Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 364 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT The Shadow Knows
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 21 | Aired on 2013.05.05
Once Neal and Emma are again alone, she decides to make a swift exit, in search of her dignity. Neal stops her and blurts out that he wanted to go to jail for her. "It kills me that I let August talk me into letting you go." Emma doesn't want to hear it, but Neal says he has to say it. "I wanted to look for you. I just... I was too afraid [...] that you would never forgive me, because I never forgave myself. There hasn't been a day that's gone by, that I don't regret having left you. I'm sorry, Emma, for everything." Emma's smile is sad. "Me, too." She walks away. Neal trails behind. We cut to the...
Cannery Warehouse. Interior. Tamara returns and tells Groan that Emma and Neal bought her story about running the beach and asks how things are going with Queenie. Groan says she's not cooperative, but swears that's about to change. He shocks her again. Once her body has stopped seizing, Regina hisses that they have no idea with whom they're dealing. Groan is all, nuh-huh. Regina mocks them as a couple of fools, in over their heads, going around stealing magic. Tamara laughs at that idea. Groan corrects her. They're there to destroy it. Tamara adds, "Magic does not belong in this world. It's unholy. We're here to cleanse this land of it."
Regina laughs through her tears at the idea of these two destroying magic. Groan wonders why she thinks there are only two of them, and says, "We're everywhere." When he tells her about the days following his childhood escape from Storybrooke, I marvel at how the show has managed to change a sympathetic, wronged little boy, into this hateful man. All Groan's traumatized ramblings about magic brought him to the attention of whatever organization he and Tamara work for. It's full of believers who know magic is real and doesn't belong in this world, and they're willing to do something about it. Regina says, "This little quest of yours to cleanse the world of magic is not going to work." Groan says, "Of course it will. We've done it before, and we'll do it, again. Do you think that Storybrooke is the first time that magic has crossed over?" Tamara says magic has been doing it's damage for a long time. Groan says people like them are there to stop it. He gives Regina another dose of electricity to punctuate his point. We cut to...
Snow's hovel. As she recovers, she tells David that she experienced the worst pain she's ever felt. Regina is powerless to fight back. She didn't see where she was. All she remembers is pain and screaming. She was tied down somewhere cold, and it smelled of sardines. Well, that is fishy. We cut to the...