I’m two episodes into Once Upon a Time, and this is my write-up of “The Thing You Love Most,” the second episode. It covers how the Evil Queen finally gets her Dark Curse working, what Rumpelstiltskin makes her pay for it, and how Emma and Henry’s Operation Cobra plan runs straight into Regina’s attempts to push Emma out of Storybrooke.
I think this is already one of the most important episodes of the series, because so much gets set up in forty-odd minutes. I also like that the writers seem to know where the whole story is going, which is more than I could say for Lost. If you want to avoid spoilers, stop here, since I walk through the whole episode.
One great thing I’ve noticed so far in this first season is that the writers seem to have mapped out the whole story in advance. Two episodes is early to say it, I know, but they have a clearly defined idea of where they want to take this show and where they want the characters to go, and it comes across in how carefully the fairy-tale half and the Storybrooke half are being stitched together. That’s much more refreshing than what happened in Lost, or at least what I feel happened in Lost and other shows like it, where no one seemed to know what was going to happen next.
I’m watching Once Upon a Time as it airs, so this post and the ones that follow are written with only the episodes I’ve seen in my head, and I won’t be able to hint at anything further down the road. Not every review I’ve read shares my enthusiasm, but WhatCulture’s review of this episode rates it at least as good as the pilot, and I’d happily sign up for that.
If you haven’t seen the show, here’s the nutshell version. An Evil Queen has taken all of our favorite storybook characters to a new land without magic, which turns out to be Storybrooke, Maine. Here our heroes and villains live a normal life with no memory of who they were or where they came from. Into this town comes Emma Swan as the Savior, the one who’s supposed to defeat the Evil Queen and return these characters of legend to the land they truly call home.
How the Curse Finally Takes Shape
The Mayor, who is of course Regina, the Evil Queen, has Henry’s book as I mentioned after the pilot, and as she’s looking through it she discovers that the last few pages have been torn out. When she confronts Henry he lies and tells her it’s just an old book and it’s not surprising that some pages are missing. He has removed those pages on purpose and given them to Emma, because they relate to her and her past as the child of Snow White and Charming.
The storybook half picks up with the Evil Queen announcing at Snow White and Charming’s wedding that she’ll be casting a terrible curse on everyone. After that announcement she goes to see Maleficent, who it seems has the Dark Curse in her possession, and after a quick but vicious battle the Queen wins it back. When she completes the spell, though, it fails to do anything. She sacrificed the heart of her prized stallion, and it wasn’t enough. The Queen would have to sacrifice more, but she didn’t know what.
So she goes to visit Rumpelstiltskin, who agrees to help her understand why it failed, but only if she ensures that in the new land he’ll be rich and wealthy. She also has to promise to do anything he asks as long as he says “please.” The Queen agrees easily, because if her curse comes to pass he’ll remember nothing anyway. Rumpelstiltskin then tells her that for the curse to succeed she must cut out the heart of the thing she loves the most. He also tells her he’s already informed Snow White and Charming that their daughter will be the only one able to break the curse, which is a nice bit of having it both ways from him.
The Queen returns to her castle and confides Rumpelstiltskin’s solution to her valet and her father. Realizing quickly that he’s the only thing she still cares about, he tries to dissuade her, but he is unsuccessful as she stabs him through the heart. She goes back to the site where her first attempt failed and tries again, this time with her father’s heart, and thick black smoke starts to boil out. As the curse takes shape she lays a black rose on her father’s grave. The headstone reads “Henry, Beloved Father.”
I found that the most striking part of the whole hour. It gives the Queen a reason to be monstrous that isn’t just being evil, because she literally has to destroy the one person she cared about to get what she wants, and her father shares a name with the boy she is raising as her son. Even in the version of her that I’ve only seen in two episodes, it makes her harder to dismiss as a cartoon villain.
Operation Cobra and Regina’s Pressure on Emma
Back in Storybrooke, Henry and Emma agree to come up with a plan to break the curse, which they call Operation Cobra. Emma is doing it just to humor Henry, while Henry obviously believes very strongly that each character in his book is somehow linked to someone in town. Emma, getting ever more concerned about Henry’s state of mind, visits Archie Hopper, Henry’s therapist, who tells her she should go along with his psychosis, because to do otherwise would be damaging to Henry.
He then gives Emma Henry’s file (not too much concern about doctor and patient confidentiality here!) and while she’s reading it she’s arrested again, when Archie claims, under duress from the Queen of course, that she stole it. It’s the kind of small, nasty move that tells you a lot about how far Regina will go to keep Emma away from her son, and it makes the next scene land harder than it would have otherwise.
Regina continues to try to push Emma out of Storybrooke. Her search with Sidney, the editor of the Daily Mirror, for something negative about Emma after her earlier accident and incarceration didn’t turn up anything, so she’s hoping this second arrest will make Henry see that Emma isn’t good for him. In these early episodes it’s really hard to tell whether Henry is onto something or really insane. Regina seems very normal, and while the fairy-tale side of her life shows her as the Evil Queen, she definitely doesn’t act that way with Henry, which is a lovely bit of tension for the show to sit on.
Not only is that attack unsuccessful, Emma retaliates by going after Regina’s apple tree with a chainsaw! I won’t pretend that wasn’t one of the most satisfying moments of the hour. It’s petty, it’s funny, and it’s the first time anyone in this town has done anything to Regina rather than the other way around.
Mr. Gold and That Second “Please”
While Regina is trying to fix her apple tree, Mr. Gold appears and tells her he can help her get rid of Emma. She doesn’t want to make another deal with him, since she mentions he helped her get Henry from somewhere, so she rebuffs him. But as she asks him questions about Emma and his past, he declines to comment, and when Regina tries to block his exit he leaves after asking her to “please” let him by.
I really liked that. Rumpelstiltskin made her promise to do anything he asked as long as he said “please,” and now the word is coming out of Mr. Gold’s mouth in Storybrooke, in a town where nobody is supposed to remember anything. As Gold walks away, Regina gives him a meaningful stare and the question becomes whether he remembers. It’s a tiny moment, with no music swelling and no explanation, and it’s the sort of thing that makes me feel I’m in the hands of people who have the whole thing planned.
Why This Episode Matters So Much
Writing this post now, it’s hard to believe all of that happened in just one episode. It wasn’t that long ago that I watched it, but while this is only the second episode of the series, it’s one of the most pivotal and it holds an almost scary amount of information. We see how the curse was cast, we see what it cost, we see Regina being warm with Henry and cold to everyone else, and we get the first real hint that somebody in Storybrooke might remember more than they should.
That’s a lot for a second episode to carry, and it carries it without feeling rushed, which is what I keep coming back to. A show that sets up this much this early either knows exactly where it’s going or is about to bury itself, and so far everything points to the first. Keep tuned for Episode 3, coming soon.
I’d love to know what you made of the Queen’s choice at the grave, and whether you think Mr. Gold remembers who he used to be. Tell me in the comments.