Once upon a Time Rewatch 2.15, "The Queen Is Dead"

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

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2.15, "The Queen Is Dead"

Written by Daniel T. Thomsen and David H. Goodman
Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Synopsis

Nice hat.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

After a recapitulation of series events, the episode begins with a young Snow White conferring with her mother in advance of her birthday ball. Her mother promises her an inherited tiara, which one of the household servants, Johanna, is trying on in the absence of the royals. Snow White rebukes Johanna sharply, occasioning sharp rebuke from her mother in turn and a lesson in the demands of rule. Immediately after, Snow White's mother is taken by a strange malady.

In Storybrooke, Mary Margaret contemplates herself in a mirror in the apartment she shares with her family. David makes breakfast, occasioning some angst from Mary Margaret about her birthday; Mary Margaret has also received a gift--a jeweled tiara--and recognizes its source as Johanna. Mary Margaret and David confer about events, and she determines to find Johanna, noting the perennial unhappiness of her birthday. David subsequently reports in to work at the sheriff's office and is beset by Hook, who takes the opportunity to retrieve his titular appendage.

Following the title card, Mary Margaret finds Johanna at work in her backyard garden. The two are happily reunited, and Johanna reports having found the tiara in Gold's shop. The two confer about their shared heritage and sorrow for Snow White's mother until interrupted by a strange noise that Mary Margaret moves off to investigate. Said investigation takes her into the woods, where she sees Regina and Cora at work digging for Rumpelstiltskin's dagger and overhears their plans. She moves to report the information to David, finding him unconscious in the sheriff's office. He reports events and receives hers in turn; they plot to intercede between Regina and Cora to delay their plans.

Honestly, it's not nearly crowded enough.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In New York City, Neal and Henry go out for pizza, trailed by Gold and Emma. Henry presses his father about his background and experiences, leaving Gold and Emma to confer. Gold tries to press on Emma to persuade Neal to return to Storybrooke for Henry. The relative morality of their various deeds comes up for discussion until they are interrupted by Neal and Henry returning from getting pizza.

In Storybrooke, Mary Margaret confronts Regina about her collaboration with Cora. Regina rebukes Mary Margaret's presumption, and Mary Margaret reminds Regina of Cora's depravity and motivations before being reminded, in turn, of her own mother's death--the surrounding circumstances of which are depicted. Snow White's mother gives a commendation to the girl, and Johanna takes her away to allow the attending physician to work, offering such comfort as she can against the situation. Johanna plots to use magic to save the queen, sending Snow White in pursuit of a fairy.

In New York City, Henry presses Gold about their relationship, and Emma and Neal confer about the course of events to come. She suggests Neal return to Storybrooke, and he demurs. As Neal and Henry move to retrieve a camera, Hook arrives and assails Emma and Gold, wounding him deeply. Neal returns, recognizing Hook as he attends to his injured father. Gold recognizes the poison with which he has been afflicted, and a return to Storybrooke in haste is planned, Neal offering to sail the Jolly Roger back to Maine.

Something looks...off.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In Storybrooke, Mary Margaret and David appear to call on the Mother Superior for aid. She agrees to help them seek out Rumpelstiltskin's dagger.

In a flashback, a young Snow White seeks out the Blue Fairy, the other life of the Mother Superior. The fairy only begrudgingly assists Snow White, providing her a candle that will allow for the sacrifice of another's life in favor of the queen's--a life Snow White must choose and name.

In New York City, the plan to get Gold back to Maine gets underway. Neal remarks cryptically on his earlier experience with Hook as he arranges for transport. Henry presents information received from Mary Margaret and David about Regina and Cora's search for Gold's dagger. Meanwhile, the Mother Superior's own efforts to find the dagger are interdicted, prompting unusual comments, but the location of the dagger is indicated by a phone call from New York City.

Back in the past, a young Snow White attends on her dying mother, reporting her perfidy in seeking and being unwilling to wield the magic of the candle. Her mother commends her for her resistance to evil and offers her daughter such comfort as circumstances allow, dying with her daughter's praise on her lips. Johanna attends the princess.

There's a lot going on here.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In Storybrooke, Gold's dagger is retrieved, and Cora and Regina arrive to interdict Mary Margaret and David. Cora summons Johanna, and Regina takes her heart to compel Mary Margaret and David to surrender the dagger to them. Mary Margaret recalls her presentation at her birthday, her kingdom in mourning at the loss of the queen, her mother, and Johanna's assistance in the event and afterward. But after Snow White departs, Cora emerges to mock the perished queen, noting her complicity in the death and expressing her machinations against the late queen and her family.

Mary Margaret realizes Cora's machinations, but she still relents and surrenders the dagger. Cora kills Johanna regardless, and she and Regina flee, leaving Snow White to mourn again. They repair to Regina's mayoral office, where Regina presses Cora about her years-long machinations in her favor. Meanwhile, in New York, Neal and Emma confer about their situation, and Neal notes that he is engaged, his fiancée, Tamara, meeting Emma unexpectedly. Johanna is interred, and Snow White begins to harden in her resolve against Regina and Cora, plotting outright murder.

Discussion

Early in the episode, Johanna is rebuked for daring to don the tiara that had been intended for Snow White. While the justification in the episode is that it does not belong to Johanna--which is a valid consideration, truly--it also smacks of "know your place" (which I note the episode does abjure, given the comments that follow swiftly from Snow White's mother), and that concern was one that occupied the medieval mind (to the extent that such a thing can be described as unitary). One way in which the concern manifested was in sumptuary laws, with which many are more familiar from discussions of early modern England--the topic comes up in high school English textbooks in Texas, at least--and which do range back into antiquity but which are present in force in the "high" medieval that the series (often halfheartedly) attempts to evoke.

Broadly, sumptuary laws attempt to constrain and restrict what people may consume, often in the service of indicating their social positions and therefore reinforcing social hierarchies. Most frequently, they are discussed in terms of clothing; a number of sources attest to specifics, with Wood and St. John's at Cambridge offering useful introductory glosses, and Phillips and Muzzarelli--among many others--getting into more detail. (DISTAFF has much more to say on the specifics of clothing and the related associations, as well.) And in many cases, restrictions on who could wear what clothing and in what circumstance was explicitly and specifically to reinforce who fit where in the prevailing social order of the place and time; that Johanna is rebuked for putting on the tiara echoes such concerns, even as the rebuke that follows serves to set aside those concerns in large measure, perhaps speaking to the (incorrect) belief that "we've moved past such things," if quietly.

Another note: the final image accompanying the synopsis above speaks to one of the brutal realities of hereditary power, namely that advancement demands the deaths of ancestors. It is not only magic that has a price in the series, and those who fancy that they would have enjoyed power and privilege in earlier times (I think I've spoken to such on some previous occasions) would do well to remember such things--among many, many others.