Recap / Once Upon a Time S5 E2 "The Price"

Season 5, Episode 2:

The Price

In the present, the Storybrooke residents try to find a way to stop Emma, now the Dark One. It's complicated by the arrival of King Arthur and his knights to the town. In the past of Camelot, a deadly choice made by Regina can cause chaos in the modern day.

Tropes

• Achilles' Heel: Although she blames everyone else for failing her, Emma backpedals slightly and says Henry did nothing wrong; this and how she is visibly upset when he recoils from her touch and tells him he doesn't have to be afraid of her proves she still loves him. Her lonely moment of watching everyone at the diner also suggests she does still love and miss her family, and wants to be with them. The voice of Darkness states that this love is her weakness and must be destroyed if she is to truly master her power.
• ...And That Little Boy Was Me: Percival tells Regina the story of a horrible queen who destroyed a young boy's town, and how that young boy became a knight to avenge his fallen friends and family. She realizes she's the Queen he's talking about just before he attacks her.
• Anti-Villain: Percival wanting revenge for the burning of his hometown is understandable, but in doing so, he attempts to assassinate a reformed woman who is now the Savior of Camelot.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Regina clearly has no memory of the young boy who survived the massacre of a village she commanded.
• Butt-Monkey: Zelena in this episode, but she does deserve it.
• Chain of People: Snow, David, Arthur and Leroy join Regina to save Robin from the Fury.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Arthur seems to have this, as he practically jumps at the chance to save Robin Hood by sacrificing part of his life for the Fury.
• Continuity Nod: Not only is Grumpy's moment at the ball with Belle a reminder of the friendship they shared back in the Enchanted Forest (and not seen since Season 2), but it's about the very thing Belle once inspired in Dreamy: hope.
• Couch Gag: The title card features Merlin's tree.
• Crystal Ball: The necklace Percival gives to Regina turns out to be one of these, to allow him to scry on her and get the proof she is the Evil Queen and not the Savior.
• Equivalent Exchange: The majority of the episode centers around this thanks to Regina asking Emma to save Robin's life after he took a hit for her from a poisoned sword. Emma saves Robin's life but takes no other life in return as the rules dictate she must. In Storybrooke, a Fury shows up to exact payment for Robin's life being spared, and Regina begins to offer her life in exchange, but Mary Margaret, David, Grumpy, and Arthur all join her, and thus no one needs to die. It's likely safe to assume, though, that their lives have been shortened as a result.
• The Ferryman: When the Fury opens up a portal to the underworld, a hooded figure on a boat appears from out of the fog to take Robin away.
• Genre Blindness: In a normal fairy tale, Sir Percival would be a Knight in Shining Armor seeking revenge against the villain who burned down his hometown. However, Regina has since pulled a Heel–Face Turn and identities on Once Upon a Time are more complicated than that, which turns this into Revenge Before Reason.
• Genre Savvy: On the other hand, thanks to her previous knowledge of how Regina and Rumple cast/created the Dark Curse, Emma claims that her new curse is unbreakable because she didn't weave a Savior into it as a means to break it—and even if she had, there is no Savior anymore now that she's embraced the Darkness.
• Got Volunteered: Sort of; Dopey did join the other dwarves in refusing to cross the town line, but because he had to use a written note, Grumpy used his silence as a technicality to make him cross.
• History Repeats: Thanks to the curse's memory wipe, Henry ends up introducing Violet to modern music twice, with the same song no less. Interestingly, despite the curse, Violet still has a sense of deja vu.
• Holding Hands: David to Regina to Snow to Leroy. Notably, Arthur grabs David's wrist instead.
• Idiot Ball:
  • The Dwarves are hesitant to cross the town line, knowing from experience that bad stuff happens. Dopey does it anyway.
  • Also applies to Regina. She puts on a strange, glowy pendant given to her by a stranger in a strange land and doesn't think to give it the once over. Doubly so, considering the type of magic used by the pendant is likely the same magic that she imbues mirrors with to spy on her enemies. Frequently.
• Kill the Ones You Love: This is the advice the voice of Darkness is giving Emma—that the only way to have full power is to kill everyone you loved before becoming the Dark One, whether friends, family, or lovers.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: It's confirmed Emma cast this new curse that made everyone forget their memories in Camelot and only a new Savior can crack it.
• Loophole Abuse: The price for sending away a Fury without it taking someone through the portal to the underworld is for a life to be given in exchange. But no one said it had to be a single person's life—so Mary Margaret, David, Arthur, and Leroy are all able to join with Regina and thus give enough life-force to satisfy the price without anyone dying.
• Love Interest: Henry develops a crush on a girl from Camelot named Violet.
• Mythology Gag: As in Arthurian canon, Merlin is trapped inside a tree.
