Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

This episode details the origins of the Magic Mirror and, well, how he became the Magic Mirror, starting off as the Genie from Aladdin and becoming friends with King Leopold and falling in love with Regina, doing her bidding by killing the king when she takes advantage of his feelings for her. Yes, I liked Giancarlo's performance and the twist with who he really is was pretty creative, but I felt the writing let it down as well as how predictable it was. The Storybrooke scenes barely progressed the plot as Mary Margaret and David only have one scene together while the focus is on the odd team up with Emma and Sidney trying to take Regina down which backfires, and revealing that he was really working with Regina behind Emma's back. If I can be honest, I don't know what else to say because I don't really think about this episode much compared to others from season 1. It's not bad, it's just a more underwhelming episode I watched for season 1. Well, at least we kind of got to feel for Regina for the first time in the season since she doesn't like being compared to Eva and that Leopold still misses her and she feels trapped in a loveless marriage.

Wow! Looks like the storm took it's toll on Henry's castle!

Boy, that phone looks pretty dated!

Nice design of the inside of the lamp! And clearly he wasn't inspired by the Robin Williams Genie!

You know, it's so hard to take you seriously when you have a king who's just so nice!

Love Snow's dress!

Nice hat Regina!

Aww, what a romantic picnic...if only David wasn't playing with both women!

OK, maybe I prefer this dress on Snow!

Poor Regina...

Possible foreshadowing...?

Pretty interesting team up considering they tried to compete for sheriff!

Uh, you read your wife's diary?! By the way, nice chess set!

Wait a minute, what the hell is he doing?!

So Henry is in on murdering the king?!

Hmm, interesting lead with Regina's plans!

Boy, those snakes look fake CGI-ish!

OK, bit odd trying to do the book himself instead of just looking for it!

Ooh...not exactly embezzling to build a second home!

Ew...I don't think I'd want to be bitten by an Agrabah viper...

Bit of an odd place to put a playground!

Hmm, so August has the book!

So that's how he became a mirror, he wish being taken literally!

Let me guess, he's still in love with her even with cursed memories!