Once Upon a Time Recap: “A Land Without Magic”

by Tracy Ladd:

Once Upon a Time Recap: “A Land Without Magic”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday May 13, 2012
Season 1 Episode 22

I said last week that ABC was tight-lipped about whether or not they would grant this series a second season.  Well official word finally came down on Friday that OUaT has in fact been renewed.  I figured it would be, but you just never know these days.  The networks are so finicky that nothing is safe unless it’s a stupid reality show.  I’ll save that rant for another day. I was worried about this episode ending in a cliffhanger, then not getting picked up again.  Turns out I had nothing to worry about because A) it did get picked up and B) if it hadn’t, a simple edit of the ending would have tied things up nicely.  So kudos to the writers for that.

Fairytale Land

Things start in FTL in the same timeframe (well, just before anyway) where the pilot started.  Charming is locked away in Evil Queen’s dungeon desperately trying to get free so he can be with Snow.  As guards come to retrieve him, he’s able to overpower them to take his leave.  He soon finds himself outnumbered however and thinks he’s about to finally meet his end.  That is until one guard, who seems to have taken aim on Charming, shoot his arrow and takes down another guard.  Seems that James has someone on his side.  The guard takes his helmet off to reveal….THE HUNTSMAN!  I knew we’d see the delicious Jamie Dornan again, and his stay in this episode is entirely too brief.  But it’s better than nothing.

The Huntsman tells James that he’ll help get him out of the castle but when James asks him if he’s coming, he tells James no, that the Queen took his heart (literally) and he can’t leave without it.  James makes his getaway and EQ is none too pleased.  She demands to know where her prisoner is and the Huntsman has to tell her that he escaped, but he will find him.  EQ looks into her magic mirror and sees James on the run, and with a wave of her hand, sends him into the eternal forest.

Momentarily confused, James doesn’t let his change in location stop him.  He keeps running until he realizes he’s running in circles.  His journey is also interrupted by Rumpelstiltskin, who tells James that he can help get him to his destination.  James dismisses his offer, that is until Rumpelstiltskin shows that he has James’ mother’s ring, and tells him it can lead him back to Snow.  After a brief scuffle with swords that results in Rump getting the best of him, James agrees and asks what Rumpelstiltskin wants.  It’s simple really, Rumpelstiltskin tells him that he needs to put something away for safe keeping.  Rumpelstiltskin has bottled true love (thanks to the hairs he’s collected from James and Snow) and wants to hide it away for a rainy day.  Rumps places the vial in a golden egg and send it with James to hide “in the belly of the beast.”

James makes his way to Maleficent’s castle and is soon greeted by her alternate personality, the dragon.  After fighting her off and trying not to bet barbecued in the process, James is able to stash the egg by shoving it into one of the dragon’s gills.  He makes his escape by jumping through a window to the water below and swims ashore.  Rumpelstiltskin gives him the ring, which has been enchanted so it will lead him to Snow.  Rump also does him a solid by waving his hand magically changing James’ wet clothes to dry, more formal regal looking attire.

James finally finds Snow, but she’s where we originally found her.  In the glass coffin with the dwarves hovering over her.  Grumpy tells him that he’s too late because she’s gone.  James asks to say goodbye to her so they raise the lid and he kisses her, thus waking her up.  The kiss also sends out a ray of sunshine across the realm.

The two do the whole you-found-me-did-you-think-I-wouldn’t thing and James then bends the knee and proposes.  She doesn’t actually say yes, but she allows him to put the ring on her finger which I guess in itself is a yes.  The talk about the pesky problem of his father and her step mother and Snow tells him that she wants to take back the kingdom.  Together.

Storybrooke

Henry is rushed to the hospital after eating the apple turnover last week and Dr. Whale is trying to find out the cause.  Emma tells him it’s because of the desert, and it should be tested for poison.  Dr. Whale tells her that his symptoms aren’t inline with poisoning and he’s not sure what can be done.  Emma dumps Henry’s bag out and picks up the book, and gets hit with loads of visions from when she was an infant right before she was sent out of FTL.  Now that she’s a believer, all bets are off and the look on her face is the best. Look. Ever.

She knows Regina is behind all of it and the minute Regina steps foot in the hospital, Emma’s on her like a fat kid on a cupcake.  Emma throws Regina around telling her it’s all her fault and that Henry ate the turnover.  Horrified, Regina tells Emma that it was meant for her and Emma gets her to admit to the curse.  Emma tells Regina to fix it, but Regina tells her that she used up the last of her magic on the desert.  Regina then tells Emma that Mr. Gold should be able to help, and that he goes by Rumpelstiltskin.

Meanwhile, David approaches Mary Margaret and tells her that since he’s woken up from his coma his life hasn’t made any sense.  Except for her.  He tells her that he knows he’s made every wrong decision but can’t figure out why, then he realized it was because of love.  David tells MM that Kathryn put a down payment on an apartment in Boston that she’s not going to use, but he is, unless she can give him a reason not to go.  Sadly she tells him she can’t and gets in her car to leave.  David walks away with a tear streaming down his face.

