'm being too hasty and there are plans to sort the whole thing out in the coming weeks, but all I know is - I was confused.

Also, I was a little bit annoyed at all of the townsfolk for not taking better precautions as the Curse came closer. Like, whose genius idea was it to lock Mary Margaret and David up right next to each other? And Regina shouldn't be sealing herself in with magic, or she could just undo it, couldn't she? And she shouldn't have been the one to know where Henry is. Emma should have done that, since she's immune. I just kept thinking about how I would organize this whole thing, and I was getting exasperated at the lack of organization.

But hey. This episode was mostly just awesome and depressing and everything I ever could have hoped for. I don't even think it's possible for me to cover all of the things I loved about this. I'll try to be brief...

First of all, I just adore Anna. I know I've said it before, but every time I see her she just keeps winning me over. Her relationship with Kristoff is really fantastic, too. I love how Anna's character is not mostly about Kristoff, but he is still important. He is so supportive of her and they clearly love each other so much. The scene in the trunk as they were close to drowning was a real punch in the gut. Anna, who is always an optimist, had finally given up hope. She starts to marry Kristoff, wanting to be married to him before she died. Kristoff, who is more of a grump usually, is the one who gave Anna hope by insisting that they'd find a way out.

Also in the flashback section, I loved Hans as the villain. He pops up like "mwa-ha-ha!" and then Anna and Kristoff get away, but then later on the Jolly Roger, he pops up again! It's like - are you serious, dude? And then when he closes the lid on Anna and Kristoff, he says (about Anna) "she's so talk-y!" What a jerk.

The Regina and Robin stuff was also really sweet. I haven't made it a secret that they're not my favorite couple on the show, but Lana Parrilla killed it in this episode. She was so afraid of what would happen once she was back to her worst self. After all, we've seen what Regina can do. It's not going to be pretty! In any case, I was glad these two got a chance to say goodbye to each other.

Rumple is so incredibly evil and I love it so, so much. I can't even believe how twisted he has become. He seriously thinks that saving Belle and Henry and letting everyone else die is going to be okay? Does he really think that his grandson will be a-okay with the fact that his whole family is dead? Does he really think Belle will ever get over the loss of all of her friends? Yeesh! I think my favorite thing about evil Rumple is the way he treats Hook. He seems to take such pleasure in making him hurt people. If you think about it, Rumple could have easily used the Hat himself. There was no reason to make Hook do it. He just wanted to be a jerk.

And of course let's talk about Hook. The poor thing! There's this scene early on when Emma is hugging Henry goodbye, and Killian is just staring at Emma like he's trying to memorize her whole face. It wasn't a big moment, but it stuck out to me. He's so worried about Emma during this whole episode. When Rumple brings out the Hat, the first think Hook says is "not Emma!" Of course, he's not so fond of hurting the fairies either, and you can just tell how much he regrets doing all of this. That scene at the end between Emma and Hook is just... ugh. My poor heart cannot handle it. Emma is tearful and emotional and she initiates the kiss, but she thinks this is just a temporary goodbye. Maybe she's scared that Hook won't want her after the Curse hits - that he'll see the worst in her and their relationship will be over. In any case, she still has hope that she can fix things. From Hook's perspective, this is the last time he'll ever see Emma. Ever. And he can't bring himself to stay very long. It's too hard. I love how Emma knew that something was wrong. You could see it in her face.

To turn to a lighter note, Elsa and Anna are reunited! All of these reunions here at the end were quite lovely, actually. Elsa and Anna hug, and then they hold hands and remain glued to each other for most of the rest of the episode. I love it when Anna says "What a funny looking world!" And Elsa says "right?" You can just see how happy Elsa is to finally have someone she loves with her, so she can share in all this crazy and scary stuff that's been happening. Kristoff and David hug, Anna and David hug, people are introduced to one another, and everyone gets this one moment of happiness before chaos reigns. It was nice to have this one moment of happiness. Even if everything else is going wrong, at least Elsa has finally found her sister.

Let's talk about Mary Margaret in this episode. Even though the Charmings have taken a back seat to the other characters this season, there's still a lot of interesting stuff going on with Mary Margaret specifically. First of all, I loved how sassy she was with Regina. Regina yells at her for not keeping up on some of her Mayorial duties, when Mary Margaret points out that it's easier to run the town when the "mayor only has to worry about one villain, and it's herself." Ouch! Later, she snaps that "Elsa's blind faith is what's screwing us right now!" Regina replies: "Coming from you that's just terrifying." Regina isn't really telling a joke, though. She seems genuinely startled that Mary Margaret could be so pessimistic and hopeless. I think, as the Curse gets closer and closer, Mary Margaret starts to get more and more afraid of what will happen. She has darkness in her heart, and she's done some pretty bad stuff. I must praise Ginnifer Goodwin's acting, especially in the final seconds of the episode. As the Spell of Shattered Sight finally hits, you can see the moment when Mary Margaret turns on David. It's all there in the eyes. Nicely done.

I could go on and on, but I'll finish up with a discussion of Emma in this episode. She is such a natural leader, and I felt so much pride for her as I watched her handle this situation as best as she could. She also let herself get vulnerable, particularly there at the end with Hook, and with her parents. She was so scared when she learned of her parents' plan to lock themselves up, since she's not sure of what's going to happen. And when Mary Margaret gave her baby Neal, she was so shocked and scared. This was a nice way to resolve the stuff about Mary Margaret being cautious about Emma's magic. Now, she's trusting her with Neal. How is Emma going to save the day with a baby to look after? I guess we'll see soon!

I cannot wait for the angst-y gloriousness of next week's episode. It's going to hurt so much! Yay!

8/10