Once Upon A Time – Wish You Were Here

By: Kelly Kearney

The First Cut Is The Deepest

The mid-season finale of “Once Upon a Time,” begins with Regina (Lana Parrilla), Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) and Emma (Jennifer Morrison) on their way to search for a magical solution to their Evil Queen problem. On the way to Regina’s vault they run into the Queen herself, kneeling over Robin Hood’s (Sean Maguire) grave. Regina loses it and demands the queen leave her loved one to rest in peace, but the Queen isn’t there to disgrace Robin’s grave as she explains “…I loved him too. Loved. Past tense.” Apparently, the Queen is quite happy that Robin’s death traumatized Regina enough to set her evil half free because she says, “his death was the best thing to happen to us.” Furious, Regina readies a fireball which is of no use since Regina has no plans of hurting herself, but the savior has no qualms about it and uses her new sword to slice at the Evil Queen which winds up leaving a gash on her face and Regina unscathed! Emma realizes that the sword fated to kill her can also hurt the Queen and lunges forward to finish her off but the Queen poofs herself to safety before the savior can end her reign of terror.

As if the bleeding cut on her face isn’t bad enough, Gold (Robert Carlyle) corners the Queen and places a golden cuff on her wrist with a deadly promise that wherever she goes he will find her. Also, if Emma doesn’t end her life he will put an end to her himself. Rumple is not too pleased with the Evil Queen’s meddling in Belle (Emile de Ravin) and their baby’s life and he promises her she will pay for what she has done.

Hot off the news that the Evil Queen can be hurt, Emma tells Regina that killing her evil half is the savior’s birth rite and plans on finishing this tonight. Regina wants to go with her, but Emma reminds her that Henry needs at least one parent alive when this whole thing is over. Regina stays behind and what a mistake that is when Emma, Hook and Charming (Josh Dallas) find the Queen has tied up Jasmine (Karen David) in Granny’s. Not only does she have Jasmine, but she also has the genie lamp. With a rub of the lamp, Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) appears and begrudgingly grants the Queen three wishes. Like all magic, wishes come with a price and the Queen has already devised a plan for that. Her wish isn’t something selfish, but altruistic in nature. She wishes the very wish Emma carelessly told Aladdin, that she was never the savior! With the wish granted, Emma disappears to a dream like world where she never lived in Storybrooke and was never meant to break a curse. Of course, Charming and Hook go ballistic and when Regina gets there the three play the blame game while fighting over where Emma went and whose fault it was she is gone. When they realize that’s what the queen wants, for them to be too distracted to look for Emma, Regina concocts a plan that no one saw coming.

Princess Emma meet mayor regina mills

Across town in the mayor’s office, Regina is putting her genie to good use by teaching him the finer arts of Appletini making as well as master/genie relations that is seriously making Aladdin gag. Regina walks in on what she calls her evil half’s “perversions” and the Queen appears to be quite proud of herself and her little wish trick. She tries to convince Regina that she is better off with the Charmings torn apart and Emma gone, but Regina isn’t there to join forces and drink martinis. The genie is beholden to the Queen, but since the Queen and Regina are one in the same Regina steals one of her wishes. The wish? To send her where Emma Swan is of course. Aladdin grants her request and Regina is poofed into a land that seems a lot like the Enchanted Forest, seven dwarves and all.

After a brief run in with Grumpy (Lee Arenberg) and crew, she is mistaken for the Evil Queen that was banished. Regina hears singing and low and behold it is Princess Emma picking flowers and singing about “One day My Prince Will Come.” It’s not a Prince who comes, but an ex Evil Queen who is in shock over how weak and frightened her best friend is now that her “saviorness” has been wished out of her. She tries to tell Emma that she is not the Queen, but from a distant land where they’re best friends and share a child. This story shares a remarkable resemblance to the dreams she’s been having about a land called Storybrooke, but the Princess shrugs it off. Emma doesn’t buy it and neither does a very old and withered Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Charming as they approach her with swords and bows drawn. Realizing she can’t convince them, Regina poofs herself to the Queen’s castle where she finds Rumpelstiltskin in his prison cage. Immediately, he assumes the Queen is back and ready to set him free, but Regina convinces the imp she is from another world and this one isn’t real. The two cut a deal; a magic bean for Rumple’s freedom. After he tells Regina that she must be evil to force the savior out of hiding, Regina sets him free.

Every Hero Needs A Villain

The only way to bring the savior out of Emma is to force it out of her so in a revisit to the season one opener, Regina crashes Henry’s Knight ceremony. In her traditional Evil Queen garb, she promises to “destroy their happiness if it’s the last thing I do” and pleads with Emma to find a hero to stop her. She then poofs herself as well as the Charmings away.

In her castle, Regina is hoping Emma comes to defeat her, but instead she comes to grovel and offer her a trade – the key to their kingdom for her parents lives. Regina is shocked and pushes her further by ripping Snow and Charming’s hearts out, practically begging Emma to stop her. In act of desperation, Regina crushes their hearts but still Emma won’t wake up. That is not until Knight Henry (Jared Gilmore) shows up and tries to kill Regina for murdering his grandparents. Of course, Regina refuses to hurt him and closes her eyes like this might be her end but right before Henry’s sword hits her. Emma wakes up and stops him – saving the life of the woman she was born to kill! Emma remembers everything and thanks Regina for coming to rescue her. With the savior back, the two meet Rumple who hands them the bean to open the portal. Right before Team Moms jump back to Storybrooke, Robin Hood (or the dream version of him) tries to rob them! Regina is dazed and no matter how many times Emma yells they have to go Regina just stands there in shock. Emma makes the split decision to watch the portal close while Regina tries to make sense of her dead lover standing in front of her.

Who’s Under The Cloak

Back in Storybrooke, Charming decides enough is enough with the Evil Queen and tries but fails to steal her wish from Aladdin. He wishes the Queen gets what she deserves and when nothing happens she gloats that she already got what she wanted when his family was destroyed. She begins to choke the life out of him, but Hook saves him in the nick of time. With her plan falling apart, she poofs herself to Granny’s where she is met with the cloaked figure from Emma’s vision who turns the Queen into a caged cobra! Who is this demon of fate and why are they here? We find out that Belle and Rumple’s baby was stolen from Blue (Keegan Connor Tracy) by the Black Fairy (Jaime Murray) and the person behind the cloaks is none other than their grown son Gideon (Giles Matthey)! With the Black Fairy’s influence and his insane rapid growth spurt, it is doubtful this Rumbelle child is there for a family reunion but instead, has come to Storybrooke to enact his revenge.