Emma and Regina head to Mr. Gold’s shop and upon entering, he knows right away that Emma is now a believer.  He also knows about Henry and tells Regina once again, that all magic comes with a price.  She tells him that Henry shouldn’t have to pay the price and he agrees saying that she should, but this is where they’re at.  After some exposition about how when he made the dark curse he put a drop of potion on it as a safety valve, and how he stashed the rest for a rainy day, he tells Emma that she has to be the one to retrieve it.  He tells her about the true love potion he made being the product of Snow White and Price Charming, and that she is also the product of their true love, hence why she’s the savior.  Ah yes, it’s all coming together now.  He tells the women that the potion is stashed with “her” and asks Regina if she still has their friend in the basement.  Regina is none too pleased with any of this news but agrees to take Emma.

Emma stops by the hospital to tell Henry she’s sorry she didn’t believe him, but she’s going to get help so he’ll get better.  Regina shows up and Emma leaves, telling her she’s got 10 minutes to say what she wants to say.  While Regina is standing by Henry’s bedside, Jefferson shows up demanding payment for helping her.  Regina reneges on the deal however telling him the apple was meant for Emma and since she didn’t eat it, their deal is null and void.  To say that Jefferson is pissed is putting it mildly.

Emma goes to see August and can finally see his transformation.  He tells her that he can’t help and the only way to stop what’s happening to him is to break the curse.  Just as he’s about to tell her she can save them all, he turns completely to wood.  So, to recap, Henry’s in a coma, Jefferson is scheming, August is sporting serious wood, and Emma has to work with her arch-nemesis.  Good times.

Emma and Regina meet at an abandoned building (that houses the clock tower) and Regina tells Emma that she has to take a scary elevator, operated by Regina, into the cavern below.  She tells Emma that what’s down there, is someone whose punishment was to be trapped in a different form.  Armed with James’ sword, Emma heads down and ends up coming face to face with Maleficent, in dragon form.

Emma tries to fight off the dragon and soon ditches the sword, going for her gun instead.  Once she’s out of ammo however, she has to rely on her father’s blade to get the job done.  Seeing her chance, Emma hurls the sword and hits the dragon right in the sweet spot, which makes the dragon explode, leaving nothing by ash and the egg in its wake.  So does this mean we don’t get any Maleficent next season?  That’s a bummer.  She was awesome.

Emma makes her way back up in the elevator when it stops suddenly.  Mr. Gold looks down and says that Regina sabotaged the lift and then left.  He advises her to toss him the egg and he’ll help her up.  She does, but then he bails leaving her to scale the shaft alone.  Once she makes it topside again, she sees Regina bound and gagged.  Emma cuts her free and as they leave, both of their cell phones ring.

Mary Margaret is at the hospital reading the story of Snow White to Henry.  Once she finished, Henry flatlines.  She’s frantically trying to find out what’s happening but Dr. Whale orders her out of the room.  Regina and Emma arrive to Dr. Whale telling them that he did everything he could, but Henry’s gone.  Emma stands over him crying, telling him that she loves him and kisses him on the head.  Just then, the same wave that swept over the realm when Charming kissed Snow, sweeps over Storybrooke.   Henry wakes and tells Emma that he loves her too.  As the true love shock wave hits people though out town, their FTL memories come flooding back.

Emma asks Henry what happened and he tells her she broke the curse.  That doesn’t bode will for Regina and she has to make a hasty exit, but tells Henry that no matter what he thinks, to know that she always loved him.  Then she beats feet and gets the hell out of there.

David sees MM walking down the street and yells out to her calling her Snow.  She calls him Charming in return and they embrace and kiss. Awwww!

Things aren’t all kittens and rainbows though.  Jefferson is pissed that Regina reneged on their deal so he breaks Belle out of the loony bin dungeon that Regina stashed her in.  He tells her to find Mr. Gold and to tell him that Regina locked her up.  He tells her that Mr. Gold will protect her.  She finds Mr. Gold but doesn’t remember him.  He’s shocked to say the least since he thought she was dead.

He tells her to come with him, and they end up in the forest when the true love shock wave hits.  Once it hits Belle she remembers everything.  They share the token I-love-yous and he tells her that there will be plenty of time for that later, but right now, he’s got business.  They happen upon a well, that Mr. Gold says will bring back the one thing you want most.  He drops the true love potion in the water and a purple fog starts to cover the ground….and then the town.  Emma sees it from the hospital window and asks what it is, to which Henry replies: “Something bad.”

Mr. Gold tells Belle that he’s bringing magic back, because magic is power.  Regina looks out the window from her house to see the purple fog covering the town, and gives us a little smirk.  Seems she won’t have lost her power after all.

And that’s it for Once Upon a Time.  While I’m happy that this episode finally made some headway, they sure did cram a lot into the finale.  So what’s going to happen next season?  Emma will still be going up against Regina, but now Regina is going to have to answer for locking up Belle.  Mr. Gold is pissed and his wrath isn’t something I would want to deal with.

Aside from getting to watch Jamie Dornan again, my favorite shot of this episode is the picture of Jennifer Morrison above.  That looks is classic and she went from scared and upset to ass-kicking in about 2.2 seconds.  I like that Emma….she’s a brawler.

So that does it for the recaps…until next season of course.  What did you think of this season as a whole, and how did you like the note they left off on?  Leave me a comment below.

DarkMedia contributor Tracy Ladd has been writing about film since her days on the her high school newspaper. Even though she took a decade or two off to explore other things, she’s back to doing what she loves. She also bakes, can knit a pretty nifty scarf and makes lightsaber sounds with her knitting needles. Or chopsticks. Especially with the lightsaber chopsticks.

You can find her on Facebook, on Twitter @ReelGoddess, and on her website The Reel Goddess.