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“Once Upon A Time” recap (4.2): Some People Are Worth Melting (Walls) For

Previously on Once Upon A Time, Anna left Elsa to go explore Mist Haven, Emma felt too guilty about making Regina sad to hook up with Hook, and Elsa found herself in Storybrooke looking for Anna.

After averting everyone’s attention with Marshmallow the Snow Monster, Elsa finds Anna’s necklace in Gold’s shop and vows to find her sister. She helpfully speaks out loud and promises no one will leave Storybrooke until the sisters are reunited, putting up an ice barrier along the town line, as if anyone would ever try to cross the borders anyway and risk things like losing their memory or getting kidnapped by flying monkeys. Flash back to the Enchanted Forest, when Charming was David and David had long hair. Anna strolls up to David’s farm and says she comes from Arendelle. She introduces herself as Joan, surely named after one of her favorite portraits, and tries oh so hard to play it cool. David knows Kristoff, turns out, and therefore knows more about Anna than she thought he would, putting a small wrench in her plans for a Secret Mission. He offers to let her stay in his barn and warns her about the local mob boss, Little Bo Peep.

In present-day Storybrooke, Henry has a care package he wants to give to Regina (who he thankfully is still calling his mom) because he read it can help with heartbreak. He’s about to go off to see her when they receive a message by crow telling Henry that Regina doesn’t want to see him right now. By crow! I know they all have cell phones! But I guess I would do things magically all the time if I could. Emma tries to console Henry and explain that Regina just needs some space. She’s had a rough…forever. But Henry isn’t feeling particularly consoled.

The power cuts out and Emma tries to distract Henry to make him stop reminding her of how she hurt Regina by saying they can figure out what cut the power using code names like Operation Night Shade or Operation Blackthorn but Henry isn’t interested. David points out that Henry has two moms and they both put up walls and sulk when they’re upset, so of course Henry does the same.

Emma and Charming find Elsa’s frozen gates, which had cut into some power lines, causing the blackout. Elsa is hiding and being all scared yet adorable. Somewhere across town, Granny and Grumpy have somehow decided that, of all the people in all of Storybrooke, Mary Margaret should be the new acting Mayor. Which is ridiculous because 1. Regina is still perfectly capable of mayoring, she just needed a personal day. And 2. Mary Margaret is not Snow White. Snow White I would have put in charge of things. You can’t even put Mary Margaret in charge of keeping a secret. But without Ruby, Granny doesn’t know which way is up, and Grumpy has been hanging out with Dopey too much, so they insist, and Mary Margaret takes it in stride and sets out to get the power back on.

Hook shows up to where Emma and Charming are staring at the ice block to confirm the wall goes all the way around the town. Hook tries to flirt with Emma, which causes her to run directly into the ice. Charming tries to have a father/boyfriend chat with Hook but even Hook, the swashbuckling pirate, thinks that’s weird and misogynistic and says it’s not about his intentions, it’s about Emma’s.

Emma finds Elsa in the ice, and Elsa tells her that she’s looking for her sister. Emma, to her credit, doesn’t start barking at her like she’s a monster, but instead speaks more like you would to a scared kid, and tells Elsa she wants to help her. Elsa tries to match Emma’s calm tone and says that her sister’s name is Anna. Back in time, Bo Peep is being a real bo bleep and demanding payment from David, saying if she doesn’t get it soon, she’ll take his steed and his farm. She then handily tells him that all of her power lives in her magic crook, and that it helps her find her “flock” of which David and his mother are now a part of, whether they like it or not. When Bo Peep leaves, Anna asks why David is letting Bo Peep and her sheep walk all over him but he doesn’t know what other options he has.

In present-day Storybrooke, Charming and Hook try to get to Emma in the ice, but it spooks Elsa and causes her to lose control and send up more ice walls, after which everyone’s ears ring like a bomb just went off. Hook immediately starts chipping away at the ice with his hook, having left his ice pick attachment at home, but Charming stops him and tells him that a magic ice wall isn’t going to come down with brute force. Which is probably the most useful thing he’s ever said.

In the Enchanted Forest, Anna gives David more options by teaching him how to swordfight. David keeps trying to give up but she tells him to toughen up; surviving isn’t living. She tells him he’s being a coward, and he gives her a sob story about his alcoholic father who was sober for 13 days and died on the 14th, but she tells him his father was weak, but that he isn’t. David says, “You don’t know that,” and Anna, bless her heart, says firmly, “I hope it.”

In Storybrooke, Emma gets a message on her walkie talkie from David, which freaks Elsa, the girl with magic ice powers, right out. Emma tells David that Elsa is looking for her sister Anna and that they should probably do that ASAP before Elsa sends Maine into an ice age. Side note: Elsa trying to be evil is cute. Like that time young Simba tried to roar.

During all this Mary Margaret is trying to fix the power and it’s generally unimportant except for the part where she says she feels like she understands Regina a little better; maybe she was never evil, she was just sick of everyone’s BS.

In the ice cave, Emma is cold. Like, really cold. Shivering from head to toe, lips turning blue cold. She asks Elsa why she looks unfazed and Elsa tells Emma that the cold never bothered her anyway.

