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‘Once Upon A Time’ Season 4, Episode 2: ‘White Out’

Alex Reed |
October 6, 2014 | 10:42 a.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

(ABC, Once Upon A Time)
(ABC, Once Upon A Time)
Last week, Elsa vowed to find her sister Anna in Storybrooke after finding her necklace in Rumpelstiltskin’s shop.

So, of course, this week Elsa puts a wall of ice up around Storybrooke, declaring that nobody will leave until her and Anna are reunited and Elsa finds out what happened to her.

In a flashback, Anna is seen arriving in the Enchanted Forest, knocking on David’s door when he still lived on a farm with his mother. Anna tells him that she was sent to him by someone in Arendelle. David assumes that it was Kristoff because he’s the only person David knows from there, which surprises Anna. When David inquires about her mission, she tells him that it’s a secret, but asks if she can stay in his barn. David agrees because he notices her ring and realizes that she’s Kristoff’s fiancée. A carriage starts riding up to the house and David tells Anna to get inside because the person in the carriage is someone that nobody should mess with: Bo Peep.

Back in the present, Henry – being his adorable, thoughtful self – is packing a basket of movies, candy and red wine for Regina because he googled how to get over a breakup. Just then, a crow appears at the window with a message from Regina, telling Henry that she doesn’t want to see him.

Emma finds Henry at Granny’s, telling him that she read the note and Regina really meant that she just doesn’t want to see him now, while she’d dealing with her heartbreak. Emma assures him that she’s trying to make things better, though Henry is not convinced. Their conversation is cut short when the power goes out as a result of Elsa’s surprise storm. As David and Emma are about to investigate, she invites Henry along, but he refuses.

READ MORE: 'Once Upon A Time' Season 4 Premiere: 'A Tale Of Two Sisters'

While investigating the blackout, David suggests to Emma that Henry is taking after both of his moms – known to put up walls when they’re upset. As they reach the edge of town, David and Emma see the ice wall and begin searching for the culprit, as Elsa hides among the pillars of ice.

At home with the baby, Snow is visited several townspeople, namely Grumpy and Granny, who want to know why she hasn’t done anything about the blackout yet. Since Regina doesn’t want the job of mayor anymore and the latest curse was cast by Snow, the responsibility falls to her.

Hook arrives at the scene to inform David and Emma that the ice wall goes all the way around town. They deduce that the power got knocked out by accident when the wall of ice was put up, but the question remains of why someone put the wall up in the first place. As David steps away, Hook notes to Emma that they’re on their second date – counting the time they were attacked by the snow monster as the first.

Emma thinks she sees movement by the wall and goes to investigate. David then approaches Hook and suggests they have a talk about Hook’s intentions with his daughter. He reminds Hook that he knows his reputation and tells him that Emma is not going to be another conquest for him. To which Hook replies that he wouldn’t risk his life for someone he saw as just “loot” and what happens with him and Emma is up to her just as much as it’s up to him, which seems to satisfy David.

When Emma enters the wall of ice, she finds a terrified Elsa. Emma asks what she’s doing and Elsa tells her about her quest to find her sister.

Back in the Enchanted Forest, Bo Peep arrives at the farm to collect payment from David and his mother. David is quick to call it extortion as Bo Peep reminds him that their farm and flock are safe as long as they pay her. They don’t have the money and Bo Peep allows them one more day before she takes their farm. David suggests that he and his mother leave, but then Bo Peep “brands” them, making them part of her “flock” and easily found using her shepherd’s crook.

READ MORE: 'Once Upon A Time' Season 4 Preview

Once Bo Peep leaves, Anna suggests that David and his mother fight rather than bow down to Bo Peep. David asks Anna why he should fight a battle he can’t win, but Anna tells him that those are exactly the battles people should fight because it’s not a battle if a win is certain. He calls her naïve, but she insists that he fight and says she can teach him how to use a sword.

David and Hook approach Emma and Elsa, which causes Elsa to panic and put up another wall of ice between them, trapping Emma inside with her. After several failed attempts to get her out, David and Hook realize that if magic made the wall, they’ll need magic to break it.

In another flashback, Anna is teaching David to sword fight. When it doesn’t come easily to him, he gives up, telling Anna that there’s no way he can beat Bo Peep if he can’t even beat her. He says that he knows about battles that can’t be won and he and his mother have to stay focused on mere survival. Anna argues that survival is not living and calls him a coward. In response, he tells Anna a story about his father. It turns out that the unwinnable battle he knew of was his father’s alcoholism. Anna tells him that he’s stronger than his father was and offers to continue training him.

Back in Storybrooke, Emma tries to appease Elsa from inside the ice wall. She offers to help her find Anna, but she needs to be let out first. Elsa refuses, but Emma is able to reach David and Hook through her radio. She tells them that they need to find Elsa’s sister. Elsa interrupts to add that it needs to happen before she freezes the whole town.

