Once Upon a Time Recap: “The Queen is Dead”

by Tracy Ladd:

Once Upon a Time Recap: “The Queen is Dead”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday March 3, 2013
Season 2 Episode 15

Fairytale Land

We’re back in FTL where young Snow White is preparing for her birthday celebration.  Her mother, Queen Eva, gushes over how beautiful she looks in the gown she will sport at the ball and tells her that she has something else for her.  Cut to Snow’s chambers, where their servant Johanna, tries on Snow’s tiara.  Snow enters and chastises Johanna about how servants shouldn’t wear crowns and berates her for being low-born.  Eva, in her motherly voices, says “ENOUGH!”.  Johanna apologizes, but Eva tells her that she was in fact, talking to Snow.  Eva tells Snow that no matter their station, every person deserves respect.  It’s a tough lesson, and one that is learned quickly especially when Eva collapses and becomes suddenly ill.  All of which happens on Snow’s actual birthday.  Not a way to celebrate at all.  Nice to see where adult Snow gets her goodness from though.

The prognosis isn’t good and it’s clear that Eva is dying.  Snow despairs over her mother’s impending death and Johanna tells her that the only way to help is by way of magic.  Johanna tells Snow about the Blue Fairy and how to find her and if your heart is pure, you may be granted a wish.  Snow sets out that night, determined to find the Blue Fairy, but is found by her first.

The Blue Fairy tells Snow that her mother’s illness is beyond their type of magic and the only way to save her is to use dark magic.  She gives Snow a candle and tells her that all magic comes with a price.  The price for this is that if she wants to save a life, she’ll need to take a life.  Snow is horrified and runs back to her mother’s bedside.  While Eva tries to comfort her, Snow comes clean and tells her about her conversation with the Blue Fairy.  Snow feels weak and like she failed her mother because she couldn’t take another person’s life.  Eva tells her that act wasn’t weakness, it was strength and that she’s so very proud of her.  Then she dies.  Yikes.

Instead of the birthday ball, it’s time for the viewing / memorial service for Queen Eva.  She’s laid out in spectacular fashion, sporting a fetching bedazzled red dress and some pretty hot red heels.  Snow, dressed in black, does her duty as instructed by Johanna, who is now her best friend and caregiver.  After the service and once Johanna ushers Snow out of the viewing chamber, the Blue Fairy appears, although, she’s not the Blue Fairy at all. It’s Cora disguised at the Blue Fairy.  She hovers over Eva’s dead body and tells her that poison looks good on her.  It becomes clear that it was all a ploy to get Regina on the throne.

Storybrooke

Mary Margaret walks out and finds David making pancakes in the kitchen. She asks what he’s doing and tells him to stop.  Her experience with losing her mother on her birthday has stuck with her and she doesn’t want to be reminded of her birthday…..ever.  David points out a present sitting on the table but tells her that it wasn’t from him.  Mary Margaret opens the gift and finds her tiara in the box along with a note from Johanna.  She’s shocked to find that Johanna made it to Storybrooke and David tells her that since the curse was broken, everyone is still trying to find each other.

Mary Margaret goes to visit Johanna and finds her tending her garden of the flowers that she planted in Queen Eva’s memory.  The two women hug it out in the garden when a noise is heard from the forest.  Mary Margaret tells Johanna to stay put and goes to investigate.  She finds Cora and Regina digging for Gold’s dagger and overhears their plot to find the dagger, which will give them the ability to control Mr. Gold.

Mary Margaret rushes back to the station to tell David, but finds him passed out on the floor as a result of Hook knocking him out when he went to collect his hook.  Once she makes sure David is OK, she tells him what she heard.  Knowing that Regina has never really trusted Cora, she tells David that she just needs Regina to listen to her.  Meanwhile, they try to reach Emma, who is still in Manhattan with Gold and Henry.

Henry is spending as much time as possible with Neal and the four go out for pizza.  Gold asks Emma to try to get Neal to come back to Storybrooke, but Emma tells him she already fulfilled her end of the bargain.  Neal keeps trying to tell Emma something, but keeps getting interrupted.  As they head back to Neal’s apartment, Hook comes barging out of nowhere and stabs Gold in the chest with his hook.  Emma knocks him out and stashes him in a closet and finds out from Gold that the wound is actually poisoned.  The only way for him to be healed is to get him back to Storybrooke.  Henry shows Emma a text from Mary Margaret regarding the dagger and Gold tells her that no one will find it.

Back in Storybrook, Mary Margaret gets her Princess Leia on by telling the Mother Superior that she’s their only hope in finding Gold’s dagger before Regina and Cora.  Mother Superior tries to work her mojo, but it’s going to take dark magic in order to find it.  Mary Margaret tells her whatever it takes, but Mother Superior isn’t so sure.  They get a text back from Emma that directs them to the dagger’s hiding place: it’s attached to one of the hands of the clock in the tower above the library.  David and Mary Margaret retrieve the dagger, but Cora and Regina show up and play dirty by bringing Johanna along as a bargaining chip.  Regina removes Johanna’s heart and squeezes it to make her point, knowing Snow won’t put someone’s life in danger.  Cora lets it slip that she posed at the Blue Fairy and Snow puts it together that she killed Eva….which seemed like news to Regina as well.  Snow gives up the dagger and Regina puts Johanna’s heart back in its place.  But Cora is a turbo-bitch and hurls Johanna through the face of the clock, sending her to her death, then dissipates along with Regina leaving David holding a broken Mary Margaret.

Regina and Cora head back to Regina’s office and Regina questions her mother’s motives.  Especially now that she knows about Cora killing Snow’s mother.  Regina also finds out that saving young Snow from the runaway horse was staged by Cora and part of her master plan.  This mother/daughter relationship is going to south fast me thinks.

Back in Manhattan, Neal finds some wheels to get the gang to the docks so that they can swipe Hook’s ship since Neal let it be known that he can sail it, and Manhattan wasn’t his first stop after he left Fairytale Land.  Emma comments on how he was able to get a car and just then, the friend that is loaning it walks up.  Turns out her name is Tamara, and she’s Neal’s fiancée.  D’OH!

Meanwhile, back in Storybrook, Mary Margaret tells David how she keeps saying that people can change, but maybe it’s her who needs to change.  Sounds like Mary Margaret is about to start playing dirty.

The promo for next week’s episode talks about how “one of their own will perish”.  So does that mean someone is getting whacked?  After this week, I wouldn’t be surprised.  We’re definitely on the downhill slide toward the end of the season so I’m thinking things are going to get quite interesting from here on out.

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.