Once upon a Time Rewatch 2.18, "Selfless, Brave, and True"

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

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2.18, "Selfless, Brave, and True"

Written by Robert Hull and Kalinda Vazquez
Directed by Ralph Hemecker

Synopsis

An auspicious beginning...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

August, with company abed, wakes in pain in Phuket, his leg beginning to turn to wood. He rouses his companion, attempting to show her the progress of his turning to wood and finding that she cannot see it. He hobbles up and begins to realize what is happening to him.

After the title card, the episode shifts to Storybrooke in the present, David tending to Mary Margaret as Emma looks on and comments aspersively, prompting an argument. After Emma leaves, Mary Margaret rises, determining to "think things through" on her own, sending David to tend to the bean crop. She reminds him of her perfidy and urges him to understanding.

Meanwhile, Emma takes Henry to Baelfire, where Henry asks after the nature of the Enchanted Forest. Baelfire asks to talk to Emma, noting that Hook has escaped confinement and that his fiancée, Tamara, is coming to Storybrooke. Emma is upset by the second news more than the first, but Baelfire notes needing his betrothed. Emma bids him confess all, and he asks her to remain to confer with Tamara.

I'm sure there's some joke to make here...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In the woods, Mary Margaret practices her archery, finding her aim strangely off. Startled, she seeks in the woods, finding tracks to follow that lead her to a derelict RV. Investigating it, she finds August, wooden and animated, struck by her arrow. A flashback to Hong Kong follows, tracing August's trip to a hospital for examination that reveals nobody other than him can see his lignification; a demonstration occasions pursuit, and August flees until he encounters a messenger from "The Dragon." August explains what he knows of his situation to Mary Margaret, remarking that his condition is a separate issue from the curse Regina had cast. Mary Margaret urges August to return to town, but he refuses, citing his many failures and rejecting Mary Margaret's attempts to offer comfort.

A tense conversation among Tamara, Baelfire, Emma, and Henry begins over bagels. As Emma makes to take Henry off, Henry leaves his book with Baelfire, and Baelfire and Tamara confer about his son. Baelfire makes to confess his background and history to Tamara, offering her Henry's book as explanation. She expresses disbelief at his claims, rebuking him for his continued feelings for Emma and departing.

In another flashback to Hong Kong, August is taken to the Dragon. While he waits, he returns a dropped phone to its owner--Tamara. And in Storybrooke, Regina meets with Greg at Granny's, introducing herself to him and thanking him for finding Henry. She notes finding him familiar, which assertion he rejects. As she makes to leave, she encounters Mary Margaret rushing in, offering her rebuke as she departs. Mary Margaret reports August's condition to Emma and Marco, and they determine to seek help for him from the Mother Superior--which Tamara overhears with interest.

Tamara seems to have a type...
Image taken from the image, used for commentary.

The flashback resumes, Tamara bidding August call on the Dragon. He does so nervously, though he is greeted warmly enough, and he finds that the Dragon can perceive his lignification--and knows his identity. He offers assistance--with conditions, demanding his remaining puppet string in exchange for his efforts, as well as a hefty cash fee. In Storybrooke, the Mother Superior remarks that she cannot help Pinocchio resume his flesh; his woodenness a punishment for his failures. Mary Margaret continues to hold out hope, and the flashback resumes, August encountering Tamara once again. They drink together, Tamara showing a substantial amount of cash and relating the story of how she came to seek the Dragon. As Tamara takes a call, August purloins the cash from her purse and flees--and she confronts him in Storybrooke.

The flashback continues with August returning to the Dragon, who offers him a vial of magic. As August makes to tender the payment, his condition afflicts him, and the Dragon notes that the lignification is a symptom of a condition he must address for himself. August takes the vial and departs, fleeing from Tamara as she confronts him for his theft--and takes the vial. She is no more forgiving in Storybrooke, though her perception of his woodenness gives him pause. She demands his aid in her purpose, noting that some of the contents of the vial remain--in New York City, payment for him leaving Storybrooke forever. She notes, too, that Baelfire is not concerned with or aware of her purposes, and urges him to save himself once again.

Greg returns to his room to find Regina waiting for him, aware of his true identity: Owen. He notes the temporal disjunction and asserts his purpose in finding his father. She notes that Owen's father departed, which he disbelieves, and she threatens him. Meanwhile, Mary Margaret, Emma, and Marco proceed to August's trailer, conversing along the way; Marco confesses his perfidy, his failure in having sent Pinocchio with Emma, and earns rebuke that Mary Margaret realizes comes from the tainted portion of her own heart. As they reach the trailer, they find it empty, August having departed for New York City.

There's a reason for the sobriquet.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In Hong Kong, Tamara returns to the Dragon, confronting him for information. She makes to assail him, and though he begins to show power, she subdues him. Evidence of her having done so presents itself to August, and he comes about to return to Storybrooke, seeking Emma and attempting to warn her about Tamara. She interdicts him, however, and a confrontation ensues that leaves him incapacitated. He does manage to tender an incomplete warning to Emma and company, finding forgiveness from his father as the life leaves him. The arrival of the Mother Superior on site invites his return to life--which is given him in the form of a boy whose memories of previous life are muddled. Tamara arrives and notes the truth of Baelfire's claims, looking on apprehensively as Pinocchio is asked about the warning. Tamara reaffirms her love to Baelfire.

A flashback to New York details another meeting between August and Baelfire. August notes his intent to Baelfire, promising a report--as Tamara clandestinely observes. She uses the opportunity to ingratiate herself to Baelfire. And in Storybrooke, Emma apologizes to Henry, which apology he accepts, and Mary Margaret reports her attempt to get Regina to kill her to David. He offers her comfort, certain their love will suffice to any purpose. And Tamara meets Greg in his hotel room, their romance revealed.

Discussion

Aside from the rampant deus ex machina at work in the episode, a couple of points suggest themselves. One is that the present episode makes use of a number of interweaving narrative threads impressive for less than forty-five minutes of screen time, integrating several plot threads that extend back through the season and further back. It is reminiscent of the interweaving identified by a number of scholars, including the late and revered Larry D. Benson and eminent Arthurian Molly Martin, as typical of Malory's work. Such work is not the only to make use of the technique, of course, but given how much of Once Upon a Time works in medieval/ist tropes and explicitly invokes Arthuriana, the parallels to Malory suggest themselves.

The more important point, though, concerns forgiveness. The present episode focuses on the possibility of redemption and the struggles that accompany it; in the episode, valiant self-sacrifice appears as a means to effect redemption--perhaps the only one. I find myself in mind of Dream of the Rood as I think on it, the Early English poem speaks eloquently to that notion and to the preoccupation of the medieval mind, insofar as such a thing can be supposed to be a singular thing, with the concept of salvation. Admittedly, viewers now can look back on then and see a sort of world that asks for release from it; certainly, the stereotypes about it are of an unclean, unpleasant place from which an exit to paradise would be welcome. But there is not less evil in the world now than then, nor necessarily less desire to see the effects of misdeeds undone, even if all too many of those who espouse execrable ideologies, not seldom "supported" by sometimes willful misunderstandings of the medieval, fail to see themselves as the stains upon the collective soul that they are. There is not less need for redemption, nor less belief that it is in giving of one's self that it can be found.