Meanwhile, Snow is trying to restore power while being criticized by Granny and Grumpy. At one point, she snaps –all the stress and exhaustion of being a new mom gets to her – and tells them that this is not what she signed up for. She also reminds them that they all lived in the Enchanted Forest without electricity and should really just buy a flash light.

(ABC, Once Upon A Time)
(ABC, Once Upon A Time)
Emma starts to get cold and asks Elsa if she’s cold, to which she responds that the cold never bothered her. Sound familiar? Emma apologizes about the necklace ending up in Rumpelstiltskin’s shop and Elsa suddenly realizes that she dropped it in a crack in the ice. Emma suggests that she melt all the ice and get the necklace back. When Elsa hesitates, Emma realizes that Elsa can’t control her power. Emma tells her that they have that in common because she also has power that she can’t always control. Elsa tells her that Anna has always helped her control it and if they find Anna, she can help them melt all the ice. She suggests that Emma try using her power to melt it, but Emma is too cold and starts to get weak. Elsa tries to distract her with conversation and the two of them bond over being unprepared for their responsibilities – Elsa being Queen of Arendelle, Emma being a “savior.” Elsa apologizes for trapping them as Emma slowly gets weaker.

Rumpelstiltskin comments that his and Belle’s honeymoon is over as David and Hook come into the shop to get help. They explain that Elsa is looking for her sister in town because of the necklace she found in the shop. When David sees a picture of the necklace, he realizes that he knows exactly who Anna is.

Back in the Enchanted Forest, David goes into the barn to tell Anna that she needs to leave before Bo Peep comes back, only to find that Bo Peep is already there and has locked Anna away, as well as branded her. David is left with the choice to pay Bo Peep or give up his farm.

Elsa is frantically trying to keep Emma from falling asleep as she grows colder and weaker. She asks Emma about her son, but Emma tells her that the only reason she’s asking is because she knows that Emma will die if she falls asleep.

David finds Bo Peep – who is now a butcher in Storybrooke – and asks for her help, which she refuses. He then holds her back while Hook retrieves her crook so they can use it to find Anna. As they’re leaving, Elsa calls on the radio to tell them that Emma has passed out and is freezing to death.

In a much earlier confrontation, David decides to fight Bo Peep to save his farm and Anna. He defeats Bo Peep and her two protectors in a sword fight and snatches Anna’s necklace from Bo Peep’s neck.  He steals her crook and finds Anna. He admits to Anna that the battle was impossible and that was exactly why he had to fight it – an attitude that seems to have stuck with him.

Echoing Anna’s words in the present, he tells Elsa that she has to find a way out of the ice wall. He promises that he has a way to find Anna, but she has to fight on her own for now. Elsa recognizes that he’s quoting Anna and he explains that Anna has helped him in the past, too. Elsa finds the power to melt the ice and free her and Emma from the ice wall. David tells her that he owes everything to Anna and promises that he will help Elsa find her.

Snow continues to struggle to get the power back on. When baby Neal starts to cry because he’s hungry, Snow’s maternal instincts pay off because she realizes that the electricity is hungry, too – for fuel.

With the power back on, Emma is able to start warming up. Henry tells her that he’s glad she’s okay because he’s already down to one mother and won’t go any lower. Elsa realizes that she’s now lost Anna, as well as her necklace, but David grabs the crook so they can begin looking for her.

Back on David and his mother’s farm, Anna is getting ready to leave. As David’s mother is thanking her, Anna asks about the magic in Bo Peep’s crook and if there is anyone she could talk to about magic like that. She tells Anna that there is one wizard who can help, but she won’t say the name out loud, insisting on writing it down for her. Anna leaves on David’s horse – his gift to her – and reads the name aloud: Rumpelstiltskin.

When the crook doesn’t seem to be working, Elsa worries that something happened to Anna. But, Emma points out that they can hear a faint heartbeat, which must mean that she’s alive. When Snow arrives, David tells her that they are helping Elsa find her sister because that’s what they do; they find people and they really don’t like to give up.

With that, Henry leaves to go find Regina. He knocks on her door and tells her that he’s not going to stay away just because she asks. He tells her that he refuses to give up on her. She opens the door and hugs her son.

Elsa and Emma go back to the edge of town so Elsa can take down the rest of the ice wall, but for some reason, she can’t. Elsa said she’s the only one with her kind of power and the wall should be coming down. Emma suggests that something else must be keeping it up.

As Grumpy is buying an ice cream in a shop in town, he comments to the store owner (Elizabeth Mitchell) that she must’ve lost a lot of ice cream during the power outage. She tells him that she didn’t lose anything and she got lucky. Once he leaves, we learn that she shares Elsa’s powers and must be none other than the Snow Queen.

Catch “Once Upon a Time” Sundays at 8/7c on ABC.

Reach Staff Reporter Alex Reed here.



 

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