“A Curious Thing” – ONCE147

Back in the Enchanted Forest eight months ago, Snow, Charming and Regina, together with Robin Hood and Belle, sneak in to the Dark One’s castle to inquire how to stop the evil sorceress that’s threatening their unborn child. Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, Regina, Emma and her parents finds a way for everyone to start believing again, including Henry.

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Enchanted Forest (Past)

Starting out the past in the castle as Snow and Charming plans to announce her pregnancy, it seemed as if Zelena already knew about it. Right then, she already knew that she needed the baby to go forward with her plans. If a baby is the only thing she needed, why didn’t she turn to Phillip and Aurora’s baby? What are they even doing at Snow and Charming’s castle when they are from a different kingdom? Both couple have so much in common, what with everything that they both went through, so what made Snow and Charming’s baby so special for it to be enough for Zelena?

Those who weren’t fans of Aurora have probably cheered seeing her and Phillip turned into a flying monkey. But were they among those that got incinerated in Storybrooke?

How come Regina didn’t protect herself from being frozen by Zelena? How come she can’t unfreeze herself and everyone else?

Eight months later, the scene at the war council room looked a lot like the ones in the Pilot episode; once again, Snow and Charming was once threatened by an evil sorceress. Furthermore, Grumpy told them that there are no more enchanted items in the forest; all used up, consumed during the curse. Did the Dark Curse destroy them? Are magic dying in the Enchanted Forest? Regina also told them that there are no more portals. Does that mean that the realms are also affected by the Dark Curse and not just the people?

It was cool to see Rumple’s castle again and to have Robin Hood leading the break in. Apparently, he was pretty skilled in breaking and entering into the Dark One’s castle. Rumple’s line about “Round and round the circle of time. Racing toward the finish line” reminded us of what he said in the Pilot regarding the final battle that was about to begin. Are they just flowery words or is it a mere foreshadowing of what’s to come, especially in the season finale?

We finally get to learn about Glinda the Good Witch of the South, who was banished from Oz to the Enchanted Forest towards the North of the Dark Forest. Who banished her and why?

There was a line in 3×19 from Rumple’s sing-song madness in the Dark Castle flashback which did stick out to me:

Round and round the circle of time, racing towards the finish line.” Harkens back to the series “Wheel of Time” in which a character’s life can be “baelfired” (his past can be changed).

Hmmmmm. So far, we know Zelena wants a “second chance” which is exactly what Neal wanted. Zelena wants to change the past. Zelena taunted Rumple with brining back his son. Now we have a “circle of time” reference. I’m just going to leave it there for now.

— Slurpeez108

What exactly could this second chance mean?

Before Snow, Charming, and Regina searches the door to Glinda’s, Rumple told them yet another line —  “Through the door, step inside… if pure of heart then she won’t… hide.” But before they step through the door, Snow and Charming seemed a bit childish, even stopping to pick and smell Snow Bells.

Here’s the “Charlie the Unicorn 3” video we used, in case your brain can stand up to the slaughter.

Once inside, Glinda was seen standing afar from them. Why does Glinda appear and stand so far away? Glinda also told them that she and Zelena used to be friends, and she was the one who gave Zelena the emerald necklace the Wicked Witch wears. Will we see Glinda and Zelena’s back story? Or was it simply just a nod to the musical, Wicked? Why does removing the pedant remove Zelena’s power? She just said it helps focus her magic. How will Zelena lose her powers if the pendant is to be removed?

As Snow and Charming talked her out of telling them how to stop the Wicked Witch, it seemed that Glinda can sense not only Snow’s pure heart, but also her baby’s and its powerful magic. Could this be why Zelena wants it? To have an apprentice for herself? Glinda also told them that only the purveyor of the strongest light magic will be able to accomplish a defeat against the Wicked Witch.

My guess is that when Zelena took over OZ, Glinda tried to stop her and found out her magic wasn’t strong enough. Zelena then banished Glinda to FTL to prevent her from causing any issues in OZ perhaps after Dorothy tried to melt Zelena.

— HooksGirl

Back outside with Regina, Snow and Charming told her that the only way is to get to Emma, which is to re-cast the Dark Curse. Regina, on the other hand, told them that there are no more portals; Breaking Pan’s curse divided all the realms and placed a wall. Is this why Snow’s curse affected only the Enchanted Forest, because there are walls between realms now? And if the Dark Curse takes them in the land without magic, how come there is magic now in Storybrooke?

If there are walls between realms now, does that mean that they can’t go through other realms now? Can mermaids not swim across realms now? If what Regina says is true, how did Hook go out of the Enchanted Forest, then?

