‘Once Upon a Time’ “Shattered Sight” Recap and Review

The 10th episode of season four of ABC’s Once Upon a Time squeezed a lot of action into just 60 minutes. “Shattered Sight” brought the relationship between Ingrid (Elizabeth Mitchell), Emma (Jennifer Morrison), and Elsa (Georgina Haig) into focus and even made OUaT fans feel sympathy toward Ingrid who truly only wants to be a part of a loving family.

And now without further ado, here’s a look back at December 7, 2014’s episode titled “Shattered Sight:”

The episode kicked off with a flashback to Boston in 1982. Ingrid walks the streets in her lavish Snow Queen outfit, not looking too out of place actually. She pops into a shop and asks the “sorceress” to help her out by looking into her crystal ball to locate a special girl. The fortune teller wants payment, but the Snow Queen has only her jewels. That works fine for the fortune teller who glances into her crystal ball and sees a child, a girl who is special, and the child’s name is…Susan. Ingrid knows the girl she’s searching for is named Emma Swan not Susan, so she knows the fortune teller’s lying. Fortunately, Ingrid’s magic isn’t working or the fortune teller would be toast.

Skip forward to the present day where Storybrooke is being torn apart by the Shattered Sight spell as the residents are at each other’s throats. Mary Margaret looks at David and sees a fraud, a shepherd who has no business being royalty. Kristoff (Scott Michael Foster) also gets in on the angry action and is pissed off at Anna (Elizabeth Lail) as a result of the spell. He believes that his hair cut isn’t the only bad decision he’s made recently and he’s happy they postponed their wedding. Anna tries to tell him he’s only saying it because he’s under a spell, but Kristoff will have none of that explanation.

Elsa and Emma arrive to brainstorm over how to fix the town. Anna has an idea about how to break the spell, thinking back to how others have handled similar situations. Anna thinks the only way to end the spell might be to kill Ingrid, and even though it’s her idea, she’s relegated to babysitting duty while Elsa and Emma head out to find the Snow Queen.

Elsewhere, Regina (Lana Parrilla) is pissed about being sealed in her own vault and blames it, of course, on Emma. She sees her reflection and wonders why she’s wearing business attire and quickly changes back to her Evil Queen costume.

Things get really serious at Rumple’s shop when Hook stops by and learns the reason he’s been spared the curse is that his heart isn’t in his chest. Rumple’s packing up, ready to leave town with Belle (Emilie de Ravin) and Henry (Jared Gilmore) but he has a problem: he doesn’t know where Regina’s hiding Henry. He orders Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) to find the boy, which Hook doesn’t want to do. The pirate without a heart tells Rumple he will never win, but Rumple knows Belle and Henry won’t remember a thing once they’re safely out of town. He’ll be a hero, not a villain.

Meanwhile, Ingrid is confronted by Elsa and Emma who try to do magic on her but can’t. She tells them that the love that flows through the ribbons makes it so that they can’t do magic against each other. “Soon, you won’t want to hurt me. Soon, you will love me…for real,” says Ingrid, with a sly, knowing smile.

Back in time, Emma is living in a foster home with Ingrid. She doesn’t like it and wants to leave, but Ingrid’s kind of winning her over by empathizing with her. Emma tries to be all hard and standoffish, and Ingrid tells her to go ahead and run away. It’s a bit of reverse psychology that actually works.

In a quick but important little scene, Emma and Elsa go looking for Belle and Rumple, can’t find them, and so they attempt to cut off their ribbons with the dagger. It doesn’t work.

Back to our favorite pirate… Hook walks the streets with people who are openly fighting each other. Mary Margaret and David argue over who is worse at swaddling their baby. Anna tries to get them to get over themselves. David makes fun of Kristoff and the fact he sells ice in Arendelle, which is full of ice. Snow White confesses to killing the Evil Queen’s mom and says she apologized but never actually meant it, trying to prove she’s not a nice person to Anna after Anna’s many attempts at reminding her she’s being influenced by a spell and doesn’t really hate David.

