This week’s episode of Once Upon a Time gave us some more background on characters, as well as introducing new ones.
In the last episode, we saw the exit of two fan favourites, Emma Swan and her husband Killian Jones, so now we move straight back into the new storylines.
‘The Garden of Forking Paths’ begins with Cinderella on the bike looking for Henry. When she arrives at the spot where the portal is supposed to open, she is attacked by a guard who wants to kill/arrest her for assassinating the prince (though, as we remember, she didn’t). Just when it looks like she’s done for, someone comes to her rescue and it happens to be Tiana.
Tiana introduces herself as the leader of the Resistance, which was created to overthrow Cinderella’s evil stepmother. Cinderella isn’t interested in joining until Tiana explains that it wasn’t just the prince who killed her father, and her stepmother helped as well. Tiana also mentions that Cinderella’s stepmother is taking houses so they decide to team up and get on Henry’s motorcycle. Before zooming away, Cinderella leaves a glass slipper behind so Henry can find her.
She brings Cinderella to a village where the Resistance is and Jacinda is reunited with Henry. He gives her, her shoe and introduces her to his mother (Regina) and then Captain Hook (who Jacinda first believes is his father which is awkward).
Back in Hyperion Heights, Tabine (Tiana) and Jacinda (Cinderella) are roommates and they are trying to deal with Lucy’s new living situation with Victoria. Jacinda and Lucy write letters back and forth that they leave in the garden. Elsewhere, Rogers, Roni, and Henry meet in order to deal with the potential of Roni’s being sold.
Jacinda drops off a letter for Lucy, but Victoria shows up with her men and order them to start creating condos. Jacinda goes to Roni’s for support because Roni seems to know how to fix anything. Roni and Jacinda decide to beat her with building codes and finds one that allows them to petition.
Henry is working on his writing at a bar when Lucy shows up to say how happy she is that people are fighting. Lucy says that there is something good below the gardens and that they need to get it before Victoria does. Henry is dubious, but when the diggers hit something and begin to section it off, Lucy decides to jump in and Henry goes after her. If any of you remember season one, Henry did this when he was younger too (like father, like daughter).
Lucy and Henry explore the underground place and Henry is convinced that it’s the Seattle Underground, but Lucy is sure that something magical is there. Lucy then asks about the graveyard where Henry’s ‘wife and daughter are buried’, but he says that they weren’t there and Lucy tells him that’s because they weren’t real. Lucy finally finds a piece of glass on the ground and believes it was part of her mother’s glass slipper and could prove everything, but Henry of course doesn’t believe it.
Meanwhile, Rogers watches as Michael Griffith meets up with Victoria. Rogers then follows him and finds the money Victoria gave him as a bribe and takes him into the station.
Victoria shows up and finds Jacinda has obtained many signatures and tries to call it off. Victoria promises that if she burns the petition, Jacinda can have her own condo and give Lucy a beautiful life. Jacinda obliges and Lucy gets really upset and says that she doesn’t want to be together if this is how it has to happen. At the police station, Michael and Weaver are shaking hands, which obviously makes Rogers angry, but Weaver says that when Victoria calls Michael, Michael will call Weaver.
In Cinderella’s world, the Resistance forms a plan. Hook starts getting a little too cosy with Tiana (I mean Emma though..). Jacinda slips away and follows her own plan by making her way to her stepmother’s house to talk about a coffin. Her stepmother tells her to look inside and Anastasia is inside preserved with one breath. She says that the only way to bring her back is for Cinderella to take Henry’s heart because an innocent is needed to bring back Anastasia. She threatens and says if she doesn’t, everyone in the Resistance will pay the price.
She returns to camp where everyone is asleep and she’s about to steal Henry’s heart, with tears running down her face, but she can’t so she goes over to kill Jeremiah (a cobbler). Right when she’s reaching for his heart, Regina shows up and stops her. Cinderella explains that Lady Tremaine wants Henry’s heart to save Anastasia and Regina takes her power away so she can’t.
We then get a bit of the backstory of Anastasia who is Cinderella’s step-sister and died when she was 14. Tremaine blamed Cinderella’s father, but it really was Cinderella’s fault. Regina’s advice is she has to start by forgiving herself. She returns to the Resistance and decides to be called Ella and announces storming Tremaine’s place is a trap.
Roni, in Hyperion Heights, explains that Jacinda has to decide what she’s willing to give up because Victoria (and other people like her) will take away everything. This sends Jacinda back into the street in order to get the people who signed the petition, to sign it again.
After the petition signing and vegetable planting, Henry, Jacinda and Lucy take a walk together. Henry decides to take off and Lucy gives him the piece of glass slipper because Jacinda doesn’t need it as she’s becoming who she needs to be. Henry walks home and on the way, heads to the cemetery with the piece of glass slipper. He finds the cemetery and Abigail and Lauren Mills’ graves (his daughter and wife), which is a dark moment because he was just finding a sense of hope which was now taken away.
At the end of the episode, Victoria is intercepting a large box from someone and heads into a bunker where she reveals that she’s dug up Anastasia (or her coffin). Victoria has sought out a mysterious woman for help who is supposedly her prisoner, but she has decided that Victoria is on her own. Victoria insists that this woman is her prisoner, but the woman says that in their own way, they are both prisoners. The woman says she might destroy Jacinda and Lucy and end up getting Anastasia back but then she’ll have to deal with her (who’s this crazy lady?).
What did you think of ‘The Garden of Forking Paths’? Did you like getting more background on our new characters? Sound off in the comments below!
