Once Upon A Time

Once Upon a Time

Episode 2: We Are Both

By: Carlos Uribe

Once Upon a Time is a show about fairy tale characters who got sent to our reality, which has magic now.

Spoilers Ahoy!

It's back to me splitting the episode into two reviews: the fairytale segment and the reality segment. I'll combine both segments when it's necessary.

Fairy Tale Story:

It looks like we're going to have fairy tale flashbacks this season after all along with a combination of the modern day fairy tale story. The episode largely concentrates on Regina, both in the fairy tale world and in Storybrooke. The fairy tale world relates to her impending marriage with the king. She doesn't want to go through with it and she tries to run away. Her mother's magic stops her and she's a prisoner in her own home. She's angry with her mother and she wants freedom from her. When she learns the source of her mother's powers came from Rumpelstiltskin, she summons him for his help. She doesn't want to learn magic because she doesn't want to be like her mother. She's not interested in power or hurting people. What she is interested in is finding a way to escape her mother. Rumpelstiltskin gives her the perfect way to do this: a portal that will send her to a different land. She doesn't take it but she does push her mother inside. Her mother is now in a different realm and Regina has managed to free herself. She escapes but then she gets tempted by Rumpelstiltskin. He gets her to admit that she loved using magic and she agrees to let him train her. She's worried about becoming her mother but Rumpelstiltskin makes it clear that it's up to her.

This all goes towards explaining how Regina learned magic. It also goes to show just how much she resented her mother and didn't want to be her. She was willing to do anything to get away from her even if this involved using magic. This is such a different Regina that we know and it does bring up questions on what tempted her down the dark path. It certainly isn't hatred as she doesn't like herself for having a fantasy sequence where she strangles Snow White. The fairy tale part of the story has a large theme about how an overbearing parent can drive their child away. Regina doesn't learn the lesson as she happens to largely repeat her mother's mistakes in the real world with Henry. This thematic connection helps to make the fairy tale segment of the episode relevant but it's disappointing to go back in time when we want to know what happened to Emma and Snow White. It undercuts the narrative momentum from the season premiere and devalues the impact of that final twist. It's not a bad plot, but it was badly placed time-wise.

Real World Story:

Storybrooke has two plots. The first involves Regina. In this episode, she tries her best to get her powers back so that she can have her son back. She manages to succeed but her journey just helps to reveal just how much she has become like her mother. She even uses the same spell that kept her within the castle to keep Henry within her house. This all makes her realize that if she uses magic to force Henry to be with her then she's only going to push him away even further. She makes the decision to allow David to take care of Henry until she's able to earn his trust and love. She also almost burns a book that is giving her some magical powers but she decides to keep it. It's a sign that while the character is evolving as a mother, she's still the same character otherwise. She's still going to use magic for her benefit.

David spends the episode not only having to keep Henry within his custody but also trying his best to find a way to get Emma and Mary Margaret back. He doesn't seem to like that they're in a void in space and he does his best to find the Mad Hatter. When he does find him, he's able to learn that there is a part of the Enchanted Forest that has managed to continue to exist. Regina admits this when David questions her at the end of the episode and it's going to set him on a journey to find a way into the Enchanted Forest. The Mad Hatter, Regina, and Rumpelstiltskin all have one thing in common: they don't have a portal to get him there. This means that David's going to have to find a way to create a portal. To add to his troubles, he's now the town's leader and he has to convince all the characters to stay in Storybrooke. This is because if they leave, they all lose memories of who they really are and only retain their “cursed” selves.

Conclusion:

Once Upon a Time delivered a good second episode but it didn't really move things that much forward. It spends an entire episode to tell David that there is still a Forrest for his loved ones to go to and it has to deal with Regina losing Henry. I'm not saying nothing happened, but that the pace from the premiere really slowed down. This is understandable but I'm hoping this doesn't mean we're going to be stuck with a status quo until the season finale. That's what hurt the last season and I want this season to be better.

Other Notes:

It looks like Mary Margaret and Emma are both captives of Mulan and Aurora. The two just happen to be put in the same dungeon as to where Cora ends up. This justifies the fairy tale flashback besides the thematic connection: reintroducing Cora to the viewers.

Jared Gilmore's bad acting really ruined one scene he was in. The other scenes I managed to ignore it, but when he's trying to convince David he can do something at Mary Margaret's apartment (because David has no place of his own apparently) it, his performance really brought me out of the world.

On a note of good acting: Rumpelstiltskin's remarks on Regina's similarity to her mother in the book show was well done by Lana Parrilla.