Once upon a Time Rewatch 2.9, "Queen of Hearts"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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2.9, "Queen of Hearts"

Written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz
Directed by Ralph Hemecker

Synopsis

Hey, we're back here again!
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Following a recapitulation of previous events in the series, the episode begins with a hooded figure ascending a metal tower. Upon being challenged by the guards, the hooded figure attacks, revealing himself as Hook and defeating opposition handily. Hook proceeds to where Belle is incarcerated, and he makes to release her in the effort to hinder Rumpelstiltskin. She offers no information, and Hook abandons her back to her imprisonment. Regina interdicts his killing Belle and commissions him to ensure Cora does reach the "land without magic."

Following the title card, the episode pivots to Regina and Gold keeping vigil over David. They confer about the likelihood of success against Cora--which Gold views as unlikely. He urges preventative measures against Cora's arrival be taken. Gold's methods risk Snow White and Emma, which Regina views as unacceptable.

I'm jealous of the pen-hand, actually.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Emma, Snow White, Mulan, and Aurora reach the cell where Rumpelstiltskin had been imprisoned, looking for the squid ink they will need to interdict Cora. Aurora uncovers a scroll bearing an unsettling message.

Henry reads to his grandfather from his book. Regina goes to confer with him, asking Henry to watch David while she and Gold make ready to enable Snow White and Emma to return. Smiling, Henry agrees, and Regina joins Gold in the tunnels beneath the town to collect magic via a wand stolen from an unmourned dead fairy.

In her castle, Regina enchants Hook's hook to take a single heart, charging him to retrieve Cora, aided by the guard he killed on the way to Belle--who will be the second body he needs to effect travel via Jefferson's hat. Regina dispatches him to Wonderland, where he is soon captured and brought before Cora. Hook attacks, finding that Cora has removed her own heart--and begins to take his, pressing him for information. He reports the errand Regina has sent him on, and she begins to interrogate him.

In Rumpelstiltskin's cell, Emma contemplates the scroll as her companions find there is no ink to be used. Aurora triggers the cell door, closing it as Cora and Hook emerge and take the compass. They move off to enact their plans, and Emma pleads unsuccessfully for Hook to hold back from it.

Ruby reports to the mines, where Leroy has marked the missing magic. Henry continues reading to his grandfather until Ruby and the dwarves interrupt, asking him about Regina and Gold's whereabouts. He joins the search for them as Emma works to free herself and her companions from captivity. They confer about their prospects, Snow White offering hope as she can as Emma doubts herself. Cora and Hook proceed to an enchanted lake, there to acquire the power they need to effect magical travel.

Should help, yeah.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In Wonderland, Cora commissions Hook to work against Regina by taking her to where she can rip out her daughter's heart. Hook delivers a seemingly dead Cora to Regina in the Enchanted Forest, who is unable to attack at her daughter's protestations of love. When Hook returns to Cora, she arranges to protect both of them from the coming curse, working a magical shield to protect a small area. The shield is efficacious, allowing Cora and Hook to proceed with their machinations.

Regina and Gold proceed to where Gold expects the arrival of Cora: the well outside town, a clear analog to the enchanted lake. Meanwhile, Emma, Snow White, Mulan, and Aurora continue to consider their situation, realizing belatedly that the ink remains--in the writing on the scroll. Snow White uses it to secure their escape, although Aurora remains behind, noting her condition makes her a risk to the others. Mulan vows to restore her heart and secures Aurora. Hook and Cora enact their ritual to travel between realms, opening a portal to Storybrooke. Regina and Gold note the opening portal and begin their own working, thinking to interdict Cora. Snow White, Emma, and Mulan arrive to interdict the pirate and Regina's mother. Mulan retrieves the heart and returns to Aurora, leaving her sword with Snow White. Emma defeats Hook.

Henry and company arrive to confront Regina and Gold. Regina tries to explain her reasoning to Henry, who does not accept the argument. Cora makes to take Snow White's heart, hindered by Emma, whose heart is somehow protected and who reflexively works magic against Cora. The way clear, Emma and Snow White proceed through the portal, where Henry rages against Regina as Gold looks on. His pleas win through to Regina, and she disables the barrier Gold has placed on the portal. Emma and Snow White emerge unharmed, to Gold's surprise and Henry's relief. Henry reports Regina's aid, and Emma thanks her, noting Cora's nature. Mary Margaret rushes to rouse David, her kiss restoring him. Gold returns to his shop, and Emma confers with him about the message he had left and his machinations. He acknowledges the limits of his powers, and she begins to realize her own.

Elsewhere, Mulan restores Aurora's heart to her; the two proceed to work for Phillip's restoration. Cora and Hook take stock of their situation and resume their machinations. Henry embraces Regina, though he goes with Emma instead of with her. Gold mocks her abandonment, and a new threat approaches from the sea, Hook and Cora sailing into Storybrooke.

Discussion

Given how many times I've commented about the architecture on display in the series, it shouldn't be a surprise that I do so again--this time to note the extravagant use of metal in a pseudo-medieval construction. The seemingly iron-plated tower of the opening sequence...the mind boggles, really. And, yes, it is the case that magic might circumvent a number of material concerns, the juxtaposition of constructions, particularly in such a one-off fashion as in the opening sequence...jars.

Surprisingly for a primetime mainstream broadcast program, the present episode does offer an interesting meditation on fate. Part of Emma's distress in the series to the present point--and it is not resolved in the present episode, to be certain--is her difficulty in accepting her role, one to which she is conceived and born, one for which she might well be called fated. The revelation of as much of Gold's machinations as emerge in the present episode and earlier ones does seem to point toward a deterministic universe within the series. So, too, does the conviction, repeatedly stressed, that good will win out over evil. That fate ever goes as it must--"Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel" as the scop sings--seems to be taken as a given by many of the characters.

But.

The present episode, as well as some others before (like this one), point to the idea that a person can, in fact, change, returning from what seems a fated end, if they advance bravely--that is, without certainty of reward. Regina works, with difficulty, to do right and have faith despite her fears, and she is not rewarded (yet, although there may well be a penitential strain at work in her storyline). Emma struggles with faith and hope, yet still moves forward, albeit with encouragement. And she shows in herself that the machinations that enmesh her--the workings that might be called fated--are not complete. While the idea of fate is far from new to the medieval mind--the Morai Clothos, Lachesis, and Atropos might like to have a word, among others--it was an idea current among them. So, too, was the idea that fate will sometimes preserve the noble one who faces it bravely--"Wyrd oft nereð / unfægne eorl, þonne his ellen deah," as the scop sings it. And, as a later writer remarks, it is said of one of the greatest kings that he changed his destiny, in the end.