Cora and Hook team up in an attempt to enter Storybrook, while Regina and Mr. Gold work to stop their effort. Meanwhile, Emma, Mary Margaret, Mulan, and Aurora explore Rumple’s cell and fight for the chance to go home. Here is a recap and review of “Queen of Hearts.”
Recap:
Prior to the curse, the Evil Queen offers to help Hook kill Rumple in return for a favor: he’ll go to Wonderland and come back with her mother. Through the hat, Hook is taken to the Queen of Hearts, who is Cora. She convinces him to fake her death and she’ll protect him from the curse depleting his memories. While “dead,” Cora has a change of heart in killing Regina and instead, Cora takes Hook and enacts a protection spell that freezes a corner of the land.
At Rumple’s cell in modern day, Aurora finds a scroll with Emma’s name written all over it. Cora and Hook lock them in, so Mary Margaret blows the ink off the parchment and it burns through the cell door. As Hook and Cora are about to jump into the portal at Lake Nostos, the ladies thwart their efforts. During a fight between the sides, Hook saves Aurora’s heart and Mulan reinserts it into Aurora. They set off to save Phillip.
Still fighting, Cora tries to steal Emma’s heart, but Emma repels her with a force field. Under Henry’s plea, Regina takes away the death trap around the portal/well that she and Gold put in place. Mary Margaret and Emma come through the portal and Mary Margaret gives David true love’s kiss to awaken him. Emma confronts Gold about being his pawn, but he insists that everything she has done has been of her own will. Captain Hook and Cora sail towards Storybrook.
Review:
As a mid-season finale, “Queen of Hearts” delivered. It wrapped up the running storyline of Mary Margaret and Emma’s return to Storybrooke and ended with cliffhangers just interesting enough to keep us counting down for the return in a month.
Who is not at all surprised that Cora is the Queen of Hearts? She is quite literally a Queen of hearts. This long awaited reveal did not fit within this episode, nor have relevance aside from adding one extra detail about Cora’s character because we already knew about her affinity for stealing and controlling hearts. The jump into Wonderland was an unnecessary plot device solely for a way to make this information more comfortably revealed. On a more positive note, can we take a moment to appreciate that the writers of this show again made sure to implement Newton’s third law. Educational TV right here.
As sad as it was to see Emma blame herself for not being more of a savior to her family, and even though knowing that her potential is limited because of her lack of knowledge, it was something that I had thought about. The entire first season was built around Emma being the savior and throughout the first half of this one, she did not have involvement of the same caliber. But, it appears that Emma has been holding out on everyone. Her display of sword-fighting skills and magic proved instrumental. 1) How does a bail bondsperson know how to use a sword. 2) Emma does magic?! I, for one, am excited about the prospect of Emma learning to use this craft. As a side note, her trip to the Enchanted Forest was rather un-fairytale-like. There has to be a point in which she will see her home for the beautiful place that it was.
For a so-called “family show,” Hook made some slightly inappropriate sexual remarks towards Emma during the battle. The simple moral tension between these two is great without an added aspect, meaning that it should remain just tension by opposing sides. The possibility of a pairing of these two is off-putting for the sake of how strong their convictions are to their respective sides: doing good versus seeking revenge. It would also cheapen Emma’s character if every attractive male to cross her path was though about as a love interest.
While Mary Margaret and David’s true love interactions and dialogue can come off occasionally campy (read: kind of adorable), that is perfectly fine: they’re fairytale characters after all. Their love story is one of the most compelling on Once, and considering all their obstacles in the past, they deserve some happy time together. And you could not help but smile along with the dwarfs when they were finally reunited.
Rumple has proven himself as even more devious and risky than originally thought. Even though he could have escaped the cell at any time, he chose to put himself in a seemingly submissive position in order to actually be in a position to get what he wanted. The fact that he knew Emma was going to be the savior makes me question whether or not he did actually put some sort of spell on her for his own benefit. Even though he tells her that she acted on her own accord and he was legitimately unaware of her powers, Rumple is known for being a manipulator and not fully forthcoming.
The moment when Regina is tearing up at being left out of the Storybrooke celebration dinner warranted two sad faces in my notes. I know I have been quite vocal about my love for her character in all lands, but it’s worth repeating that Lana Parrilla did a superb job with this episode. Being able to distinguish the Evil Queen from the weepy Regina through voice and aura is impressive, and more so, is her and the writers’ ability to make the audience pity someone as evil as the Evil Queen.
This appears to be the last we’ll see of Mulan and Aurora (for a while?) and their departure does not come with a feeling of loss. First, their contributions to the show were limited and they did not radiate their classic fairytale characters well enough. And second, the characters in Storybrooke that have reunited deserve to be the focus of the season moving forward.
3 Comments
I wonder why Regina didn’t join everyone else in celebrating. Maybe she didn’t feel like celebrating, but whether it was a perceived rejection from Henry or a perceived rejection by the rest of the townspeople, it did appear she was upset at being left out. However, the only specific invitation I remember was Emma saying to Henry, “Hey, kid, you hungry?”. Then Ruby expressed a general invitation to go to Granny’s (there might have been a bit of discussion between Charming and Snow, which considering they are married, is perfectly understandable). But I don’t remember anyone else specifically being invited or rejected. Under the circumstances, I don’t think Emma, Snow, Charming or Henry would have been upset if Regina joined them (I can’t speak for anyone else in the group, however).
I was rather surprised at the seemingly happy ending of the episode. Yes, we have a feeling of impending doom with the arrival of Cora and Hook to Storybrooke, but I was expecting a bit more of a cliff-hanger for a mid-season finale. I’m not saying I’m upset, just surprised.
Corfy pretty much said it well enough. Though I think the point of the cliffhanger is to reiterate that’s throughout all they s been through, they finally beat Cora and Hook!!… then they found another way to Storybrooke. Though I’m not totally sure why they Gold and Regina wouldn’t just kill Cora as she came through. After all, the Dark One and the Evil Queen together would be quite powerful, I’d imagine. And I think death is justified in this instance if it practically saves the entire world.
I agreed 100% with what you had to say Steph, great review for a great mid-season finale! :)