Young Cora’s rise to power is revealed, along with her past relationship with Rumplestiltskin. Also, the residents of Storybrooke battle for Gold’s life, with devastating consequences for more than one character. Here is a recap and review of “The Miller’s Daughter.”
Recap:
In the Enchanted Forest, young Cora brings flour to the palace of King Xavier, where the royalty forces her into a kneeling apology for speaking against the princess. Cora, in disguise, later attends a ball where women are vying to be Prince Henry’s wife. Recognizing her, the king attempts to kick Cora out, but she insists she can spin straw into gold and solve his problems. King Xavier locks Cora in a tower, giving her the night to prove her skill or she’ll die. Rumplestiltskin appears and teaches Cora to hone magic. Cora demonstrates the skill to the kingdom and is granted marriage to the prince.
As Cora prepares for her wedding, Rumple makes her second guess herself. They amend their contract from Cora owing him her firstborn, to her owing him their child. After a conversation with the king about love versus power, Cora informs Rumple she is choosing power over her love for him and will never have his child.
Cora and Regina eavesdrop on David and Mary Margaret’s conversation and realize that Rumplestiltskin’s name is disappearing from the dagger as he dies. Cora vows to stab him ASAP because if he dies, there won’t be a new Dark One. Mary Margaret and David accompany Gold, Neal, and Emma to his shop, where Gold coaches Emma to enact a protection spell. Mary Margaret runs across the candle of death, which Gold wants her to use: Mary Margaret must whisper with the lit candle over Cora’s heart, which is in Regina’s stash, then reinsert the heart into Cora’s chest.
Mary Margaret escapes through the back of Gold’s shop when Regina and Cora break through the perimeter. A magical battle ensues in which Cora drops the dagger and Emma puts Regina in a headlock, giving Cora the choice to reclaim the dagger or save her daughter; Cora chooses power. Feeling the effect of her heart being affected by Mary Margaret’s actions, Cora sends Regina after it.
Over the phone, Gold flatters Belle about her goodness and how she makes him want to be better; she still doesn’t remember him, but Neal realizes his father is capable of love. When Regina finds Mary Margaret, Mary Margaret convinces her to replace Cora’s heart to receive maternal love. As Cora confesses she truly loved Rumple, Regina reinserts Cora’s heart. David finds Mary Margaret outside of the crypt and they rush back to Gold’s store, but they are too late; Cora dies and Gold is healed.
Review:
“The Miller’s Daughter” delved into Cora’s early backstory and her evolution from a peasant daughter to a blood-thirsty, power-thirsty princess, but was more monumental for Mary Margaret’s story. Although it provided a thorough amount of suspense, this episode was not a complete shock; nevertheless, Once Upon A Time has moved well away from the sub-par episodes filling up the first segment of this season into more engaging hours.
As mentioned in my review of last week’s episode, I was initially hesitant about the idea of Mary Margaret killing Cora, but expressed trust in the writers. Following up on it (as I’m sure will happen again after the repercussions of Mary Margaret’s decision have been explored), the fact that Mary Margaret immediately expressed regret after Regina left with Cora’s heart and rushes to stop her exemplifies that Mary Margaret has not completely lost her identity. In addition, having the Charming family’s love theme playing gently in the background while Mary Margaret opens the box to Cora’s heart lessens the ghastliness of her plan by amping up her honorable intentions of protecting her family.
The creative liberties given to Once Upon A Time, while some may argue that they misrepresent classic fairytale characters, mold these beloved characters into contemporary figures relatable to the audience at different levels.* Although we may never face the dilemma of deciding who lives and who dies for our family’s sake, we may very well have to determine how far we are willing to stretch ourselves in order to ensure our family is as well off as possible. From the love-filled wife unassumingly clutching an apple in the beginning of the episode (small nods such as this are always a favorite part) to the devastated woman crouching down in horror, Ginnifer Goodwin has given a beautifully acted full range of emotion far beyond the original Snow White.
The casting of Rose McGowan as young Cora was chillingly accurate. Not only does she bear a striking resemblance to Barbara Hershey, but McGowan also believably portrayed Cora at a younger age, incorporating an additional fun, sassy flair. It finally gave the character a layer that the audience could invest in. On the other hand, Hershey’s acting, most notably in the scene where Cora mumbles that she is not wicked after listening through the enchanted box (phone tap) with Regina, was unusually barely believable.
Watching Cora constantly choose power over love decreases sympathy for her, and with her death, more remorse was felt for the weeping Regina. Regina appears to at last be realizing that her mother has only ever had her own interests at heart. Even with this revelation, the pain she felt upon watching her mother die in her arms induced sympathy for a woman desiring a most basic form of acceptance. Given that Snow White now has another strike against Regina, here’s hoping that Regina becomes a prevalent fixture in the season and takes to more action than conversation and pining.
There were a few minimal elements that knocked this episode down from great to good. First, Neal’s entrance into Storybrooke was anticlimactic. An overdramatic entrance would not have been necessary, but after there was a debate between Gold and Emma on whether or not Neal would be returning with them, any acknowledgement of the significance was expected. Neal stepped into the town without even a comment from any party and slunk into the background for much of the episode. Aside from warming up to his father after Gold’s speech to Belle, his presence was not influential. Similarly, Ruby and Henry disappearing early in the hour and Belle appearing for a brief scene further demonstrates that “the powers that be” are struggling to figure out what to do with these characters lately, a result of the increasing number of cast members.
Second, Emma being able to conjure up the protection spell so easily came off as unrealistic. Having taken nearly a season to finally be convinced that the curse was real, her quickly channeling her emotion into magic without straining did not fit. Also, invisible chalk … really? Last week, Neal put his paternal resentment aside and addressed his father as “Papa,” but Emma continues to refer to her father as “David.”
If Regina was indeed Rumple’s daughter, this family tree would be way too convoluted. The emphasis that Cora placed on Regina’s name when lifting her up Rafiki style in front of the kingdom initially brought up questions about Regina’s connection to Rumple considering his obsession with names. Reflecting on it further, it may have just been an assertion of power by Cora that she hoped Regina would inherit. It was nice to see consistency with Rumple’s modus operandi of creating contracts, but not appealing nor realistic that he, as the devious and self-centered Rumple, has an apparent knack for falling in love with any woman that expresses interest in him.
* As a side note, I was at the airport over the weekend and a woman sitting across from me complimented the decal I have on the back of my MacBook of Snow White appearing to hold up the Apple logo. She mentioned that her young daughter loves the character and identifies herself as Snow White. I found it interesting that a character made popular in America in the early portion of the nineteenth century is just as recognizable today by people of all ages.
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