After all the answers we got about the curse being cast (including Regina’s remark about the fact that there are now walls between the two worlds that prevent them from crossing realms EXCEPT by means of the Dark Curse), I’m more in the dark than ever about how Hook made it back to our land. After meeting Glinda, I’m wondering if she had anything to do with it. Do you think it’s possible that she took the silver slippers from Zelena? It would make Jefferson’s remark in “The Doctor” about the slippers being moved to another land make more sense. I also noticed that Zelena didn’t use her slippers to travel to our land – she just allowed herself to be picked up by the curse. Why would she do that if she had her own, more controlled form of transportation? Anyway, I think Glinda may have the slippers. And maybe she passed them on to Hook, allowing him to cross realms, since she seems invested or at least interested in helping to defeat Zelena.

— Katie LaCour

Did Glinda have anything to do with helping Hook find his way out of the Enchanted Forest to go get the Savior in New York? Does Glinda have the slippers that the Wizard gave Zelena back in the Emerald City? Why did Zelena allow herself to be swept into Storybrooke with the new curse?

In the original Dark Curse, everyone forgot what happened except Regina. In this new curse, Zelena was about to lose her own memory had she not make and take the memory potion. If the original caster can be excluded to forgetting the memory, how come Regina and Snow forgot everything? In addition, Rumple remembered everything anyway even without taking the potion. Did he really need the potion?

It was cool to see Neal back again. However, how did Neal separate himself from his father? Neal then sent the pigeon to go find Hook to escape and retrieve Emma.

Just wanted to make note that back in the episode, “Quiet Minds” when Neal climbs out of bed and shakes hands with Hook he says, “Thank you by the way, ” and Hook says, “For playing nanny?” And Neal replies, “For getting Emma the message to come back.”

— CutiePie

Clever writing to find out how consistent they have been for piecing the story together.

Regina believes there’s no way to get a portal back.  But that doesn’t make it fact.  Regina also didn’t think she could rip Snowing’s heart in half and stick it in two bodies until she did it.  And, the portals might not be able to present themselves within the reach of the curse, but as Hook mentioned, he’d been sailing the realms…so other lands may not have the same issues as their kingdom because they weren’t affected by the original curse.

— Jenna_B

If Neal could have coherent, independent thought while still merged with Rumple that led to him separating from Rumple, writing a note all of his own accord, and then re-merge with Rumple before he died…why did what happened in the woods in SB happen? Why did Emma even need to be involved with separating them at all? Why could Rumple not have enough coherent, independent thought to be able to merely say Zelena’s name, if Neal could summon enough coherent, independent thought to know that he had to not drink the potion, and compose a note, and have a conversation with a dove? The writers have just contradicted themselves and bent their rules, and, just, *sigh* On the plus side, Neal once again displays his ability to be selfless and heroic, like he’s done many times before, so at least that’s consistent.

— Phee

Did anyone notice that the memory potion bottles are different? The bottle Neal sent to Hook was green and the message wasn’t on a piece of paper, it was cloth. Hook gave Emma a purple bottle and a piece of paper. Hmmm. Are they the same potion? Does the same memory potion protect one’s memories and can restore them? Or does it require 2 different potions? Could the green bottle been drank by Hook to keep his memories so he could then scrap up a different memory potion for the purple bottle to give to Emma & hopefully Henry? That would make sense to what Hook said to Emma in 3×12 about only being able to scrape up enough for 1 memory potion and about the mention of the bird in 3×13 giving him a memory potion. Apparently Hook didn’t know it was Neal who sent the meassage so who told him where Emma was and gave him Neal’s address?

— HooksGirl

Snow casting the new curse turned out to be one of the biggest surprise. We liked the symbolism in this particular scene was great where Snow and Charming now shared one heart. It speaks so much of how marriage is in real life. However, how it was (literally) done seemed to break a few rules, one being a dead was revived with the help of half of Snow’s heart.

If we have known about the splitting hearts thing back in the first season, a few more characters could have been saved, including the following:

• Graham
• Henry Sr.
• Daniel
• Milah
• Esmeralda (the girl whose heart Regina first ripped)
• That one horse

While it was admirable how Regina gave them privacy as Snow and Charming bids each other goodbye, it seems as if it was Snow’s faith and belief that made Snow’s heart strong enough to hold both together. Does Snow have a hole in her heart after crushing Charming’s heart? Technically, Snow DID give up THE HEART of the thing she love most, but not necessarily letting him go. Was that how she got her way around the curse? Was that how ripping her heart apart in two and putting the other half inside Charming worked? And if Snow and Charming are now sharing one heart, would the other die when one of them dies?

