PREVIOUSLY ON: Once Upon a Time – Season Four, Episode Twenty-One

NOTE: Season finale tonight! Read this to get ready!

First Aired May 3rd, 2015.

Family drama has always been one of the main elements of Once Upon a Time. This latest episode deals exclusively with the latest family conflicts that have bene brewing for the last few episodes.

Lily (played by Agnes Bruckner) is finally introduced to her mother, Maleficent (played by Kristin Bauer van Straten), who is thrilled about building a future with her daughter. However, Lily is only interested in revenge against Snow White/Mary Margaret (played by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming/David (played by Josh Dallas). Maleficent’s refusal to dwell on the past infuriates Lily and she storms out. While at a bus stop, The Evil Queen/Regina (played by Lana Parrilla) strikes up a chat before cutting Lily’s hand and taking some blood (more on that later). Lily becomes so angry she turns into a dragon and begins rampaging through town. Maleficent teams up with the Charmings to stop her but Mary Margaret ends up with a serious head injury. Emma (played by Jennifer Morrison) heals her mother and the scare is enough to make her forgive her parents. Maleficent finds Lily and they talk, Lily is scared of getting close because any relationship she has ends badly. Maleficent gives Lily the rattle she made for her and is adamant that she will be there for her and Lily decides to stay in town.

Lily wasn’t hoping to meet Maleficent the loving mother figure, she wanted Maleficent the ass-kicking dragon to help her get some payback. If Maleficent had immediately joined Lily in looking for vengeance that would have been too predictable. Seeing how she deals with the sudden emotional aspects of being a mother is a more complex route for her character. I’d much rather see scenes of them getting to know each other, such as mother and daughter flying lessons. And she may still need parental guidance from the Charmings again in the future so it’s better to hold off on the killing. Emma making up with her parents came at the perfect time because while those feelings were kept fresh with the arrival of Lily, it’s better to keep that plot from dragging too long. I’m glad she got over her issues with her parents now rather than during the next episode. With everything that is going to be happening in the two-hour season finale, I wouldn’t want any scenes wasted there on sappy reunions.

Regina has The Wicked Witch/Zelena (played by Rebecca Mader) locked up while she’s pregnant with Robin Hood’s (played by Sean Maguire) baby. Zelena thinks she’s won because now she will always be connected to Robin and Regina can’t kill her. Flashbacks show her mother, Cora (played by Barbara Hershey), manipulate Regina by pretending to track down her true love Robin. Regina believes Cora wanted her to bear a child so she could kill Regina and rule, so Regina banishes Cora and makes herself infertile. In Storybrooke, Regina takes the Author/Isaac (played by Patrick Fischler) from an ailing Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold (played by Robert Carlyle). Regina cut Lily because she found a loophole to making Emma evil. Lily was given the darkness intended for Emma so her blood made Isaac’s ink magical. Regina intended to make Isaac make it so that Zelena never existed and Zelena compares Regina to their mother. Instead Regina decides not to stand in the way of her own happiness and decides to raise the baby with Robin while Zelena has very limited interaction.

Locking Zelena in the basement maternity dungeon is pretty sweet revenge, unless it causes her stress that harms the baby. I like the idea that Zelena’s plan of having Robin’s baby at least ensures her survival if it doesn’t ruin Regina’s happiness. The flashbacks didn’t mesh with the main story at first and just seemed to remind people how awful Cora was and how much she hurt Regina. I was also confused why Regina made herself infertile, if she didn’t want to have kids wasn’t there non-magical birth control in the Enchanted Forest? It all came together when she planned to write Zelena and her baby out of existence but stopped when Zelena said that’s something their mother would do. Erasing Zelena from existence would arguably do more good since many people were killed by her but ultimately it still kills an innocent child. However restricting Zelena’s involvement in her own child’s life is still harsh, even though she would almost certainly be a toxic presence. In the end the baby is still hers and it seems unfair that Zelena is kept from her child especially since all the other evil witches have their kids.

Isaac uses the magical quill to write himself to Gold’s shop where the ailing Gold is waiting for him. His heart has nearly turned fully black which would destroy his ability to love, but now Isaac can change things. Gold gives him a blank book and Isaac begins to write the happy ending that Gold always wanted. Isaac keeps flipping from being a possible good guy to a bad one, which makes for a complex character (one any good author would want in the story). Gold is finally going to get his happy ending and I’m sure it’ll be something to see. I’m also really curious whether he’ll give any other villains their happy ending and what those might look like.

Quotes & Thoughts

“When I get my happy ending I’ll be, guess what? Happy. So I don’t really care what you’ll be up to.”

Looking back at how often Regina was screwed over. I hope she finds at least some happiness, drama is great but how much can one person handle?

“Why don’t you stay for a week, and I can teach you about being a scary dragon bitch.”

Maleficent can’t leave town without turning back to ash. Guess she better start house hunting.

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

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