Sebastian Roche makes his debut as King Stefan tonight! Preview Once Upon a Time “Enter the Dragon,” airing at 8:00pm ET|PT on ABC.
Last week’s episode of Once Upon a Time brought several secrets to light, as we began to discover the lengths Snow and Charming went to to ensure Emma’s hero status.
“Unforgiven” started with Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) waking up in the middle of the night to find the Queens of Darkness in her home. Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten) was with them, had taken baby Neil and threatened to eliminate Snow’s family. We quickly found out that this was really a dream, and when Snow really woke up, Neil was fine and Charming (Josh Dallas) was watching over him. Whatever secret these two were hiding about their history with Maleficent was really taking a toll on them. Snow and Charming vowed to get Ursula (Merrin Dungey) and Cruella (Victoria Smurfit) to leave Storybrooke before they could resurrect Maleficent.
In a flashback, we saw Snow and Charming returned from their honeymoon to discover the Queens of Darkness awaiting them at the palace. Maleficent, Ursula, and Cruella wanted to form an alliance to stop the Evil Queen from using the “dark curse.” The three discussed how the Tree of Wisdom could tell them how to defeat the “dark curse”; however, the true could only be unlocked by two valiant heroes. Ergo, the Queens needed Snow and Charming and didn’t give them any choice about coming along.
As they were traveling, Maleficent laid waste to an entire regiment of soldiers who were preventing them from crossing a bridge. At this point, Snow and Charming ran away to find the Tree of Wisdom themselves. Unfortunately, when they approached, the tree knocked them back. Apparently Snow was pregnant (eeeeeeep) and the child (Emma) would have the potential for the greatest darkness…YIKES. After they parted ways, Maleficent came to see Snow to once again ask for an alliance. She was pregnant too and, for the sake of their children, had to find a way to defeat Regina. But Snow refused to work with Maleficent and her dark methods.
Back in the present, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Charming were trailing Ursula and Cruella (after they stole a box from Belle (Emilie de Ravin)/Mr. Gold’s shop); yet, Emma was very suspicious about what her parents really had against the Queens. After pulling Ursula and Cruella to search their car, we saw that Charming secretly took a something from the Queens—Maleficent’s totem. This obviously meant Ursula and Cruella were planning to resurrect her.
So, Charming and Snow decided to gather the remains and dump them in the harbor. Once they reached the cavern, they found the ashes…as well as Ursula and Cruella. They had lured Charming and Snow underground because to bring Maleficent back, they needed the blood of the people who had wronged her the most. Then Maleficent was back and determined to revel in the Charmings’ pain as their world crumbled. What in the world had they done to her?!
Well, we finally found out some of the truth when Snow made a confession to Regina (Lana Parrilla)—because of Snow and Charming’s actions (likely in an effort to protect Emma’s hero-status), Maleficent lost her baby. WOW.
Elsewhere, Henry (Jared Gilmore) and Regina continued Operation Mongoose and were looking though the Fairy Tale book for any clues about finding the Author. Regina started to doubt the possibility of her happy ending, especially with the Queens of Darkness in town bringing up her former sins. Upon closer evaluation of the book, they remembered that August/Pinochio (Eion Bailey) altered the Fairy Tale book.
Regina, Henry, and Emma went to visit Pinochio (Jakob Davies) and Geppetto (Tony Amendola), who didn’t remember anything. Regina got quite frustrated and yelled at the young boy…Geppetto didn’t take kindly to the harsh words and really laid into her. What made Regina believe she of all people deserved a happy ending? When Regina came back to apologize, Geppetto gave her August’s backpack from his travels. Perhaps there would be a clue to the Author inside.
Other developments:
- Killian (Colin O’Donoghue) was clearly hiding his former interactions/relationship with Ursula, and Emma was disappointed. This, compounded by her parents’ odd behavior made Emma very weary of all the secrets. However, in the end, she decided to make the choice to see the best in people, Killian included.
- Ursula and Cruella had convinced Rumple (Robert Carlyle) that Belle had moved on from him. This was seemingly confirmed when Rumple spied Belle kissing Will Scarlet (Michael Socha). WHOA. (*sidenote* was that real, or some sort of hallucination???)
In tonight’s episode “Enter the Dragon,” written by David H. Goodman and Jerome Schwartz, directed by Ralph Hemecker, and guest-starring Sebastian Roche as King Stefan and Sarah Bolger as Aurora:
In order to infiltrate the Queens of Darkness as a spy for the heroes, Regina must prove she’s still willing to get her hands dirty. Meanwhile, Emma, David and Mary Margaret scramble to keep tabs on their undercover operative. Hook requests an unusual favor from Belle as Henry makes progress on his search for the Author. In a Fairy Tale Land flashback, Regina befriends Maleficent and helps her to rekindle her lost spark. (via ABC)
Take a look at these two sneak peeks from the upcoming episode that show us how Regina puts her plan into motion. In the first clip, Regina meets the Queens of Darkness at Granny’s. She has to convince them that she wants vengeance too, but Maleficent wants to put her to the test.
And in the second video, Snow, Charming, Emma, and Killian secretly meet Regina. Emma thinks it’s a bad idea for her to continue her undercover work, but Regina has already discovered how the Queens of Darkness plan to find the Author:
Two things: first, LOL forever at “pirate mascot”! Second, I love that SwanQueen is still a team!
I’m also really excited about Sebastian Roche making his debut and King Stefan. Roche is so good at playing a baddie (see The Originals and Scandal as evidence). Plus, since Disney’s live-action Maleficent and finding out the truth behind her relationship with Stefan and the history between them, I’m eager to see how Once Upon a Time builds on that!
Remember to tune into ABC at 8:00pm ET|PT tonight for “Enter the Dragon,” and join me over on twitter to live tweet as we watch!
