Once Upon A Time - Season 2 Episode 17 - Recap and Review - Welcome to Storybrooke
Recap and review of Once Upon A Time - Season 2 Episode 17 - Welcome to Storybrooke:
Once Upon A Time has spent much of season two adding layers to its already deep mythology. For many viewers, "Welcome to Storybrooke" will succeed based on their investment in that mythology, as the episode spends a lot of time going into the history of Storybrooke in the days and weeks immediately following the casting of The Curse. It's one of the more interesting entries in the series, as it both explains some of the nagging logistical questions about how Storybrooke works (For instance, how is it that more people don't stumble upon the town? Answer: A force field that hides the town), while leaving enough room for mystery as the season moves forward. The episode also offers one of the better storylines of the season, charting Regina's (Lana Parrilla) devolution as a human being with the potential for redemption, while also illustrating the gradual darkening of Snow White's (Ginnifer Goodwin) heart in the wake of having engineered the death of Cora. What's strange is that none of these elements really give the episode momentum. This is a strangely ponderous episode, more character study than story-builder -- at least until a last-minute twist puts it over-the-top into "A" territory.
Credit: ABC
In the days following the casting of The Curse in 1983, Regina is thrilled at the spell's success. No one remembers their past lives in the Fairy Tale World, and everyone seems to implicitly do everything she says. She has her own spot at Granny's diner, the loyalty and respect of the townspeople (including Snow White, who goes out of her way to apologize for getting in the Mayor's way on her morning route, despite not being at fault), and she even has a boy toy in the form of fashionably gruff Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan), the former Huntsman of the Fairy Tale World. However, it all rings a bit hollow by the fourth day or so, when she realizes that no one seems to have much of a backbone -- and what's the point of breaking your enemies when they don't realize they've been broken? Sure, it can be fun to meet with Mary Margaret at her school and take her to meet the comatose David (Josh Dallas), and then relish in the fact that Mary Margaret doesn't recognize the man who is pretty much the love of her life. But those thrills can only take you so far. Regina realizes this, though her complaints to Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) mostly fall on deaf ears. She may have beaten her enemies, but she's no less lonely than she was before casting the curse.
Credit: ABC/DAVID GRAY
Enter the Flynns, a father and son who were camping in the woods when The Curse was cast. They take shelter in their tent when they see The Curse rolling in, and they awake the next morning to not only find that the woods have been utterly obliterated, but that a town has suddenly materialized out of thin air. The father, Kurt (John Pyper-Ferguson), is utterly baffled by this development, but necessity dictates he stay in town with his young son, Owen (Benjamin Stockham), until their car can be fixed and they can leave. After an initially uncomfortable encounter with the father-son duo, Regina is dead-set on getting them sent along on their way, as she never factored in the possibility of people from the outside world coming to Storybrooke (which introduces a whole host of other logistical issues that are better left unaddressed, for fear of breaking the show entirely). However, subsequent encounters with the Flynns softens Regina on their presence, particularly young Owen giving Regina a gift for allowing him to sit in her seat at Granny's diner. She invites the father and son over for dinner, at which point she gets to know them a bit better, learning that Owen's mother passed away six months previous, and that all the kids at school back home in New Jersey have been treating him differently because of it. Regina seems to realize that this familial unit and its domesticity are what she's missing in her life. She proposes that they move to Storybrooke, and Owen is thrilled at the prospect. Kurt, however, insists that their lives are back in New Jersey.
The episode illustrates the theme of Regina, in the present, wanting to have everything despite the inherent limitations of her power, or the fact that the things she wants are often in conflict with one another (Kill Snow White? Lose Henry; Get Henry, Snow White lives). This continues in the flashback, as Regina uses Graham’s enchanted heart to order him to prevent Kurt and Owen from leaving Storybrooke. In particular, she states that she wants Owen for herself (because who needs a husband when you've already got Sheriff Graham?). Unfortunately for Regina, Kurt overhears the entire plot, and though Graham initially tries to tackle Kurt, the father eventually makes it to his repaired car, and speeds off with Owen. They tear off through Storybrooke with Graham and Regina in hot pursuit. They make it to the town limits just as Graham pulls ahead and cuts them off at the pass. Kurt gives Owen a braided trinket to remember him by, and then tells him to run. Owen doesn't want to leave, but Graham is approaching.
