****Episode Spoilers Below****
I have to say right off the bat that this was my favorite episode of Once Upon a Time! It was beautifully done, and the visuals were awesome.
But I had one issue. Of course Emma is rocking one of those damn motorcycle leather jackets again, this time in dried blood brown. Would someone please either get her a new style jacket or a motorcycle? She’s driving a busted up yellow car, yet somehow manages to rock these leather jackets in a rainbow of horrific colors. Okay, I’m done.
(Need to catch up? Check our our past Once Upon a Time Recaps
Episode 1| Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4)
Last night’s show starts with another flashback, this time to a medieval time where a young boy is pickpocketing people watching a puppet show (say that five times fast!). He returns to his mother and father which is when we find out he is Jiminy and he’s actually pickpocketed a cricket in a cage.
In the present time, Henry is at his appointment with Dr. Archie Hopper. Henry is explaining that Archie has to be Jiminy because he has a conscience, sees right and wrong, and because there are a lack of crickets in Storybrooke.
Meanwhile, Emma is with the Sheriff accepting her role as the Deputy Sheriff. As soon as she takes the badge, an earthquake hits. And no, it wasn’t because the Sheriff is sexy enough to rock our worlds. Apparently a giant sinkhole has opened up at the old mine shaft where all the townspeople decide to gather.
Mayor Biatch tells the townspeople that once this is over she will collapse, bulldoze, and pave the mine so they can use it for something else. Henry appears and asks what if there’s something down there, but his question goes unanswered. Something catches the Mayor’s eye and she bends down to pick up some sort of glass, Henry catches her and she sends him to wait in the car. Henry gathers Emma and Archie and implores them to stop the Mayor because he’s certain Emma’s appearance is what made the mine collapse.
The Mayor stops Archie and says that they need a new treatment plan for Henry because he thinks everything she does is bad and with an ulterior motive (DUH)! She starts to threaten Archie—“I’ll squish you to size and leave you with only your umbrella to live under.” Making reference that he IS Jiminy, but of course he doesn’t catch that.
We go back to medieval times and see that Jiminy is a bit older and disenchanted with his parents’ line of “work,” aka thieving meanies. He asks them to set up a show instead of stealing but they claim a variety of aches, pains and lumps that would make it too hard for them to do. Later that day, Jiminy is setting up something in a fair and a little boy comes over to talk to him in the pouring rain. He asks if Jiminy likes his job to which the answer is no. The kid says he’s outside looking for crickets, but feels sorry for Jiminy who is being soaked by the rain. He offers him his umbrella saying he lives close by. I aww’d out loud there.
Back in the present, Archie tells Henry that he can’t go into the mine and that he has to stop with all this fairy tale business. That if his delusions continue he’ll have to lock Henry up, which causes Henry to run out of the office crying. Hang with me, this episode was traveling all over the place! Now we move to the hospital!
Mary Margaret and David are playing Hangman and he says he’s going home in a week. His wife Catherine walks in with some pictures and Mary Margaret leaves the room, but hears David say yes, he does remember that their dog’s name is Ajax.
Later that night, Emma and Mary Margaret are at home talking about David, and Emma says to stay away from him. He’s married, and it’ll just cause heartbreak and Mary agrees, but there’s a knock on the door. It’s Henry and he’s hysterical. Emma ends up at Archie’s office and she basically tells him she knows that this was the Mayor’s doing. That’s when Emma’s cell rings—speak of the devil, it’s the Mayor. She asks where Henry is, Emma say’s that she’d dropped him off an hour ago. Archie speaks up and says Henry must have gone to the mine. We have a cut away before commercial of Henry spelunking.
In yet another flashback, Rumpelstilskin is at his spinning wheel when Jiminy walks in for an elf potion. He ends up telling good old Rump that he wants to be free, to be someone else. Rump gives him a potion to give to his parents, that when taken something will happen to them. His fee will be what is left of Jiminy’s parents after they take the potion.