Emma sees Elsa’s deer-in-headlights face as she watches Emma freeze and realizes that Elsa has no more control over her powers than Emma does. Elsa is relieved that she doesn’t have to pretend to be all-powerful anymore and explains that it’s one reason she needs her sister, Anna always helps her stay in control, Anna melts away the cold. Anna makes her better. Emma tries to magic but doesn’t make her Extra Concentrated Magic Face so nothing happens. Elsa feels bad about the whole mess she caused and the two women bond about growing up not understanding or denying their gayness power and trying to come to terms with it as adults. Charming and Hook go to Gold’s shop for answers, and seeing the inventory picture of Anna’s necklace clicks a few things into place, and Charming knows exactly who Anna is.

Flash back to David telling Anna/Joan to save herself, the way she taught him to, but Bo Peep says it’s too late for Anna, she’s been branded, she’s part of her flock now.

Emma and Elsa are still talking when Emma starts to look quite hypothermic. Elsa asks her to tell her more about her son, about anything, and Emma knows she’s just trying to make sure Emma doesn’t fall asleep and die.

Charming and Hook decide to get reinforcements. Surely the answer to ice is fire, right? Surely they’re going to get the best fireball maker in all the realms? Of course not. Instead, Charming goes to the local butcher and finds Bo Peep chopping up her sheep. He asks about Anna/Joan and when she claims to know nothing, sends Hook to take her crook. They get the crook and start to head out when Elsa walkies in and tells them that Emma is dying.

In the past, Bo Peep and long-haired David swordfight and he overpowers her and takes back Anna’s necklace. He uses her crook to find Anna/Joan, who attacks before realizing it’s David because she’s scrappy like that. When he tells her he beat Bo Peep, she’s as genuinely shocked as the rest of us. In the here and now, Charming brings Bo Peep’s crook to the wall of ice and Elsa figures out how to answer his call on the walkie talkie and he tells Elsa that he found a way to find Anna. He then passes on the wisdom her sister taught him and says, “Survival isn’t enough, you have to live.” Elsa knows this means he’s telling the truth about knowing Anna, and the thought of being reunited again helps her muster the strength to melt a hole in the ice big enough for her and Emma to crawl through. Elsa wakes Emma up and helps her through, and she immediately snuggles up to Hook because his coat looks the warmest (shut up, that’s why). David tells Elsa that she saved Emma, but Elsa says something I have said to my brother many a time: It doesn’t really count as saving someone’s life if it’s your fault they almost died in the first place. But David promises to help Elsa in any way he can because Anna helped him once and it was the least he can do.

Back at the Charming Loft, Emma is wrapped in a blanket and Henry gives her a warm hug. Emma asks Elsa if she’s okay and Elsa’s a little distraught because she lost Anna’s necklace somewhere in the hullabaloo. But they have Bo Peep’s crook now, so they’re going to find her sister, come hell or high ice walls.

Flash back again to David’s mother giving Anna some sandwiches, her favorite, for her journey to find out what her parents were doing in (or on their way to?) the Enchanted Forest. She asks for the name of the most powerful person in the land and David’s mother writes the name on a piece of paper and sends her on her merry way. It’s like sending a kitten into a dragon’s den, but off she goes. And since she said the name out loud (or just because he’s the Dark One), Rumple sees her in his crystal ball and giggles his evil giggle.

At the Charming Loft, the team tries to garner a similar image of Anna, but using Bo Peep’s magic crook instead. They can’t see her, but they hear her heartbeat; so at the very least, wherever she is, she’s alive. Or she’s dead and her still-beating heart is in Regina’s creepy vault but let’s go with the first thing.

When Mary Margaret comes back from her ridiculous electric adventure, they introduce her to Elsa and give her the short version of the story. Mary Margaret tells Elsa not to worry, finding people is kind of their deal, and they are not the giving-up type.

Hearing this speech, Henry gets an idea and runs to Regina’s house. He bangs on the door, echoing Emma’s (and Movie!Anna’s) words, saying he knows she’s in there. People are asking where she’s been. She said have courage and he’s trying to, he’s right out there for her, please let him in. Regina listens and opens the door, pulling her son into a hug, thrilled he won’t give up on her. At the ice wall, Emma tells Elsa that her power is unique and that she is definitely absolutely the only person in all the realms to ever have this power ever in the history of ever. Emma thinks this is “cool” and is pretty darn proud of her own pun. Elsa tries to take down the barrier, with the hope of finding Anna in her heart, but she can’t do it. But she’s THE ONLY PERSON WITH THIS POWER EVER (in case you forgot) so why is the ice barrier staying up?

At the local ice cream shop (here I thought Regina and Henry were getting their ice cream from Granny’s), Grumpy asks the beautiful, blonde shop owner how her wares didn’t melt during the blackout. She smiles and says she’s just lucky. After he leaves, she re-freezes some soupy ice cream in a flash. She has the same ice power as Elsa, and is very smug about it. What did you think of “White Out”?

Here are some of our favorite #queerytales tweets from this week:

 

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