Fairy Interesting: OUAT "Queen of Hearts"

2.9 "Queen of Hearts"

This week EVERYTHING HAPPENS.

In the flashback fairyland Regina gets a really bad hairdo, plots her bizarre curse/revenge, and tries to team up with Hook (who is ridiculously popular amongst the women of this "family"). Hook goes to Wonderland where, alas, we do not see Jefferson. But Cora reigns, quite aptly, as the queen of hearts in a fabulous red gown. And Hook teams up with her instead. We think. Maybe.

In Storybrooke Rumple convinces Regina that destroying the portal is the best thing she can do to "protect Henry" and for a few moments we get the old Regina back. They steal the magic diamonds and gather at the wishing well where Regina chickens out, saves everyone, and then throws a tantrum because they don't invite her to the celebration dinner. After returning, Snow wakes Charming with a kiss and true love triumphs over all.

But before that can happen, Snow, Emma, heart-less Aurora, and I'm-just-going-to-stand-here-and-be-useless Mulan try to find the magic ink that will stop Cora from coming to Storybrooke. Aurora betrays them, Hook gets all complex, and Cora and Hook run off to take the magic whirlwind ride out of fairyland. In incredibly dense fashion Emma and Snow stare at, comment on, read, and generally make a big deal out of the paper that is the solution to the problem until the last moment when they FINALLY figure out that the words WRITTEN IN INK on the parchment are actually the ink they came looking for. Cora and Hook almost leave, but are stopped by Emma and Snow in a kind of lame fight scene. Mulan returns Aurora's heart and Aurora's immediate thought is, hey, now that I'm a decent character with a real personality let me do nothing but go look for the jerky prince that wouldn't let me think on my own (and oh my goodness I'm suddenly sounding like a feminist). Ahem.
Cora tries to destroy Snow, Emma jumps in the way and true love triumphs over all.

Like I said. EVERYTHING HAPPENS.

This was a fantastic episode (despite my snarkiness above). I loved it!

This face. Just... no.

I loved seeing evil Regina again. I am SO excited to see that she's going to go all evil again in the second half of the season. This milk-toast tame Regina grates on my nerves. She's much better as the villain. I mean, I didn't want Snow and Emma to die, I just was frustrated that Regina was the one to stop the portal block. Of course, that sets it up for her revenginess for the rest of the season, so. But the look on Regina's face when Henry was begging her to be good just made me want to throw things at the screen. I'm all for well-rounded characters on tv shows, but this is a fairy tale story too. There are often just villains. Motivation is fine, but it's okay to let Regina just be bad. Anyway.

And what's with making every villain's motive be "I love my child so I have to do horrible things to protect them"? Rumplestiltskin? Didn't want to be ridiculed in front of his son so he became evil/powerful. Cora? Ready to destroy anyone and anything in her way to get back to her daughter so she can help her. Regina? Willing to do pretty much anything to keep Henry. It's kind of getting old.

Rumplestiltskin is also much much better when he's all plotty and sneaky. As much as I love him and Belle together.

I find it interesting that Aurora was the one who found the note so quickly. It's like she knew right where to look. I kept waiting for her to hand it over to Cora. It seemed strange to me. Also, I can't have been the only one that was banging my head, shouting at Emma and Snow - "It's the INK! THE INK IS ON THE PAPER. THE INKKKKKKKK"

On a completely unrelated note, I loved the music score during the portal opening/blocking scene. Gorgeous.

And I cracked up when Hook told Emma, "Good form." Nice touch.

I was wishing that Hook would stand up and Emma would bring him along like she promised, but I guess the fact that he wants to kill Rumple could be problematic. Besides, it's so much more epic to have the pirate ship sailing into the harbor with Hook and Cora on it. Epic.

Can I just say how much I absolutely adore Hook? Love, love, love. Though I do want to know how a bean got a pirate ship into the Atlantic Ocean...

A great episode and something that sets up a lot of fun stuff for the rest of the season. So loving this show!

So what did you think? I'd love to hear your feedback on the show! Do you disagree with me? Agree? Hate Hook? Love Mulan? Do tell :)