Flipping back to the present, Archie and Emma end up at the mine looking for Henry. Henry finds something in the mine and pulls it out, causing the mine to collapse some more. Emma and Archie try to get to him, Archie gets in but the door collapses with Emma on the outside. Archie finds Henry and tells him they have to leave, only to watch Henry run further into the mine.
Quick flashback and we find Jiminy pleading with his parents to not steal and thieve. Of course that falls on deaf ears and they end up asking a young couple if they can stay with them. (Canadian readers will recognize the young wife as Amanda from Ready or Not, I may have squeeled when I saw her). Jiminy’s parents talk about a plague that’s killing people in the next town over, but rest assured, young couple, they have a potion for that. They walk outside and Jiminy finally gets the balls to throw Rumps potion at them, only it does nothing. His father switched the potion with the young couples! Jiminy runs inside their house only to find they’ve been turned into marionette like dolls. Then the same little boy who gave him the umbrella shows up, the young couple was his parents.
Outside the mine, Emma must have called the whole town, because they’re all there when the ground starts to shake again. Mayor Biatch and Emma start fighting about Henry again, but realize they must declare a ceasefire and save Henry. While in the mine, Henry and Archie find an old elevator and get in. In starts to lift when outside the rescue team detonates explosives to open the mine shaft. Now Henry and Archie are trapped in the elevator as it crashes. Oh, no!
Back at the hospital, Mary Margaret goes to sign out for the day when David appears. He says that the doctor says he needs to do some walk therapy 30 minutes a day, but since everyone is at the mine trying to rescue Henry and Archie, he’d like her to walk with him. He ends up confessing that he did lie, he didn’t remember the dog’s name but Catherine was so nice he couldn’t help it. He also says that the only thing he feels is real is Mary Margaret, that she feels right. Just as they are about to kiss, Catherine shows up. AHHHH!
Emma ends up letting Archie’s dog out of a fire truck and he uncovers an air shaft, so the townspeople get the cover off the shaft. In the elevator, Henry and Archie are chatting. Henry apologizes about all of this and that he just wanted to get proof. Archie says that he’s sorry; he doesn’t think Henry is crazy, it’s just that the Mayor expects so much. Henry tells Archie that he thinks he CAN be a good person and shares the story of Jiminy Cricket with him. The elevator starts to shake again.
Outside, Emma and the Mayor are fighting about who is going to go down to rescue them and Emma wins that battle.
Archie asks Henry why he believes in the fairy tales so much, Henry says that there just has to be more to this. Just then Emma appears on the top of the elevator and hauls Henry up, that’s when the elevator lets go, with Archie still in it. I’m going to be honest; I may have screamed “NOOOOO” and got misty-eyed. Thankfully, Archie is saved by his umbrella which is hooked onto Emma.
When Emma brings them out to safety, the Mayor doesn’t even say thank you. She does thank Archie, who finally gains a pair and goes head to head with her. He tells her that he will continue to treat Henry, but on HIS terms. He says she won’t test him because there is most likely going to be a custody battle between her and Emma, and they always ask for experts, which would be him. BOOM! Well played, Archie!
And in the final flashback of the show, we see Jiminy wishing upon a star. And yes, I started crying, shut up! I’m a softy. Down comes a fairy who says she’s sorry, but she can’t bring the little boys parents back, but she can make sure that Henry is always there for the little boy. She turns him into Jiminy Cricket and now I am full fledged ugly crying.
Back in the present, everyone is celebrating outside of the mine shaft when a ton of crickets start to chirp.
We go to Rumpelstilskin who still has the little boy’s marionette parents. Mary Margaret is at the hospital leaving her resignation letter and Mayor Biatch drops the piece of glass she found into the mine shaft. The glass goes down and we find out that under the mine, is the original Fairy Tail land.
So what did YOU think? Did you love it? Did it keep your attention? Did you ugly cry or am I just weird?
Natasha Carty reviews Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy on her website Wicked Little Pixie and lives in Toronto, Canada, with her cat, Seamus.
