The excitement of a new season of Once Upon a Time is making me jump up and down on my bed. I know this show can be completely ridiculous at times but I don’t care, I love this show. I love the characters, I love the nonsense, I love the drama and I love the characters. This season is starting off with introducing some new but recognizable characters from Disney’s hit Frozen. It is also picking up pretty much where the season ended as in it is the very next day.
The episode starts with a ship in the middle of a terrible storm and waves crashing onto it. A woman is at a desk writing a letter when her husband tells her that they must leave because the ship is going down and she says not till she has finishes her letter to Anna and Elsa….it’s their parents and basically we are seeing the Once Upon a Time take of how they died from the movie. Whatever their mother had written to them in the letter in the bottle, it was suppose to tell them the truth and save them. The ship ends up being crushed by waves and then it is 5 years later and Anna (Elizabeth Lail) and Elsa (Georgina Haig) are at their parents’ graves. As they leave the graves, Elsa tells Anna she has a surprise for her and that it is for her wedding. So this is supposed to take place after the movie Frozen.
Meanwhile back in our world in present time, Elsa is coming out of the barn and makes her way down the road when she encounters the sign stating that she is in Storybrooke. Which of course makes her completely confused because she doesn’t know where that is but then again as an audience member, we have no idea what she has been up to that caused to get locked in that bottle. We also get to see the fall out of what happened when Emma brought Marian back from the dead. Regina is obviously upset because she thought she was going to get her chance at love, Emma is feeling incredibly guilty about bringing her back and hurting Regina, and Robin is at a loss as to handle the fact that the woman he current loves (Regina) and the woman he thought he had loved and lost (Marian) are confronted for the first time. I have to say I feel completely terrible for Regina because she has the worst luck ever when it comes to happiness but I also really like the fact that everyone who gathers around outside (Emma, Henry, Snow, Charming, and Killian) are basically there to support Regina while Marian kind of goes ‘WTF?!’ because to her Regina is still the monster known as the Evil Queen. Granted sometimes I really want to shake Charming and Snow for how they treat Regina like she can’t change.
Elsa is getting her first taste of Storybrooke but almost getting hit by a car driven by Sleepy, who had fallen asleep, and Grumpy. Then when she is in the town itself, she almost gets hit by a man on a motorcycle. As she glances around, she sees a wedding dress and it takes her back to a memory of her and Anna.
Anna is trying to guess what Elsa’s surprise and is a little put out that it is just an attic. Elsa takes her to a cupboard and opens it to reveal that it’s their mother’s wedding dress. She wants Anna to wear the dress for her wedding and she also gives her a snowflake necklace. While Anna is trying on the dress, Elsa is going through the room and they have this cute sisterly exchange. Elsa finds her mother’s diary and believes that her parents death is all her fault.
Back in our world, Rumple is at Baefire/Neal’s grave and he has a very touching, emotional scene talking to his grave about becoming the man that Neal had died for. Though when he pulls out the dagger from his coat pocket I’m surprised that no one has seen the outline of it, but let’s just chalk that up to magic ;). Speaking of heartache, the next day Robin goes to see Regina and basically tells her that ‘while yes I do love and care for you, I made a pledge and vow to Marian’ and then he leaves her. The scene is made even worse because she is sitting there and looking like there is hope for them before he starts talking about his pledge and then as he breaks her heart, a lone tear is falling from her eye. In her anger a mirror behind her breaks and as she picks up a chard she gets an evil look and makes her way to the psych ward of the hospital to where her ‘mirror’ is, telling him that she needs his help again. Poor Sidney is under the assumption that she was just keeping him around till she needs him, always a thought in her mind when in actually she completely forgot about [like most viewers probably did as well].
I have no idea whose house that is, that Belle found but I fucking love it. The house is gorgeous. Belle wants to use the house for their honeymoon and Rumple seems to be in agreement. As she shows him the house, he quickly freezes her to replace the fake dagger with the real one before unfreezing her. As she goes to show him her favorite place, he sees a knickknack on the table that makes him pause, which as a viewer makes me want to know how he recognizes it. Belle takes him to the library/ballroom and I have to admit 2 things here; one I want a room like that but probably less windows and more bookcases and two, I love Belle’s style and I wish I could wear half of what she does. And like a true Romantic, Rumple transforms her Belle into a beautiful [and iconic] yellow/gold ball gown, himself into a blue suit [also rather iconic], with a gramophone playing an instrumental version of “Beauty and the Beast”…and I may or may not have completely squealed in joy, jealously, and in the adorable romanticism of it all.
The Charming family (or is it the White family? What is Charmings’ last name?) strolls down the street, Emma keeps trying to reach Regina while David and Snow stare at their adorable baby son. Henry decides to give it a try in trying to contact Regina with David going with him while Emma and Snow have this cute mother/daughter/former roommates/bff scene. Emma is sort of at a loss in how to handle her…thing…with Hook/Killian because its something completely new and different for her. And of course that is when he shows up, and like the epic schoolgirl that I apparently channel at times, can’t help but cheer and root for him to get his woman…also I completely adore Killian. Killian calls Emma out on trying to avoid him and she says that they are in the middle of a crisis and he tells her that she should start living her life during them or she might miss it. You can totally tell that he is a little annoyed about how one step forward, three steps back their relationship is. And just before she can respond, Leroy and Sleepy come rushing up to tell her about how they are under attack by something that had frozen their van over. Leroy wants to know who has that kind of magic and Emma suggests maybe the person who made the ice trail.
Back in the past with Anna and Elsa, Elsa is having her own pity party with snowflakes falling around her. Anna finds her and finds out why Elsa was so upset is because what is written in their mother’s diary. Elsa says that their parents because they thought her a monster and Anna refuses to believe it, and drags her to her future in-laws to prove it.
