This week’s episode was all about identity: who the characters are and who they want to be.
In the wake of last week’s tumultuous premiere, Storybrooke is in disarray. The town is in a state of emergency as the newly uncursed residents run around like chickens with their heads cut off. When the dwarves discover that crossing the boundary of Storybrooke makes you lose all of your real memories, leaving only the cursed Storybrooke identity (much to Rumpel’s anger), the town really beings to panic. But they have no leader since Charming is completely focused on trying to get Snow and Emma back. Instead of acting like the royal he is, Charming has familial tunnel vision. And though Regina’s powers are spotty, the townspeople still fear her. Desipte this, the town’s resident conscience, Jiminy/Archie, offers to counsel Regina to help her find out who she wants to be, to which she replies with an audible sneer, “I know who I am.”
Like any OUAT episode, this one is riddled with flashbacks. This week’s focus is on Regina and gave more insight into exactly how she became the “evil queen” she now proudly is. Back after he beloved Daniel died and her mother was forcing her to marry Snow White’s father, we see her try to run away, only to be stopped by her mother using magic. Regina only wants to leave her overbearing mother and the life she has planned for her, feeling that her mother is slowly poisoning her with anger and making her feel crazy. “I don’t want her life!” Her father admits that Regina’s mother is this way because of magic, and that she received her magic long ago by a book from a mysterious man. We can all guess who that was.
It was, of course, Rumpelstiltskin, who visits Regina when she tries to summon him using her mother’s spellbook. Rumpel claims he knew that this day would come, and that he knew Regina long ago when she was a baby. What is it with this guy and babies? He tells her that magic can set her free, and gives her a portal to another world, telling her that she can send her mother there with magic and can finally be free.
Back in Storybrooke, Charming is still on his quest, ignoring the town and Henry. He has the now broken hat, but Regina claims she can’t help him. In exchange for being left alone, Rumpel gives him a locator potion to find the hat’s owner, who Henry identified with his story book as the Mad Hatter. Charming ditches a town meeting that he was meant to lead in order to find Jefferson. Of course, he didn’t realize that at the same time Regina had gotten her mother’s spellbook from Rumpel and had gotten her powers back, attacking the meeting and leaving with Henry.
Jefferson explains to Charming that he can’t get the hat to work, but that they Enchanted Forest, their land, still exists, and that’s where his family is. Red finds Charming and angrily tells him that Regina has Henry, and that the people are so frightened they are all about to pass over the border. They are so scared of Regina and their unknown future that they’re willing to lose their identities to escape. They need a leader.
Regina takes Henry home, stopping him from leaving with the same magic her mother once used on her. She offers to teach him magic in return, but he replies, “I don’t want to be you.” Without any subtlety, OUAT makes it clear that Regina has turned into her own overbearing magic-wielding mother. The same mother that she sent into the mirror-portal on her wedding day so many years ago. And though she got her mother out of the way, she stayed and married the king, agreeing to let Rumpel teach her magic, with only the hope that she would not become like her mother. Apparently that worked out great.
Finally, Charming comes to his senses and cuts off the townspeople before they can leave. He explains his revelation, that even though his Storybrooke identity, David, is weak and almost lost Snow forever, he wouldn’t want to lose him, or give up Charming to be him. He is both Charming and David, his strengths and his weaknesses, and his weaknesses remind him of the better man he wants to become. He promises to protect the town, and that they will protect each other.
And, finally remembering his grandson, he goes to rescue Henry. But Regina has had her own epiphany. She doesn’t want to be her mother, keeping people close to her out of a twisted version of love. “I want to redeem myself.” She lets Henry go with Charming. And let me just say, Lana Parilla’s acting is the best part of this show.
In the final moments of the episode, we see Snow and Emma taken prisoner in the refugee village in the Enchanted Forest. And who do they find in their jail cell? None other than Cora, Regina’s wicked mother.