Recap / Once Upon a Time S2 E3 Lady of the Lake

Season 2, Episode 3:

Lady of the Lake

Centric Characters: Snow White, Prince Charming

Previous: We Are Both | Next: The Crocodile

King George: Family is everything, my dear. Losing all hope of having one... there is no greater misery.

Mulan: It's dangerous to confuse vengeance with justice.

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FLASHBACK! Charming is leading a battle planning session when Red bursts in to tell him that King George's men are coming and they should skedaddle. Charming doesn't want to back down but Red warns them that the approaching forces are led by King George's newest general, known as "The Leviathan" for his habit of completely destroying his enemies. As Snow asks how close they are, she is answered by an arrow landing in the table before her. As the soldiers close in, Charming tells Snow to run without him since he's their target, and to meet him in two days at "the cabin".

Snow: The cabin?! Where she is? Are you sure?
Charming: We're engaged! I think it's about time you met my mother.

As Snow starts to flee, she is intercepted by the Leviathan himself, whose face is covered by chainmail.

Snow: What kind of general hides behind a mask? Who are you really, Leviathan?
"Leviathan": "Leviathan"? That's what they're calling me? <removes helmet> Name's Lancelot.
Snow: Lancelot? Of the Round Table?
Lancelot: Not anymore.

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Cora explains to Emma that the encampment they're imprisoned in is treated as a "haven", as the Enchanted Forest has become a much more dangerous place after the Dark Curse took most people away. Emma asks why Cora was imprisoned here, and she answers that she's seen as a threat because her daughter, Regina, was the one to cast the Dark Curse, though she claims that "the apple fell very far from the tree". Somehow knowing that Emma came from "over there", Cora starts to ask how they made it to the Enchanted Forest when Mary Margaret wakes up and is horrified to see who their cellmate is.

Cora: Oh, Snow, you're awake. I'm so relieved.
Mary Margaret: <to Emma> As bad as you think Regina is, this woman is worse.
Cora: Oh, Snow. Sweet Snow, please. Believe me. Whatever she told you, isn't true. I just want to help you.
Emma: Let's hear her out.
Mary Margaret: Emma.
Emma: Okay, right now we are at the bottom of a hole with no other options, and Henry is back in Storybrooke with Regina.
Cora: Who's Henry?
Emma: My son I'm kind of sharing with Regina. It's complicated.
Mary Margaret: Don't! Talk to her!

At this point they are interrupted by a villager who tells them that their leader wants an audience with them.

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David walks Henry to the school bus and explains that Jefferson won't help them, so he needs to find a way to repair the hat himself. Henry wants to help but David doesn't want him getting too close to magic and insists he go to school and be safe. So naturally, Henry books it as soon as David isn't looking.

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Mary Margaret warns Emma to not underestimate Cora or any other danger they meet in the Enchanted Forest as they walk to their meeting with the leader, who turns out to be Mary Margaret's old friend Lancelot. Watching from a distance, Aurora is less than pleased with the warm welcome given to the people she holds responsible for Phillip's death. Mulan tells Aurora that since Phillip trusted Lancelot, they should too.

Aurora: I want justice.
Mulan: Tread carefully. It's dangerous to confuse vengeance with justice.

Aurora seemingly concedes to Mulan's point, but when Mulan leaves she unsheathes a dagger.

Mary Margaret asks how Lancelot and his people escaped the Curse, but all he knows is that the Curse spared a region of the Enchanted Forest and no one knows why. Lancelot tells them it would be safest if they stayed in the safe haven since the ogres have taken over the outside world, but Mary Margaret insists that they have to find a way to get back to Storybrooke. She has an idea, but feels unsafe speaking about it when Cora is nearby. Lancelot assures Mary Margaret that Cora lost her magic when the Curse hit, but Mary Margaret isn't taking any chances. Lancelot decides to have Mulan accompany Mary Margaret and Emma on their quest.

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FLASHBACK! Lancelot takes Snow to King George. George has Lancelot fetch some water for Snow as he explains to her that he was once in love, but the relationship turned to pain when his wife drank a potion that cursed her with infertility. To try to recover he made a deal for an adopted son, but he was killed so George sought a replacement in Charming. And we all know how that turned out. For his revenge against Charming, George wants to inflict not death but the same pain he suffered, and Snow realizes that the water she drank like a schmuck was spiked with the same infertility potion that cursed George's wife.

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As they gear up for the trip, Mulan sternly instructs Mary Margaret and Emma to follow her lead exactly. Emma still has a confidence boost from killing a dragon, but Mulan warns her that ogres are not to be underestimated. While Aurora ominously follows in the background, Mary Margaret explains that the plan is to go to her old castle and see if the enchanted wardrobe is still there.

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At the Storybrooke docks, Jefferson stares at a missing poster for himself, hand-drawn by Paige, when Henry shows up.