Emma and Killian follow the trail of ice and end up finding a giant snow monster (MARSHMALLOW!!!) and Killian of course states that, that was a new one.
Anna and Elsa go to see the trolls, and Elsa keeps trying to get Anna to go back and do planning for the wedding. Can I just say how awesome it was to see the trolls on OUAT, especially since I didn’t think that would be something we would get to see since there won’t be any Olaf. Grand pappi tells them that he doesn’t know what they were doing but he knew that they were going to Misthaven. Anna is the ever optimist and tells Elsa that they have answers now and Elsa tells her that they have more questions. Anna wants to go to Misthaven but Elsa tells her that she, Elsa, can’t leave because Hans and his 12 angry brothers are out there just waiting to attack. So Anna tries to convince Elsa to let her go and how she will be right back and Elsa visibly gets upset because that is exactly what their parents said as well.
Back in our world, Emma and Killian start running from Marshmallow who just keeps following them. Leory see’s Marshmallow and shouts about an evil snowman and Emma just has this complete putout look on her face. As Elsa continues to hid, she picks up a newspaper at her feet and sees and image of Rumple and Belle in his shop with Anna’s necklace on the counter. Marshmallow meanwhile is scared of the loud sounds and turns to make his way towards the forest.
Regina is filling Sidney in on Marian and how she is standing in the way of her happiness by fulfilling the happily ever after that the book has given her. Sidney wants to know how Regina wants him to kill her, and Regina says she doesn’t want Sidney to kill her but rather she has to go back in time and undo Emma’s mistake by killing Marian before she can be saved. Sidney of course is confused as to how he can help Regina do this. Regina needs Sidney’s help in knowing when she had first captured Marian because she can’t remember her (love the comment about Marian being awfully vanilla, especially if you decided to take it to a dirty place it gives it that line a whole new meaning) but Sidney still doesn’t know how he can help since he isn’t the magic mirror anymore. Of course that’s when Regina puts him back in the mirror and he flips his lid but Regina tells him that its only temporary. Sidney as the mirror shows Regina the scene of how she captured Marian.
While Storybrooke is going crazy over Marshmallow, Elsa is slowly making her way to Mr. Gold’s shop. This leads to a flashback of her looking for Anna and decides to ask Sven and Kristoff if they have seen her. The relationship between Elsa and Kristoff is kinda hilarious because they are trying to get along for Anna’s sake but it just doesn’t seem to be working. Kristoff is trying distract Elsa from where Anna is because Anna has decided to go to Misthaven to get the answers for Elsa….it obviously doesn’t work and Elsa rushes off to stop her.
In our world Emma, Killian, and David are in the woods lets Robin and his men (plus Marian) know about Marshmallow. Emma tries to tell Little John not to shoot because he only attacks when he feels threaten. Killian and David tell Emma to use her magic to try and stop him and this only aggravates Marshmallow and knocks them out. Marian tries to attack him but that doesn’t work except for putting her in his line of sight. Regina comes out from behind a tree and looks between Marshmallow and Marian, who is pleading with her to save her life (Bitch calls her a monster less than 24 hours earlier but now wants her to save her life) when Regina disappears. Right when Marian thinks she is going to die, Regina uses her magic to kill Marshmallow, which completely shocks Marian. Marian tells Regina that maybe she isn’t a monster (bitch needs to shut her mouth), Regina welcomes her to Storybrooke and before Emma can talk to her, she disappears. Emma and Killian have a quiet moment to themselves (Hey Adam and Eddie, can we please get a scene of them cuddling together?!) and when everyone and Killian thinks she is going to kiss him, she steps back. He calls her on her avoidance and she tells him that she feels guilty but before she leaves, she gives him a kiss and tells him to be patient and all I want to do is shake her, kiss him and lock the two in a closet together…but that’s just me.
One of the best scenes in the entire episode is when Emma is trying to talk to Regina and it zooms out so we can see both sides of the wall; with Regina in her office in the dark on the floor and Emma on the other side of the door where its bright and telling her that she is going to help her find her Happy Ending because that’s why Henry brought her to Storybrooke. Side note: I WANT Regina’s shoes. Emma’s speech makes Regina think of how it’s the books fault not Marian and now she wants to find the writer of the book so that she can force them to give her, her happy ending.
At their honeymoon location Rumple can’t sleep and goes to look at the knickknack that caught his eye earlier and uses his dagger (which he took from Belle) to open it and it seems to have transformed into a magician’s hat.
Elsa is breaking into Mr. Gold’s shop to get Anna’s necklace which leads to a flashback to Elsa just getting to the harbor as the ship that Anna is on leaves. Kristoff tells her that she has to let Anna do this and the reason he didn’t go with Anna is because she wanted him to stay so that Elsa wouldn’t be alone. Elsa is worried about Anna going to Misthaven and wants to know why she has never heard of it and Kristoff tells her that she has probably heard it by the name the inhabitants know it as, the Enchanted Forest. This part of the conversation is going on as Anna on the boat looks out to sea while touching her necklace. Making a jump back to the present, Elsa swears she will find Anna while holding up the necklace.
I have to say that I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens next this season because Elsa isn’t trying to be a villain but she will do everything in her power to find her sister. Also I am super intrigued to find out who actually wrote the book because that is definitely something that hasn’t been discussed in the last 3 seasons. I have to say that I think they cast both Elsa and Anna perfectly but I’m on the fence about Kristoff. Of course the episode has left us with tons of questions: What happened to Anna? Whose house is Rumple and Belle staying at? Who wrote the book? Will Killian and Emma finally work it out? How the hell is Robin gonna make it work with Marian when everyone knows he is suppose to be with Regina? Is Regina gonna be a villain again or while she just toe the line?
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