So, about those ribbons: Emma and Elsa can’t cut them off but they figure out they need someone’s equally amplified hatred to get rid of them. Elsa says she can’t hate her, calling her “prickly” but not hateable. But Emma has a different person in mind that can hate her enough to make the ribbons disappear: Regina. “If Storybrooke hopes to survive, Regina needs to hate me like she’s never hated me before,” says Emma.

Ingrid fondles what looks like two purple ice balls, and playing with them reminds her of when Emma was a teenager and they got to know each other well. Back then, Ingrid told Emma she was special and that someday she’d surprise everyone with her unique gifts. Ingrid was super happy about being with Emma and even filled out the paperwork to adopt her! They were going to be a family and Ingrid swore she’d be the best big sister Emma could ever hope for which prompted Emma to hug her and tell her she loved her.

Outside of Regina’s place, Emma tries to remove the containment spell and, with Elsa’s encouragement, finally succeeds. They see Regina back in Evil Queen mode and Emma gets her all riled up by telling her she lied and brought Marion back on purpose because she wanted to see Regina’s heart broken again. She wanted Regina to see her and Hook together and see the happiness she could never have. Emma says she wanted to ruin everything for Regina, just like Snow White did. Regina hits them with magic and the ribbons disappear. Emma uses her magic to knock Regina down so that they have time to escape. However, Regina’s really angry and no longer contained.

Hook finds Henry and tells him he needs to go with him now, but Henry says there’s no way he’s going anywhere with a dirty pirate to which Hook replies that he bathes quite frequently. “I never liked you and I like you even less now that you and my mom are together,” says Henry. Hook doesn’t care about any part of that sentence other than the word “together” since he believes it’s what Emma thinks of their relationship since Henry said it. Still, Hook has to get to Henry so he breaks the spell protecting the room Henry’s in but Henry escapes. Before he can catch him, Will Scarlet (Michael Socha) attacks but Hook easily defeats him with just one blow.

Back in time, Emma tells Ingrid she wishes she had power like Harry Potter. Ingrid uses the opportunity to explain that the lights flickering in the arcade when they were playing meant that she was on the cusp of a great self-revelation. She drags her into the street to stop a car but Emma freaks out. Ingrid tells her she has powers and Emma says, “Great, I should have known the only person willing to adopt me would turn out to be a nut job,” and then she runs away.

Regina turns up at the sheriff’s office where David and Mary Margaret are locked up. She’d only wanted to kill Emma but now she finds two others who she also would like to see dead. David sells out Mary Margaret, saying she’s the one who told Cora about her secret boyfriend. Regina says they both deserve to die for what they did – and also because they’re whining. Regina says that since Mary Margaret took her love, she’s going to take their baby. Anna tries to stop her and Regina sends her and Kristoff away in a poof of bluish-purple smoke. She lets Mary Margaret out of jail and arms her with a sword, challenging her and telling her she wants to watch her bleed.

In another flashback, we get to visit Maine in 2001. Ingrid has the scroll which will lead her to her third sister. She looks up and she’s in Storybrooke!

Ingrid confronts Elsa and Emma about the ribbons. Emma says they will never love her, but Ingrid knows that’s not true. She brings out the purple crystals and says they are their memories. She wants to give them back because they contain the good memories that will make them love her again. The only way to stop Ingrid is to kill her and they’re both hesitating, and Ingrid knows it and uses it to her advantage.

A short trip back in time to November 2011 shows a grown-up Emma walking into Ingrid’s shop in Storybrooke and remembering her. Ingrid doesn’t look a day older, and Ingrid’s been waiting there for Emma to come to her when she turns 28. Emma still doesn’t believe in magic, and Ingrid uses the purple crystal to take away all of Emma’s memories of her since Emma’s angry that Ingrid’s back in her life (she thinks Ingrid’s been following her).

Mary Margaret and Regina continue their duel and David’s more worried about the office equipment than his wife. Mary Margaret gets really fired up when she thinks Regina is going to wake the baby and goes into full-on mama bear fight mode which causes Regina to use magic against her, even though she said she wouldn’t.

