Once Upon a Time - S4E3 - Rocky Road
Previously on Once Upon a Time, ‘White Out’
Robin, Maid Marian, and their son pop into the local ice cream shop. The owner gives Marian a vanilla cone with jimmies and a wee bit of magic.
Killian, Emma, and Elsa interrogate Gold about how Elsa made her way into the urn. He denies knowing anything about it. Belle grabs the Rumpledagger and uses it to get him to tell the truth. He repeats his party line. How cute is Belle thinking she wields some bit of power?
Elsa and Kristoff discuss the whereabouts of Anna, as Elsa insists she lead a search party to find her. Their think tank is interrupted with some bad news: An army is marching on Arendelle; lead by Hans.
Mary Margaret is holding her first state of the union meeting as mayor.
Time out: I can’t keep it in anymore. Mary Margaret dresses like someone’s meemaw, baba, gran-gran, Aunt Tillie and every other version of old lady you have ever seen. The costuming for her over the years has gotten progressively worse and I cannot wrap my head around it. David wears his distressed jeans and fashionable leather jacket and she looks like she got lost in 1954. I find her style distracting and painfully dated.
Moving on, Mary Margaret passes out an agenda to our town regulars: Gran, Leroy, Archie. As they peruse the list their eyes are drawn to item 4: Ice wall. They get the quick and dirty about the ice wall and Elsa’s presence in Storybrooke. In the midst of the chatter Marian swoons and eventually passes out.
She is taken to the Mayor’s office and Regina is summoned. Not before Regina and Henry have a pow wow at Granny’s; she plies him with new comics and makes a big deal about who wrote the fairytale book. She manages to twist the conversation and she and Henry are now partners on a secret mission to rewrite the ending.
Pinkie swear! Besties! Code Name: Brothers Grimm.
At the mayor’s office Regina takes a moment to critique MM’s design choices, a very out of place town and country style painting of a blue bird. I feel you, Regina. The magic used against Maid Marian is powerful, her lips have turned blue and of course the first suspect is the new kid in town, Elsa.
Elsa informs the group of how to break the spell, an act of true love. Robin kisses Marian and NOTHING. Marian becomes a maid-cicle and Regina has an idea of how to save her. Henry retrieves some items from her crypt and Regina proceeds to remove Marian’s heart, you know, for safe keeping… Suuure.
Kristoff ventures into the woods with Sven, one-sided banter ensues. He finds Hans’ camp. Hans has a gaggle of men, some of them his older brothers who think he is a joke, but he has something up his sleeve; the urn we saw Elsa released from in the season 3 finale. Kristoff hustles back to the castle with his new intel. Elsa insists she is going with him to battle Hans. She has a whole lot of freezing to do.
The people of Storybrooke are on a witch-hunt lead by Leroy and Granny. I need these to mystical freedom fighters to find something else to do, pool your resources together and actually get the wall down. See if you can help bring Marian back to the warm side. Put down the torches and do something productive.
Hook and Elsa set out for some danger. Emma and her Paw, make for the woods. They stumble upon Will Scartlet (Michael Socha). (If you haven’t watched Misfits, shame on you. Michael’s sister, Lauren, is fantastic on it.) You should notice him from last year’s OUAT flop Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. He states he is a thief and broke into the ice cream parlor during the blackout and noticed all the ice cream was still frozen.
Hook and Elsa go to the pawn shop to confront Belle. Hook promises his silence regarding the Rumpledagger if he helps them determine the source of the curse. Elsa pulls a few strands of Brazilian yaki straight out of her pocket and hands it to Gold. He releases the magic from the ill-gotten strands of hair and snowflakes appear. He blows on the flakes and send them on their way to find our other Ice Mistress.
Archie meets MM in a parking lot as she struggles with baby Neal and an uncooperative stroller. An impromptu therapy session occurs as he encourages her to “let it go.” MM has had Neal very much attached at the hip at every turn and she is visibly worn.
Emma, Will and David break into the ice cream parlor and discover what we already know. This is not your ordinary parlor. No refrigeration system, icicles hanging from the rafters. Will uses this chance to escape.
Elsa and Kristoff travel to a cave that holds the urn. When she picks it up ancient texts appears. Captain Hans Von Douchebag and his cronies surround Elsa and Kristoff. She is given an ultimatum: get in the urn or he will kill Kristoff.
Hans opens the Urn and the still unnamed Ice Mistress T-1000’s her way out of the urn, freezes Hans and his crew make haste.
Elsa and Hook follow the snowflakes to the edge of the woods. They find the Dairy Queen is praying to an icy throne. She rounds on Elsa and Hook, then tells a tale of questionable truth; eventually all people will fear them, magical people, and her sister is the one who trapped Elsa in the urn. Emma and David save the day and the Snow Queen escapes.
Emma feels an odd connection with the Snow Queen. It’s obvious they know one another. Hook just wants Emma to love and trust him. She does trust him, but she is also a bit of a black widow. They kiss in the middle Main Street.
Elsa and the Snow Queen return to the castle and she continues to spin her yarn; low and behold she is the girls’ Aunt, the sister of their mother.
The Snow Queen finds her way into the path of a patiently waiting Mr. Gold. He asks is Emma remembers him. She says no, he tells her she should be thankful, and offers his help. She declines and will seek him out when/if she needs him.
This was a nice season set-up and introduction episode. What were some of the major take aways:
- What is Snow Queen’s role in Elsa being trapped in the urn?
- Rock trolls removing more memories. Fairytale lobotomies.
- How are Gold and the Snow Queen connected?
- Who is Robin’s true love because it ain’t Marian?
- What is Regina going to do with Marian’s heart?
