Once upon a Time Rewatch 2.10, "The Cricket Game"

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

---

2.10, "The Cricket Game"

Written by David H. Goodman and Robert Hull
Directed by Dean White

Synopsis

Hook stands in the rigging of his ship, looking upon Storybrooke at night before escorting Cora to the dockside. He seeks to head off to confront Rumpelstiltskin, but she notes that the return of magic to the area will complicate his search for revenge. A passer-by happens along, only to be turned into a fish by Cora's magic. They confer about how to proceed, determining to reconnoiter before acting.

Well, it is Disney...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

After the title card, David and Mary Margaret are interrupted as they begin to be intimate. Emma and Henry excuse themselves, and David offers a wry quip.

In the Enchanted Forest, Regina looks out over a village as it is ransacked and put to the torch. She receives reports that George has been defeated, Snow White and Prince Charming taking his kingdom for their own. The defeat puts her into an uncomfortable strategic position, and she sets out to hunt Snow White herself. It does not take her long to find her stepdaughter, only to find herself captured.

She does have a point, here.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In Storybrooke, a celebration of Emma and Mary Margaret's return commences at Granny's. Regina joins belatedly, Emma having invited her. It causes some tension, but Emma notes that Regina deserves the same chance to change she received, and Henry expresses appreciation that his adoptive mother attends. Even so, Regina spends most of the celebration alone and seeks to make a quiet exit. Emma  tries to persuade her to remain, and Regina pleads to see her son more. Another tense exchange follows, and the two reach an uneasy détente as Regina leaves the celebration. She is observed, however, as Hook and Cora look over the town, plotting their next moves.

Regina confronts Hopper near the docks the next morning, rebuking him (rightly) for reporting her attendance in his clinic (unethically). He pleads having tried to help her, only earning more rebuke until a jogging Ruby happens by and intervenes. Regina stalks off in justified anger, and, in the Enchanted Forest, a conference regarding how to handle the captured queen is conducted. Charming arrives at the idea of executing Regina and dismisses the conference; Snow White privately voices concerns about the proposed course of action.

Late, Ruby sees Regina approach Hopper's office. In his office, Hopper is killed, and the seeming Regina who committed the crime is revealed to be Cora. The next day, Emma and Henry confer about events in the Enchanted Forest before Emma is advised of something wrong with Hopper. She moves to investigate, she and Ruby finding the body. Investigation proceeds along the expected line. In the Enchanted Forest, the imprisoned Regina receives a visit from her father. He apologizes for not doing more to aid her. In Storybrooke, Regina is questioned about the killing; in the Forest, she is led to her execution and offers a rebuke to her executioners. Snow White interdicts the execution, and Regina is returned to incarceration, smirking. In Storybrooke, Emma notes her certainty that Regina did not murder Hopper and presses to investigate further.

It is a compelling argument.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Snow White and Charming confer about the fate of Regina. Snow White contemplates the matter further until Rumpelstiltskin interrupts her reverie. They discuss Regina's fate, as well, and Rumpelstiltskin offers Snow White an opportunity to salve her conscience. She reluctantly accepts it--and the investigation in Storybrooke proceeds. Gold comes under questioning but produces evidence that he was not at the scene of the crime--and that Regina appears to have been so. Emma goes to apprehend Regina, and plans are made to effect the capture.

In the Enchanted Forest, Snow White confers with the captive Regina, offering her a chance to repent. It does not go well for her, and Regina is banished from the kingdom. In Storybrooke, Emma confronts Regina, noting Henry's looming disappointment. The attempt to take her into custody fails, but Regina flees. Emma frets about how to tell Henry, and she and her parents confer about how to be parents. She breaks the news of Regina's perfidy to Henry as Regina looks on in sorrow, and the evil queen resumes her castle in the Enchanted Forest, where Rumpelstiltskin visits her. He plies his machinations on her, successfully, and process towards the curse begins again.

Meanwhile, Cora and Hook confer about their own progress. She notes having captured Hopper for use against Gold; the seeming Hopper who had died was a random member of the community. Plans proceed...

Discussion

A couple of points come up. The first: In the episode, Snow White brings up her interdicted attempt to assassinate Regina as a counterpoint to Charming's proposal to execute the captured queen. Charming replies with the distinction between the extralegal assassination attempt and the "judicial" nature of the pending execution--no trial is proposed, but Regina's depredations and command of others committing such are known, so that it is manifestly clear she is guilty of what might now be termed war crimes or crimes against humanity. The distinction between justified and unjustified killings, the concern for what circumstances make lethal force an appropriate response, and processes by which to enact judicial killings are all attested in the medieval documentary record. Abundantly. Repeatedly. Across nations and centuries. As with many things, it's hardly unique to the medieval, but it is a consideration among the medieval--and with as much nuance as is present now, which is to say a fair bit more than the series displays (or really can, admittedly). Although the proposed death by firing squad is...off, severally.

The second point: The living situation that Mary Margaret, David, Emma, and Henry share occasions some interest. In Storybrooke in the series, Emma is initially offered space in Mary Margaret's home as a kindness, neither woman realizing their relationship at that point. Once memories are recovered, David presumably begins to move in; when he takes Henry in, it is to that same apartment. As such, the place becomes a multi-generational household (with some adjustments, certainly, since Emma and her parents are relatively close in physical age), something that the presumed primary audience of the series will find somewhat awkward and uncomfortable. Even with the need for so many to move back in--myself and my family included for a time among that "many"--sharing space was a...fraught issue in the minds of many of the mainstream audience, with the putative "go it alone" / "do it on your own" attitude that prevailed. (It's still present, of course, although current concerns make it less emphatic in many places. Pandemics will do that.) And yet, for many, it's a common situation--both now and in the medieval from which the series draws (halting, not always helpful, not always considered or correct) inspiration.

While it was often the case that members of the ruling classes would have their own bedchambers--to the extent of kings and queens commonly sleeping separately--it was more frequent that families would share lodgings, and simple ones. As a number of sources--this, this, and others--point out, living arrangements were far more often communal than not, and for far longer. This includes the medieval, as loosely as it may be defined, and it extends not only to sleeping, but to other activities that often benefit from having bedding available. While the arrangements may seem strange or "wrong" to those steeped in the Puritan-derived, unexamined-Victorian-influenced mainstream culture of the United States, they are, ultimately, more representative of the medieval from which the series draws (sometimes badly) and of humanity as a whole.