• Never My Fault: Played with. When Regina visits the comatose Gold, she once again launches into her usual spiel of him having made her the Evil Queen...but then instead of just blaming him, she says she will prove him and everyone else wrong about her. And in the end, though Emma accuses her of continuing to think this way, it is Regina accepting responsibility for what she didn't do in Camelot that inspires the others to join with her in facing down the Fury—by proving she would accept blame in order to help others, she actually made it so it was about all of them, not just her.
• No-Sell: Percival was smart enough to make his sword impervious to Regina's magic; even the wounds inflicted with the sword aren't affected by it.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Emma is shown to have both Excalibur and the Dark One's dagger, and with a reforged Excalibur, she can ensure The Bad Guy Wins, but this trope is standing in her way, as Excalibur is back in the stone, and she's not worthy.
• The Power of Love: Is not enough for Hook and True Love's Kiss to save Emma, because like Rumple she has embraced the darkness and does not want to be saved. However, this plus The Power of Trust is how Regina proves herself a Savior after all—by inspiring the others to join with her in standing up to the Fury, thus literally uniting them all the same way Emma once did figuratively.
• Prophecies Are Always Right: ...but according to Guinevere, suffer from the Prophetic Fallacy. "Merlin always tells us what, but never how."
• Revenge: Sir Percival tries to kill Regina, because back when she was the Evil Queen, she destroyed his village.
• Revenge Before Reason: One of Arthur's knights tries to kill the person his king believes is the savior of a prophecy because that person used her horrible, unbeatable magic to wipe out a town years ago, with more than three decades for her to get more powerful. Doesn't end great for him.
• Screw Destiny: By stepping into the Savior role to protect Emma from being corrupted by her magic, but still declaring she would be the one to free Merlin, Regina declares this.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The dwarves decide that Emma becoming the Dark One is the last straw and plan to get out of town.
• Self-Serving Memory: Emma claims, when Regina accuses her of having summoned the Fury and therefore must be the one who has to pay the price to make it go away, that Regina is the one who has to pay it because she refused to do so in Camelot. But when the scene plays out six weeks in the past, although it was Regina who begged Emma to heal Robin, it was her own choice to do so (Regina did not compel her with the dagger) and she simply swore she'd find another, different way so another life would not have to be paid in exchange. Since the result of this was her beginning to develop the "Dark One" skin, it would seem Emma was either lying or simply convinced herself after giving in to the darkness that it was Regina's fault for making the plea in the first place. That said, she was correct that Regina didn't pay the price either.
• Shout-Out:
  • Henry summons Emma by calling her name three times, a la Beetlejuice.
  • The hand-holding scene was taken straight from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), albeit with lower-budgeted special effects.
• Take Me Instead: To save Robin from the Fury, Regina offers up her own life as payment.
• Taken for Granite: Reversed: At the end, Regina reverses Sneezy's petrification.
• Title Drop: And the last lines of the episode, no less.
  Rumpelstiltskin: If you want the sword, dearie, you're goin' to have to pay...the price.
• Transflormation: Poor, poor Dopey. And, it is implied, Merlin.
• Villainous Breakdown: Emma has a brief and subtle one, although nonetheless noticeable. When Regina helps drive off the Fury, gives her life in exchange for Robin's, and relaxes in the bar at the end of it, now being seen as perhaps the new savior of the town after all, Emma briefly goes into Tranquil Fury and glares through the windows, having not expected Regina to actually do it.
• Wham Shot: Emma is revealed to have somehow gained hold of Excalibur, which is back in the stone and hidden in the basement of her new home.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Arthur is furious that Snow, David, and Regina weren't honest with him about Emma being the Dark One. By contrast, he was not angry about them concealing Regina having been the Evil Queen once, saying Camelot "is about second chances." (Although to be fair he still thought she was the Savior at the time; if he'd known she lied about that too, he might have launched into her six weeks ago.)
  • Also, Emma calls Regina out on not only stepping into the Savior role, but forcing her not to divulge the truth by controlling her with the dagger. (As she says, she gave it to Regina to stop her from giving in to the darkness/doing evil, not simply to control her.) Regina counters that she was, in fact, doing what Emma asked her to—because if Arthur knew Emma were the Savior, he'd expect and demand she use her magic to free Merlin from the tree, when using magic again could well lead to her losing control and becoming further corrupted by the Darkness. This way Regina can solve the riddle of how to free Merlin, save Emma, and get them all home without Emma ever endangering herself again. She even defies prophecy in the process, since it was stated the Savior would be the one to free Merlin.