Once Upon A Time 2.1 "Broken" Review

A man walks in NY and returns to his apartment where it's raining and there's a postcard from Storybrooke which reads, 'broken.'  Back in Storybrooke everyone recalls who they are and there's a big show of hugs and kisses but Emma (Jennifer Morrison) is far from pleased.  Snow/Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin)  finally sees her daughter, as does Charming/David (Josh Dallas) and want to spend time with her but she doesn't want to.  She seems uncomfortable with the reality of them actually being her parents but it's actually for different reasons as she later reveals.  That they could let her go and separate her from them, even though it was to give her a better start.  She didn't mention there'd be no Henry (Jared S Gilmore) if they hadn't done that!  The Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) can't use magic since she doesn't have a wand or fairy dust, some fairy she turns out to be, ha.

Archie (Raphael Sbarge) warns them of the others stampeding to Regina's (Lana Parrilla) seeking revenge and if she has her power she could slaughter them.  The witch hunt, okay wicked stepmother/evil queen hunt being led by Dr Whale (David Anders).  Seems there is more to him after all than we know.  Regina opens the front door and thinks she can use magic now the curse is broken, but she's got nothing.  Seems the townsfolk aren't the only ones in search of revenge Gold (Robert Carlyle) is out to exact the same too, after he realizes that she left Belle (Emilie de Ravin) in a living hell until she could kill her too.

The others save Regina since Henry made Emma promise nothing would happen to his "mother."  Whale says Charming isn't his king, thus they know nothing about him.  Snow suggests they lock her in a cell for her own protection.  Belle makes Gold promise he won't kill Regina and he promises HE won't.  Later he takes a medallion and uses his dagger saying "the dark one calls" and stabs the medallion releasing a wraith, aka soul sucker/Qui shen (more like the ghost of Christmas Future, depending on which A Christmas Carol version you watch!)  Like Regina has a soul to suck! since Gold marks her hand with an imprint of the medallion.

The others want to know what the purple haze is but he's not talking, instead he reminds Emma of saving Henry.  There's crashing and car alarms sounding off as the wraith hits town.  Belle confronts Gold about his promise and he says he's not going to kill her.  She can't believe he lied to her and hasn't changed at all, thus walking out on him.  They have the wraith cornered in the police station as it tries to suck Regina's soul and Charming uses fire to keep it back.  Regina has the Hatter's hat but can't get it to work.  That is until Emma touches her arm, she has magic now.  The hat swirls and opens up a portal dragging the wraith through, along with Emma and Snow follows since she won't lose her.  Unfortunately Charming is slow off the mark and lands on the hat and the floor instead!

Regina and her "destroy," favourite word since she used it often enough in season 1 and now she starts the trend again!  As she tries to strange him with a vine.  Henry interrupts as Ruby (Meghan Ory) brings him back and Charming says he will look after his grandson and takes him home.  Telling Henry he has faith.  Belle returns to Gold since he's still a monster and that's why she must stay, finding her chipped cup.

The curse destroyed their land but there's a small part of it which survived which is overrun with creatures like the wraith. As Mulan (Jamie Chung) explains.  Prince Phillip (Julian Morris) awaken Aurora (Sarah Bolger) with a kiss and he is marked by the wraith.  Thus his soul is sucked and Aurora knows Mulan loved him too as they travelled in search of her together.  There's a hole in the ground wherein lie Snow and Emma (just thought it's easier calling her that instead of Mary Margaret, too much to type, ha."

I think I liked it better when there was no other land to turn to as that now gives them an endless supply of characters to introduce.  Didn't much like Aurora or Phillip I have to say.  They really were no match for Charming and Snow!  Suppose they had to have a part of fairytale land intact otherwise with the curse being broken they wouldn't have much to use for stories as they take place in both worlds.

Who sent the postcard, was it Jefferson and more importantly who is the mysterious man, Henry's father, Gold's son?  An infinite number of possibilities, okay we get the show late so a lot would have read spoilers, or have already seen it, so we can only speculate.  They called August a "mysterious stranger" last season and now we get the "mysterious man."

Then there was Emma seemingly in awe of her parents being "heroes, leaders, princes and princesses," but doesn't think much of herself.  She does have magic now.  Also she doesn't berate herself for adopting out Henry since she too wanted to give him a better life, wonder if they'll touch upon that?  Now Emma is back in the world she always wanted to remain in, it'll be interesting to see how that develops and what she thinks of it.  Not to mention the fact it's Snow that gets to go after her rather than Charming, especially since she bonded with her mother last season and had very little to do with her father.  Think it might have been more interesting the other way round this time with father/daughter.

Charming's surprise at Emma and Snow having talked about one night stands.  Snow: "and we talked about things we shouldn't have talked about, one night stands and the like."
Charming: "one night stands?"
Snow: "Whale...we were cursed, that's neither here nor there."  Well Charming was married to someone else!