Friday, November 30, 2012

Once Upon a Time 2.08: "Into the Deep"

“I was born to do this. I’m done reading about heroes. I want to be one.”
- Henry

We’re at the penultimate episode of the fall season and the writers did a pretty good job of moving the plot forward. At least somewhat. We begin with Hook finally making it down the beanstalk. He finds Cora waiting for him and she’s rather disappointed in his betrayal. As punishment, she’s going to leave in their land and go to Storybrooke alone. She also says she’s going to handle things the “right” way which apparently involves peasant zombies. I guess they had to get in on the zombie kick somehow. Elsewhere in the Enchanted Forest, Emma is grilling Aurora on whether she saw Henry (which we know she did). After a hissy fit from Aurora (Snow admits she’s been in the room and it’s real and likely a result of the sleeping curse) they send Aurora back to sleep to pass on a message to Henry. They need Mr. Gold’s help. Henry wakes up and after excitedly proclaiming that Snow and Emma are alive, relays the rest of the message. Cora is coming.

Mr. Gold and Belle are finally having that burger for lunch. Granny snipes at Rumple, saying the pickles cost extra when Regina bursts in and ruins their date. She brings news of Cora’s impending arrival and while Rumple gloats that he beat Cora in the end, he has a weakness now (Belle). They need to join forces. Back in the Enchanted Forest, the girls are setting up camp so Aurora can meet up with Henry to get the latest intel from Rumple. Mulan gives her some grief about the burns but Aurora wants to do this. We cut back to Storybrooke, where Rumple is explaining that what they need to stop Cora is the ink that he used to sign the contract with Cinderella which allowed Snow and Charming to lock him up. So the girls will have to travel to his cell to get it. Before we see henry and Aurora in the creepy dream room, Snow tries to reassure Emma that things will be all right. On cue, the peasant zombies attack. Henry and Aurora meet in the fiery room but as henry is trying to explain what needs to be done, Aurora gets yanked away and Henry wakes up with massive burns on his arms. Mulan, Emma and Snow mostly fend off the zombies but a couple make off with Aurora. Guess a hostage situation is in the cards (General Matheson would be proud).

Cora brings Aurora some stew in the hopes of using her as bait. She even tries to convince the princess that there’s a way to bring Phillip back. Aurora isn’t buying any of it (she’s actually growing a pair which is surprising) and Cora throws her against a wall, knocking her out. Out in the forest, Snow gets a message from a crow sent by Cora. They have until sundown to bring the compass or Aurora dies (yeah who didn’t see that one coming). Mulan wants to surrender the compass but Emma and Snow talk her out of it, at least temporarily. They’re going to find some more poppies to make the sleeping powder so Snow can back to the netherworld and meet with Henry. Speaking of, Rumple heals his arm and explains why he was injured so badly. Both charming and Regina refuse to let Henry go back there again. Charming says he wants to be put under a sleeping curse so he can venture to the netherworld and find Snow because he knows with aurora out of commission, she’d try to get back there. He thinks that once he sees her, she’ll kiss him and the curse will be broken.

Back in the cave, Aurora is coming round and sees Hook. She panics a little but he says he’s setting her free. He wants to get back at Cora for denying him passage. He also says to give Emma a message: if she lets him go back with her, he’ll get the wardrobe ash for the portal. Meanwhile, in the forest, Emma and Snow are playing the blame game: Emma for Henry going under the sleeping curse and Snow for telling Cora about Daniel and thus setting Regina on a path to revenge. Ultimately, they decide to blame Regina for the whole mess. Speaking of, she’s brewing up the sleeping curse while Henry watches. She assures him she’s only used magic to stop Daniel and to prepare the curse. He seems happy that she’s using it for good rather than evil. Henry does lament that it should be him going back to the netherworld but I have to agree with Regina and Charming on this one. As Rumple explains that Charming won’t be in the fiery room when he falls under the curse, Emma tells Snow to say hi to her son for her. Henry gives Charming the charmed necklace Rumple gave him to control the fire and soon both husband and wife are back in the netherworld.

Charming appears in a room full of mirrors while Snow is in the fiery room. She’s calling out for Henry while Charming figures out (thanks to the bobble from Rumple) how to access the room and he and Snow finally see each other since the season premiere. Charming gets the message across about how to stop Cora just as Snow freaks out that he’s under a sleeping curse. His hope that she’ll wake him with true love’s kiss but they’re incorporeal (duh). Snow is panicking as she wakes up but Charming says that she’ll get back to Storybrooke and she’ll wake him like he did for her. In Storybrooke, Henry is worried that Charming isn’t waking up. In the Enchanted Forest, Snow is still freaking out that she needs to get back to Charming. I don’t quite get why Henry couldn’t give Charming a kiss on the forehead. I worked for Emma. Unfortunately while Snow was out and Emma was keeping watch, Mulan snagged the compass. They track her down and Mulan and Snow have another knock down-drag out fight when Aurora shows up and begs them to stop. It turns out that somewhere off screen Hook took her heart (he flaunts this while being pinned to a rock wall) and Cora is now in control. I have to say that Cora and Hook have some serious sexual chemistry going on. Puppet!Aurora is not going to end well at all.

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