Just to warn in advance, this review shall be very long this time round! In this 2 hour long episode (no, not as in 4x08 followed by 4x09 like the 2 hour season 3 finale), after the events of the last episode, Emma wants to find a way to get rid of her powers with Rumple's help as they continue to get out of control after accidentally hurting Henry. He tells her about a (fake) spell & to meet at the mansion where he & Belle had their honeymoon & it's revealed he really wants to put her in the hat. However, after Emma tells her parents about it without mentioning the method, Hook is concerned about Rumple's plan & tries to tell her the truth about everything in a phone message, which ends up magically wiped off by Rumple as he gets there & it's finally revealed Ingrid told Rumple what he needs to get what he wants is the heart of someone who knew him before he was the Dark One AKA Hook! And after a talk with Rumple if she should open the door where the hat is, she ultimately decides not to as Elsa tells her to embrace her powers, which they both do, while ruining Rumple's plan, inadvertently puts Ingrid's back on track despite temporarily being immbolized by him thanks to the dust from the urn & ends up magically putting the yellow ribbons on Emma & Elsa which magically binds the three of them together. O yeah, and Operation mongoose is back on track as Robin & Will decide to help & discover a brand new page with Robin &R egina getting together when they should have met which would've been when she ran away from him in 3x03. This gives Regina hope again (along with owing Mary Margaret a quarter after a pep talk with her) despite still searching for the author In the past, we get to see what happened between Anna, Elsa & Ingrid as she tries to pit the two sisters against each other to no avail, and as the sisters plan on putting her back in the urn that she had hidden, she captures Anna in her jail cell & casts the spell of Shattered Sight on her, bringing the worst out of her. Of course, Elsa sees through it but is forced to choose between hurting Anna or being put in the urn, ultimately choosing the urn willingly as she'd never hurt her sister & loves her no matter what. This leads to Ingrid's turn into the dark side as she casts an eternal winter in Arendelle & ultimately makes a deal with Rumple with the urn in exchange for the hat, telling her to say his name 3 times to summon him as he can see through her lies that she doesn't have it. However, after a meeting with the Apprentice to discuss a deal with the Sorcerer, just as she's about to say Rumple's name for the third time, the Apprentice appears & tells her that she can have the family of 3 sisters she's always wanted, but one of them isn't born yet & he shows her a prophecy about it, ending with her going through a portal to our world in 1982 in exchange for giving him the hat back. Oh yeah, and Ingrid finally casts the Shattered Sight curse in Storybrooke, planning to turn everyone against each other, including Rumple despite his plans to be free from the dagger's power while retaining his magic.
Initially I was wary when they announced this would be a 2 hour episode due to the pacing as I thought the synopsis would fit a regular 42 minute episode, but seeing the final product I can understand why they went this route! It was so nice to finally see how & why Elsa ended up in the urn & Rumple's vault as it was revealed that Ingrid had never intended for it to happen & she made a deal with Rumple over it only to go back on it to accept a new deal from the Sorcerer. It felt kinda nice to see them 2 plots merge together seeing the Apprentice's role along with how Ingrid ended up in our world & why she became evil, with Elizabeth Mitchell's performance being stellar as always & I loved the cleverness of the shattered sight spell & seeing how strong Anna & Elsa's love is for them to try & put her in the urn & for Elsa to willingly go in the urn despite seeing through Ingrid's lies. The Storybrooke scenes were also pretty good as we see Operation Mongoose progress now that Robin & Will are helping & that they've discovered a twist in it all which makes Regina feel better about it. Oh yeah, and I still wonder how they got away with that scene with them at the start, pretty steamy! Anyway, I also surprisingly loved seeing Mary Margaret & Regina bonding over not only embracing magic & making them unique, but also over sleeping with married men & finding hope & the fact neither are fully good or evil! It just felt nice seeing them talk to each other properly (and for Regina to call out how stupid they both were for just letting Emma get rid of her powers) And of course, I loved Emma's character development as she ultimately decides not to get rid of her powers despite the nasty consequences & I loved her interactions with Gold & Elsa despite the former lying to her, also keeping the integrety of Frozen with the message that while you have family that love you, you also have to love & accept yourself (in a non egotistical way) to become a better person. As for Rumple's role...why the hell must he be irredeemable now & claim every good thing he's done is to conceal his true power obsessed self?! Yeah, in case you haven't noticed judging every other review, I really want it all to blow up in his smug face & for Belle (who unfortunately isn't in this 2 hour episode at all for no fathomable reason) to whip him into shape even if I loved when he ripped Hook's heart out & deleted his message to Emma! Well, at least he was honest that everything he's done has been wrong & that he's a selfish man instead of trying to justify his actions like other villains would so at least he's aware of it & right now I'm just gonna sit back & see him be his awesome bastard self again like I have since season 1! Despite the long running time, the pacing was pretty good & surprisingly fast as the Storybrooke & flashback scenes were done equally yet despite them taking place in a day, they weren't slow thanks to the dialogue/action heavy scenes & they were kinda fun. Also, it's gonna feel refreshing in the next episodes for the flashbacks not to be Frozen heavy as, while I really enjoy the characters, the original film & the story they came up with for this half, I feel like they overshadow the other characters & their plots a bit too much. Still, at least it's not like season 2 when plots carried over from season 1 were completely ignored, the tone in season 4 is much more fun, the new characters are much more interesting & the character development is still pretty solid from the ones we know & love. Anyway, despite being 2 hours I loved this episode for the great writing, character development from the ones we know & love, very solid acting from everyone, fun flashbacks & great plot progression!