Henry: Jefferson. Right? The Mad Hatter? I need your help.
Jefferson: Look, I already told your grandfather. I can't do anything.
Henry: I know, but there must be something we can do.
Jefferson: I'm the wrong person to talk to, kid. Magic's not my thing. Try your mother. Maybe she's got something in that vault of hers she can help you with.
Henry: Vault? Her vault is here? In Storybrooke?
Jefferson: It's none of my business. Talk to her.

Henry then sees the missing poster as Jefferson hastily puts it away.

Henry: What's that? Your daughter's looking for you, isn't she?
Jefferson: What do you know about it?
Henry: I read your story! I know how the two of you were separated! Why are you here? She's at school!
Jefferson: <gets up to leave> I gotta go home, kid.
Henry: She probably wants to see you!
Jefferson: Get out of my way. Get out of my way.
Henry: Why aren't you going to find her?
Jefferson: Because I left her! She'll hate me.
Henry: How do you know that?
Jefferson: I was on my way. But… fate reminded me I shouldn't.
Henry: You should. I've been left too. Anything's better than nothing. She'll spend her whole life wondering why you left her. Not knowing is the worst.

Regina's phone rings as she's packing her things out of the mayoral office, and to her surprise it's Henry calling, asking to meet for lunch. Overjoyed, Regina immediately agrees and hurries off, but of course this is a con as Henry sneaks into the office and steals her ring of creepy skull keys.

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Arriving at a clearing, Mulan decides they should make camp here for the night. Mary Margaret assures Emma that since ogres are blind and hunt by sound, they'll be safe to make a fire and asks her to stand guard while she and Mulan go looking for supplies.

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FLASHBACK! King George's men dump Snow at a random stretch of forest, but it's not long before Lancelot returns. Snow ambushes him and gains the upper hand, but Lancelot tells her he's here to help since he's thoroughly unimpressed with George's act of cursing Snow. He proves his loyalty to her by revealing that George is sending a squad to the cabin to kill Charming's mother, and Snow remembers that Charming will be there too.

At the cabin, Charming sends Ruth inside as he hears the soldiers coming. He manages to single-handedly kill them all unscathed, but sees that Ruth has been hit with an arrow, having come back out because she thought he was hurt. Snow and Lancelot arrive, and Ruth is delighted to finally meet her future daughter-in-law.

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Aurora tries to assassinate Mary Margaret as she collects firewood, which ends with Aurora getting body slammed and chewed out. Mulan arrives and argues that she'll deal with Aurora, before Emma turns up and fires a warning shot from her gun, even though she was literally just told that ogres hunt by sound. The four women run and split up as an ogre approaches, but Emma trips and is left alone as the ogre emerges from the trees. The ogre bears down on Emma, swiping her gun and crushing it, before Mary Margaret draws it attention and shoots it in the eye, killing it.

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FLASHBACK! Lancelot examines Ruth's injury and sees that the arrow was tipped with a powerful poison, and not even fairy magic would be able to heal it. Charming remembers his visit to Lake Nostos and tells the others that its water will be able to heal Ruth. They load Ruth onto a wagon and begin the journey.

As they walk, Charming asks how Lancelot ended up leaving the Round Table, and he answers that, like Charming, he fell in love. Charming and Lancelot go to scout ahead, leaving Snow alone with Ruth. Ruth happily tells Snow that Charming has always dreamed of having a family of his own, and shows her an amulet passed down by her mother. The amulet is supposedly enchanted to reveal the sex of a woman's firstborn child by the direction it swings (North/South for male, East/West for female). Snow tries to decline but Ruth insists and holds the amulet over Snow's palm. To Ruth's disappointment and Snow's expectation, the amulet doesn't swing at all. Ruth sees Snow starting to get emotional and asks what's wrong, and Snow reveals how the King cursed her. Ruth assures Snow that the water of Lake Nostos will be able to break the curse.

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Aurora complains as she lags behind the group, and Mulan reminds her that she has no one to blame but herself for her predicament. Emma lends Aurora her jacket as a goodwill gesture before they see the ruins of the castle in the distance.

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FLASHBACK! The group arrives to where Lake Nostos should be, but to their shock they find only a dry basin.

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At the Storybrooke cemetery, Henry arrives at the Mills family mausoleum which matches the illustration of the Queen's vault in the storybook. Inside, Henry sees scratch marks on the floor beside the central tomb and pushes it aside to reveal the hidden staircase. Entering the vault, Henry selects a box and opens it with a creepy skull key, revealing an angry Agrabahn Viper inside. Before it can strike, David appears out of nowhere and slams the lid shut. David explains that Regina sent him after she figured out what happened, and tells Henry that they need to work together, not alone.

