Once Upon a Time Recap: “The Cricket Game”

by Tracy Ladd:

Once Upon a Time Recap: “The Cricket Game”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday December 2, 2012
Season 2 Episode 10

Fairytale Land (Past)

Regina, in full Evil Queen battle regalia, sits atop her horse as she watches a battle down below.  Her guards show up, telling her that Prince Charming and Snow White have defeated King George and now control the kingdom.  Not knowing the fate of King George, the guards tell her that she can’t proceed without the King’s army.  Regina, who channels her inner John Locke (yet one more Lost reference, intentional or not) tells the guard that no one tells her what she can or cannot do.  She’s still determined to kill Snow White.

Snow happens to be in the forest and Regina comes upon her with ill intentions.  Much to Regina’s dismay, it’s a trap.  Snow gives the signal and the Blue Fairy zaps Regina with a binding spell.  Back at the castle, Charming and the gang decide on what to do with her now that she’s been captured.  Snow doesn’t like it, but Charming says the Evil Queen must be executed.  Snow still hopes that Regina can become the woman she once was, but Charming doesn’t think it will happen.

Regina is locked up in a tower cell and gets a visit from her father.  He blames himself for her plight, but she tells him it wasn’t his fault.  He tells her that if she can prove she will change, maybe Charming and Snow will spare her.  She’s not convinced.

The hour of her execution is upon her and she’s led to the courtyard and shackled to a post.  Jiminy asks if she has any last words to say and she replies that she does.  She starts to give a tear-filled speech about how she was sorry and it seems like it’s just what Snow was hoping for.  Until Regina yells that she’s sorry she wasn’t able to cause more pain and she’s most sorry that she couldn’t kill Snow White.  Charming, having heard enough, orders the archers to loose their arrows.  Just before they hit their target, Snow yells “STOP!” and the Blue Fairy stops the arrows inches from their mark.  Charming’s not happy and orders Regina back to her cell.

When questioned, Snow tells Charming that she thinks Regina can be good again, she just needs someone to show her some kindness.  Later on, Rumpelstiltskin shows up and suggests that Snow put her theory to the test.  Snow, armed with a dagger, goes to visit Regina in her cell and seems to do her a solid by opening it and tells Regina that she’s free.  Regina, thinking this is finally her chance to kill Snow, grabs the dagger and stabs Snow in the gut.  However, nothing happens.  Charming shows up and tells Regina that Rumpelstiltskin cast a protection spell over both of them so Regina can’t hurt either of them.  Ever.  Charming tells Regina that she is to be banished forever.

Regina sulks in her castle when Rumpelstiltskin shows up.  She’s furious about the protection spell, but he tells her that his spell is only effective in that realm.  Ahhhh, there’s always a catch.  His unspoken message sticks and sets the cogs in her brain turning.  Regina, once again with the evil glimmer in her eye, summons her father and tells him to get her carriage, because she has a wedding to attend.

Storybrooke

Hook and Cora arrive in Storybrooke and are greeted by a nosy dock worker.  Cora tires of his questions rather quickly and turns him into a fish.  Hook tells Cora that it’s time they parted ways, so that he can go take care of his business with Gold.  Cora tells him that they aren’t done just yet and he needs to have patience because there is magic in Storybrooke.  Hook doesn’t like it, but he has to agree with her.  Cora hides the ship and the two set off for town.

Mary Margaret and David enjoy being back in each others company (under the sheets I might add) when Emma and Henry walk in with stuff to make tacos for the big party.  Seriously, Mary Margaret’s place needs to have actual walls.  Emma’s mortified she just walked in on her parents and David chuckles that even though she’s a grown woman, it’s still nice to know that they can give her traumatic childhood experiences.

At the diner, everyone is gathered to welcome Emma and Mary Margaret home and David makes a toast saying that he and Mary Margaret have a saying that they will always find each other.  He toasts, saying it’ll be nice to not have to worry about that now.  Just as everyone is getting their drink on, Regina walks in, apologizing for being late.  Everyone questions why she’s there and Emma says that she invited her.  Emma tells MM and David that it’s because of Regina that they made it back in the first place and she’s making an effort for Henry.

