ONCE UPON A TIME There Was a Map With No Names

Episode 302 “Lost Girl”

This episode — all about identity. For each of the story arcs we get in this hour, the central theme of being true to oneself is evident. Perhaps not quite as subtle as it could be, but Once Upon a Time doesn’t always do subtle.

Thread 1: Rumpelstiltskin

Probably the most problematic of the three. Rumpelstiltskin gets an offer from Pan: leave Henry here, and the boy lives, all the while removing the possibility that Henry will be his grandfather’s undoing, as predicted by the Oracle. In the midst of his crisis of conscience, he conjures up a vision of Belle, who forces him into some introspection to realize he’s part of a pattern — father abandons son. Rumpel’s father abandoned him. Rumpel abandoned Baelfire. And now he has a chance to abandon Henry (remember they all think Neal’s dead…).

Belle rightly points out that Rumpelstiltskin has the power to break the pattern, to let go of his past and choose a different path. But it makes me wonder if she’s really there — somehow in communication with him from Storybrooke — or if she’s just a figment of his imagination. Which would make more sense, given that he calls her a “vision”.

His attempting to choke her probably would look about as awkward as The Doctor kissing River… Yeah?

So, Rumpelstiltskin has to decide whether or not he’s going to fully embrace his identity as The Dark One and forgo Henry’s safety in favor of his own survival, or forge a new path into uncharted territory and figure out who he really wants to be — especially given that he conjured up Belle as a way to appeal to his own sense of conscience.

But there’s not a good explanation of exactly how he’s got Belle in his head. It’s a little hand-wavey.

Thread 2: Snow White

This is back in Ye Olden Days in the Enchanted Forest, or BC (Before Curse). Snow White is having an identity crisis due to the fact that so many of her subject are being killed because of her defiance against the Evil Queen. Evil Queen gives Snow an out — abandon the kingdom, declare Regina as legitimate Queen and Ruler, and Snow can take Charming and the dwarves to go live happily ever after somewhere else.

And Snow actually considers it. Which gives Charming all sorts of fits. Which makes the dwarves suspicious that Charming wants nothing more than the kingdom and Snow is just the icing on the cake. So Charming figures he has to convince Snow that she’s more than the sum of her parts, and goes to Rumpelstiltskin to get some something to remind Snow of her heritage.

Now, here’s where story logic breaks down a bit. Ostensibly, Rumpelstiltskin has given Charming the answer to restoring Snow’s faith in herself — namely, Excalibur. Yes, the Sword in the Stone is somehow in the Enchanted Forest. And my hearing may have been off, but did I catch Charming calling Merlin a “Neverland wizard” or was I hearing things? Because if that’s the case, then we’ve drawn a connection between two completely different story universes that might not ought to be connected. Although since both Peter Pan and Merlin both have age as a major factor of their identities, it does get a little intriguing upon reflection. A bit.

Snow, thinking she has Excalibur in hand, defies Regina and actually manages to draw blood, inspiring the dwarves to stand by her and they all decide to stay and resist the Evil Queen’s plot to dominate the land. But the problem is this: Rumpelstiltskin later tells Snow that the sword in her hand is a cheap copy of Excalibur. Charming made the whole thing up. So either Rumpelstiltskin at least told Charming about the sword, in which case he actually did help restore Snow’s faith in herself; or Charming himself knew of the legend of the sword and found it within himself to lie to Snow after somehow finding the time to fabricate a sword (where did he do it? and when?), insert it into a boulder at the top of a small mountain (when?) and then make his way back to Snow without being missed.

Either way, there’s a breakdown here. The easiest explanation is that Rumpelstiltskin actually did help Charming, lied about it, and let Snow think Charming made up the whole thing. To what end? Because Rumpelstiltskin needs Snow White to remain in the Enchanted Forest in order to play out his plan to find Baelfire. You remember, the whole motivation behind the curse was to cross over to the same world to which Baelfire fell in the first place, right?

Thread 3: Emma Swan

This is the meaty thread for the hour, and it’s partly informed by the experience Snow White had fighting off Evil Queen Regina. The idea of losing yourself, trying to figure out who you really are, becomes the priority as Peter Pan gives Emma a map to find Henry.

Well, no. Not that map. But it was too good to pass up. A map with no names. The parchment is blank, and Pan says she’ll be able to use it when she finally admits to herself her true identity. Which, in my mind, means completely embracing the whole “savior” thing, but I forget where we are — Neverland. Should have been a clue.

Pan has an insight into Emma, it seems, and it raises the question as to how he knows her so well. I suppose it comes from Pan’s ability to seek out lost and abandoned souls to recruit for his band of Lost Boys, so that bit of Hand-Wavey gets a pass for now. Emma, focused on finding her son and thinking so literally about her life, goes through the litany about who she is — the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, the Sheriff of Storybrooke, the mother of Henry, recently a bail bonds investigator, the savior… and nothing happens on the map.

It’s only after the rescue party gets ambushed, when Emma can’t follow through on fighting back one of the Lost Boys, that she and Snow have an emotional sit-down to figure out why Emma froze. Snow’s back story serves as foundation for this scene, so that when Mary Margaret says, in essence, “I know what it means to lose yourself”, we know what she’s talking about. Emma comes to the realization that she’s always thought of herself as an orphan, having been “abandoned” by her birth parents, growing up in foster care, being abandoned by Neal… and generally feeling poorly about herself to the point where she’s emotionally distant from anyone who could possibly hurt her by leaving.

And what ho! The map reveals itself. And now we’re back on the trail to find Henry.

Little do they know that Charming’s hiding the fact that a Lost Boy arrow nicked him a little too closely, so now there’s palladium poisoning starting to set in. (I know, I know… but that’s what it looks like.) So now there’s a second ticking clock. Not only do they have to find Henry before something bad happens to the boy, but they need to find him quickly before Charming succumbs to the poison.

bum-bum-bummmm.

Next week: Tinkerbell

[Official Show Site at ABC]     [Previous recap: “Heart of the Truest Believer”]