SPOILERS CAN BE COLD!! BE WARY OF THEM!!
Ingrid seeks help from the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in search of another sister. Emma’s powers are out of control. Henry tries to help with little success. After Henry leaves, the Snow Queen again tries to bring Emma to her side but Emma refuses. Regina and Robin’s relationship is still rocky with Regina believing that she cannot have a happy ending. In Arendelle, the Snow Queen tells Elsa that Anna planned to take her powers and that their mother Gerta trapped her in the urn. Emma tries to hide in Gold’s shop. She asks him to help control her powers. Gold offers a solution—the complete removal of her magic. Elsa goes to the dungeon to see Anna. She puts on an act to get the guard to leave and frees Anna. They make a plan to trap the Snow Queen. Emma calls her family to tell them that she is removing her powers for good. David and Mary Margaret do not know how Emma plans to do it. Hook, however, does. He suspects Gold is behind it. In the past, Elsa and Anna search the castle for the urn. Gold visits Ingrid the Snow Queen and reveals his true intensions. Robin meets with Will Scarlet and asks him about the story book. Meanwhile, Elsa sets out on her own to find Emma. Regina consoles Henry and Hook has a revelation about his true feelings for Emma. Unable to yet free herself, Ingrid uses her mirror to find Emma who is on her way to meet with Gold. She projects an image of herself in the middle of the road, causing Emma to crash.
Elsa returns Anna to the dungeon in their plot to trap their aunt in the urn. Immediately after Elsa leaves, the Snow Queen appears in Anna’s cell fully aware of Elsa’s betrayal. She tells Anna a story about the mirror in her room and the dark magic it holds. Emma arrives at the mansion Gold spoke of. After convincing the Charming family of their mistake, Regina sets out with them in search of Emma. Robin and Will search the library for an answer to the author behind the story book. Robin finds something disturbing and calls Regina. Emma finds Gold in the mansion, unaware that he intends to use the magic hat to trap her. Hook arrives at the mansion to warn Emma but Gold stops him. He reveals to him his plan to separate himself from the dagger’s power along with the ingredient needed to make this happen. Unbeknownst to the Dark One, Elsa also arrives at the mansion and she succeeds in helping Emma get her powers back in check. Regina finds Robin in the library where he shows her something that gives her hope for their relationship. With all this happening, the Snow Queen works behind the scenes to invoke her plan.
Its war between Mr. Gold the Dark One and Ingrid the Snow Queen with Emma trapped in the middle. Gold has never really been one for a team player. Everything he has done was with intension. And this episode is no different. Ever since he gained the power of the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin swore to himself to never let anyone control him again. Sadly, the dagger puts him under the control of anyone who wields it. This something he has grown intolerable of and wishes nothing more than to be separated from it. He sought out the hat of the Sorcerer as a means of making this happen. His first goal is to collect enough magic power with the hat. He succeeded in gathering magic from the Apprentice in Storybrooke. Now he wants the uncontrollable power of Emma Swan. However, the Snow Queen will not allow him to take her soon-to-be sister away from her. She wants Emma, along with Elsa, to join her as sisters bonded by magic. Ingrid has gone through a lot of trouble to get the family she always wanted. She tricked Anna into imprisoning Elsa within the urn by casting the spell of Shattered Sight using the troll mirror. Just like in the tale, the mirror make people see only the darkness in others. Ingrid’s plan is to use the mirror’s magic on the residents of Storybrooke and let the town destroy itself. Gold’s plan to separate himself from the dagger has been put on hold for now. However he does a key ingredient for the spell to work—the heart of someone who knew him before he became the Dark One. And the only person in town who knew him then is Killian Jones. With the heart of Captain Hook, Gold can use his oldest enemy to further along his endeavors.
“With great power comes great responsibility.” It’s a cliché line but it does hold true. Emma is running scared because her powers are going out of control thanks to the Snow Queen. She seeks help from Gold who tells her that he can remove her powers. She hurt her father David and Henry who tried to help her. Luckily, Elsa arrives in the end and convinces Emma to control her power by accepting them. Elsa knows what it is like to be ousted because of what she is and she didn’t want to see Emma go through the same thing. Anna helped Elsa so much in the past when everyone was frightened by her magic but it took Elsa taking responsibility for her powers and knows Emma must do the same. It works and Emma is now in control of her powers. However, this is also a part of the Snow Queen’s plan. Ingrid magically ties the ribbons she and her sister’s wore as kids to Emma and Elsa’s wrists. By accepting their magic, they are likely bonded to the Snow Queen who is now on top over the Dark One.
Fate is not always written in stone or in this case, a story book. Regina firmly believes that she is destined to live an unhappy life because of the story book. That was until she shared a heart to heart with Mary Margaret. Yeah, I know right. The one-time Evil Queen becoming buddy-buddy with her one-time greatest enemy. Taking advice from a woman she once swore to kill truly shows Regina’s growth as a character. Her growth is further when she gives David and Mary Margaret sound advice about letting Emma go through with removing her magic. The clincher is when she finds Robin Hood at the library and she is shown the page from the story book that magically appeared. The page shows them together at the pub back in the Enchanted Forest instead of Regina walking away without meeting Robin. That page is still somehow in the book meaning that Regina’s fate is not tied after all. She can have a happy life. But now more questions are raised. Did the story book change because Regina accepted herself as something else other than being evil? And if so, who else, if any, will be affected? Why do I see another giant wrench being thrown into Regina’s chance at happiness?
