Once Upon a Time 4.21: "Mother"

“The only one standing in the way of your happiness is you.”
- Cora

If you couldn’t tell from last week’s ending, I was more than a little miffed about Zelena’s baby reveal. And I wasn’t the only one. Both Regina and Robin are struggling to figure it out. But Robin at least accepts Regina’s offer to give Roland a forgetting potion so he won’t remember Marian or that she’s really dead. And Robin still has hope that he and Regina can be together. Regina isn’t so sure, given the person-sized obstacle that she thinks is forever going to be in their way. Back at the apartment, we get a nice little nod to Neal and the dreamcatcher before Regina and Robin come back announcing everyone is going back to Storybrooke immediately.

In the Enchanted Forest, we see Regina on the anniversary of Daniel’s death. She is not in a very good mood and kills a newlywed because her father tries to calm her down. She heads to Daniel’s grave to pay her respects when Cora shows up. She borrowed a rabbit to get out of Wonderland and she’s come with offerings of assistance. Somewhere along the way she ran into Tinker Bell and learned about Regina’s fated love. Cora wants to make amends with her daughter and find the man for her so Regina can be happy and in love again. I seriously don’t trust her, even though I want her to be telling the truth. Cora heads to the tavern where Regina was supposed to meet Robin and runs into the sheriff of Nottingham instead and ends up using him to her advantage. She magically puts a tattoo on his arm and convinces Regina that he is the one she’s seeking (the real Robin is obviously already married and all that jazz). Regina figures out the trick quick enough and is appalled to learn that Cora’s back and did all of this because she wants Regina to have a child. Regina is super pissed at Cora for her latest trick and so she’s locked Nottingham in the dungeons for a little payback. Cora tries to explain that she thinks Robin is unsuitable for Regina but our Queen is just not having it. She stupidly takes a potion that makes her infertile which drives Cora nuts because she wanted Regina to have a child for her own happiness. Before she leaves, Cora imparts one last nugget of wisdom on her daughter: Regina is the one standing in her own way.

As Emma and company arrive back in town, Gold and the Author are having breakfast. Rumple’s health is getting worse and Hook takes the time to rub it in the Dark One’s face that Emma hasn’t gone dark and he won’t get what he wants. Rumple’s solution is to whisk the Author to the pawn shop in search of anything on blood magic (they need Emma’s blood) but Regina interrupts. She takes the quill from Rumple and disappears with the Author, leaving Rumple to collapse on the floor. Regina may not give a damn about Rumple dying but she shouldn’t just dismiss what straight up, untampered Dark One is capable of. On the plus side, Lily and Maleficent get to finally meet. Oh and Regina has locked Zelena in the funny farm!

Lily and Maleficent share lunch but it’s not what either of them envisioned. Lily wants to get her vengeance on and Mal just wants to move forward as mother and daughter. Lily plans on leaving and so Mal goes to Snow and Charming for help. They couldn’t help Lily back then but maybe they can now. At her vault, Regina and the Author also have a chat. Regina has already figured out how she is going to get the ink to work but she needs to confirm that the new page 23 is actually a possibility. The Author indeed confirms it and says it belonged to a story he never got around to writing and he’d be happy to write it for her. He also points out she’s his favorite character and that she gets screwed over a lot (a little meta there don’t’ you think)? So now that Regina knows her happiness is possible, she goes to get the ink. This of course involves tracking Lily down and taking some of her blood (with Emma’s darkness coursing through her veins). The cut somehow triggers Lily’s own magic (she was born from a freaking dragon after all) and she finally takes dragon form and goes on the hunt. That really won’t end well for Snow and Charming unless Mal actually sides with them and fights her daughter. A dragon on dragon fight would be kind of cool when you think about it.

While the Charmings and Mal track down Lily and nearly get barbequed for their trouble, Regina pays a visit to Zelena with the Author in toe. She wants Zelena to see when the Author gives Regina her happy ending. And she’s got the perfect ending for her big sister in mind. I’m guessing that baby doesn’t survive. And Hook is still trying to convince Emma to forgive her parents because they just wanted her to like them and be proud of them. As much as I cringe whenever they show affection (I just can’t get on the Captain Swan ship), Hook is trying awfully hard to reconnect the family.

It seems Hook’s pep talk was just what Emma needed to forgive her parents and restore the bond between them. And maybe that was enough to get Lily to give her own mother a chance. I’m hoping that now she can at least team up with Emma to stop Rumple from getting what he wants. Because they’re going to have to move fast to stop things from progressing. See, Regina is about ready to erase Zelena from existence when she realizes that they are their own worst enemies and she’s just going to keep her sister locked up. She claims that her happy ending was feeling like she belonged in the world and Robin is just a part of it. The Author, however, is still working with Rumple and whisks himself back to the pawn shop to start giving the villains their happy endings after all. Next week’s two-hour finale is going to be epic.