Recap / Once Upon a Time S2 E8 "Into the Deep"

Season 2, Episode 8:

Into the Deep

Aurora: I was cursed to spend eternity in that horrible sleep. And the only reason I'm here is because you and Phillip risked your lives to save me. Every day since my waking has been a gift so let me do something with it. It's my turn to help someone else. I'm going to go back in and find that boy.

Henry: So this is how you do it. Magic.
Regina: There are many ways. It's never easy.

Cora does everything in her power to steal the compass away from Mary Margaret and Emma in her quest to find the entrance to Storybrooke. Meanwhile, in order to protect Henry from further danger, Regina and Mr. Gold must put David's life in jeopardy instead in an attempt to put him in contact with Mary Margaret across the lands, in hopes they can pass on vital information that could help her and Emma return through the portal back.

Tropes

• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Cora lampshades this quality in Snow and Emma, as proof that even if they don't know Aurora they will still try to protect and save her because that's what heroes do...so they can be manipulated this way into giving her the compass. This also appears in Henry being willing to risk the room of fire because he wants to be a hero rather than read about them, something which has appeared since the start of this season and will only become more prominent as the show goes on.
• Couch Gag: The title card features Cora's zombies.
• Defiant Captive: Aurora, after the zombies under Cora's control kidnap her. Or as Cora herself puts it, she's plucky.
• Dramatic Irony: Because she's the only one who can reach the room of fire (or so it seems), Aurora the Sleeping Beauty has to...keep going back to sleep in order to make contact with Henry. The very fact she was saved from that curse, however, is why she's willing to do it, since she sees each day now as a gift which she wants to repay.
• Enemy Mine: Regina tells Gold he will help her because of the one person they both don't want in their new world: Cora.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Evil Queen and Rumplestiltskin work to stop Cora and Hook from coming to Storybrooke.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Emma, Snow, and Mulan are forced to do this, having been told by Cora that she will kill Aurora if they don't give her the compass. Emma wants to keep the compass; Mulan wants to save Aurora.
• Godzilla Threshold: Because neither he nor Regina will countenance Henry endangering his life again, Charming is willing to go under the Sleeping Curse to meet with Snow instead. Helped somewhat by the fact he believes she'll be able to kiss him awake once they meet, but even without that he would believe it's worth the risk.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Hook seems to be riding this all episode—offering to help Cora get the compass back after Emma betrayed him, freeing Aurora from Cora's cell when the latter abandons him, but also taking her heart so as to help Cora fool Snow and Emma into doing what Cora wants. In actuality, it's more Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and he's really in it just for himself, doing whatever it takes (and working with whoever he has to) to get his revenge.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: Cora kidnaps Aurora and threatens to kill her unless Emma, Snow and Mulan give her the magic compass.
• Idiot Ball: Aurora gets captured by Cora, whom we've already seen impersonate Lancelot, and yet when she turns up again they don't even suspect any trap. It's a trap.
• It's All My Fault: Emma falls into this, after realizing Henry is trapped in the nightmare room of fire because she refused to believe him about Regina and the curse, thus leading to him eating the poisoned apple turnover. Not only does Snow call her on the fact that nobody in Emma's situation (i.e. a person in the real world, without the proof of magic and fairy tales come to life that the Enchanted Forest folk have) would have believed Henry, she points out that really all of this could be laid at her feet, due to her actions with Cora and Daniel starting the whole Cycle of Revenge—and then moving on to say that instead of playing Misery Poker on just who should feel most to blame, they should instead focus on getting back to their loved ones and doing what they can to do better in the future.
• Motivated by Fear: Interestingly, while things such as love, loyalty, and determination all have their parts, fear also motivates a number of characters in this episode—David's fear for Henry's safety prompts him to go under the Sleeping Curse instead; when he can't be woken except in the waking world, Snow's fear of him being trapped forever motivates her to do anything to get back to Storybrooke, even kill Mulan to get the compass back; Mulan's fear that they will never find a means to stop Cora in time causes her to steal the compass and run while Emma is distracted watching over the sleeping Snow; and Gold and Regina's fear of Cora making it to Storybrooke causes them to work together with Henry and David to get Emma and Snow the information they need to stop her. Unsurprisingly, because a number of these motives are mutually exclusive, this causes a great deal of conflict that fuels the plot.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Sort of; Hook, a normal, is suddenly capable of taking Aurora's heart. But the very next episode explains how he did it, thanks to Regina's spell on his hook.