Regina dishes up her lasagna, even though Leroy seems to think it’s poisoned.  The party continues and everyone is having a grand time, but Regina sits in a booth by herself.  She grabs her coat and walks out, but Emma follows and tells her that Archie brought cake and she should stay.  Regina thanks her for the invite, but declines the cake.  The discussion turns to Henry and Regina asks if she can spend more time with him, but Emma tells her that’s not a good idea.  Regina slips back into bitch mode for a second, but immediately apologizes for doing do.  Emma tells Regina that she knows Regina is trying, because Archie told her about Regina’s visits with him.  So much for doctor-patient confidentiality.

The next day Regina finds Archie while he’s out walking Pongo and lays into him about telling Emma about their sessions.  Archie tries to assure her that he didn’t go into specifics and that he hopes she’ll continue to see him.  Regina passive-aggressively threatens Archie, telling him he’s lucky that she’s trying to change.  Ruby, who’s out for a run, stops to make sure everything is ok, but is sent on her way by Regina.

Later that night, Ruby is out in front of the diner when she notices Regina going to Archie’s office.  A shake of the head and eye-roll later, she turns to go back into the diner.  Regina knocks on Archie’s door and apologizes for the lateness of the hour but she wants to talk.  Pongo growls and barks (which should be a sign) but Archie tells him to be quiet.  Archie grabs Regina’s file and finds her right behind him.  She grabs him by the throat and proceeds to choke the life out of him.  Poor Archie.

The next morning, Emma is having breakfast with Henry at the diner.  Emma insists on walking Henry to his bus stop but once outside Pongo runs up barking.  Ruby runs out and tells Emma that something is wrong.  Emma sends Henry on his way and the two women follow Pongo to Archie’s office, where they find his body.

Regina is brought in to the station where Emma and David question her while Mary Margaret watches.  Regina looks genuinely stunned at the news but David nor Mary Margaret buy it.  Emma tells them that Regina’s not lying when she says she’s innocent and orders her to be set free.  They deduce that because it’s been made so obvious, someone else must be setting Regina up.  Only one person comes to mind…..Gold.

The trio pay Gold a visit as he’s just about to have lunch with Belle.  Emma tells him that the jig is up and they know he tried to set up Regina for Archie’s murder.  Gold tells them it wasn’t him and he can prove it.  He says that they need to talk to the witness.  Pongo is brought in and Gold brings out a dreamcatcher.  When Emma questions him saying that he can manipulate the dreamcatcher with magic, he tells Emma that she’s the one who will be using magic.  He walks her through it and she’s able to see what Pongo saw: Regina killing Archie.

David, Mary Margaret and Emma show up at Regina’s house to arrest her, but she still claims innocence.  Emma tells her how crushed Henry is going to be when he finds out, which happens to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Regina uses magic to toss Emma aside and vanishes in poof of purple smoke.

Emma, David and Mary Margaret wait for Henry at the bus stop while Emma frets over having to play the parent.  David tells her that they will do things as a family and be there for each other.  Henry gets off his bus and Emma takes him aside to tell him about Archie and Regina.  Regina watches from her car and sees when Henry breaks downs and hugs Emma.  Regina looses it and starts to cry as well.

Back at the docks, Cora is happy to report that Regina is as broken as a broke thing and that what Hook needs in order to defeat Gold is locked away in the hold of his ship.  The two board the ship and Cora opens the hold to reveal….Archie…who is bound and gagged.

So, a few notes on this episode:

-I’m very happy to see that they didn’t actually kill off Archie.  However, that body belonged to someone, so who was it?  Perhaps it wasn’t anyone important, but rather the random ensign of Storybrooke.

-I really felt bad for Regina in this episode.  As much as I don’t want her to be the big bad, I can’t help but miss her evil-ness.  Lana Parilla plays bad so well and she’s at her best when she’s being bitchy.

-I found Emma’s change in wardrobe interesting and quite telling.  Instead of the red leather jacket, with her hair down, she sported a flow-y earthy green jacket with her hair half back.  This new look makes her look softer.  Is this an effort to make her look more maternal now that she’s got Henry full-time?  I think I prefer the other look, but we’ll see how things play out.

-This was a good return to form after the long break.  There have been some missteps so far this season, but now that everyone is in Storybrooke, I’m hoping that things will run much tighter now.  Mulan and Aurora are still in Fairytale Land, but we didn’t see them this week and I’m not heartbroken about it.

-I can’t wait for the showdown between Regina and Cora.  That should be epic.

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.