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New Show Recap: Once Upon a Time 4.03, “Rocky Road”

The episode opens with Robin and Marian wandering down the street with their son, and they decide to get ice cream from the Snow Queen’s shop. Before giving Marian the ice cream, the Snow Queen zaps the cone with some magic.

Back at Gold’s shop, Rumpel denies knowing Elsa and knowing how she got into the urn. Elsa has no idea of how she got there, either. We also have mention of Emma’s superpower. Rumpel offers to have Belle command him to tell the truth, since she has hold of the dagger. Rumpel is telling the truth, it turns out.

In the flashback, Elsa is worried about Anna and Kristoff tries to persuade her to stay in Arendelle as queen instead of going after Anna. One of Elsa’s ministers enters the room with a message from one of the Arendelle scouts — Hans and his army are on their way. Kristoff offers to sneak through the mountains and see what Hans is up to, but Elsa does not want him to.

Snow decides to channel FDR and have weekly fireside chats, or town hall meetings. As the townspeople quarrel with Snow and Charming about Elsa’s arrival and the ice wall, Marian’s vison blurs. She collapses as ice begins to overtake her body.

Regina and Henry are at Granny’s diner for lunch, and Regina has bought him some comic books. She pumps Henry for information about the book, but he’s on to her and asks her what she’s up to. Regina explains that she wants to find who wrote the book and ask them to write her a happy ending. Henry is all for it. Looks like the kid has never outgrown his love of secret missions.

Robin enters the diner, agitated, and asks Regina to come to the town hall to see to Marian, whose heart is freezing. Regina senses the strength of the magic and thinks she can slow it down. Elsa denies Regina’s accusations of being behind Marian’s affliction and tells them an act of true love might break the spell. Robin tries true love’s kiss, and it doesn’t work. Emma goes to the sheriff station to see what else they can do.

In the flashback, Kristoff and Sven sneak into the mountains to take a look at Hans’ camp. Hans has his brothers there and it looks like he has a secret weapon so he can seize the throne of Arendelle. Kristoff tells Elsa about what he found: there is an urn that can trap Elsa and people like her. Kristoff wants to take an army to Hans, but Elsa states that they only need her to obtain the urn.

The citizens of Storybrooke, except for Archie, are still blaming Elsa for the ice wall and want her out of town. It looks like that is exactly what they’re going to do, and they pass the Snow Queen, who is smiling at the seeds of discord she has sown.

In the flashback, Kristoff and Anna are on their way to obtain the urn.

Hook is helping Elsa escape from the townspeople, and Elsa refuses to go to the sheriff station. Elsa at first refuses, but Hook tells her that’s not where they’re going. Can this be the Hook and Elsa show?

Emma and Charming are in the forest, and they come upon Robin’s encampment. A strange man emerges from their tent, and after bantering with Emma, he runs. Emma and Charming give chase and catch up with him. It’s Will Scarlett, who used to be one of Robin Hood’s Merry Men and who was the Knave from Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. He states he broke into the ice cream parlor during the power outage and said the ice cream was frozen.

Regina, seeing Marian is getting worse, decides to go down to her vault for some extra help.

Hook and Elsa enter Gold’s shop and Hook accuses Rumpel of lying about the dagger. Rumpel agrees to help him and Elsa find the source of the magic ailing Marian using one of her hairs. Rumpel returns the hair to is natural state and casts a spell to find the source of the magic.

Snow is getting set to put the baby in the car when Archie comes upon her. Snow doesn’t want to miss anything like she did with Emma, and Archie tells her it’s okay not to be a helicopter mother.

Emma, Charming, and Will break into the ice cream parlor. They find there’s no cooling system in the ice cream freezer and that the back room is frozen. Will takes the opportunity to steal the money from the shop and make an escape. Right now, Emma is feeling like a failure as a savior because of something Regina said.

Hook and Elsa are in the forest running from the townspeople and following the hair. Elsa gives him some advice about a relationship with Emma.

Kristoff and Elsa find the urn and Elsa notices there is writing on it. She thinks there could be others out there like her. Hans and bis brothers find Elsa and Kristoff in the cave. A fight ensues, and Hans threatens Kristoff with his sword so Elsa will give him the urn.

In the forest, Hook and Emma find he source of the magic. It’s the Snow Queen. Elsa is fascinated, but Hook wants to wait until Emma gets there.

Elsa gives Hans the urn even though she might be trapped in it, charging Kristoff with finding Anna and saving Arendelle. Hans is going to imprison Elsa in the urn, adding insult to injury by calling her a monster and telling her she doesn’t belong in this world. But there’s someone already in there. You guessed it: the Snow Queen. The Snow Queen freezes Hans and one of his brothers flees.

The Snow Queen has seen Emma and Hook and she freezes Hook. The Snow Queen tells Elsa the rock trolls took Elsa’s and Anna’s memories and that Anna put Elsa in the urn. The Snow Queen had apparently been trying to teach Elsa how to use her magic. The Snow Queen neutralizes Elsa’s magic and is ready to freeze Hook and make Elsa take the fall so Elsa knows that the only person she can count on is the Snow Queen. Emma and Charming show up just in time and Emma uses her magic to stop the Snow Queen, but the Snow Queen flees. It also seems the Snow Queen knows exactly who Emma is.

Elsa takes the Snow Queen back to the palace at Arendelle, and the Snow Queen sees the picture of Elsa’s parents. The Snow Queen was Elsa’s mother’s sister. The Snow Queen promises that she will help Elsa find Anna.

Emma is pissed that Hook almost got himself killed. Emma tells Elsa that she was the one who brought the urn to Storybrooke and that the Snow Queen was already there, so something bigger is definitely going on.

Back at the town hall, Henry returns from the vault with what Regina needs. Regina takes out Marian’s heart, which hasn’t been frozen yet, and will keep it in the vault until she finds a cure.

Hook and Emma finally have another conversation about why Emma is pushing him away, and it turns out she is pushing him away because everyone she has ever been with has died. Hook assures her he’s good at surviving and kisses her.

The Snow Queen is walking through the forest, and guess who approaches her — Rumpel! She asks if Emma recognized the Snow Queen, and she didn’t, which was good for Emma. It looks like the two have done business together before, and the Snow Queen will do business with him again when she’s ready.

I really don’t know how all of this is going to unfold. I know this has a lot to do with the alternate timeline Emma and Hook created, and that Rumpel has been doing stuff he promised he wouldn’t do, but we have yet to see what’s going to happen.I have no clue about how Emma and the Snow Queen are connected, and I just hope that they’re not another branch in the Charming family tree. It’s getting more convoluted than the houses in Game of Thrones.

2 replies on “New Show Recap: Once Upon a Time 4.03, “Rocky Road””

Yeah, I have to say this season hasn’t fallen flat yet. The Neverland storyline fell flat at about this time because, I think, they tried to stretch it out over too many episodes and didn’t have enough plot to keep the story interesting. Which sucks because they could have done a lot with it.

This year is different, maybe, because we not only have the Frozen storyline, but the question of what else was changed in the timeline when Hook and Emma went back. It seems they’re already dropping hints. It seems they’ve started out as strongly as they did with Season 2. But then, you, know, when you’re in a rut, going back in time and changing the timeline offers a chance to shake things up and reset some of the foundations of your story and the world you built. Unless they decide to go like Dark Shadows and totally disregard what has already been established.

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