Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 4 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Mother Knows Best
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 9 | Aired on 12.02.2012
Hook emerges from his hiding spot, and taking Cora's hand to help her up, he asks why she didn't kill Regina. Cora tells him there's been a change in plans. "My daughter's curse is coming. We have to protect ourselves."
We cut to the outskirts of the Enchanted Forest. Cora and Hook watch as the smoke monster that is the curse billows over the tree line. Cora plants her staff in the ground. Magic ripples out from it and up into the air where it forms an invisible protective dome. I wish I could make one of those in my house, after I've cleaned a room, because my family likes nothing better than cluttering up that which I've just cleaned. I may have lost it on them last night because of all the things that were dumped in my kitchen, but don't believe the nasty rumors.
As the curse approaches, it is blocked by the dome and streams up above and beyond it to the rest of the forest, which is why not all of the lands were affected. Nice job, Show. Nice job. Hook asks if it wouldn't have been better to reconcile before the curse destroyed all the lands (at least those not under the barrier spell). Cora shakes her head. "Regina doesn't need me, not now, not when she thinks she's about to win. But I still have a place in her heart, and the curse won't last forever. It will end. In 28 years there will be a savior, and she'll break it." When Hook is alarmed at how long the curse will last, Cora tells him he won't even notice, as he'll be frozen in time, like all who remain in the protected corner of the land. It's once the curse ends that their quest will resume. "When it does, Regina will have truly lost everything, and that's when she'll need me. That's when we'll go to this new land. You'll get your revenge. And me? I'll help her pick up the pieces." So, do you all think Cora is frozen for 28 years, too? From what she says to Hook, it doesn't sound like it, which makes me wonder what she did for 28 years and why she didn't hunt down the compass and the wardrobe ash, during that time.
Storybrooke. Present. Regina and Rumpy arrive at the wishing well that sits atop the Storybrooke entry to Lake Nostos. I start 'shipping them almost immediately and have a hard time caring about their exposition about the portal and the well. Again, Regina worries that it might be Mary Margaret and Emma who will try to return. Rumpy has had less exposure to the Charming family, so he's not tainted with thoughts of faith, and says, "I highly doubt it." We flash sideways to the...