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FLASHBACK! Finding the remains of the Siren, Charming realizes that Lake Nostos dried up because he killed her. Lancelot says that there could still be some small amounts of water, and soon finds a small shell with a bit of water inside which he pours into a flask. Ruth privately tells Snow that she should take the water and lift her curse, even if that means Ruth will die, but Snow refuses and they have Ruth drink it instead. Ruth assures Snow that they will find another way to lift the curse.

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Mary Margaret and Emma enter the castle nursery while Mulan and Aurora go to stand guard. Mary Margaret grows mournfully sentimental as she looks around.

Mary Margaret: This is the life I wanted you to have. I was going to teach you how to walk in here. How to talk. How to dress for your first ball. <sigh> You never got to do any of it. We never got to be a family.

Emma reminds her that they have a family now, and turns to the wardrobe.

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FLASHBACK! To Charming's horror, Ruth is not healed. He tries to look for more water but Ruth calls him back and tells him that she wants to spend her last moments with him. When she mentions that she only wishes she could see her son be married, Snow gets the idea to have Lancelot officiate a private ceremony right then and there. They share a cup of water and a kiss as Ruth watches, passing away as the ceremony ends.

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Investigating the wardrobe, Mary Margaret decides that they should take it back to the safe haven and see if someone there has enough magic to get it working. Lancelot suddenly arrives, explaining that he heard about the incident with the ogre and came to make sure they were okay.

Lancelot: So, this is it. The portal you were after.
Mary Margaret: The same one Emma went through. It's how she escaped the curse.
Lancelot: Remarkable.
Mary Margaret: Geppetto carved it from an enchanted tree, but… there's no magic left.
Lancelot: A portal this powerful… there must be another way to recharge it.
Mary Margaret: <curious> Why are you so interested in the wardrobe?
Lancelot: Well, I just want you to get home to your husband. And son. Henry. They must miss you.

Without warning, Mary Margaret draws her sword and points it at Lancelot.

Mary Margaret: Stay away from him, Emma. He is not who he says he is.
Emma: What are you talking about? Who the hell is he?
Mary Margaret: There is only one person you told Henry's name.
Emma: Cora.

Lancelot disappears in a cloud of magical smoke, replaced by Cora.

Cora: Clever girl.
Mary Margaret: Where's Lancelot?!
Cora: He's dead. I killed him a long time ago.
Mary Margaret: And you've been posing as him ever since!
Cora: Well, they'd never listen to me! And besides, every kingdom needs a hero, don't you think?

Mary Margaret tries to attack Cora but she pins her to the wall with magic and knocks Emma aside when she tries to intervene.

Cora: Thank you, Snow. I've been looking for a way over for so long. I never thought the person to help me find it would be you.
Mary Margaret: Why- Why are you doing this?
Cora: I want to see my daughter. It's been too long. And you know, I would love to meet my grandson, Henry.
Emma: No you won't!

Emma lights the wardrobe on fire using the gunpowder from her ruined gun as a propellant.

Cora: NO!

Cora starts to fight them but soon finds herself surrounded as Mulan and Aurora come running in. Cora disappears, leaving Emma and Mary Margaret to watch their way home go up in flames.

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FLASHBACK! Walking away from his mother's grave, Charming shows Snow the amulet and tells her about it, and though Snow starts to tell Charming about the curse she sees the amulet is now swinging over her hand. Realizing the curse is broken, Snow joyfully exclaims that they'll have a child. As Charming goes to prepare the horses, Snow pieces together that Ruth had conspired with Lancelot to get her to drink the water of Lake Nostos in her place, sacrificing herself for her family's future.

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Now that Lancelot is dead and Cora is at large, Mulan decides to have Mary Margaret lead their people until they can find another way back to Storybrooke. As they start to leave, Emma opens up to Mary Margaret that she used to resent her for sending her away, but now realizes that she sacrificed everything for her child. After a tearful hug, they depart for the village. Soon thereafter, Cora reappears and collects some of the wardrobe's ashes.

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Moved by Henry's words, Jefferson goes to the bus stop and reunites with his daughter, who is overjoyed to see him again. Across the street, David gifts Henry a pair of wooden swords they can use to train together. As they begin a play fight, Albert Spencer^* King George watches from his car.

