Our full recap of tonight's all new Once Upon a Time episode, "Witch Hunt".
ONE YEAR AGO - ENCHANTED FOREST
The Wicked Witch is happily settling in Regina's castle, as
she goes through Regina's jewelry and even her clothes. Beyond the borders of
the protection spell, Regina suggests they use the tunnels underneath the
castle to get inside. A flying monkey attacks again, and Regina saves Robin Hood's son by turning
the monkey into a stuff toy. A cute moment.
Belle points out that the flying monkey is from Oz. They
speculate and realize that there's only one person who could be behind this:
The Wicked Witch. It was funny when Grumpy points out that you can defeat the
East by landing a house on her and the West by throwing a bucket of water - great
reference to the original Wizard of Oz story.
Regina: Who knew a thief had honor?
Robin: Who knew an evil queen had a soft spot for children?
Regina goes to lower the protection shield via underground
passage, and when Snow volunteers to go with her, she tells her that this is a
one-woman job. Robin catches up to her and announces that he will go with her,
whether she likes it or not. He tells him it's because she owes him for saving
his son, and Regina obliges just telling
him not to get in her way. SQUEAL. I am already loving Robin-Regina!
Regina concludes that the difference between them is that she owns up to
her acts of evil, unlike Robin who steals from the rich and gives to the poor.
Robin does not agree. He tells Regina that his wife had died because of him,
and he does own up to his mistakes. The two open up about each other's losses
and it's a wonderful moment for development between them. I wonder how Regina will react when she finally sees his tattoo? Definitely something I look forward t!
They find the door to the castle open, and Regina is shocked
as she had sealed it with blood magic. They arrive at Regina's crypt, where she
keeps her mother's body. It is then revealed that the Wicked Witch is the least of
Regina's worries, as she plans to fashion her own sleeping curse (Maleficent-style
on a needle), so she could sleep forever and forget about Henry - after
lowering the protection spell for Snow White and Charming, of course.
"I already lost Henry. I already lost the only thing I care about."
Robin convinces her not to go through with the spell, as she
will find something to live for. She tells Robin that life is nothing without
Henry. It's a sad moment, and here we see how much pain Regina is going through that she'd rather be asleep for the rest of her than be without Henry.
"We all get a second chance, Regina. You just have to open your eyes to see it."
"This curse can be broken, by the only true love in my life and the only reason I would want to wake, my son."
Regina lowers the protection spell and is about to prick
herself with the sleeping curse, when the Wicked Witch materializes,
introducing herself as Zelena and dropping a big bomb that she is actually
REGINA'S SISTER!!!
ASDFGHJKL
Zelena is hell bent on revenge, but the reasons of which are
unknown. We know that Cora gave her up, then
had Regina, but is that the only reason why she is so angry? She speeds off on her signature broom and cackles, promising
that she will take away everything important to Regina and destroy her life.
Regina does not go through with the Sleeping curse. She
finally finds a reason to live for.
"The one thing I haven't had in a very long time. Someone to destroy."
TODAY - STORYBROOKE
The next day, Henry finally meets Mary
Margaret and David at Granny's. Mary tells Henry that she used to be cellmates
with Emma because of banditry. Regina finally makes an appearance, and she is
so startled to see Henry she drops her cup. When Henry sees right through her,
Regina is hurt, and Emma takes this opportunity to explain what happened.
Regina admits that she did not cast the curse, even if her reputation says
otherwise. She explains that she would never cast a curse that would hurt her,
and this kind of curse with Henry not remembering her would be no good to her
at all.
Meanwhile, Robin and his friends are off exploring at the
edge of the forest. They are trying out the modern gadgets for hunting, but
when Little John runs off to chase a turkey and goes too close to the town line, he gets abducted by a flying
monkey. Suddenly, there's an explanation for the disappearances.
Emma decides the best way to solve this mystery is to have a
town meeting. They quickly blame Regina for the curse, and Emma seems to side
with the townspeople. The camera closes up on a woman with a green pendant,
smiling as the townspeople blame Regina. It's the first appearance of The
Wicked Witch in Storybrooke!
Llater, it is revealed that Regina and Emma are actually
working together to figure out who's done the curse, and only did that to throw
off the person who actually did cast the curse. YES SWAN QUEEN!
They try to create their own memory potion and Swan Queen
shares a moment. Emma gives her support to Regina and tells her she knows when
she tells the truth and that she would never cast the curse. It's a pretty touching
scene.
Mary Margaret tries to bond with Henry, but he's too busy
playing games on his phone. When Henry leaves, The Wicked Witch introduces
herself to Mary as Zelena, a humble midwife. She comforts Snow's worries about her baby.
David and the rest of Robin's merry men find Little John and
they take him to the hospital, only to have him turn into a flying monkey
moments after!
Regina tries the memory potion she tried brewing, but quickly
throws it to a wall because it doesn't work. Emma suggests they come up with a
new plan: They let the townspeople know that Regina is brewing a memory potion
to restore everyone's memory and find out who actually cast the curse. Whoever
goes to Regina's house to get rid of the potion is the culprit. I love how they
used Grumpy as the town gossip here.
As Swan Queen wait for the culprit to go after the potion in
her office, they open up about Henry and it's another touching Swan Queen
moment. More character development for these two - I LOVE IT!
They seal Regina's office with blood magic so that whoever
breaks in can't break out. But when they get to the office, the culprit
immediately vaporizes into green smoke.
Regina goes to meet Henry, but it's incredibly sad because he
doesn't remember her and they only shake hands instead of hug. David barges in
their bitter sweet reunion and tells them that the missing people are being
turned into monkeys. Emma asks about Neal, and they infer that he might have been turned into a monkey as well. Emma comments: "not the first monkey i dated" HAHAHA
Regina puts two together, the flying monkeys and the green
smoke and declares that there could be only one person who cast the curse. Emma
jokingly asks "Who? The Wicked Witch of the West?" but the serious
looks on the others' faces tells her that she might be right. However, they're
not in Kansas so what grudge the Wicked Witch has on a small town in Maine
could be a whole different thing.
Zelena brings a plate of food into an underground storm
cellar, and hands it to someone in a cage. The person inside the cage is
revealed to be RUMPLESTILTSKIN! It is great to see him back on this show, but I
was hoping to find out where Neal is too. It is clear that Rumple is not happy
to be back and has gone a bit cuckoo. "You feed the madness and it feeds on you"....
THOUGHTS
- I love Swan Queen on this episode! I don't necessarily ship them together, but I like how they're working together. They may not be besties, but they have earned each other's trusts!
-Unlike everyone else, I'm not really into Captain Swan ship, I actually prefer Swanfire or just Emma with no one. I still stand with my Swanfire OTP, and the fact that Emma has mentioned Neal twice in this episode looking for him, verifies that she does love him still.
-Ruby is back and she has actual speaking lines! YES!
-Where is Neal? I want him back. ASAP please. I don't think he's a flying monkey - that is too obvious and I'm sure the creators have a bigger twist planned for him. My theory though is that he's stuck in the Enchanted Forest. Where else could he be?
-Rumple is back and I was pretty shocked to see him go mad! Still, it's glad to see him alive!
-Regina and Zelena are sisters? Wow, never thought of that especially with their names sounding so alike. LOL I think the family tree of this show is getting way too complicated and I'm not really sure if I like the twist being that their half-sisters. But let's see where this goes.
-Can they please bring back Mulan?
-Henry took a backseat on this episode. I hope they exert more effort in including him in the episode, even without his memories.
What did you think of tonight's episode?
Watch Once Upon a Time season 3, episode 14, “The Tower,” Sunday, March 23 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
