BWW Recap: Two Villains Battle for Power on ONCE UPON A TIME!

On tonight's special two-hour episode of ONCE UPON A TIME, we saw Rumpelstiltskin and the Snow Queen engaged in a heated battle for control of Emma's powers. To make matters worse, Emma continued to have trouble controlling her own magic. She retreated to the woods in order to keep herself from harming others, but her plans were thwarted when Henry found her. Startled by his appearance, Emma zapped Henry with magic by accident, injuring his ear in the process. This incident throws Emma over the edge; she decides to ask for Rumpelstiltskin's help in getting rid of her powers once and for all. Rumpel agrees without his usual hesitation, and promises meet Emma out in a manor the woods to cast the spell.

In a flashback to Arendalle, we once again witnessed the Snow Queen try to manipulate Elsa. Ingrid 'warns' Elsa that Anna is plotting to trap her inside the urn, just as her mother did to Ingrid in the past. Ingrid instructs Elsa to talk to Anna herself, whom Ingrid is keeping in the castle's dungeon. But luckily, Elsa doesn't buy a word of Ingrid's story, and breaks Anna out of her jail cell. The two sisters decide its best to play along with Ingrid's lie and keep Anna in jail, and surprise her by trapping her inside the urn when Ingrid least expects it. Anna takes the urn into her cell to wait for the Snow Queen to come check on her. But unfortunately, Ingrid outsmarts the sisters- she had been waiting in the urn all along, and Anna finds herself trapped in the cell with her.

While imprisoned in the dungeon together, Ingrid asks Anna to recall the tale of a king who cast a spell on his whole kingdom. The spell made the members of the kingdom only see the worst qualities in those around them, which wreaked havoc on the community. Ingrid uses the same spell on Anna, changing her perspective on Elsa in the most negative manner. Under the spell, Anna comes to resent Elsa for deserting her during their childhood. She traps Elsa inside the now infamous urn, catching us up to present day. But Anna's actions were not part of the Snow Queen's plan; in her anger, she freezes Anna, Kristoff, and the entire kingdom of Arendalle. She escapes with Elsa's urn in tow, vowing to free Elsa and locate their "third sister".

The Snow Queen certainly caused trouble tonight, but the true villain of the episode was Rumpelstiltskin. In order to harness Emma's powers for his own benefit, Rumpel plots to use the Sorcerer's hat to encompass Emma's powers, also imprisoning her in the hat as well. When Emma approaches him asking for help with her powers, Rumpel sees the perfect opportunity it execute his plan. Once he successfully lures Emma to the abandoned manor in the woods, he instructs her to enter a room in the house that he has already prepared with magic. He promises this room will take away her powers, when in reality the room contained the Sorcerer's hat that would imprison her. Luckily, Elsa caught Emma just in time- she managed to talk Emma out of entering the enchanted room, encouraging her to embrace her powers rather than be afraid of them. Elsa's pep talk works, and Emma decides to learn to love herself rather than destroy the part of her that makes her special.

But there are few happy endings in Storybrooke, and this episode was no exception! The Snow Queen's power is now complete, for she possesses all three ribbons and her enchanted mirror. It seems she has some sort of power over Emma and Elsa as well through the ribbons, but we're not quite sure how. Nevertheless, it seems Ingrid's plan is progressing a bit too well!

We were handed a lot of information tonight, but one of the most important discoveries centered around the ONCE UPON A TIME book. Regina and Henry have been trying to locate the mysterious author all season, and tonight we finally got some answers! Robin Hood did a little investigating at the Storybook library, and discovered a missing page from the book. But, the 'missing page' was not missing at all, but was rather a duplicate page that represented another path the story could have taken. The missing page proved all of Regina's worst fears to be false; she has free will after all, for her story could have gone a number of different ways. I'm starting to believe there is no single author of the book after all. Maybe the author is simply 'magic'.

Tonight's episode also put the last few pieces of Ingrid's puzzling history together. The Sorcerer is the one who gave her the prophecy and placed her in our world to find Emma, which I feel quite silly for not realizing! Looking back on this season, the Sorcerer seems like an obvious choice for the source of Ingrid's plans. I'm hoping we get to see this Sorcerer at some point, considering he's been controlling nearly every event this season. Can he be trusted?

Speaking of trust, Rumpelstiltskin broke all faith I had in him tonight. We're now in season four of ONCE, and Rumpel has clearly had more than his share of character development over the years. But every time it seems like he's going to change for the better, he proves himself to be the same selfish man he's always been. I'm not sure if Rumpel will ever choose the path of good, but I'm positive I'm not going to be able to trust him for a very long time.

Although there's a two week break until the next episode, we've got a lot to process until then! How much power does the Snow Queen have over Emma and Elsa? Will Rumpelstiltskin continue to try to harness Emma's powers? Will we ever see the mysterious Sorcerer firsthand? ONCE UPON A TIME returns after the Thanksgiving holiday on November 30th on ABC!

Watch a sneak peek at the next episode titled 'Fall' below:

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