Was Charming willingly sacrificing himself to enact the Dark Curse helped them got their way around the curse?

I have issues with hearts. I feel like when it comes to the rules for living without your heart, it gets sketchy. It’s great that Regina’s true loves kiss with Henry broke the curse but Regina broke the curse without her heart and most of time we’ve seen on this show people without their heart cannot feel.

And Regina splitting Snow’s heart in two reminded me of what’s it’s like to twist Oreo cookies in two and did you notice how the hearts were evenly split?

— Obisgirl

Are Snow and Charming’s blind faith and ridiculous optimism that powerful that they would resort to ripping the other one’s heart and splitting it in two to cast the curse, which Snow believe is enough for them both?

Snow killing Charming is absurd. Charming volunteering to sacrifice himself, that I can believe, but Snow actually killing him was incredibly hard to believe. I know that people have said that the show has jumped the shark before, but I’ve never felt they were so close to that as I do with this ridiculousness. You can split a heart in two to revive someone who died by having their heart ripped out, now? Well, alrighty then. And yes, what of it if one of them dies now, shouldn’t that mean that BOTH will die if they’re literally sharing a heart? I know, I know, love is strength, but this split heart thing seems like it should make them WEAKER, because two birds, one stone. They managed to construct a story that makes Snowing look like massive hypocrites, because they told Neal that they shouldn’t and couldn’t go back to Emma and Henry. And yes, I know that they changed their minds based on what Glinda told them, but that doesn’t change the fact that they told Neal, “Nope, no way, not gonna happen,” and then had them turn around and concede to cast the freaking Dark Curse in order to get back to Emma.

— Phee

How can Snow and Charming considered what they did right when they initially shut off Neal when he told them his plans of getting back to Emma and his son? Was it right for them to even consider casting the dark curse the moment they learned that only the Savior can help defeat the Wicked Witch?

I think Charming and Snow’s love is different than anyone else’s in the entire show. They have a connection like no one else. Do Belle and Rumple love each other, of course. As did Regina and Daniel. But none of them have the connection that S and C have. Their children are the sole products of true love. They can feel each other’s pain. They are connected on so many levels that our other couples haven’t quite reached yet. I don’t think splitting of hearts would work for just anyone. I think you need to have the incredibly strong emotion and connection to one another as though you already shared one heart in order for this to work. They reached that point.

— BelleoftheBall

Moreover, what makes Regina the curse breaker? She clearly wasn’t born out of true love, and there was no way to put Regina into the scroll, so how did she break the curse?

Storybrooke (Present)

It was so rewarding to see Regina and Robin standing in the hall kissing; She seemed genuinely happy, smitten, glowing even! Robin said that what she saw in Regina is second chance. Second chance for what? On the other hand, Regina told him that while she can still feel, it was not fully. But if Regina has no heart and can only feel partially then how did she break the curse with True Love’s Kiss? Plus, how come Robin didn’t get his memory back when Regina kissed him? It seemed that a new theme is brewing in this episode with Regina and Robin having a second chance at love and happy ending.

During the council in Granny’s living room, it’s completely evident now that the world is irrelevant to casting Zelena’s curse; No matter which world they are in, Zelena can still move her plans forward.

It was also cool to hear Regina admit that they all need to believe in happy endings again. Looks like being with the man with the lion tattoo gives positive attitude with Regina.

One of the other things that harken back in past episodes was seeing Hook tied down in the trunk and there were duct tape and rope inside it. This reminded us of Gold purchasing duct tape and rope in the episode, Skin Deep.

At Granny’s Diner, Henry starts questioning things by calling Emma out. Looks like he’s been bottling it all up ever since they step foot in Storybrooke. On the other hand, Grumpy seemed to be a terrible babysitter for letting Henry escape that easily. This also parallels to the episode, “Tallahassee” when Emma and Neal met. Henry even asks for the keys. In 2×06 Neal says, “You could have just asked for the keys.” Henry sure is his parent’s son; trying to steal the bug.

As Emma, Charming, Snow and Regina starts searching for the book, it’s interesting how the book just magically appeared for Snow. Why Snow? Could the book only be found by her? Was it because Emma doesn’t really want Henry to get his memory back that’s why it didn’t appear for her? Did Rumple design for Snow to find it during the first curse?

Ash 23 of the chatroom pointed that, “faith is the evidence of things not seen.” Looks like Snow’s faith really is that strong.

Regina said that there are chapters in the book about Oz. What does it say about Zelena? Are there anything in there that they can use to help defeat the Wicked Witch?

After Snow found the book, Emma admitted that she wanted to take her son back to New York and leave everything behind, even if that means leaving her parents and their family for the great life they had in New York.

