Let’s look at Storybrooke where Emma is all shaky again
about a terribad big bad future coming: the showdown between the Saviour and
the Black Fairy. Emma’s hands are all shaky again, while Mary Margaret and
David are all kind of angsty (in tag-team due to the curse) because they won’t
be there to support Emma
Honestly I think going into the battle without the sappy
ones would help immensely.
David is determined to be uncursed and pressures Regina to
use her dangerous, untested cure on him and Snow. I approve of using untested
dangerous chemicals on the Charmings. Yes yes I do.
Unsurprisingly this goes terribly wrong and when Zelena
and Regina finish tinkering with their hearts it ends up with both of them
cursed to sleep forever. Yaaaaaay! This cure is awesome!
This leads to some flashbacks to the Curse days when
everyone lived mundane lives and it was all terrible and bleak (hey, does it
say anything that the cursed existence of misery for everyone is basically our
9:00-5:00) and Mary Margaret tried to soggy her way through life and visiting
David who is all sad and comatose. All is sad and everyone was miserable (this
is trying to tell us that everyone is happier now with big evil menaces trying
to destroy them all every 2 weeks).
Mary Margaret happens to blunder into a magical flower –because
while the Charmings never ever ever do anything really to make things right but
random chance yet again ensures goodness and happiness shines down on them.
This magic flower wakes up David – several years early. With their memories
restored they try to find Emma with convenient magical flower.
Except they do this by going via Rumplestiltskin whose
memory is quickly restored for him to say that this is way too early, stop this
at once before they run off to be with their daughter
Of course, without magic, he can’t stop them. But he
relies on the sappiness of Snow White, who realises if they use the magical
flower that means that they will be reunited with Emma and give her a happy
childhood (well, with the curse and not a lot of experience with the real
world) – but it also means Emma will never break the curse and that everyone
else in Storybrooke will continue to suffer without interesting invasions by
evil dark magic monsters every week.
They both drink a potion to erase their memories and make
this bit of retcon go away
So what does this mean for the modern story? Well, those magic flowers are back in Storybrooke. These flowers only appear when big evil is around because Good is Stupid and needs Magic Good Flowers to provide Deus Ex Machinae to give them any damn chance of saving themselves because evil has a habit of having a clue. Luckily these flowers may be the key to reuniting lost loved ones – including cursed Charmings
Why are the goodness-saving evil flowers popping up?
Because the Dark Fairy has arrived. She drops in to see her son, Rumplestiltskin
who is very unpleased But she’s determined to have him on side – and even has
the Rumplestiltskin dagger and Gideon’s apparent willing co-operation to force
him.
With flowers everywhere it looks ominous, especially when
the Black Fairy introduces herself to Emma with lots of ominousness (and why do
the villains always dress so much better?) and has Gideon destroy all the Pixie
flowers. Except one
One they can use to reunite the Charmings and keep them
both awake.
Side plot! Killian!
Killian is running from the Lost Boys in Neverland and
only the intervention of Tiger Lilly saves him. So she can kidnap him
She wants him to use whatever power/influence he has to
deliver a chunk of wood to the Saviour. Which is convenient, really (do I have
to have another side rant about how the forces of good in Once Upon a Time always have so much luck working out for them? How
they constantly survive and succeed is based little on their own efforts and planning
and always on things working out for them, chance coming in their favour).
This chunk of wood is going to be super important to the
Saviour to take down the Black Fairy. To get it to Emma, Killian and Tiger
Lilly raid the Lost Boy’s camp and free Pan’s living shadow: they send it to
Emma complete with his Hook and the wood.
I like that Tiger Lilly I actually played by a Native
American actress – but I also wish she had far more of a role than “hey, I have
some magic wood, let me risk my life for you guys”. She needs so much more back
story and development than this. We do learn Tiger Lily was a fairy – who gave
up her wings when she failed to stop the Black Fairy’s descent into evil. So I
really hope that snippet of knowledge is a preview to
Killian and Tiger Lilly are captured
Over to Emma, the Charmings ready to use the flower to
reunite the sappy ones when the shadow arrives with the stick, the hook and no
real explanation. Snow White realises this is another time for self-sacrifice
(I would say that the Charmings are good at this but, again, everything always
works out for them) – and gives the flower to Emma instead, so she can be
reunited with Killian before they fall asleep
Yay sleeping Charmings are out of the fight!
Emma uses the flower dust and manages to rescue Killian
from the Lost Boys (while Tiger Lilly runs off – so it looks like she’s not
going to play a larger role in this series) and we have lots of reunions
Including with the Charmings –because Regina has an idea.
Rather than breaking the curse they can dilute it – share that curse with a
whole lot of people so rather than one person permanently asleep everyone’s, I
don’t know, a little woozy? I need of an espresso. Of course everyone rallies
round the Charmings and drink from the improbably deep cup…
Everyone falls asleep, both the Charmings wake up – and everyone
else as well. Yay everyone is happy and no-one mentions that if it’d gone wrong
the Charmings would be facing the Black Fairy alone.
Speaking off – she and Rumple have a conversation. He has
his dagger back (since she assumes he’d join her willingly for the sake of
Gideon) but he has realised she has Gideon’s heart and he’s being coerced. And
that he’s resisting her: hence the single remaining flower (he puts this down
to Belle – his real mother, rather than Black Fairy the evil step-mother). So
that nicely simplifies things and It Is On between Rumple and Black Fairy
She points out that a war between then will destroy the town. Rumple is fine with that.