OK, why is she burying the hat?!
Nice to see you again Apprentice!
Can't help but feel sorry for both of them!
OK, this is pretty steamy...kinda surprised they got away with it!
Haha! Love Elsa making everything be chocolate covered for Anna! Well, it is one thing they both have in common!
Bit creepy...
I rather like seeing Emma & Rumple interacting...even if the spell is a load of bullshit!
AWW! Nice to see Elsa not believing Ingrid's lies!
Aww, sweet she got the necklace back!
OK, surely even she must notice not all of her shirt is buttoned up! Not the best hiding what she's really been up to...then again more subtle than Mary Margaret's plunging necklines in season 1
Aww! Love Mary Margaret apologising!
Nice to see Kristoff helping them with their secret mission!
Aww, love the sisterly love between them after everything that happened in the movie!
Bit scary she still has his frozen corpse...HAHA! 'Well, it is the one good thing she's done since coming out of that urn!
Nice that they took the deleted scene from 4x03 from the barn explaining the dust from the urn neutralising magic! And I knew Rumple would betray her, the smart imp!
HAHAHA! Love Will putting all his booze in his coffee!
Love seeing Will & Robin interact!
Why is it that they now use screencaps from previous episodes when no one had a camera & try to pass them off as photos?
At least Elsa is smart enough to not let Emma get rid of her powers!
HAHA!
AWW! Love seeing them bond!
Part of me was expecting Belle to eavesdrop on his message in his scene...
Nice parallel with the Pilot!
HAHA! 'And when she comes down here I'll surprise her with the urn! Not like party 'SURPRISE!' but something more dower to match the occasion like (in a deep & threatening voice) 'Surprise...'
Love how Ingrid talks to Emma like a strict mother telling their child to go to their room when trying to get her to not go to the mansion!
About time someone told them it was a stupid idea to just let Emma get rid of her powers! HAHA! 'We're not talking about an old pair of Jimmy Choos here...This could be the worst idea you've ever had! And you hired the Wicked Witch as your nanny!'
Very nice reference to the Snow Queen fairytale!
Honestly, I didn't think we'd see the mansion again! Now all I want to know is who it belonged to & how the hat ended up there if the Apprentice got it back (my money's on the Sorcerer himself)!
Nice to see Mary Margaret & Regina bonding over the fact they've slept with married men!
HAHAHAHAHA! 'The Cat in the Hat. Why would a cat want a hat?'
I'd be lying I didn't say this looked kinda badass!
OH GOD...!
'I'm a man who makes wrong decisions. Selfish decisions.' 'You spent all your time looking for Neal, you sacrificed yourself to save the town. You married Belle!' 'And each time I meticulously undid all the good. Neal is still gone. The town is still in danger. And Belle, for better or worse, she knows who I am. And that's a man who always chooses power.' 'She believes you can change.' 'And I love her for that. But I fear she's quite likely wrong.' You know, she probably would believe that if you weren't putting on a facade that you have changed for her! TELL HER THE WHOLE TRUTH IF YOU WANT YOUR MARRIAGE TO WORK!
Gold, you loveable bastard!
'Do what you will, Anna. But know that no matter what, I love you!' Love how strong their bond is that she knows Ingrid cast the spell on her!
I guess this is when she decided to go to the dark side!
EMMA DON'T OPEN THE DOORS!
Wait, if they've both embraced their powers, doesn't that mean Ingrid's plan is gonna work?!
OK, this bit was pretty satisfying to watch for me even if it's a bit obvious he's not gonna kill Hook after he does all of his petty work!
So that's how Elsa doesn't remember any of it...
'An urn for a hat. As simple as that! And just to make it easy for when you 'find' the object of my desire, just say say my name 3 times & I'll come right to you! What, is he Beetlejuice now?
OK...seems he's now keeping more secrets now (not to his own accord) despite ironically wanting to tell Emma everything!
Hmm, very interesting! PLEASE let there be a 'What if' type episode that shows what would've happened if that was in the book!
So this is how she got to our world...!
TRON REFERENCE!!! Fun fact, Adam & Eddy wrote Tron: Legacy & helped with the animated series Tron: Uprising!
OK, this bit was a little cheesy...
Oh God...I KNEW IT!
Well, the episode is called Smash The Mirror after all...!