I think Snow and Charming’s baby magically brought Henry’s book to them. Zelena says the baby will do because she can sense its magic. I think the baby will be extremely powerful.

— Tami

I wonder, did Snows belief “write” the book, it seems it continually originates with her.

— Chris Tipton

Was it Snow’s belief that made the book? Could this be the reason why it appeared only to her?

Meanwhile, Henry was out with Hook and Smee at the docks. In her phone, there was a road on Emma’s GPS app called, “Peter’s Esplanade.” It was fitting because the next scene they talked about Pan. Back at the docks, it was weird seeing the place snowing when there weren’t any of it anywhere else.

Where did they get the guns to incinerate the seven flying monkeys that attacked them? Who were those flying monkeys?

It was cool Emma told Henry “It’s more than just a book”, which is very similar to the Pilot episode with Henry saying it. The whole second half of the season showing a lot of Emma and Henry’s trust growing is also great.

Is Henry somehow the thing that makes Regina the savior now and not the villain? How much of their roles were reversed after Regina broke the curse? Great writing as to how they gave twists to the story.

Now that the curse is broken, how will it affect Rumple? Will it empower him to know more about the story?

Hook finally let the truth out about Zelena cursing his lips, but of course, Emma wasn’t happy with that. Emma told him that it was up to her to protect Henry. Hook also said that he assumed it was Snow who sent the message in the episode Witch Hunt. How can Emma not tell that Hook wasn’t telling the truth?

So far as we know the following people are monkeys: –Walsh, at least 5 dwarves, Philip and Aurora, and Little John. Our heroes killed several last night. :-/ Either they killed their friends to protect Henry (understandable but also…not) or they killed random peasants to protect Henry (understandable but also….not) And if one of the monkeys was Aurora, then what happened to her baby???

— RumplesGirl

During the last scene at Neal’s grave, it was great seeing Henry finally deal with it now that he got his memories back.

Now that the baby is coming, is Zelena going to go easy on the baby? With Zelena needing the baby and Emma out of the way (while making sure that Regina wouldn’t be in her way, as well), seems like the next episode will be action-packed. With only three episodes and two Sundays left, where could the story go? Will Zelena succeed in getting her hands on Snow and Charming’s baby? Or can Emma and Regina protect the unborn baby from the Wicked Witch? Let us know what you think by sending your feedback using the comment section below or by joining us over the forum!

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Spoilers

• Episode 20, “Kansas” was written by Andrew Chambliss & Kalinda Vazquez and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton.
• The residents of Storybrooke are on high alert, making sure Zelena doesn’t get her way through the newborn baby.
• In Oz, in the past, Glinda convinces Zelena to fight her evil tendencies.
• She also convinces her to join her and her sister as a protector of Oz.
• A young girl from Kansas can turn out to be her undoing.
• Guest stars include Lee Arenberg as Leroy/Grumpy, David Anders as Dr. Whale, Raphael Sbarge as Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket, Gabe Khouth as Mr. Clark/Sneezy, Sunny Mabrey as Glinda, Sharon Taylor as Witch of East, Karen Holness as Witch of North and Matreya Scarrwener as Dorothy.
• Promo shows Snow giving birth and Zelena knocking everybody out.
• It seems Zelena will succeed in getting Snow’s baby and is now collecting all the items she needs.
• Hook collapses! Hope everyone will be alright.
• Zelena is shown to have small patches of green, but is fully green when faced with Dorothy.
• In the American preview, Zelena is seen melted. What kind of water was it?
• Glinda and Zelena were there when Dorothy lands in Oz.
• The Wicked Witch of the East may not be in the episode but it seems that they are going to the traditional story that Dorothy lands on her.
• Regina may get knocked up by Zelena again.
• The house that lands on the Wicked Witch of the East looks like a disaster, contrary to what is known of.
• There’s a giant spellbook resting behind the well. Is it the spellbook similar to what Elphaba took from the Wizard in Wicked the musical?
• Adam Horrowitz said that there will be more surprised coming, leading to the season finale.
• Kansas could be  the last time we will see Zelena, with her sending everyone to the past.
• In the finale, Emma and Hook are seen in the past wearing FTL costume, but Zelena are nowhere to be seen.
• There is going to be a wedding, but isn’t clear yet as to whom.
• It’s possible that the wedding is Snow and Charming, Regina and Robin, or Rumple and Belle.
• There will be more death to come, a surprise return, and a newcomer.
• The producers have confirmed that Michael Socha is joining the show once the new season is renewed.
• There’s a chance that the new villain might be Jafar.