Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | 601 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Might As Well Jump
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 1 | Aired on 2012.09.30
Once she's alone, Regina tries to whammy open the cell door. It's then that Rumpy comes out from another room and informs her, "Magic is different here, dearie." After a little bitchery, she asks him if he's there to finish the job, but he claims she is safe from him. He promised Belle he wouldn't kill her. Regina feigns shock that Belle is alive. Rumpy's not buying it. He knows she kept the girl alive until it suited her purposes to kill her. He calls this a fate worse than death, then whips out the yuan medallion and uses it to marks Regina's palm as he blusters about how unpleasant her inescapable destiny will be. We cut to...
Enchanted Forest. Mulan looks at the medallion and says the Chintz Monster is a "Qui Shen. In your land, you would call it a wraith." No, dear. It's a Chintz Monster. You can't kill it, but eventually it will fall apart and moths will eat its cloak. Aurora's all, "And...you are?" And once Mulan removes her helmet, Aurora says, "You're a girl." Mulan corrects her. She's a woman thank you very much. Then she explains that the Chintz Monster is a soul sucker that marks its victims then sucks out their souls, damning them for all eternity. They're fortunate to have escaped being marked. Phillip assures Aurora they'll be safe with their people, but when he hugs her, he notices the medallion has marked his palm. At some point, Phillip also explains that Mulan fought side by side with him as he searched for Aurora.
Storybrooke. Alone in the forest, a still gloved Rumpy drops the medallion to the ground, raises up his Dark One Dagger -- the very dagger that doomed the show to misspelling his name for all eternity -- and says, "The Dark One summons thee." He crouches down and stabs the knife into the ground, near the medallion. Back in her cell, Regina wakes with a gasp. She looks at the searing mark on her palm and gasps again. Back in the forest, black smoke pours up out of the medallion. It materializes into the Chintz Monster. They really should have just co-opted the Smoke Monster from Lost. Anyhow, Chintzy sizes up Rumpy, then flits off into commercial.