Owen takes off, and though Regina tries to stop him, telling the young boy that she just wanted them all to be happy, Owen ultimately escapes while Regina watches him go and Graham stuffs Kurt into his car. The boy eventually brings the police back to the town limits, but Storybrooke is gone (due to a magic spell hiding it from sight. A heartbroken Regina watches Owen from the other side of the force field). Owen raises the braided trinket his father gave him, and vows that he'll never stop looking. By now, it should probably be clear who young Owen is, but I'll admit that it didn't occur to me that Owen is actually Storybrooke stranger Greg Mendel (Ethan Emvry) until the last possible moment before the reveal. It's a wonderful little twist that recontextualizes his presence in the story up to this point, as he's no longer just some interloper who's here to expose Storybrooke to the world. He's a man with his own purpose -- like Mr. Gold in reverse, here to find his father in a magical pocket of the world.
Credit: ABC
The story in the present isn't nearly as interesting in the flashback, but that isn't to imply that it's bad. Regina is grieving Cora, and Mr. Gold stops by to pay his respects with a single red rose, placed alongside Regina's over Cora's coffin in the mausoleum. Regina is dead-set on revenge against Snow White, who is bedridden with guilt, but Gold reminds her that she can't have everything. Regina, however, makes it her mission to prove him wrong. She finds a new curse left behind among her mother's things, and intends to cast it. It's a love curse that will essentially trick Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) into loving her, allowing her to kill Snow White without risking losing his love. Gold warns Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and the others, and says that the only way to end a blood feud is to spill more blood, suggesting that killing Regina is the answer. Emma and David seem to consider this line of thinking, until Henry storms off, ashamed that they'd even consider murder. Despite attempts by Emma to get Neal (Michael Raymond-James) to intervene, Henry decides that magic is the cause of everything going to rot. He sneaks off, steals some TNT from the mines, and goes to the magic well to blow up the source of all the trouble. However, on the way, Henry bumps into Greg, who tells Regina. This leads to a confrontation at the well, in which Henry tries to make Regina see that the spell won't make him love her truly. She makes a compromise with him then -- she can't bring herself to rid Storybrooke of magic, but she destroys the love curse she had planned to cast. It's the best she can do, at this point.
Credit: ABC/JACK ROWAND
Except, it turns out that Regina can have everything, as she earns a modicum of revenge against Snow by forcing her to live with her guilt. Snow White comes to Regina's house and, shockingly, pleads with Regina to kill her. She doesn't want anyone else to die because of her, and feels that this is the only way to really end their feud so that no one else gets hurt. Regina rips out Snow's heart and considers crushing it in her hands...until she notices a black spot at the center of the glowing heart. The realization that Cora's death has made Snow's heart blacker gives Regina a bigger kick than actually killing her would, as she decides that killing Snow White would be too easy. Regina wants Snow to suffer, and to leave with the knowledge that she will ultimately prove to be the downfall of the family she's worked so hard to protect. She shoves Snow's heart back into her body and sends her on her way. Taking after his father in the "overhearing stuff" department, Greg witnesses the whole thing. But he does his father one better by capturing the entire scene on his camera phone. As he hopes in his car, he thumbs the braided trinket, saying “I’ll find you, Dad. I promise.”
Credit: ABC
This was an undoubtedly strong episode, helped by the deepening of the show's mythology and the complexity of the characters in evidence, as Snow grows more ambiguous and tortured by the day, while Regina abandons any pretense of redemptive behavior. There are also some fairly interesting questions that this episode introduces/expands upon: Where is/what happened to Greg's father? Who is the woman he's always texting/talking to on the phone? The back half of season two feels entirely different from the first half, but no less strong. All the big themes and elements of this season's plot are coming together nicely as the show builds towards its conclusion.
