Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.25.2012
Since Henry's resolve is unshakable, Charming backs up to give the kid room to drift off. Rumpy takes Charming's place and tells Henry a bedtime story that also seems to both hypnotize Henry into falling asleep faster and give him the information he needs to convey to Aurora: "Once Upon A Time, Snow White and Prince charming needed to stun a very powerful magician long enough to lock him up in a dark dungeon." Henry: "That was you. They used Cinderella to trap you with a magic quill."
Rumpy, holding his hand above Henry's eyes, slowly draws his hand down the length of the boy's face. Henry's eyes close. Rumpy says, "Yes, indeed. A quill. And yet, it wasn't the quill itself, but the ink that captured the Dark One -- harvested from the rarest species of squid -- from the bottom of a bottomless ocean. Impossible to find, unless you're a mermaid, or me. I happen to have a private supply. In my jail cell, that is where they will find it."
Enchanted Forest. As Aurora sleeps, Mary assures Emma that they'll see Henry again. This will work. When they hear a noise, all the waking members of Team Princess stand at the ready. And we cut to the...
Fiery Room of Dreams. Aurora and Henry struggle toward each other through the flames. Although he's holding onto his magical necklace, Henry once again doesn't seem to be making any effort to control the flames, which he just did last episode, and I'm completely taken out of the moment because it's in this scene that I realize exactly how the rest of the episode will play out, even though 3/4s of it is yet to air. Phooey.
Aurora can't hear Henry over the flames. She can hear some disembodied voice yelling her name, though. Eventually, she is yanked up out of the Fiery Room of Dreams, leaving Henry cowering below. Trust me, I have things to say about that, just not yet.
Forest. Mulan wakes Aurora. It seems Team Princess is under attack from zombie pirates, who are way more piratical and way less zombified. They're limber and handy with swords, and I can't even figure out their point, since The Walking Dead is an AMC series, not an ABC series. I'm not your action recapper. You all know that by now. Suffice it to say that in the struggle, a zombie grabs the compass. Snow could compete against Legolas in an archery event, so she shoots him (er...the zombie, not Legolas) and Emma grabs the compass. Eventually, they realize they've lost Aurora and Mulan. Emma and Snow decide to run for it. The spry zombie pirates inexplicably slow back down, but they're still not lumbering. They're moving at something between a brisk pace and a power walk.