Once Upon A Time – Street Rats

By: Kelly Kearney

A Whole New World

We begin in Agrabah, where Jafar (Oded Fehr) is turning the citizens into rats. Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) tries escaping the evil man, only to run into Princess Jasmine (Karen David). It seems their meeting wasn’t by chance because Jasmine was searching for the young thief. She pleads with Aladdin to help her save their kingdom from Jafar who’s gotten into the King’s head and is destroying Agrabah. Jasmine hands the young thief a golden scarab as payment for his help but Aladdin isn’t so keen on being turned into a rat.

Back in Storybrooke, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Archie (Raphael Sbarge) take their therapy on the go as they search the woods for clues to the Queen’s plans. While the doctor tries to convince Emma to come clean with her family about her visions, the two stumble upon a very dead oracle (Jordyn Ashley Olson) and Shiren fleeing from the scene. Emma takes her in for questioning and the woman pleads her innocence which, of course, the savior believes. At first, she won’t reveal her identity, but after Shiren learns of Mr. Hyde’s (Sam Witwer) death she reveals the truth – she’s Princess Jasmine in search of Aladdin, the savior. Emma’s shocked because she had no idea a savior could beat their fate.

The Queen Always Gets What She Wants

After finding the oracle dead, Archie goes back to his office only to find something equally terrifying; the Evil Queen making herself comfortable. Archie’s never had much luck with the evil Mill’s women and this time is no different. Taking a page out of her mother’s book, The Queen (Lana Parilla) transforms herself into the doctor after he refused to reveal the details of his sessions with Emma. It looks like the Evil Queen has “savior on the brain” and she plans on finding everything she can about Emma.

The Queen pretending to be Archie runs into Emma who unknowingly reveals her secret. She might be able to tell her family the truth if she can find Aladdin and change her fate. The savior’s magic must be off because she has no idea she just revealed her weakness to the one person who’d do anything to destroy the Charmings. While the Evil Queen is playing doctor with the savior, Archie’s tied up at the mansion with Zelena (Rebecca Mader) who isn’t exactly happy to be watching her sister’s hostage.

The Cave of Wonders

Flashback to Agrabah where Aladdin has agreed to help Jasmine and the two set off on a journey in search of a diamond in the rough. This diamond is the key to defeating Jafar and it resides inside the Cave of Wonders. As the princess and her thief travel across the desert, the two bicker in that typical savior vs. royal kind of way and Aladdin offers the woman a peace offering – an apple. If only Jasmine knew how symbolic apples were, but there’s no time for flirtatious gifts when they stumble upon the cave. At first, it looks impenetrable as the giant doors are locked up like a puzzle with no hope of getting inside. Jasmine assumed a thief like Aladdin could break in, but he’s totally at a loss for ideas. Aladdin jokingly tries using the “open sesame” command and to his shock the Alibaba story wasn’t a joke! The doors open and the two go inside to retrieve the diamond.

At the Charming loft, Emma and family are failing to find Aladdin with a locator spell when the Evil Queen disguised as Archie walks in and urges Emma to tell everyone what she’s been hiding. With the savior on the spot, she finally tells her parents, Henry (Jared Gilmore), Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) and Regina about the visions. Regina (Lana Parilla) immediately asks where she is in these visions and Emma protects her by saying she’s not sure. This leads the mayor to assume she’s either dead or she is the hooded figure that kills Emma. Wherever she is, she doesn’t have much time so Regina tells Emma to meet her at her vault in an hour where she’ll whip up a plan with whatever time she has left.

Back in Agrabah at the cave, Aladdin and Jasmine find the diamond, but once he has it in his hands it disintegrates and the walls starts to cave in. Aladdin uses his magic to protect them and asks Jasmine if she knew all along the diamond was worthless and he had magic. She says she had a hunch he was the diamond in the rough, but she wasn’t sure. Aladdin is the one to stop Jafar and save her kingdom, he’s Agrabah’s savior!

Upstairs in Emma and Henry’s room, Jasmine tells Henry she’s worried that Aladdin may be dead and it might be her fault. Both the Princess of Agrabah and the Prince of Storybrooke are wracked with guilt over their part in the savior’s fate.

Downstairs in the loft, Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Emma talk mother to daughter about keeping secrets. Of course, Snow forgives her daughter, but what about Hook? Hook’s been brooding ever since Emma came clean about her visions and Snow wonders why she would lie to the pirate when true loves like her and Charming (Josh Dallas) always tell each other the truth.

Twisted Sisters Need Spa Days Too

While Snow and Emma are talking, Leroy (Lee Arenberg) calls David to let him know Archie never showed up for their appointment. Emma realizes the Queen has Archie and was pretending to be him at the loft. Emma sets out to find her, but she’s having a spa day with Zelena. Yes, even twisted sisters need to keep up on their beauty treatments, especially if one of them is going to get Rumple to notice them. The Mills women seems to have a thing for the Dark One and Regina seems to be willing to share him with her sister. She tells Zelena that until she can accept her true wicked self, Robyn never will.

At the vault, Regina’s whipping up a magical savior brew to tie Emma’s magic to Aladdin’s. If he’s alive, they’ll find him. Too bad Aladdin ditched his magic. In a flashback, we see Aladdin refuse to help Jasmine and she accepts his decision and tells him to keep the golden scarab for helping her get this far. The princess leaves and Jafar materializes in a puff of black smoke. Now that Aladdin knows he’s a savior, Jafar and his red bird oracle reveal his fate. Aladdin is doomed to die, but he can change his destiny with the Three Fates Golden Shears that Jafar gives him. They can sever his fate, leaving Aladdin with a long, rich and powerless life. Like Emma, Aladdin never asked to be the savior and now he has a way out.

Regina’s potion proves what Jasmine feared, Aladdin’s dead and the scarab found in a crypt is too convincing to believe otherwise. Emma asks her family to leave her alone and Henry stays behind to apologize for ever having brought her to Storybrooke. Emma tells him he gave her a family and no matter what happens she’s better for it. That’s when Aladdin comes out from the shadows. He’s alive, but he’s no longer a savior. He hands Emma the Fates shears and hopes she uses them to save herself from her own fate. Aladdin leaves to go find Jasmine and unlike in the past when he saved her from Jafar and freed her father from his evil control, he can no longer be her kingdom’s savior.

A Cricket Caged and A Pirate’s Lies

The Evil Queen must be convincing because when the sisters return from their spa day, Zelena turns Archie into a caged cricket and hangs him over her Robyn’s crib. The Queen chose Zelena because of her wickedness and Zelena finally has a family who accepts her – the one thing Regina couldn’t do.

At the Charming’s, Regina and the heroes are learning about the golden shears and Hook is as broody as ever. Emma apologizes for lying to him and hands him the shears for safe keeping. Aladdin failed because he didn’t trust Jasmine enough to accept him as the savior so Emma won’t make the same mistake. Hook and Emma head to the docks where it appears the pirate drops the shears into the water next to his ship so no one will find them 20,000 leagues under the sea. Unfortunately, Hook lied and pocketed the shears instead of getting rid of them. It seems these true loves can’t stop keeping secrets from one another.

Why did Hook pocket the shears? Will the Queen continue to play therapist to Storybrooke’s citizens? These questions and more will be answered on the next “Once Upon a Time.”