Once Upon A Time - Season 2 Episode 12 - Recap and Review - In the Name of the Brother
Recap and review of Once Upon A Time - Season 2 Episode 12 - In the Name of the Brother:
Once Upon A Time often tackles the subject of family, and the characters' commitment to that emotional foundation, whether it's a biological family unit or the community that serves as a stand-in for that construct. "In the Name of the Brother" goes a step further by exploring the overwhelming sense of responsibility our characters feel they owe to these family/community ties. It's a bit of a meandering episode, owing to the sheer number of different stories it's trying to tell. The various character arcs of the episode are all iterations of the same central theme of responsibility to one's family or community (or even to one's self), but it's spread out across an episode that is fairly large in scope. This isn't necessarily to the episode's disadvantage, as the story is pretty focused. In fact, it's impressive just how well the episode maintains momentum and coherence, even in spite of the difficulties of trying to keep five separate subplots in motion at the same time. Moreover, the episode introduces some exhilarating new plot developments that could make for some excellent TV over the next few months.
The stranger who came plowing into Storybrooke last week is on the brink of death. The stranger, named Greg (Ethan Embry), presumably witnessed Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) using magic, which has the residents of Storybrooke worrying about what the man's presence will mean for their town, if/when he awakens. Making matters worse, Greg's health is time sensitive, as he is bleeding into his chest cavity with no end in sight. Dr. Whale (David Anders) suggests that perhaps it would be easier to simply allow Greg to succumb to his wounds. However, Charming (Josh Dallas) and Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) won't hear of it, to the consternation of Grump/Leroy (Lee Arenberg), who feels that the stranger will be the ruin of them all. Whale preps for surgery, but memories of his past, in a monochrome land parallel to the Fairy Tale world, foster his own self-doubt and panic. Whale makes a run for it, while Greg's life hangs in the balance.
Credit: ABC
One of the things I enjoyed the most about this particular storyline is in how it not only elaborates on Whale's fractured psyche, but also goes a bit into the mythology of the world he comes from, as Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) observes to Emma (Jennifer Morrison) that Dr. Frankenstein isn't in his Fairy Tale book. He must come from a different world altogether, which means that there's no real way of knowing just who else is in Storybrooke. This is intriguing, in a host of different ways. The flashbacks to Whale's life as Victor Frankenstein illustrates the differences between his black-and-white world and the Fairy Tale world to which we've grown accustomed. Whale's world is a lot closer to our own (with guns, scientific equipment, and no real concept of magic), and it leaves one to wonder just how Whale came to Storybrooke, since other, similar parallel worlds (such as Wonderland) were unaffected.
When we first learned about Whale's backstory earlier this season, we discovered that the body upon which he'd been working his revivification experiments was that of his own brother. This week, we learn how Victor's brother came to be that cadaver. Gerhardt (Chad Michael Collins), Dr. Frankenstein's brother, celebrates the holiday with their father - who gives Gerhardt their late mother's mother, and buys Victor a commission so he can forget about his crazy scientific work. However, Victor persists after Rumpelstiltskin appears and offers him gold, among other encouragements. This emboldens Victor to go rooting around a cemetery for a corpse he can use. When Gerhardt tracks his brother to the cemetery, the brothers are spotted by the night watchman, who shoots and kills Gerhardt. This starts Whale's downward spiral, as he receives an enchanted heart from Rumpelstiltskin, and uses it to revive Gerhardt...who goes on to kill their father in a fit of confused rage, defending Victor from their father's berating. Victor briefly contemplates putting Gerhardt down, holding a pistol to his head in the episode's darkest moment, but he can't bring himself to go through with it, even after Gerhardt holds the gun against his own head, pleading for release. In Storybrooke, Whale similarly despairs of his life, dropping his family watch into the water by the port, and preparing to do the same himself - until Ruby (Meghan Ory) uses her crazy werewolf speed to prevent him from committing suicide at the last minute. Their heart-to-heart exemplifies the responsibility Whale felt for his family, and the responsibility of which Ruby reminds him - a responsibility to his profession, to his own inherent sense of goodness, and to the citizens of Storybrooke, the only family he really has left to him. Whale returns, performs the surgery, and saves Greg's life - a real A-to-B character arc, and the episode's best.
Credit: ABC/Jack Rowand
However, it's not the only complicated arc of the episode. Regina (Lana Parrilla) is cruelly tricked into believing that Henry has forgiven her and has embraced her as his mother once again. Unfortunately, this is only Cora (Barbara Hershey) in disguise. In a display of her own growth as a character, Regina refuses to engage her mother in an argument about her lousy, Hall of Shame parenting, while Cora tries to appeal to Regina's desperate need to be loved, saying that the memory of Regina weeping over her coffin "changed everything." Cora turns herself over to Regina, allowing her to take her before the town to face justice. Yet, on the ride over, Cora continues to play on her daughter's desperation, proposing that they help each other. Cora says she can help Regina win Henry back, arguing that she'll never have Henry so long as his real family is in the picture. Meanwhile, all Cora wants is to have the love of her daughter back. At least, that's what she claims. Her confrontation with Gold, in which she offers the former Dark One a magic globe that will help him locate Baelfire, in exchange for her daughter (a deal sealed with a kiss, in one of the stranger developments of the episode), would seem to suggest a more sinister component to Cora's motives. As it stands now, however, Regina has been effectively seduced by the promises of love and comfort that Cora is offering, resting her head on her mother's shoulder in a moment that would be poignant if it weren't so tragic, given how far Regina has come.
As for Gold, he's still in shambles over the loss of Belle (Emilie De Ravin), who doesn't remember a thing about him. In perhaps the most heartbreaking moment of the season so far, Gold tries True Love's Kiss on Belle, and it fails spectacularly. Belle awakens and briefly appears to remember Gold, before shrieking in horror at this stranger's presence in her room. In a last ditch effort to inspire Belle to recall her former self, he provides her with her talisman, the chipped cup. Belle rails against Gold's attempts to reform her, and smashes the cup against the wall. This compels Gold to seek solace in the only thing that could distract him from despairing of Belle's loss or of murdering Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) in his hospital bed: finding Baelfire. He pricks his finger and lets fall a single droplet of blood onto the magic globe, which illuminates the various countries of the world and, in turn, locating Baelfire. He confronts Emma and declares he's cashing in the favor she owes him: looks like they're going on a road trip together to find Baelfire. This is the development I'm most intrigued by, as I feel that Emma and Gold are a unique pairing that could make for some excellent drama as the season progresses. Well, that and the development that Greg was lying about having not seen anything out of the ordinary before his accident (he claims he was texting at the time). He answers the phone from the mysterious "Her" who's been calling him incessantly since the accident. Whether Greg is a curious element from the outside world, or simply one of the unknown characters from a parallel world (a la Whale) that Henry suggested might be in Storybrooke, he presents an element of potential chaos that could really add to the off-the-wall nature of this season. This is, almost assuredly, a good thing for the series.
Credit: ABC/Jack Rowand
"In the Name of the Brother" is a successful hour of TV, owing to how closely it hews to the central premise of family/community ties. It should be fascinating to see how the series continues to explore that theme, now that the various family and community structures have been changed, with Emma and Gold heading out into the real world and Cora and Regina forming a mother-daughter alliance. The show returns in three weeks with the return of a giant, and the start of an unlikely road trip. Color me excited.
