Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 397 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Take Heart
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 16 | Aired on 2013.03.10
Cora continues and claims she's not wicked. Uh, right. I mean, I know we all rationalize our sins, but that right there is some heavy lifting. Regina explains how the enchanted box is just a phone tap. Cora doesn't care. She's upset that Rumpy has a head's up on their dagger theft because that will give him time to respond. She takes heart (not literally, not yet) when she sees that his misspelled name is fading from the dagger. Should it reappear, I hope it's spelled correctly! Cora says she can't let all Rumpy's power boil off into the air. Regina wants to use him to get Henry back before Rumpy dies, but Cora won't hear of it. She says she "has" to stab him with the knife and become the Dark One, like that wasn't her plan all along.
It's possible Regina didn't take two stupid pills this morning because she realizes Cora is working her own agenda. Sadly, she must have taken one stupid pill, because she reveals her suspicion to Cora, who blabbers obfuscations about how she is doing all of this for the sake of their family, so that they don't spend the rest of what she assumes would be their short lives on their knees, in front of the Charmings. Yeah, still not sympathetic, Cora, which is actually just fine by me. I know this show is about love, hope, redemption and all that jazz, but I am happy no one is telling me I have to sympathize with Hitler.
Enchanted Past. Somehow, somewhere, the peasant Cora, who was just told she wasn't getting paid, and had been worrying about her next meal, arrives at the royal masquerade ball, wearing a sumptuous crimson gown. She grabs a mask and goes to chat up Prince Henry (Zak Santiago), all the while pretending she doesn't know he is Prince Henry. She makes a little jab about the King courting wealthy women to purchase his son. When Henry remarks on her frankness, Cora plays a little I'm a silly goose, and somehow this inspires Henry to ask her to waltz. Wait. That's not waltzing! No wonder she turns evil.
It's not long before King Xavier cuts in. He asks Cora if she really believed a stolen gown (really, she stole it?) and a mask would keep him from recognizing her, points out that her gown is flecked with straw. This scene is visually beautiful, but all of the flashbacks leave me cold this week. I seem to be in the minority about that, though, so I'll sally forth.