Once Upon A Time - Season 2 Episode 2 - Recap and Review - We Are Both
Once Upon A Time is both smart and kind of crazy to double down on mythology the way it does in "We Are Both." We discover a lot about the nature of magic, though what that really means for the narrative as we progress on through the season is anyone's guess. I know a lot of people were disappointed with Regina's backstory in the Fairy Tale Land (which I'm just going to abbreviate as FTL for expediency's sake) last season. Her reason for hating Snow White is at least better than the "She's prettier than me" motive from the fairy tale, but it takes a very special kind of crazy to whisper to yourself, "We got her, Daniel. We got her," as though her late love would look down on her from the heavens and smile because Regina finally taught that naive, innocent little girl her lesson. We get more of Regina's backstory tonight, including more of Bailee Madison's scarily good young Snow White (seriously, she's so convincing as a young Ginnifer Goodwin that it beggars all logic that they're not actually related somehow). The FTL flashback this week involves the further disconnect between Regina (Lana Parrilla) and her mother, Cora (Barbara Hershey), along with the gradual progression of Regina from nebbish waif to outright villainess.
Most good drama is concerned with parentage, how the choices of parents affect the children they bear, and how oftentimes our traits are holdovers from how we were raised. You can spend your whole life cultivating a distinctive individuality, and yet so much will still boil down to your own origin, because you can't escape the people who made you. Well, at least in Once Upon A Time, you can't. We have Snow White/Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin) stranded in the Enchanted Forest with Emma Swann (Jennifer Morrison), her daughter, whose life choices were influenced by her sense of abandonment by her parents. We have Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle), devastated upon learning that leaving Storybrooke now erases one's memory, making their Cursed selves their only selves. This effectively keeps him from leaving Storybrooke to search for his lost son, Baelfyre (and I'd bet pretty good odds Baelfyre was the young businessman in last week's cold open, but I suppose that debate is for another day). We have Gepetto (Tony Amendola), his memories returned, putting up missing person fliers for his "son," Pinocchio (Eion Bailey), who hasn't reverted from his fully-wooden state, despite the Curse having been broken. We also have the more direct approach by Prince Charming/David (Josh Dallas) of coupling a potion with the Mad Hatter's battered teleportation hat in an attempt to be reunited with his wife and daughter. And, of course, we have the rivalry between Regina and Cora, along with Regina's ensuing campaign to get her magic back in order to win back her son, Henry (Jared S. Gilmore). The episode is bursting at the seams with the rhetoric of parenthood, and it makes for a stronger story.
"We Are Both" doesn't really make Regina sympathetic, but it does try to rationalize her villainy by placing it in context, by illustrating the extent of the damage her mother inflicted upon her. It's fairly rote territory, but there's a reason it's a theme that's used as often in fiction as it is: it pretty much never fails to resonate. I'm sure, at some point, nearly everyone has been worried about becoming their parents. Not necessarily because their parents are bad people. Maybe it's as simple as wanting to live a more ambitious life, or just a different life altogether, free of the sentient Expectations that wake you up for school every morning. And so it is that Regina sets about searching, in the FTL flashback, for a way to rid herself of her mother, discovering that there's a book from which all of her mother's crazy magic derives. She steals the book, summons Rumpelstiltskin, and comes into possession of a magic mirror that will transport her mother, upon being shoved into it, to a "crummy world."
Credit: ABC
Where, specifically, she's been transported to is anyone's guess, but it takes Cora out of Regina's life, although, as Cora states before being shoved, "You'll never be free of me. I'm your mother." Even though Regina repeatedly asserts that she has no desire to ever be like her mother, she still shows remorse over having sent her mother into the vast unknown. However, we find out that the reason goes deeper: she turns over the book to Rumpelstiltskin not out of remorse from what she'd done, but from her own fear at how much she loved doing it. But Rumpelstiltskin insists that she keep the book, assuring her she won't end up like her mother, and adding that he expects a favor in return for his gift. The episode's closing scenes see Regina release Henry, whom she forced to come with her, claiming that she never really learned how to love properly, and that if Henry were to ever come back to her, she would want it to be his choice, not because he was essentially abducted. But more tellingly, she tells Henry that she wants nothing more than a chance at redemption. Yet, Regina resists the temptation to burn the magic book. While this choice inhabits a moral grey area, it might turn out to be smart of her to keep a book of all her best tricks, given that, as we learn in the episode's conclusion, upon Snow White and Emma being thrown into a prisoner's pit by Mulan, that Cora is very much alive.
In other developments, Charming comes into his own as a leader, finally discarding the toolbag side of his personality, the erstwhile David Nolan. He motivates the denizens of Storybrooke into bearing out their current hardship, and the Seven (well, six, since Sneezy got his memory erased by crossing the border of Storybrooke) Dwarfs take the words to heart, setting out to go mine some diamonds to make fairy dust. Charming also develops a cute little friendship with Henry, who calls him "Gramps," and it seems like the two will be working together to find a way to get back to the Enchanted Forest. I rag on Henry a lot, but he can add a lot to an adult that doesn't have that much depth as a character by himself (not that Charming is one-dimensional or anything, but he's always been at his most compelling when paired with more compelling characters, although by that logic, pairing him with Henry shouldn't work, and it does, so that more or less shows what I know).
"We Are Both" isn't as strong as last week's premiere, but I think I might have enjoyed it more, if for no other reason than we received real insight into the nature and rules of magic in the mythology of the show's universe. We also got meaningful development on the character fronts, with the pathos of Gold's arc coming to light in a more significant fashion, and Regina showing actual growth. So I'm still fairly confident in the direction of the series in its second season, whereas I'd earlier feared for a sophomore slump. That still could happen, but I can always appreciate a show that at least tries to do something ambitious, even if it ultimately doesn't pan out.
Credit: ABC/Jack Rowand