CATCHING UP: Once Upon a Time – Season Four, Episode Three

First aired October 12, 2014.

The ice cream vendor (played by Elizabeth Mitchell) was revealed to be the Snow Queen and she wasted no time stirring up trouble in Storybrooke. She gave Maid Marian (played by Christie Laing) a cursed snow cone that slowly began to freeze her, Frozen fans will recognize this as a major plot from the film.

Naturally, everyone believes that Elsa (played by Georgina Haig) was responsible, but Emma (played by Jennifer Morrison) isn’t so quick to assume. She goes searching for clues with Prince Charming/David (played by Josh Dallas) and they find someone searching through Marian’s tent. The man is Will Scarlet (played by Michael Socha), a former member of the Merry Men who was kicked out after being considered untrustworthy by Robin Hood (played by Sean Maguire). Will claims to know who froze Marian and takes them to the ice cream parlor and shows them that everything is being kept cold magically. While Emma and David look around, Will empties the register and takes off (he found out about the Snow Queen while breaking into houses during the blackout). Meanwhile, Hook (played by Colin O’Donogue) is given the task of protecting Elsa but instead blackmails Rumple/Gold (played by Robert Carlyle) into figuring out the real culprit. Hook knows that Belle (played by Emilie de Ravin) doesn’t have the real dagger that controls Gold and threatens to tell her. Gold performs a spell that will lead Hook and Elsa to the person who cursed Marian and they follow it into the woods.

It’s too bad Marian’s first time eating ice cream turned her into a frozen statue. She probably won’t ever try it again if she lives through this. I’m not surprised the townspeople didn’t wait for evidence before going after Elsa (despite being wrong about people before). However it’s always the dwarf, Grumpy (played by Lee Arenberg), who gets people stirred up like that. Someone needs to tell him to chill out.

Will is a character from the canceled spin-off, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, and I know his character (spoiler alert) ended that series as a king who ruled Wonderland. Now he’s in Storybrooke breaking into houses to get by, so there has to be an interesting tale behind that. I liked that, while he was shown to be a good guy, he still wasn’t above robbing people blind. I think Will is going to be a great addition to the show.

Now that at least two other people know about the dagger Gold would be smart to come clean, but obviously he won’t so there’ll be a major fallout. I hope it comes sooner rather than later, because it’ll most likely play out as it has before: Belle gets pissed and gets over it. I’d rather get it over with than have it dragged out for much longer.

Flashbacks in Arendelle show Elsa preparing to fight an army assembled by Prince Hans (played by Tyler Jacob Moore), the villain from Frozen. Kristoff (played by Scott Foster), Anna’s (played by Elizabeth Lail) fiancé, does surveillance and discovers Hans has a magical urn that can trap Elsa. Kristoff and Elsa try to destroy it but are cornered by Hans, but when he opens the urn, the Snow Queen comes out. The Snow Queen freezes Hans and claims to be Elsa and Anna’s long lost aunt, pledging to help her find Anna. In the present, everyone confronts the Snow Queen in the woods but Elsa’s memories of her have been erased. She claims she framed Elsa to prove that people will always fear her power, and that it was Anna who trapped her in the urn because she was afraid of her powers, but Elsa doesn’t believe it. Hook gets trapped under icy spikes before being rescued by Emma, who destroys the ice and knocks the Snow Queen back with her powers. Their relationship moves forward when Emma admits that she only pushed Hook away because every other man she’s dated died and she was scared of getting close to him.

Later, Gold confronts the Snow Queen in the forest, claiming that Emma will eventually remember her and offers his assistance. She declines. It’s also revealed that she has met Emma before but not how, and Emma doesn’t recognize her, at least not yet.

I’ve never seen Frozen, but if Hans was as inept as he was in this episode, he couldn’t have been a scary villain in the film.

I am beyond exasperated that OUAT found a way to make the main villain related to someone yet again. Sure, it kind of makes sense because Elsa and the Snow Queen have the same powers, but it’s been done so much that it’s lost any originality. The family tree on this show has gotten enormous. How the Snow Queen could know Emma is puzzling. There’s no way they could have met during the course of the season so it could have been before Emma first came to Storybrooke to break the first curse. They are both blonde though so I wouldn’t put it past the writers to make them long-lost cousins or something.

Emma’s reason for getting close to Hook was actually a very valid one. I don’t know why it was never brought up before until that one scene.

Was anyone else surprised at how Emma was able to use her magic so expertly all of a sudden? Just last episode she claimed to have no control over it and now she’s Hermione Granger.

Meanwhile, Robin goes to his ex-girlfriend, Regina (played by Lana Parilla), to help him save Marian before the freezing spell reaches her heart and kills her. True love’s kiss is said to be the only way to break the spell but Robin’s has no effect on Marian. Robin admits to Regina that he loves her but that Marian is his wife and he needs to stay with her for the sake of their marriage and their son. Regina claims to understand and comes up with an idea to save Marian: she rips her heart out of her chest (a staple on the show) so that the ice can’t reach it and she remains frozen but alive.

Her son, Henry (played by Jared Gilmore), learned about her plan to find the storybook writer and thinks it’s a great idea. He decides to help her with what they affectionately call “Operation Mongoose”.

Snow White/Mary Margaret (played by Ginnifer Goodwin) has officially taken over as mayor of Storybrooke and Regina is fine with it (although she questions her design choices). Mary Margaret, however, isn’t very good at keeping order at her first meeting as everyone else takes charge of what’s said and done.

I can’t understand Robin’s logic in staying with Marian after he admits that he doesn’t love her. The whole “true love” thing was a major story thread throughout the series and here it was proven that Regina and not Marian is the person he should be with. That said, staying with her just because they’re married isn’t fair to anyone, especially Marian, who will be trapped in a marriage with someone who isn’t fully committed to her.

Now that Henry is going to help Regina find the writer of the book it looks like she won’t be going all “Evil Queen” on making him change the story endings. Although it’s nice to see Regina and Henry doing something together, he’s almost always hanging out with Emma and we’ve never seen him with his mother very much.

I’m disappointed that Mary Margaret was just handed the mayor job (although Regina does have a lot on her plate). So far it’s still just a minor story that only serves the purpose of making sure she has a few scenes in the episode. She needs to get involved in the main plot or miss an episode or two instead of allowing screen time to be taken up with her meaningless mayoral activities.

Quotes & Thoughts

“What is that thing?” “It’s a device for talking. I don’t bloody know. I press the ‘Emma’ button and she answers, usually.”

From now on, whenever a new character shows up, everyone should go to Mr. Gold to find out who the person is. There isn’t one person that he hasn’t known from the Enchanted Forest or beyond.

“Eventually, everyone turns on people like us, even friends and even family. They’re just waiting for a reason.”

I swear, if Elsa and Emma actually turn out to be related, someone needs to send a letter to the writers at OUAT and tell them to find a different story angle.

If you enjoyed Manny’s review, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Friday Fiction: Snowfall In The Living Room
• “It Came From The Archives” Doctor Who Special Reviews: The Church on Ruby Road
• Review: Lucky Girl, How I Became A Horror Writer by M. Rickert
• Friday Fiction: Frozen Army
• Foundations: The 5 Best Artifact Cards