Once Upon a Time 2-21: Second Star to the Right

I’m out of town with family right now, so I just got a chance to watch last night’s new episode. I have just one question. Is it next week yet?

How about now?

Much like last season, they have absolutely left us hanging, and I can’t wait to see how this gets resolved. Something tells me I might not be that happy about it, but I need to know and I need to know now.

Okay, deep breath. Relax.

Let’s start in the past, say London of 100 years ago, because that’s where our flashback took place. (And can I say I don’t like what I think they did to one of my favorite characters.)

We joined Bae right after he went through the portal to another world like we saw him do last season. He was sucked down the portal and landed in London. Not quite the “This wasn’t my first stop” he told Emma several episodes ago, but we’ll get there.

After six months of living on the street, he breaks into a house in an attempt to get some food. He is caught by the girl who lives there, Wendy Darling. Wendy hides him for several weeks, sneaking him food, until her parents catch them. Mrs. Darling immediately takes him in since he is an orphan (at least that’s what he tells them, and it’s close enough since his father has changed so much).

However, that night, Bae learns that the Darling children have found an enchanting shadow figure that appears at their window. He can change his shape, and they are quite taken with him. Bae immediately recognizes him as magic, and tells them that magic always comes with a price. They are to have nothing to do with it.

But the next night, Wendy goes off with the shadowy figure. She goes to Neverland, but she returns in the morning. It sounds wonderful with no adults but mermaids and fairies. But at night, all the kids there cry because they miss their parents. And they can’t leave because the Shadow won’t let them. How did Wendy get back? Well, the Shadow didn’t want a girl, so it will be back the next night for one of Wendy’s brothers.

Bae is not going to let that happen easily, so the next night he and the Darling kids put a plan into action. They turn up the lights and put jacks on the window. However, when the Shadow comes, he just turns the lights out and flies in the window anyway. He’s about to take Michael, when Bae runs out and offers himself instead. The Shadow accepts, and they are off on a rather frightening ride through London before they head out to sea.

However, Bae does not want to go to Neverland, and when he hears the kids crying as they approach, he lights a match to try to drive the Shadow away. The Shadow drops him, and he lands in the ocean only to be rescued by…Hook.

That’s right, the man who stole his mother and wants to kill his father rescued him. Talk about some awkward conversations.

And that’s where our flashback ends.

So, let’s move to Storybrooke where things are going from bad to worse.

Regina is being held in the old Sardine factory on the edge of town. Tamara lets Neal think that she is going out for a run, but then heads down there to work with Greg. They’ve found the magic beans from her office and a big black gem that she was carrying around, but they don’t know what it is. Tamara is going to feed info about it to the home office. Meanwhile, Greg hooks Regina up to an electroshock machine to torture the truth about his father out of her.

But Regina’s absence has not gone unnoticed. Emma, Mary Margaret, and David break into her office looking for her. Okay, so they are looking for the beans she’s stolen, and they find the plants with the beans gone and learn that the last person into the office overrode the alarm, so it obviously wasn’t her. Emma decides to pursue the Tamara angle while Mary Margaret and David head out to Gold’s to get him to help them.

Gold is reluctant to help, but David calls in his favor from just last episode (or was it two episodes ago). So Gold mixes a tear from Mary Margaret with a tear he already had from Regina (he wouldn’t reveal how he got that little gem), and tells them that if they put that mixture into Mary Margaret’s eye, she will see where Regina is and experience what Regina is feeling. They take it home, and use it. At first, Mary Margaret sees nothing, but then she starts scream in pain.

Lacey (aka Belle) witnesses this display of magic, and it excites her. In fact, she asks Gold if he can make her live forever. He says yes, although he repeats our mantra – Magic always comes with a price.

Meanwhile, Emma goes to Neal and Tamara’s room to search it officially. Neal is upset, but Emma quickly finds sand near where Tamara keeps her shoes. She’s supposed to be off running in the forest. Emma heads down to the beach with Neal tagging along. And they do find Tamara running down there. Tamara claims she starts in the forest but ends at the beach, so it appears that Emma was wrong again.

Except that Mary Margaret has one clue from her time experiencing what Regina experienced – she smelled sardines. They call Emma, and she just happens to be by the sardine factory.

Inside, we find out that Greg and Tamara are part of an order that seeks to destroy magic completely from our world. It doesn’t belong here, so any time they find evidence of it, they stamp it out. That’s what they are really doing in town.

Emma and Neal head inside, and Mary Margaret and David come down and join them. They split up, but Tamara sees them on a monitor. She calls up to Greg that they need to go, but he’s not finished with Regina.

He turns up the power on the machine. He’s going to kill her. So she finally reveals to the truth. She killed Greg’s father as soon as Greg left town. He’s buried out at their campsite. In anguish, Greg turns on the machine full blast and leaves the room.

But Regina’s screams draw David and Mary Margaret. They turn off the machine and see the fleeing Greg, but they don’t stop him because Regina needs their immediate attention.

They do radio Emma that they saw Greg fleeing the scene. Just as Emma is apologizing to Neal for accusing Tamara, who should drop in and whack Emma? Tamara. She grabs Emma’s gun and holds it on Neal. He is so stunned to find out everything is a lie that he doesn’t react much at first, but eventually he does try to move toward Tamara. Tamara shoots him, hitting him on the left side. She’s moving in to shoot him again when Emma comes around and the two start fighting. Just when it looks like Emma is getting the upper hand, Tamara throws one of the magic beans by Emma, opening a portal.

Emma is quick to jump and grab a pipe so she doesn’t get sucked down. She keeps getting closer to the portal, however, until Neal grabs her and saves her. Unfortunately, he gets sucked in instead. Emma grabs his hand, trying to keep him out of it. She tells him that if he lets go, he’ll probably die because of the gun shot wound. And she tells him she loves him. Neal says the same thing back. But then his hand slips and he goes through the portal, leaving Emma alone. Again.

At the campsite, Greg has dug up the remains of his father. Then Tamara appears. She’s heard back from headquarters and learned what the giant gem is. It’s the trigger that will destroy the town.

Meanwhile, back at the loft, Mother Superior has come to revive Regina with magic. Regina comes to, and is shocked and a little upset to see that it is Mary Margaret who has rescued them. But she tells them they have bigger problems, and explains about the trigger. David quickly figures out what Regina planned to do, and Regina doesn’t deny it. So now everyone knows. Greg and Tamara hold the fate of Storybrooke in their hands, and they want to destroy the town.

So, questions.

Do we know how long it was before Rumple cut off Hook’s hand? Could Hook have just arrived in Neverland as well?

Is the Shadow Peter Pan, or will we meet him next week? If that Shadow in Peter, I won’t be happy. Or is Neal going to be Peter? I think the producers said that wasn’t the case, but I could be remembering wrong.

Anyone else read Peter and the Starcatchers? If so, have you noticed the similarities involving the evil Shadow character? There was another similarity I noticed, but I’m blanking on it now.

Where is Neal? Have we really seen the last of him?

And how are they going to stop the trigger?

As I said at the start, is it next week yet?