Recap / Once Upon a Time S3 E19 "A Curious Thing"

Season 3, Episode 19:

A Curious Thing

Realizing the only way to learn how to defeat Zelena is if everyone gets their memories back, Emma and the others search for a way to break the curse...and realize that once again Henry is the key.

Meanwhile in the Enchanted Forest of a year ago, Charming and Snow White seek out the aid of a familiar force for good when they learn their baby is Zelena's focus—only to find out that the only way to defeat her once again demands a terrible price.

Tropes

• All Women Love Shoes: A completely random aside when everyone is digging in Mary Margaret's closet to find the storybook, thanks to David complaining. Mary Margaret's response is hilarious.
  David: Why do women keep their shoeboxes?
  Mary Margaret: Because after true love, there is no more powerful magic than footwear. It has to be protected.
• Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Glinda reveals that Zelena's emerald pendant is one of these, a focus and amplifier for her magic, which explains why she is so much more powerful than anyone else. Unfortunately for her, it's also her Achilles' Heel since she will be powerless without it.
• Big Good: Glinda is this this time around rather than the Blue Fairy, since she has the personal and magical knowledge needed to defeat Zelena. Unfortunately she is also The Exile and thus forced to be Miss Exposition.
• Bound and Gagged: Hook toward the beginning of the episode, though he is quickly released.
• Call-Back: The way the second Dark Curse is portrayed on-screen parallels the time it was seen back in the pilot episode. It features Snow on the ground with her husband in her arms with Regina standing over them as the curse's cloud overcomes them.
• Cliffhanger: Unsurprisingly after all the tension and danger of the confrontation with Zelena, the episode ends with Mary Margaret going into labor.
• Continuity Nod: When Regina and the Charmings need to figure out how to stop Zelena, Regina asks them how they stopped her, leading to them revealing they were given the key by Rumple. Then, when they need to get into his castle to appeal to him again, Regina mentions Belle having been kept prisoner there...but while she knows no way in, Robin Hood does thanks to having broken in before.
• Couch Gag: The title card features a Winged Monkey.
• Cryptic Conversation: Most everything Rumple says to Snow, Regina, and Charming. Also, Rhymes on a Dime.
• Cutting the Knot: Emma and the others decide that breaking the curse is the only way to learn how to defeat Zelena and that getting Henry to believe in magic is the key to that. They're right, since as soon as he holds the storybook he gets his memories back, and not long after that Regina kissing him breaks the curse.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Regina, thanks to her relationship with Robin. Mary Margaret takes one look at Regina's smile (after quite a lot of making out with Robin in the hallway) and knows instantly that Regina is one smitten kitten.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Zelena took account of everything that could stop her from enacting her plan—except for the strength of Neal's heart and his heroic desire for sacrifice, which allowed him to not only still be alive inside Gold but also made him strong enough to overcome his father's desire for self-preservation and vengeance long enough to send the message and memory potion to Hook for Emma.
• Forced Transformation: This time it's Aurora and Philip who become monkeys, simply for coming clean and telling Snow and Charming about Zelena's intentions.
• Foreshadowing: Robin asks Regina to use his heart for both of them until hers is recovered. This calls ahead to Charming and Snow being able to literally share one heart.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Charming, to allow Snow to cast the Dark Curse.
• Kick the Dog: Zelena shows up to interfere with the curse only after Charming's heart has already been crushed...and taunts Snow White how without their memories his sacrifice was for nothing.
• Loophole Abuse: Hook thinks he's figured out a way to avoid cursing Emma without costing Henry his life—have Smee sail him to New York. Unfortunately Zelena and her monkeys have other ideas.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Snow sacrifices Charming's heart, rather than the other way around. Because Snow is the one who's pregnant, of course.
• Mythology Gag: Glinda finally appears—and not only is she the Witch of the South (rather than the North, as in the MGM film), she claims to have once been Zelena's friend long ago. (Also note Rumple's pronunciation is "Galinda.")
• Nonindicative Title: Another example of an episode title neither spoken by any of the characters nor given any symbolic meaning, although it could conceivably apply to a number of developments—the way the storybook appears whenever hope is needed, how Charming is able to survive the casting of the Dark Curse, the manner of finding Glinda, how the curse is broken, how the message and memory potion got to Hook, and so forth. Since it's actually a partial quote of a lyric in Huey Lewis and the News' "The Power of Love" (used in Back to the Future), it's likely meant to refer to the second option, the splitting of Snow's heart which allows Charming's survival.
• Only the Pure of Heart: The condition for getting through the magical door in the Dark Forest to reach Glinda. (Apparently Zelena's magic could set this even though she herself cannot meet it.) Proof that even after what happened in season two, Snow's heart is still good enough—probably because of her having made amends with Regina and being so willing to sacrifice herself to stop Zelena.
• Personality Powers: The Dark Curse seems to change depending on the character of the person casting it. All three depictions so far feature the curse as a stormy cloud billowing over everything, but compared to the last two times, it's far less aggressive and violent than Pan's or the initial one cast by Regina. As this one was cast by the reluctant Snow out of desperation instead of evil or vengeance, it accordingly adopted a much more gentle way of spreading through the kingdom.
• The Power of Love: The reason why Emma's magic is key to defeating Zelena, because she is the product of True Love—a love so powerful, in fact, that it allows Snow's heart to be split in two and thus sustain both herself and Charming.
• The Reveal:
  • The curse wasn't cast by Zelena, but by Snow and Charming, to get them back to Emma. Zelena was, however, responsible for everyone forgetting.
  • Only Emma's magic can defeat Zelena.
  • It was Neal, not Snow, who sent the message and potion to Hook for Emma. And unless the memory of this came back to Gold when the curse was broken, no one will ever know.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Once again, the Dark Curse helpfully allows Zelena, Snow and Regina to do exactly what they want before going to Storybrooke. Bear in mind they're standing right next to it.
• Third-Act Misunderstanding: Even though she understands he was just trying to protect Henry, and he explains about the curse, Emma still rejects Hook because Henry almost died anyway and she thinks she can't trust him now.
• True Love's Kiss: Breaks the curse, once again through a mother's love. This time it's Regina kissing Henry.
• Weakened by the Light/Holy Burns Evil: The reason Emma's power can stop Zelena—Dark Is Evil, and cannot stand the power created from a love so true and pure.
• Wham Episode: The real reason the curse was cast, by whom, and its cost are all revealed, even as Henry finally remembers and the curse is broken.