The missing Arendelle lovers are trying to figure out where Regina sent them when Anna realizes Regina sent them back to the trunk on the beach. Kristoff doesn’t care where they are and is done with everything, and just wants to spend time with Sven, his reindeer. Anna uses a bottle on the beach to knock him out, breaking it and revealing the letter her parents put it in so many years ago. She can’t wake up Kristoff and runs off to take the letter to Elsa.

And the showdown we’ve all been waiting for arrives as Ingrid continues to express her desire for the three to be together as sisters. Elsa says she can’t kill her, but Emma thinks she can and is about to when Anna runs in with the note. Elsa tells her to leave because it’s too dangerous and Ingrid says, “You should listen to my sister and go.” Anna says she’s her sister and gives the note to Elsa from their parents. Their parents said they were wrong to tell Elsa to conceal her powers.

Their mother also tells them about Ingrid and Helga, and that they were beautiful and kind – and she should have celebrated them. She also wrote that she stole the memories of the citizens of Arendelle but that Ingrid and Helga deserve to be known. Their mom also describes where to find the urn that contains Ingrid and release her. “Please tell her I love her and I’m sorry. I’d give anything to take back what I did,” says the note.

Ingrid doesn’t take it well and tries to choke Anna to death. Anna says no matter what she will love Ingrid because she’s a part of their family and family doesn’t give up. Ingrid grabs the note and places her finger on the seal at the end of the letter. That opens her eyes to what she’s done to everyone and she knows she has to reverse the spell. Emma says the only way is if she destroys herself and Ingrid’s fine with that. She starts undoing the spell and even though she’ll die, she’s happy they’ve all found their families. She also gives them back their memories of her. She tells them they’re so special and to never forget that. All she wanted was to have her sisters’ love and now she has it, even though she’s dying. She’ll get to join her two other sisters and their parents in death as a flashback shows the three sisters, young and playing in a field.

Emma, Elsa, and Anna feel the snow fall and know she sacrificed herself for all of them. Elsa says they must bring back the memory of Ingrid and Helga to the people of Arendelle. Meanwhile, the dwarves are fighting in the streets when the snow falls and the spell lifts.

Mary Margaret and Regina stop fighting, Regina wants to know why she’s back in her Evil Queen clothes, and they start laughing. Even David inside his cell is overcome with giggles. Outside, people are apologizing for trying to kill each other. Henry runs up and hugs his moms and the baby finally wakes up. Mary Margaret and David kiss.

Belle’s in bed with Rumple looking over her when Hook comes in. He says Henry got away. “So you failed at kidnapping a child?” points out Rumple. The Snow Queen’s plan didn’t work but Rumple believes his plan will. He tells Hook this snowfall will be his last and Hook asks for one dying wish: leave Emma and the rest of Storybrooke alone. Rumple’s not in the business of making deals with Hook anymore but says that once he steps foot over the town border with his magic intact, Emma and Storybrooke will have nothing to fear from him as long as they don’t get in his way. But, he can’t make that same promise for the rest of the world. Rumple walks out, smiling. Damn him.

The Bottom Line:

The episode was all about redemption as storylines were wrapped up, families were reunited, and couples reaffirmed their love after being ripped apart by Shattered Sight. Regina was only briefly evil (and it wasn’t her fault) and she was embarrassed by the reappearance of the Evil Queen, even if it was due to a spell. Overall, the good guys emerged as winners with the exception of Hook who’s being manipulated by Rumple – the only character who’s remained a villain throughout the season’s 10 episodes.

Hook’s life is still on the line, but would the series creators really kill off a fan favorite? It’s not likely at this stage of the game, although continuing to have Hook on the hot seat and threatened with death is a good way to keep fans on the edge of their seats wondering how he’ll get his heart back and reunite with Emma.

Although it was a pivotal episode in the Frozen characters storyline, the preview of episode 11 (the winter finale) shows things won’t quiet down in Storybrooke just because the Snow Queen has died and the spell has been lifted. As one story ends another begins and here come Ursula, Cruella, and Maleficent to shake up the town.

GRADE: B+