Recap / Once Upon a Time S2 E9 "Queen of Hearts"

Season 2, Episode 9:

Queen of Hearts

Cora: You won’t even notice. You’ll be frozen, like all those in this corner of the land. But, when the curse ends, our quest will resume. And, when it does, Regina will truly have lost everything, and then she’ll need me. That’s when we’ll go to this new land. You’ll get your revenge. And me, I’ll…help her pick up the pieces.

Mr. Gold: I created the curse, dearie, but I didn’t make you. I merely took advantage of what you are – the product of true love. That’s why you’re powerful. And everything you’ve done, you’ve done yourself.

Cora and Captain Hook face off with Mary Margaret and Emma in a race to secure the compass, which will point its holder to the portal into Storybrooke. But back on the other side, Regina and Mr. Gold, desperate to keep Cora out, put a plan into action that would kill anyone entering the portal, placing Mary Margaret’s and Emma’s lives in danger as well. Meanwhile, back in the Enchanted Forest that was, Captain Hook travels to Wonderland and meets up with a vengeful Queen of Hearts.

Tropes

• And the Adventure Continues: Mulan and Aurora's Story Arc ends with the two of them setting off to rescue Prince Philip.
• Because Destiny Says So: Subverted. Emma believes everything she is and has done as the Savior was all Rumple's doing, but while he did tie her to the curse so she could break it, he didn't make her the Savior—being the product of True Love did that. So the magic she has in her (including that which defeated Cora) is all hers, and what she does next as a hero is also her own choice, something which will have repercussions all the way to the end of Season Six.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Lake Nostos, which was first used to restore Frederick, then restore Snow's ability to have children, returns again as the means to restore the magic to the wardrobe ashes and thus create a portal to Storybrooke. And when that fails thanks to Emma, Mulan, and Mary Margaret, it is used once more, this time to restore the dried-up magic bean Hook took from Anton, thus giving him and Cora the way to sail the Jolly Roger to Storybrooke.
• Chekhov's Gun: The magic bean mentioned above. Hook took it from the giant as a souvenir (and to taunt Emma with) but after she and Mary Margaret make it through the portal, restoring it with the lake allows him and Cora to still make it to Storybrooke.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Regina and Hook end up on screen at the same time. Naturally, this conversation occurs.
  Regina: You remember Claude.
  Hook: Can't say that I do.
  Regina: You killed him in the cell block.
  Hook: Ah, yes. I didn't recognize him without my hook in his neck.
• Continuity Nod: Cora states the same thing Gold did in "A Land Without Magic", and which both Abigail and August said in "What Happened to Frederick", that the waters of Lake Nostos can restore what is lost. The fact the portal she creates ends up opening out in Storybrooke's wishing well is yet more proof (along with the Arc Words) that the well contains some of the lake's waters.
• Couch Gag: The title card features the geyser from Lake Nostos.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • The whole point of going through the nightmare room of fire, to obtain the information on how to stop Cora, was to lead them to the squid ink...which thanks to Cora's trap via Aurora, they end up having to use to escape the cell instead. But in the end they don't even need it to stop her, since Mulan's magic sword and Emma's immunity to heart-stealing (and light magic) help them beat her.
  • Also, in the previous episode Mulan was so determined to save Aurora that she was willing to betray the others and take the compass to Cora (which in turn brought Snow to the point of killing her to get it back). Now in this episode after saving Aurora's heart, it's Snow who is determined Mulan take it back to save Aurora, while Mulan is determined to stay and help them get the compass back.
• Ear Trumpet: Sort of. The Queen of Hearts whispers into a trumpet which is held to her assistant's ear. Perhaps an inversion of the trope?
• Easily Forgiven: Emma has no problem with the fact that Gold and Regina tried to kill anyone coming through the portal, since stopping Cora would have protected Henry and the rest of Storybrooke. Gold had fully expected to be chewed out.
• Enemy Mine: Regina and Gold working together to prevent Cora from coming to Storybrooke.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Hook won't let Aurora's heart fall through the portal "because a woman should never lose her heart, unless it's over him." (Presumably, this is how he justified stealing her heart in the first place.)
• Faking the Dead: Cora, in the flashbacks.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: It makes your heart impossible to steal, for one.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Emma was going to perform one for Mary Margaret, letting her heart be taken by Cora instead.
• Kind Restraints: Knowing that she cannot be trusted so long as Cora has her heart, Aurora forces Emma, Snow and Mulan to tie her to Rumpelstiltskin's cell until Cora has been defeated. Mulan promises to get Aurora's heart back, and eventually succeeds.
• Love Is a Weakness: After it seems as if Regina wanted Hook to kill Cora because she hated her for what she did to Daniel and so never wanted her in her life again, it turns out she took this lesson of her mother's to heart...and since she did still love Cora, saw her as her weakness, thus not wanting her in Storybrooke where she could be used against her. This reveal is also why Cora doesn't go through with her plan to kill her, since it tells her that when Regina loses everything (because knowing Rumple as she does, she knows the curse will eventually be broken), she will be able to sweep in, pick up the pieces, and gain power through Regina again, because of her daughter's love for her being her weakness.
  • Subverted, however, by Emma's Savior powers; see Heart Is an Awesome Power, No-Sell, and Shut Up, Hannibal!.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While stopping Cora from crossing over was important, in the end it wasn't necessary...in which case Gold and Regina wasted the fairy dust diamonds for nothing, when it could have been used directly against Cora later. Not to mention a number of subsequent threats.
• No-Sell: Heart-snatching, on Emma.
  • Ditto on Cora, but this is because she's Crazy-Prepared.
• The Reveal: The Queen of Hearts is Cora, though there were enough clues strewn about in previous episodes that it didn't come as a huge surprise.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!
  Cora: Oh, you foolish girl! Don't you know love is weakness?
  Emma: No. It's strength.
• Time Stands Still: How Cora and Hook escaped the Dark Curse, thanks to a magical barrier dome she erected. This also explains why the area where Aurora's castle was, and Lancelot's island, was spared, and why Mulan and Philip were frozen unaging as well.
• Wham Episode: The Queen of Hearts is Cora. Emma has magic and has returned to the real world with her mother. Cora and Hook have appeared in the real world as well, ready to exact their revenge.