ONCE UPON A TIME There Was a Girl with a Dragon & a Clue

Episode 1.22 “A Land Without Magic”

[photos: David Gray/ABC   screen caps: ABC.com]

It’s throwdown week!

Emma tosses Regina around a closet! Charming and Rumpelstiltskin with swords! Charming and Maleficent with fire! Emma and Maleficent with fire!

Wait. What?

Yep. The savior finally gets it. Emma, in emotional turmoil from Henry’s apple-induced coma, grabs the fairy tale book and has the big flash where it all comes rushing back. And she gets it. She finally gets it.

Of course, I’m asking why this never happened any other time she touched the book. Is it only because of the danger now hovering over her son? Maybe. But how does Henry’s distress change her belief in the idea of a curse?

This is the season finale, so the stakes have to go up. And of course, the assumptions that everyone made about how the season would wrap up – I don’t think anyone saw this coming.

Emma still has to be rational and practical, so she’ll kill Regina later, after they save Henry. That’s the one common purpose they can find. Emma goes to Pinocchio, but he’s already too far gone to help, staying “alive” just long enough to realize she finally believes. But she’s on her own, now having to depend on Regina to help her. And so the two unlikely temporary allies go to Gold to get some kind of last-ditch magic, because Regina’s magic is all gone. Gold, of course, stashed some away.

And it’s an interesting journey to get there. Over in Fairy Tale Land, Charming escapes from Regina only to find himself in the Infinite Forest, so he’s going around in circles until Rumpelstiltskin shows up to make a deal. There’s swordplay! And witty repartee. Rumpelstiltskin has Charming’s ring, and he enchants it to help the prince find Snow White. In exchange, Charming has to take a golden egg containing the True Love potion and get it inside Maleficent.

Remember, Maleficent has the ability to transform into a dragon. More swordplay! And fire! The scene between Charming & Maleficent is intercut with the scene between Emma and Maleficient, who’s trapped in her dragon form under the clock tower in Storybrooke. (How, exactly, did they manage that?)

It’s a minor quest episode. Emma with her father’s sword certainly plays well, and you know her decision to drop the sword and pull her gun just isn’t going to go well. And of course, it doesn’t  because Maleficent is a magical creature. And the gun’s not magical. So she’s got to use the sword again.

Now, at this point, let’s remember this has been building for twenty episodes. This is the whole “everything depends on you” arc coming to fruition. And it comes and goes a little too quickly and conveniently for me.

The B-story is Jefferson’s. The Mad Hatter has made the deal with Regina, but since Henry ate the apple turnover meant for Emma, Regina considers the deal null and void. Jefferson, not surprisingly, doesn’t take this well. So he goes down to the basement (where we see Sidney’s name on a door) and he frees Belle, telling her to go find Mr. Gold and tell him Regina locked her up.

Gold’s reaction is priceless. That glimmer of humanity that we saw in “Skin Deep” is here again, racing to the fore with a crushing force.

But the last ten minutes twist everything up and throw it down a rabbit hole nobody saw. Emma gets back to the hospital, where Henry has died. Bold move, writers. Bold move — but wait! Aha! True Love’s Kiss doesn’t always have to be between lovers, right?

Bam! Emma’s kiss on Henry’s forehead blasts the town. Henry wakes up, as does everyone else. Memories are back! Charming and Snow finally find each other! Mother Superior tells Regina she should hide.

Hold up. Why didn’t everyone go back to Fairy Tale Land?

Remember, Gold concocted the curse. To cross over into the Land Without Magic and find his son. So now what? Belle remembers who she is and the fact that she loves Rumpelstiltskin, but even though Rump loves Belle, he loves power more. He takes the potion Emma’s retrieved and drops it into the well that brings things back to you.

And a big Purple Smoke Monster from Lost spreads across the town and brings magic to the land…

… at 8:15.

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So, what does this mean for everyone? To remember their lives in Fairy Tale Land but remain in Storybrooke. What does it do for Rumpelstiltskin to have Belle back in his life? That’s going to play havoc with his plans, I’m sure.

Do we also get that Emma just killed Maleficent?

Regina sees the purple smoke coming, and her evil grin speaks volumes about what could possibly be coming next season. It’s not going to be pretty.

Looks like we’re still a ways away from Happily Ever After.

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[Official Show Site at ABC]     [Previous recap: “An Apple Red as Blood”]