Season 4 Episode 14:
Enter the Dragon
Regina goes undercover to infiltrate the Queens of Darkness, while Rumpelstiltskin makes his own move. And in the fairy tale land that was, Regina meets Maleficent and founds their Villainous Friendship.
Tropes:
- Arch-Enemy: Maleficent considers the first Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose, to be her greatest enemy. Briar Rose’s happy ending sends Maleficent into a profound depression.
- Batman Gambit: Rumpelstiltskin poses as Hook and plays off of Belle's worries in order to get her to hand over the Dark One's dagger. He didn't expect that this would be undone by Regina being The Mole and telling the others he was back, however.
- Best Served Cold: Regina learns this from Maleficent, which was also the lesson Rumple was trying to teach her.
- The Bus Came Back: Pinocchio is turned back into his adult August form by Rumpelstiltskin.
- Continuity Nod: "Broken" had implied that Aurora's mother was the original Sleeping Beauty, which is confirmed here.
- Continuity Snarl: Back in "Broken", Aurora said some lines that implied she went under Maleficent's sleeping curse willingly or as some kind of sacrifice. This episode depicts Maleficent surprising her, contradicting that line.note
- Couch Gag: The title card features the burning tree with Maleficent's fire.
- Cruel Mercy: In the flashbacks, Maleficent cursing Aurora was a form of this. Rather than kill her parents for revenge, she decided to hurt them by cursing their daughter and making it impossible for Philip to wake her.
- Decomposite Character: Rather than combining Aurora and Briar Rose into one character, as Disney did, here Briar Rose is Aurora's mother and both of them suffered a Sleeping Curse, thus allowing Stefan to be both Briar Rose's husband and Aurora's father. This is a Mythology Gag to Aurora being the name Perrault gave to Sleeping Beauty's daughter, rather than the princess herself.
- Exact Words: Hook suggested that Belle test whether Rumpelstiltskin was already in Storybrooke by using the dagger to command him to face her. When nothing happened, she was convinced, but in truth, "Hook" was actually Rumpelstiltskin, so he was already facing her. He also has her swear a "pirate's oath" that neither of them would tell anyone what they had done with the dagger...including each other, thereby guaranteeing Belle would never speak to the real Hook of this and thus discover the ruse.*
- Fantastic Drug: Maleficent dilutes Sleeping Curse poison with seawater and toadstool in order to turn it into a sedative that "takes the edge off".
- Genre Savvy: Emma. "These things never go well." And she's right too, since Regina is forced to ditch Emma, then finds herself at an isolated cabin and faced with Gold himself, so she'll have no choice but to go along with whatever the villains do, probably with no chance to blunt or soften the blows let alone refrain from doing what they ask.
- The Ghost: Mentioned several times, Briar Rose has yet to make an appearance.
- Hero of Another Story: King Stefan defeated Maleficent and broke the Sleeping Curse she placed on Briar Rose.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: The Queens of Darkness want to test Regina to see if she is truly one of them...so they task her with kidnapping innocent Pinocchio. Played with, however, in that she manages to do so without truly doing anything irredeemably evil, and also that it was never the Queens' intention to torture or kill him so what they were asking wasn't that terrible of a test...other than for someone like Regina, who is truly becoming a hero and had just made up with Marco in the previous episode.
- Amusingly (yet still rather darkly), the pre-Initiation Ceremony is a Game of Chicken involving Cruella's car and an approaching train, testing both Regina's nerve and whether she was willing to let the innocent engineer get killed. (Presumably if she'd left the car on the tracks, Maleficent would have made the car intangible so that none of them would be hurt.) When she "fails" by teleporting them clear, she then turns the tables by suggesting they go find much worse trouble to get into...which ends up being getting drunk and setting a sheriff's car on fire. Since all of this eventually culminates in the Queens and Rumple re-aging Pinocchio so they actually can torture him, it seems to be a case of alternating subversions and double subversions until the true test occurs.
- Manipulative Bastard: Gold's Lie to the Beholder gambit with Belle is inspired; he doesn't even give the game away until he starts oddly urging that Belle let him hide the dagger where no one can find it, not even her. And he manages to idly milk her for information about her new relationship with Will Scarlet and what her feelings regarding Gold himself are without making Belle suspicious.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Belle "has a feeling" that somehow Gold is back in Storybrooke; too bad she can't tell he's right next to her...
- Mythology Gag: Princess Aurora's mother is named Briar Rose, a reference to The Brothers' Grimm version of Sleeping Beauty.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Regina convinces Maleficent to get cleaned up and dressed in her iconic headdress, go and absorb the fire from the perpetually-burning tree, and thus regain her ability to become a dragon. Stefan and his soldiers appear, she summons a cloud of dark magic for her transformation...only to still be her human self. It isn't until Regina breaks free and attacks their captors, thus putting them both in danger of execution, that she summons the rage and determination to truly change.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: King Stefan shows up to arrest and, presumably, execute Maleficent in order to prevent her from harming Aurora... which she had no intention of doing, until his actions served as the last kick needed to snap her out of her Villainous BSoD, after which she does go after Aurora.
- Oh, Crap!: Regina's reaction when she realizes that Rumpelstiltskin is back and working with the Queens.
- Papa Wolf: King Stefan is willing to face Maleficent to protect his daughter.
- Revenge by Proxy: Regina learned about this from Maleficent as well.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Stefan personally goes after Maleficent on the eve of his daughter’s wedding to make sure she doesn’t interfere.
- She's Back: Regina's encouragement snaps Maleficent out of her Villainous BSoD, and allows her to be the Mistress of Evil once again.
- Slasher Smile: Hook gives a wicked example just after receiving the Dark One's dagger and before revealing himself to be the Dark One in disguise. (Which is wonderful Foreshadowing of the next season!)
- A Storm Is Coming: Rumpelstiltskin tells the Queens that there's a war coming to Storybrooke, and that everyone in town is going to need to pick a side.
- Villainous BSoD: Maleficent is in a prolonged one when Regina meets her, due to her defeat in the original Sleeping Beauty tale.
- Villainous Friendship: The flashbacks show that Regina and Maleficent really were close friends back in the day, and in the present, Maleficent seems to honestly be hopeful that Regina can join the team.
