So far in season 6, Emma is having terrifying visions of the moment of her death, scores of people from the Land of Untold Stories have arrived in Storybrooke, and the Evil Queen is on the loose. What else is new?
Spoilers ahead, dearies.
Storybrooke
Intent on discovering who will wield the sword that kills the Savior, Regina, Emma, and Hook stumble upon the Evil Queen in the graveyard kneeling by Robin’s final resting place. Although afraid that she will hurt Regina (because remember that whatever happens to one half happens to the other as well), Emma draws the sword and cuts the Evil Queen’s cheek. To everyone’s surprise, they realize that the cut does not appear on Regina’s cheek, meaning that the sword is the only way to get rid of the queen once and for all. Determined to put a stop to the queen and hopefully break the Charming’s shared sleeping curse, Emma, Hook, and David set out to kill her, but are stopped when the Evil Queen threatens to kill Jasmine and summons Aladdin from the genie’s lamp. She uses her first wish to make it so that Emma was never the Savior, forcing Aladdin to make Emma disappear. Later, Regina tracks down the lamp and since she and Regina are the same person, she can use one of the wishes. She asks Aladdin to send her to the same place as Emma, and also disappears.
Furious, David steals the lamp from the Evil Queen, calls her a snake, and wishes for Aladdin to give her exactly what she deserves. But when nothing happens, David gives the lamp to Jasmine so that she and Aladdin can finally find the missing city of Agrabah. But that night, as the Evil Queen is feeling quite satisfied with herself, a portal opens in Granny’s and the mysterious hooded figure from Emma’s visions of demise appears. He marches toward the Evil Queen and turns her into a cobra, fulfilling David’s wish.
Meanwhile, Rumple has been attempting to use a spell to scry on his and Belle’s baby. But when the location spell doesn’t show a location, or anything at all, and he realizes that something must have gone wrong when Belle sent baby Gideon away with the Blue Fairy. The pair go to the convent and find a seriously ill Mother Superior, who tells them that she was attacked on the road and that the baby was taken by the Black Fairy. That’s right, Rumple’s mama, the baby-stealing fey, has kidnapped her grandson. Rumple and Belle decide that they must set aside their differences for the time being to find their son at whatever cost when Rumple explains that he might be in danger with the Black Fairy. According to Rumple, his mother lives in a strange, dark realm where time runs differently and anything can happen. At that moment, the hooded figure from Emma’s vision comes into the shop, and reveals himself to be the grown up Gideon, whom we have already seen as the greek god Morpheus in Belle’s dream world.
The Enchanted Forest (aka Wish Realm/alternate reality)
Regina appears in a land that looks just like the Enchanted Forest, but is actually an alternate reality created when the Evil Queen wished Emma away. In this realm, the Dark Curse never took place because Snow and David defeated the Evil Queen. Emma grew up as a princess and lives with her parents and her son Henry, who is a knight in training. Princess Emma is very ladylike, sweet, and terribly docile, without a fighting bone in her body. Regina realizes, with the help of Rumplestiltskin, that in order to make Emma the Savior again, she has to be the Evil Queen and literally scare the power back into Emma. Regina dresses like her old self, and shows up to Henry’s knighthood ceremony. In a scene reminiscent of the first episode where Regina threatened Snow and David, she tries to force Emma to become the Savior. When that doesn’t work, Regina kidnaps the king and queen and takes them to her old castle.
Emma comes to save them, but instead of regaining her powers, she simply breaks down in tears and offers Regina the key to their kingdom. Disgusted and disappointed that the real Emma seems to be gone forever, Regina tries one last tactic and crushes fake-Snow and fake-David’s hearts, but that only makes the princess more distraught. Henry appears, having followed his mother, and is fully prepared to kill Regina, whom he doesn’t know as anyone but the Evil Queen. Regina refuses to fight back, and is going to let herself be killed by him, when Emma regains her memories and freezes both Henry and the sword he flung at Regina. Regina and Emma prepare to go back to Storybrooke with a magic bean provided by fake-Rumple, but just as they are about to step into the portal, they are held up at arrow-point by none other than Robin Hood, who fully intends to rob them. Although she knows that everything in the wish realm isn’t truly real, Regina is transfixed by the sight of the man she loves. In her distraction, the portal closes, leaving Emma and Regina trapped in the alternate reality of the Enchanted Forest.
Wait, what?
Though it seems too fast for Emma and Regina to be trapped somewhere again (seriously, they were just trapped in the mirror realm, guys), the mid-season finale left us with some crazy questions and interesting revelations.
1.) Morpheus/Gideon. He’s obviously more than he appears to be. Is it because he was raised by the Black Fairy? Is it because he has magical blood? In mythology, Morpheus is not only the god of dreams but a shape shifter who can assume the form of anyone. How do we even know this is Gideon, and if it is, have we seen him before in someone else’s form?
2.) Agrabah. Hopefully, we will get to see the rest of this storyline continue to play out. This appears to be the first time in a long time that an arc hasn’t ended at the midseason finale. And there are still so many unanswered questions about Jafar!
3.) What happened to the people from the land of untold stories?? Did I miss something, or is this just another dropped thread in the OUAT tapestry?
Until next time, dearies.
-The Collected Mutineer
acollectivemind.com 