Tropes

• Adaptational Heroism/Adaptational Villainy: Played with. When Lancelot first appears, he is working for King George and seems quite willing to capture or kill Snow White for him; but then after George curses her he tracks her down to protect her, then helps find the magical waters she and Charming need. In the present-day Enchanted Forest, he helps Snow, Emma, and Mulan find the wardrobe, only to turn out to be a villain...except he's actually Cora in disguise. All of this is something of a Shout-Out to the original Arthurian tales, since depending on the story Lancelot could be a hero or a villain (or at least quite the brutish, impulsive, dangerous sort).
• Assassin Outclassin': Aurora, an emotional princess, tries to murder Snow, a seasoned warrior. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
• Beware the Nice Ones: An Ogre threatens Emma. Snow takes it down... with nothing but a bow and arrow. It's down in one.
• Continuity Nod: The box that Henry opens has the Agrabahn Viper that was used to kill King Leopold in "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree".
• Couch Gag: The title card features Lancelot.
• Dead All Along/Dead Person Impersonation: Lancelot. It is actually Cora in disguise, after she killed the real Lancelot.
• Death Glare: Red gives one to Charming all "Oh come on" when he says they cannot run with their tails between their legs.
• Double-Meaning Title: It refers to the faerie creature of legend (whom Lancelot hints at in his backstory when explaining why he has an affinity for water, especially the magical kind), but it could also be applied to Ruth, since she's the one the episode revolves around and who needs the lake's magic.
• Fond Memories That Could Have Been:
  • After Ruth is poisoned by an arrow, Charming leads them to Lake Nostos for the water to save her. Along the way Ruth continually talks about the reason Charming brought Snow to her in the first place, so she could meet her son's future wife, and about getting to see and dote upon her grandchildren...except thanks to George's curse, Snow can't have children. Then, when they find the lake has dried up save for one tiny bit of water left, it (seemingly) doesn't work on Ruth, making her dreams about her grandchildren doubly impossible and leaving her only able to watch her son get married before she dies.
  • This also appears in visual form when Snow, after taking Emma to her old castle and getting to show her the ruined nursery and everything she had wanted to give her, gets to see a vision of the nursery as it once was before departing in tears.
• Foregone Conclusion: Since Charming and Snow are the proud parents of Emma, it's clear George's curse on Snow will be undone somehow. What remained to be revealed was invokedthe tragic price.
• Funny Background Event: While Snow and Lancelot are at the table discussing the events of the curse and other important matters, Emma is sampling the food and deciding that she likes the drinks offered. Also, Snow rolling her eyes at the warning Mulan gives Emma about ogres.
• Happy Ending: Thanks to Henry, Jefferson finally gets this with Grace.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Ruth sacrifices herself so that David and Snow will be able to have children by making sure Snow receives the healing water instead of herself.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Of a sort, but when Lancelot learns from Snow White that people are calling him "the Leviathan", his reaction is a mix of this and mockery of the people's superstitious exaggeration: "Is that what they're calling me now?" The fact he's a former hero being forced into something of a villainous role probably plays into it as well.
• Idiot Ball:
  • Emma shoots her gun in order to break up an argument. This is shortly after learning that ogres hunt via sound.
  • Emma tells Cora that Regina has a son named Henry, letting an evil sorceress with a history of manipulating and corrupting her own family know that she has a grandson in Storybrooke.
  • Snow drinks "water" given to her by King George, a man who clearly has it out for her.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Snow realizes when Lancelot shows up at the castle out of nowhere that he is not who he seems when he mentions Henry's name—which had only been revealed to one person in the Enchanted Forest, Cora.
• Informed Ability: Lancelot says that ogres are worse than giants, but nothing we see suggests that. They're much smaller and stupider than giants, and can be killed with a single arrow (which a giant would probably hardly even feel).
• Mama Bear: The ogre didn't stand a chance when it stood between Emma and Snow - with the latter officially gaining the title (which she'll use again in the show!) of "The Scariest Of Them All."
  • Emma burns the portal leading back home to stop Cora from getting to Henry.
• My Own Private "I Do": We find out that before the big ceremony seen in the pilot, Snow and Charming actually had their own private wedding officiated by Lancelot (a knight of the Round Table), so that Charming's mother can see her son be married before she dies from a poisoned arrow.
• Mythology Gag: Lancelot mentions that his mother raised him by a lake. In Arthurian legend, Lancelot was raised by the Lady of the Lake herself.
  • He later alludes to the legend of the Holy Grail.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The healing lake has dried up since Charming killed the Siren.
• Operation: [Blank]: Henry tries out both "Operation Scorpion" and "Operation Viper" for the plan to get Emma and Mary Margaret home.
• Race Lift: Lancelot is now black.
• Sadistic Choice: Thanks to there being only a small amount of water left from the lake, Snow White has to choose between drinking it herself to break George's curse so she and Charming can have children, or giving it to Ruth to save her life. Ruth takes the matter out of her hands by only pretending to drink it (so it seems to have failed) and directing Lancelot to put it in the wedding chalice for Snow.
• Shout-Out:
  • Lancelot's murmured blessing when they find the last bit of Lake Nostos's waters for Charming's mother, "God in His mercy, lend her grace", is a direct quote from Lancelot's words on seeing the dead title character in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott".
  • Mulan tells Emma and Snow if they do exactly as she tells them "you might survive", a line from the famous "I'll Make a Man Out of You" song from her animated movie.
• Wham Shot: King George, in Storybrooke, ominously watching Charming and Henry practice swordfighting from his car.