Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 186 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT PANgs
By Cindy McLennan | Season 3 | Episode 6 | Aired on 11.03.2013
Eric's Dock. Dawn is breaking when Ariel finds Snow. She beams as she tells Snow she's found a way to spend her life with Eric on land, while Snow escapes her Evil Queen. She presents Snow with a bracelet and slips it on her wrist. Snow's legs become a mermaid tail. Snow's all for helping out a friend, but this is a little much. She can't quite believe that Ursula gave Ariel the bracelet, since Ursula is a myth. Ariel insists she's real, but then Regina shows up to reveal the truth. She mocks Snow as the catch of the day. Ariel is all, "Ursula." Snow says, "This isn't Ursula. This is Regina, the Evil Queen." We flash forward to...
Neverland. Team Operation Cobra Rescue reaches the Echo Cave. Hook gives the team the backstory. He lost half his crew inside. The only way to rescue someone trapped in there is to reveal a, "...darkest secret. Echo Cave derives its name from an old saying. 'The deeper the lie, the more truth in its echo'." I've been parsing that all week. I can't decide if it's sheer brilliance or balderdash. The cave demands you reveal a truth about yourself -- one you'd never reveal to anyone. Hook figures Pan wants them to rescue Neal, because in the process their secrets will destroy them. We flash back to...
Eric's Dock. Ariel whispers to Snow to take off the bracelet, but Regina laughs. "The wearer can't take it off. Oh, did I leave that detail out? For once, Snow. You won't be able to run away." Ariel can't believe Regina tricked her. "You went to a long dead octopus for advice, and you're going to blame me for your problems?" Snow tells Ariel to get out of there. Regina says for once they agree, but Ariel doesn't want to leave if Regina is going to hurt her friend. Regina says Snow will be hurt, either way. Ariel's choice is to run off to her love and escape, or stay and share Snow's fate. There will be no second chance. Snow insists Ariel leave and take her chance at happiness. Still, once she does, Snow looks disappointed.
Alone at last, Regina magically throttles Snow. Some fans are complaining that Regina has squandered all these chances to quickly kill Snow. In an episode where she just snapped a guard's neck, it's hard to ignore that. But more than wanting Snow dead, Regina wants Snow to suffer. She wants to drag it out. And maybe, just maybe, there's a little piece of her that's already realizing that watching Snow in agony is more satisfying to her than living a life free of her nemesis. Regardless, Ariel runs back to the scene and using the stolen Salad Trident fork, she stabs Regina in the neck. As Regina stumbles back in pain, Ariel rushes to Snow, takes off the bracelet and throws it in the ocean. Now that Snow has legs again and Ariel has her tail, she tells the princess to hold her breath and they dive into the water. This time, Snow's water allergy fails to trigger. Having removed the fork from her neck. Regina runs to the end of the pier, but with the women under water, there's not much she can do. That's actually pretty well supported in this season's premiere, when Emma jumps overboard, and Regina tells Snow she can't magic her out of the water, because she can't see her well enough. Regina growls us into commercial.