Once Upon a Time: Lily (4x20)

Swan Queen road trip! Woo hoo! Let's dive right in to this one.

In the Enchanted Forest, we see the Apprentice talking to the Sorcerer, explaining that the Author has taken too much control for himself and has messed with fate when it comes to the savior and Maleficent's daughter. The Sorcerer (a disembodied voice) tells the Apprentice that it's too late to fix what Snow and Charming did. Emma and Lily's fates will be entwined forever more.

In our world, we see Emma as a teenager, getting ready to go on a camping trip with her foster family. She seems to really like the family, and is excited that she finally belongs. Then, Lily shows up at the house. She says she needs Emma's help. The foster family invites Lily to stay for dinner. Lily lies about how they met, saying they lived together in a group home. Emma pulls Lily into the kitchen to confront her, and then learns from a news report that Lily is a suspect in a robbery. Emma tells Lily she needs to leave now, but Lily says that she can't go without a necklace that her birth mother gave her. She left it at the house where her and her boyfriend were squatting. Emma agrees to go get the necklace. She does so, but when she comes back, Lily is gone. Her foster parents inform her that Lily ran off with their vacation money. Emma apologizes, but her foster parents are angry to discover that she knew Lily was a suspect in a robbery and didn't tell them. Emma runs out of the house. Lily finds her at a bus stop, and says that her parents kicked her out. She stole the money so the two of them could run off together. Emma says no, despite Lily's pleading that her life is a mess, and Emma makes it better.

We see the Apprentice come up to Lily and offer to tell her the truth of her life story.

Then there's the present-day story. Maleficent tells Emma that her daughter, Lilith, is still alive. Emma does some research and discovers that Lilith is indeed the Lily she knew from her childhood. Maleficent says that now that they have a common enemy in Gold, maybe Emma could help by tracking down Lily. Emma agrees. Regina also needs to leave Storybrooke to rescue Robin and Roland from Zelena, so the two decide to go on a road trip together. They try to track down Lily first, but they learn that she died in a car accident.

Emma is very upset, and actually gets violent with the random guy who gave her the news. Regina had to calm her down. On the road, they nearly crash into a wolf on the road, reminding Emma of when she first tried to leave Storybrooke, years ago. She ends up at a nearby diner, where she sees... Lily! She recognizes her from the star birthmark on her wrist. Emma confronts Lily, who is now living under a different name. Lily says not to worry about the past. She has a great life now, with a husband and a kid, and she doesn't need Emma to ruin it. Emma can tell she's lying. She and Regina go to Lily's house to discover that she definitely doesn't have a family. They also find a wall of information about their lives, and Storybrooke, and realize that Lily knows about Emma being the savior, about Maleficent, about all of it.

And then Lily steals Emma's car, which has magic in it that can get Lily into Storybrooke. Emma and Regina chase Lily down, and Emma ends up pointing a gun at her. She threatens that she'll shoot if Lily even thinks about hurting Emma's parents. Lily insists that Emma's parents are monsters for doing what they did to an innocent child. Regina manages to convince Emma not to shoot Lily, because that will make her turn dark for sure.

Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, Rumple asks Will for his help in retrieving Belle's heart. Maleficent has been guarding it in Regina's office. Rumple distracts Maleficent by coming to the door and talking to her, while Will manages to grab the heart through the window. The two of them return it to Belle. Rumple says that he needs to stop hurting Belle, or he'll lose his chance to ever redeem himself. He is returning Belle's heart to her, but Will is the one who will care for it.

So, Regina gets a call telling her that her leverage over Rumple is gone, meaning that they have to get to Robin, fast. Emma and Regina go, and they bring Lily with them. They arrive and find Robin. Regina tells him that Marian is actually Zelena. Of course, Robin doesn't believe that at first, but then "Marian" comes home. When she sees Regina there, she decides to cut her losses. She reveals her true self. Robin is horrified. Regina tells Robin to grab Roland so they can go, but Robin can't leave Zelena. Why? She's pregnant! Dun dun dun...

Okay. Complaints?

Zelena being pregnant is just a little too soap opera for my taste. I mean, I was surprised, which I guess was the point, but still... yeesh. Really?

Also, and I can't believe I'm complaining about this... there was this little moment with Hook where he and Emma said goodbye to each other. It was really adorable, but I'm getting kind of tired of Hook popping up in every episode to say something sweet and supportive to Emma, just to really hammer it in that they're happy. It's obvious that it's just a setup so that it hurts more when things fall apart. I feel like it's kind of manipulative.

And then there's Rumple's little speech to Belle. Are we supposed to feel sorry for Rumple in this scenario? Are we supposed to think it's sweet that he still loves Belle and wants to protect her? Screw that! Rumple is a monster! I'm not down for another redemptive arc for him. Been there, done that. Didn't work out so well.

Now for the good stuff - 

Emma and Regina on a road trip! Yes! They had a lot of great moments here. Emma is defensive about everybody being afraid of her turning to darkness, and I completely get that. Every time she gets angry, everybody starts looking at her like she's about to start doing an evil villain laugh and twirl her mustache. But at the same time, you can care that Regina really cares about Emma. There were lots of little moments in this episode that proved that the two of them really are friends. Emma has confided in Regina about Lily, and Regina cares enough to listen and remember. There's also that moment at the beginning when Regina says she needs Emma. So sweet!

Lily and Emma's back story was really wonderful. You can tell that Lily does care about Emma in some strange way, but no matter what she does, it turns out to be the wrong choice. The dark choice. The most dangerous thing that could happen to Lily in her life is somebody telling her the truth - now, instead of trying hard to combat her darkness, she can just deflect, and blame the whole thing on somebody else. Which is exactly what she did. It makes perfect sense that Emma the teenager would want to get somebody like Lily out of her life. At the same time, it makes perfect sense why adult Emma would not abandon her. This is going to be very interesting as we move forward...

One of my favorite things about this episode was the nuanced portrayal of the foster family. They got mad when they found out that Emma knew Lily was dangerous, but if you notice, they didn't kick her out. She ran off, assuming they wouldn't want her anymore. That's an important distinction.

As much as I'm not a fan of Rumple's "romantic" speech to Belle, I did like the idea of Rumple and Will working together for a common shared interest. It's so complicated, because while I do believe Rumple would have gotten the heart back for Belle no matter what, there's also the interesting little detail that he needed to return the heart in order to continue his evil plans with Zelena. Rumple didn't feel the need to share such details with Belle and Will, though.

This episode had a lot of good and a bit of bad as well. I think honestly it didn't quite live up to my expectations about this episode. I'm excited about the future potential of Lily, but we're not there yet. I'm still anticipating one killer of a finale, though!

7/10