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"The Snow Queen"
Episode Review
A long last, the highly anticipated Snow Queen backstory! Did the story make for a good episode?
The sister angle was a good one, as true love is almost more touching in a familial form. And a trip to get advice from Rumplestiltskin is always a sensible move. As the most powerful sorcerer in the world, he can always make an interesting deal, and such storylines tie the new characters with the old ones. But were the ribbons really just symbolic? Did Rumplestiltskin enchant them? Because the moment the girls removed them, their relationship started falling apart. If their love for each other was so strong, surely removing a single ribbon wouldn't tear it apart without a little help from the Dark One. And props to the casting department for choosing perfect people to play the movie characters. Young Ingrid and the Duke of Weaselton were dead ringers. And while the ballroom was good, the palace CGI was terrible. Watching blond princesses dance around a hot pink palace made me feel like I was watching a Barbie movie.
But the backstory surprised me. Like all good characters, Ingrid was not always evil. She was an innocent loving girl, cruelly wronged by someone. For the first time ever, I genuinely felt sorry for her. Who would ever have thought that not only was she telling the truth about being Elsa's aunt, but also that Elsa's mother put her in the urn! The three sisters were good together, but the "girls" all looked to be in their forties, particularly Ingrid. It may have been wiser to have a younger actress play her. I was glad that Helga didn't believe the Duke over Ingrid, but Gerda was much less sympathetic. She didn't even think twice before dissolving her "unbreakable" sisterly bond and imprisoning her sister forever in the urn, acting like she somehow was the wounded party, including crying to the rock trolls about a loss that was her own fault. If I was supposed to feel badly for her, I didn't. But on the upside, Elizabeth Mitchell gave a heartbreaking performance in the scene, panicking over hurting her sister and begging Gerda to give her a chance. One thing hits me though. How could she go into the urn as a panicked, naive young girl with no control over her magic and emerge as a cool, calculating witch in full possession of her powers? Did she age in the urn? Did someone let her out and teach her magic? How else would she know what the sorcerer's hat was or what it was capable of doing? Hopefully more explanation on that later.
The Storybrooke part has possibilities, and the idea of the Snow Queen playing mental games with Emma was interesting. But I think it would have been more believable for Emma to become defensive over her rough childhood and abandonment rather than her feeling awkward about her magic. I suppose the Snow Queen has to be using some kind of magic on her; why else would Emma blow her top about something that never bothered her before? Her magic has always been powerful, but if anything, was difficult to jumpstart. Ingrid must be doing something, since now it seems completely rampant and out of control. And what is the last thing that Gold needs to make the hat work? Something he doesn't mind doing, and the music at the end makes me think it means doing Hook in. Marian made no progress either, still being an ice sculpture on Regina's sofa. Why hasn't anybody made little Roland kiss her yet?
As I've mentioned before, I feel as if the writers have changed the main characters to cram in the Frozen storyline. When Emma, understandably a bit freaked out, looked to her mother for help, Snow was angry. As a character that has always been portrayed as sweet and understanding, usually the person to calm everybody else down, it seemed completely opposite to her nature. Her pregnancy seems to have thrown her whole storyline off balance, making her incapable of flashbacks and reducing her instead to a glossed over airhead. I'm also tiring of Hook trying to blackmail Gold and rubbing it in his face that he hasn't changed, when he himself is completely reverting to his pirate ways. And need we mention Gold? Robert Carlyle still gives a sizzling performance, but it's as if his character has gone back to the moment when he first became the Dark One - evil, power-hungry, and unrecognizable. The old Rumple would never have stood for someone trying to take advantage of him, so why is he now? What about always being a man of his word? Ingrid says that he wants to leave Storybrooke and take over the world - WHAT?? All Rumple ever wanted was to get enough power to get back to his son. I fully understand his not wanting to be controlled by the dagger after what the Wicked Witch did to him (by the way, I need a backstory on what went on inside the vault of the Dark One), but what would his purpose be to get to the outside world, now that his son is gone? He's always called his power a curse, so why is he grasping for it now, particularly since magic doesn't exist or work in the outside world? Especially after seeing its horrors in killing his son? What about Belle's always believing in him, or Baelfire's sacrifice to save him? Has he forgotten? To this point in the season his storyline has been completely out of character. "Family Business" was one of the only times this season where he was like his old self. One good thing to remember though- it will never work. No character can be all powerful, including Peter Pan or Gold. Everyone has to have a weakness, an Achilles heel so to speak. Obviously Gold can't leave Storybrooke with Ingrid in charge and all the other citizens dead. Neither plan will work, so I'm glad of that. Good always wins.
I was glad to see Henry's apprenticeship revisited, and it seems that Gold knows he's up to something, as he just gives him cleaning duties. And the ending made Snow more into what she used to be - caring and concerned for her daughter. Let's keep that up.
To be honest, I'm just waiting for this storyline to be over and writing it off as a blurp in the storytelling. Not that I haven't enjoyed some of it, but it pales in comparison to the other seasons on all counts. The Frozen characters are taking all the screen time, pushing our main characters to minor roles. Snow does nothing but rock her baby, Hook just makes snide comments to Gold under his breath, and Regina leafs through magic books in her vault. Most of them haven't even had a backstory yet! And we won't even mention the secondary characters, as I'm starting to forget what they look like. What about Ruby, Archie, Dr. Whale, August, or even the dwarves? We've hardly seen them since the icy crew came, especially with the Knave causing chaos everywhere he goes.
All in all, I give the episode a 6/10. The storylines are good, but need to be given more time. Next week we get a two hour special, where Emma goes to Gold to help her get rid of her magic, just like Ingrid did. No doubt the solution will be the same; she just needs to trust in the love that's all around her. It would be my guess that Gold gives her a solution (maybe even an urn), probably heavily encouraging her to use it. After all, if he strips her of her powerful magic, that may be all he needs to make the hat work. Of course, the Snow Queen would never allow that, and she was the one who gave him the final piece to the puzzle, so I may be wrong. I'll guess we'll have to wait and see. I am looking forward to a two hour episode, though. So far it's proved difficult to fit a villain and a storyline into only 11 episodes. So don't forget to tune in next week for "Smash the Mirror" at 8:00 on ABC.