Once Upon A Fan

By Amy Degenstein-Hood

   Our episode begins at night near the base of the beanstalk. Hook climbs down, and Cora is waiting for him. She is carrying an umbrella/parasol with her. It can’t possibly be to block the sun because it is totally dark out. The only other option is that perhaps it is to block the rain. This might mean that Cora doesn’t want to get wet, similar to the way the Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz can’t get wet. I have a feeling we might find out down the road that Cora is the witch from Oz. Cora tells Hook she doesn’t appreciate him double crossing her. She is angry when she realizes he doesn’t have the compass. She says she has crossed through too many worlds to stop now. He asks if she’s going to kill him. Cora replies that she has something more satisfying in mind. She intends to leave Hook there. She will not take him to Storybrooke. She says “you’ve had your chance” and she vanishes. We then see her re-appear in a room filled with heart boxes. She pulls one heart out and blows on it. It begins to beat and glow. She steps to the door and commands the bodies in the courtyard to rise. They begin to stand and then head to retrieve the compass.

  In FTL a short distance away, Aurora recognizes Henry from Emma’s picture. She said he is the boy she has been seeing in the fire room. Snow explains that the room is real. She had not wanted to tell Aurora earlier because she was so afraid of the nightmare. Emma tells Aurora she needs to go back to sleep and find Henry. In the fire room, Aurora tells Henry that she is with Emma and Snow, and that they want to go home. We see Henry wake up and tell Charming and Regina the news. He also says that Aurora said they need to defeat someone that only Rumple knows how to beat. Regina is shocked to hear that it is her mother.

      In Granny’s Dinner, Rumple and Belle finally get their hamburger date. Granny is obviously less than thrilled that he is there. Granny informs Rumple that he is being charged extra for his pickles. Rumple tells Belle that his relationship with most people is complicated. Regina comes through the door and Granny is ready to shut down the place immediately. Regina assures Granny that she is only there to talk to Rumple. Rumple introduces Regina to Belle by saying “You remember the woman who locked you away for 28 years.” Regina explains to Rumple that Cora is alive and trying to make her way back to Storybrooke. Everyone thought she was dead, but Rumple agrees that this threat is too serious to take lightly. They agree to go back to Rumple’s shop and give Henry information to share with Aurora in the fire room.

     Henry lays down, and Rumple tells him to listen to his story and it will give him all the information he needs to tell Aurora in order to help them stop Cora and get Snow & Emma home. As Henry drifts to sleep, Rumple tells him the tale of how he was stunned and trapped by Cinderella when she gave him the quill in season 1. He explains that it was not the quill but the ink that is magic. The ink comes from the rarest squid (Ursula?) who lives at the bottom of the bottomless ocean. Only a mermaid (probably a reference to a story involving Ariel that we will see in upcoming episodes) can get it. Rumple tells Henry that he had a supply of it back in FTL, and the bottle is still in the cell he was locked up in there. This little bit of information leads me to wonder if Rumple had in fact, orchestrated his capture in season 1. Why else would he have the ink on him when he was locked up? 

     In the fire room, Henry finds Aurora, he tries to tell her the information, but Aurora is suddenly awoken by Mulan. The undead that Cora animated are attacking. The 4 companions fight, but Aurora is captured and taken to Cora. In her cell, Cora tells Aurora she intends to trade her for the compass. Aurora says that will never happen. Cora tells Aurora that when a wraith consumes a soul, as Philip’s soul was consumed, it only travels to another realm. She suggests that she could bring him back to FTL if Aurora cooperates. She refuses, kicking her trey of food onto Cora’s dress. Cora uses magic to fling her against a wall and she is knocked out. A raven in the cell is sent by Cora to tell Snow, Emma and Mulan that she will trade the compass for Aurora. In the original stories, Maleficent also had a pet raven. I’m wondering if this might be alluding to a possible connection between Aurora’s mother’s story, Cora and Maleficent.

     The raven finds Snow, and since she can understand the birds, she receives the message. Mulan wants to take the compass. Snow knows that she can go back to the fire room since she has also been under the sleeping curse, and asks Mulan to trust her. She asks Mulan to make more sleeping powder (like she had made for use on the giant), and Mulan says they must find a rare poppy. This is an obviously a reference from The Wizard of Oz. The poppy field is where Dorothy and friends run through and eventually fall asleep until they are woken up by snow fall. The companions find a poppy, and Mulan makes the sleeping dust. In Aurora’s cell, we see her being woken up by Hook. Hook frees her, and says that Cora double crossed him and he wants to help Aurora. She is wary of him, but he convinces her and asks her to give Emma a message for him. He says his offer still stands to help her if she will help him get to SB. Aurora runs out of the cell and heads for her companions.

  In SB, Charming and Regina agree that it is too dangerous to let Henry go back into the fire room. Charming suggests that he be put under the sleeping curse. He knows that Snow will always find him. Rumple explains to Charming that he will be given the sleeping curse by pricking his finger on the needle of a spinning wheel. In the back room, we see Regina using vials and bottles of glowing liquids & dust to create the curse. Henry seems very interested and asks if that is magic. She says it is only one form, and she promises him that she has been trying not to use magic, just as she promised him. They take the curse out to the spinning wheel. Rumple says to Regina “Your majesty, would you like the honors since you did his wife.” She dips the needle into the vial; Charming pricks his finger and falls asleep. Because this is Charming’s first time under the curse, he is not in the fire room, but in a room of mirrors. Henry’s necklace starts to glow, and it falls to the ground. Charming realizes that the floor is burning hot. He breaks through and falls into the fire room. Snow is there. Charming tells her about the ink, and tells her to find it and come home. Snow realizes that Charming is under a sleeping curse. He tells her she will break it and he will be fine. He jumps through the fire and they almost kiss, but their hands pass through each other. They realize it is a netherworld, so their bodies are not really there. They cannot kiss or touch. Snow is devastated, but Charming tells her that they always find each other, and to have faith. Snow begins to wake up. They profess their love and Snow is pulled away, leaving Charming trapped in the fire room alone. 

     Now awake, Snow is frantic. Emma assures her that they will find the way home. She tells her to have faith, the way that she always has. The two realize then that Mulan is gone and she has stolen the compass. We see Mulan running, on her way to trade the compass for Aurora. Snow and Emma catch up, and Mulan fights with Snow. Snow takes Mulan down, and Mulan tells her she will have to use the arrow to kill her because she will not return the compass. Snow pulls back with the arrow, but is stopped when they hear Aurora call out. 

     Back in Cora’s cell, we see Cora and Hook. Cora is furious that he has let Aurora go. She binds him to the wall and tells him she is going to kill him. He says she should be thanking him and that he has a gift in his satchel for her. Cora opens the satchel and looks very pleased. 

     In the forest, Aurora tells her friends how Hook saved her. She says that he really did want to help. She also tells Emma that she thinks Hook has feelings for her….. We then hear Cora and Aurora’s voices at the same time. We flash to seeing Cora holding a heart in her hand. She is speaking into it, and what she says is what is coming out of Aurora’s mouth. She is controlling Aurora now. Hook took Aurora’s heart, which was the gift Hook had in the satchel. Aurora/Cora asks if they found a way to stop Cora, and the friends tell her that they must go to Rumple’s cell.