• Nonindicative Title: One of the few episode titles without an immediately obvious meaning. Most likely it refers to first Henry and Aurora, then David and Mary Margaret, having to go into the deepest of sleeps to reach the room of fire.
• No-Sell: Charming is convinced that once he gets to Snow in the room of fire and gives her the information, she can give him True Love's Kiss and he'll be freed of the curse. But because it's a netherworld they're not really there—so they're intangible to each other. Meaning he's trapped until Snow can make it back to Storybrooke and kiss him for real.
• Nothing Is Scarier: The way Snow describes being under the Sleeping Curse, trapped in darkness, lost and cut off from everyone you love and left only with your memories of those you may never see again. When we get to see Charming there, before he reaches the room of fire, it still is this, since he's left in a shadow-filled Hall of Mirrors with nothing but endless whispers in the darkness around him.
• Oddball in the Series: This is the only episode of the show that has no flashbacks, whether to events in the Enchanted Forest's past or that of characters on Earth, as it is all focused on advancing the plot to get back to Storybrooke.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Cora makes one to Aurora, after she claims that Snow and Emma don't care about her and thus won't trade the compass for her—that if she helps her get the compass from them, she'll tell her how to get Philip's soul back from the Wraith's realm. Aurora shows her loyalty and quality, and refuses.
• Oh, Crap!: Regina when Henry reveals the obstacle preventing Snow and Emma from returning to Storybrooke: Cora, Regina's mother, is alive and pissed. It's also enough to make Gold quiver when Regina informs him.
• Our Zombies Are Different: One consequence of holding the heart of a dead person is the wielder can revive them into a zombie.
• The Reveal:
  • After Henry and Aurora cannot communicate (because she can't hear him over the fire, and then she gets awoken prematurely when the zombies attack), it takes Snow and Charming meeting in the netherworld instead before it's finally revealed how they can stop Cora and get the wardrobe ashes from her—freezing her the same way Rumple was frozen by Cinderella's contract. It's also revealed this was accomplished via squid ink, not the quill itself, and that there is still a bottle of it in Rumple's old cell.
  • After going the whole episode making it unclear whether he can be trusted, Hook finally reveals at episode's end that he took Aurora's heart before waking and freeing her, thus allowing Cora to control her and fool Emma and Snow so she can get the compass back.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mulan's method of putting Snow to sleep so she can get the information they need from Henry/David is to use pollen from poppies. Between this, the mention of the ruby slippers several episodes prior, and Regina speaking of the spell book turning her skin green in "We Are Both", and it's clear the writers were intending to use Oz well before Zelena's appearance next season.
  • Also, the fact Cora uses a raven to send her ultimatum to Snow and Emma is rather reminiscent of Maleficent in Disney's Sleeping Beauty.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Snow translates the squawks of a raven to "Give Cora the compass or she'll kill Aurora."
• Tragic Intangibility: Prince Charming reunites with Snow White in a dream-world shared by all those who undergo the Sleeping Curse, which Charming inflicted on himself just to see Snow again. This gives them the chance to speak again, but upon trying to kiss each other, the two pass through each other, emphasizing that they're only reunited in a passing dream.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Played with; first Mulan starts speaking about "doing things the old-fashioned way", then Gold continues from this same phrase, but they are describing two different means of inducing sleep, the poppies and the Sleeping Curse via spinning wheel spindle.
• Undying Loyalty: Charming to Snow; Mulan to Philip (and Aurora). Played with in that the consequences of this are shown to be reckless and dangerous, and in the latter's case even unheroic.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Because of the cross-purposes outlined above, this is the state of affairs for Emma and Snow's group this episode—they're willing to do anything to find a portal and get home, while Mulan is willing to do anything to protect Aurora. Amusingly, some of this is also true of Hook and Cora, who continually betray or plot against each other until finally getting on the same allied page by episode's end; ironically, it's the heroes and villains in Storybrooke (David, Henry, Gold, and Regina) who are better able to work together at the moment.