"Once Upon a Time" Recap: "The Broken Kingdom"

Written by Shae

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

In a new mix of things, last night we traveled between the past and distant past, before actually hitting a bit of the present at the end. What is going on you guys!? I can’t even believe what happened and I was not ready to see it. But, things do happen, and really, I should be more surprised than I really am. A few unanswered questions were finally given answers and I am not sure I like them.

All right, Arthur wasn’t always evil. He was an adorable kid and he and Gwen were sweethearts that grew into a wonderful married couple together. Cool, I approve. But, hold on a second here, what is this? Arthur had the prophecy from Merlin for a rather long time. But Merlin is still trapped within the tree. Grown up Arthur finds the sword, pulls it from the stone, is now the king, and now he’s going insane trying to find the dagger of the Dark One to unite the blade.

Gwen and Lancelot set out to find it with Merlin’s gauntlet, which shows a person's greatest weakness…so the Dagger is Arthur's greatest weakness, not his wife….that’s a bit of an issue. Turns out Lancelot and Gwen are in love with one another. Granted, it’s kind of Arthurs fault. He should have just, oh I don’t know, not gone insane. But, whatever. It apparently doesn’t matter. Instead of getting the Dagger (like Rumple would really ever let that thing go.) Gwen trades the gauntlet for a vial of sand. This magical sand has the power to make things appear ‘fixed’. I really need to get me some of that Avalon sand then… Instead of using the sand on the sword, however, Gwen comes clean about it. Arthur decides that he can’t handle her leaving, so he uses the sand on her, then the kingdom.

I guess that explains literally….everything. Things are not as they seem, and really, we should have trusted Lancelot from the very beginning. Either way, in the past/closer to present, Arthur shares the greatest secret of Camelot with David. He decides they should share the truth with the king, and Snow disagrees. After a massive fight, David takes the empty dagger box to Arthur, while Snow takes the Dagger with Lancelot to the perfect hiding place. Arthur followed them, and it’s revealed the whole thing was a total trap set by our power couple.  It all looks well, right. The good guys have won,

Just kidding! Gwen comes in to save Arthur, along with all the knights, and then some, and oh, look, she has the sand. Now David and Snow are under the spell of the sand, and they’re demanding the dagger from Regina, politely, claiming that Arthur can be trusted and that Lancelot lied. What will Regina do? Hopefully if she’s smart, she’ll get out of there. Thankfully Emma and Hook are off doing whatever, while Henry kindles a new romance.  Lancelot makes friends with Merida in the dungeons and everything is so screwed up.

In the end, Emma, present day, has Rumple tied up and is determined to make him the hero she needs. A hero she can trust…well, that and Arthur is pretty insane, and a true hero can only pull the sword from the stone. What happened to freeing Merlin? Turns out Merida is alive, and there, and Emma now has her heart and can command her. The task? Make Rumple Brave….like she is. The pun actually had me laughing. I’m really enjoying this season so far, and I’m not going to lie…I’m really concerned about next week's episode…I need to know how Emma got the dagger back and how she got them to Storybrooke.

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