Monday, April 21, 2014

Once Upon a Time 3.18: "Bleeding Through"

“Regina, I’ve seen what life has thrown at you. And you still fight against the darkness every single day. Sooner or later, your heart will find its way to happiness.”
- Mary Margaret

If you couldn’t tell I wasn’t a huge fan of last week’s episode. This week, however, was much better. We jump in with Regina getting a visit from Zelena. Big sis has brought a basket of granny smith apples as a present. I wouldn’t eat them if I were Regina. They trade some apple-inspired barbs before Zelena gets to the real point of her visit. To make sure she knew where Regina was so Rumple go slink off and lay claim to the Mayor’s ticker. I have to say I really want the Charming/Mills clan to free Rumple soon. Zelena keeping him as her puppet is so annoying. She basically makes him almost kill Robin’s son to get Regina’s heart. Regina is surprisingly understanding.

In the Enchanted Forest that was, we find young Cora working in a tavern to help support her and her father (since we know he’s a lazy drunk). On first watch I was a little confused by when this fell in the time line. I ultimately decided it didn’t really matter but it explained the animosity between Eva and Cora in “The Miller’s Daughter”. Anyway, Cora thinks she’s met a genuine prince when the man she accidentally bumps into drops a hankie with the royal crest. He even proposes to her with a ring made of straw. This of course entices her to offer herself to him in a wife sort of way. Two months down the road, she’s not heard from her prince and she goes to the castle to look for him. She finds him but also learns he’s a hustler and he’s really a gardener. She reveals she’s pregnant and demands money from him to support the child but he basically tells her to bugger off. She tries to make him stay but she pushes her down and takes off. But it seems her fortunes may be changing because a real prince, Prince Leopold, arrives and offers her aid. Yes, that would be the same Leopold whom Regina later marries (aka Snow’s father). Cora and Leopold seem to hit it off but he’s betrothed to Princess Eva whom he’s never met. It seems he’s going to break that betrothal and marry Cora. Unfortunately for them both, Cora’s baby daddy shows up, demanding jewels and gold to disappear and Eva overhears. And of course, Cora gets the raw end of the deal with Eva tattles on her to Leopold, casting Cora her first chance at becoming royalty. She is apparently forced to give Zelena up thanks to Eva. Very interesting move there.

Back in Storybrooke, Regina heads to the pawn shop to try and find something to crush Zelena but Belle puts a stop to her aimless rummaging. After a sincere apology, Belle explains she’s been trying to match spell ingredients to what Zelena’s taken so far. While she continues to work on that, Regina has a new plan. She gathers the Charmings and Hook (I don’t know why they need him other than maybe 5 is the magic number for summoning the dead) to commune with Cora to find out about Zelena’s past. Oh boy. The spell seems to work at first. It opens a portal but nothing comes through and thanks to a table bump by Hook (I still can’t tell if it was intentional or not…I mean it’s not like Cora would know that Zelena cursed him) ends the séance. Emma, Hook and David head off to meet up with Belle while Snow stays to talk with Regina.

Out at the farm, Zelena is celebrating with a home cooked meal for her and Rumple. She’s one ingredient away from enacting her spell. She just needs the Snowing baby now. It seems she is going to go back in time and change the past, despite Rumple noting that it would break one of the fundamental laws of magic. Good lord she’s showing a lot of cleavage tonight! We also get a rather steamy scene where Rumple is trying to seduce Zelena (she’s just promised he can go back with her and maybe never even give Baelfire up). He’s really after his dagger but the way he tries to get there is pretty hot and Zelena’s quite enjoying it, too. But she banishes him back to his cage in the storm cellar.

Hook and Emma are hanging at Granny’s and she’s practicing her magic. Hook isn’t really interested and gets crabby when she teleports hi hook to the coat rack. But he doesn’t have time to explain because Belle busts in with the answer to what Zelena’s trying to do. Now they just need to fill in Snow and Regina. Which is going to be easier said than done. Something has disappeared all the doorways out of the house and it turns out that Cora is semi inhabiting this reality because of Snow’s presence. Although before the shit hits the fan, Snow and Regina have a nice moment where they at least acknowledge that their history is complicated. Regina is trying to hold Cora off but she can’t do it forever. Ultimately, Cora’s spirit possesses Snow and she gets the half of the puzzle that Belle didn’t figure out. After being a little hazy from the possession, she explains that if Eva hadn’t forced Cora to give up Zelena, things would been completely different. Belle fills the gang in on the time travel spell and it all makes sense. She’s going back to eradicate the Charming/Mills line of the family tree. Well if that doesn’t give them a reason to fight side by side, I don’t know what will. Regina and Snow have another touching moment where they seem to really put their past behind them and move forward as friends. And Snow totally urges Regina to stop waiting and go find happiness. And damn, she does. We end this week with what I think is a hotter kiss than the Captain Swan kiss from earlier this season. Regina finds Robin in the woods and after he tries to apologize yet again for losing her heart, she plants one right on him. And then after a brief moment to breathe, he returns the favor. I still will never forgive Eddie and Adam for sinking Swanfire but if we get more Outlaw Queen, I’m totally down for it. The last batch of episodes are shaping up to be really intense and I can’t wait to see what they do with it!

No comments:

Post a Comment