Fall (Once Upon a Time)

"Fall" is the tenth^[1] episode of the fourth season of the American fantasy drama series Once Upon a Time, which aired on November 30, 2014.

Plot

Opening Sequence

In the forest, snow falls over Elsa and Ana's parents' ship at the bottom of the sea. Gerda's message to her daughters lies on the ocean floor.

In Arendelle and at Sea

Anna and Kristoff are trying to find Elsa when Hans (Tyler Jacob Moore) and his brothers arrive to imprison them for treason, without success. Anna and Kristoff manages to escape and decides to go to the pirate Blackbeard (Charles Mesure) to look for the wishing star, which they could use to bring back Elsa who is trapped in a magic urn.

When they get to Blackbeard, they say they will pay for the wishing star with his weight in gold. Hans and his brothers suddenly appear and tell Anna and Kristoff that the whole thing was a set-up. Hans then says that Arendelle has been frozen for 30 years, which surprises Anna and Kristoff. As they worry about what may have happened to Elsa and what the Snow Queen has done since then, they are put in a trunk and dumped into the sea by Hans and Blackbeard, so that meanwhile Hans and his brothers could take Arendelle. Ana and Kristoff are trying to escape the trunk as it fills with water, and Anna starts reciting her marriage vows because she wants to be married before she dies.

Kristoff puts off Anna's marriage proposal temporarily, saying that he would only marry her after they escaped. As the trunk is almost completely filled with water, they are suddenly are brought to the beach in Storybrooke where Emma and Elsa are located, because Elsa wished for Anna.

In Storybrooke

Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) approaches Ingrid (Elizabeth Mitchell) and asks that Belle (Emilie de Ravin), and Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) are spared from the Spell of Shattered Sight, so that he can take Belle and Henry and leave town, with the alternative being that he would spend "the rest of eternity" trying to rip Ingrid's heart out. She agrees to this proposal. Meanwhile, everyone else is trying to figure out how to escape the Spell of Shattered Sight. Emma (Jennifer Morrison) says that the best solution is to just leave the town, but the ice wall is blocking every way out and not allowing anyone to get out of Storybrooke, and when David tries to cut it down, new ice structures emerge to block his effort, which knocks him back. However, a crack appears in the ice, which reveals Anna's necklace, and Elsa retrieves it. Belle and the fairies try to come up with a counterspell at Granny's to reverse the curse effect. They can make one with either Anna's (Elizabeth Lail) hair or her necklace, because she is now immune to the curse, as Ingrid already cast the same curse over her. Elsa (Georgina Haig) takes her sister's necklace and attempts to find Anna using it and a locator spell, but it leads her and Emma to a solid wall in the tunnels under the library. Emma convinces Elsa that it is too risky to blast through. After making it back to the library, at the constant urging of Regina, and eventually Mary Margaret, Emma explains to Elsa that she needs to think about saving more lives than just her sister's. Elsa finally hands over the bag, but when Mother Superior opens it, it is revealed that Elsa tricked them using rocks, and went back to find Anna on her own. Gold orders Hook (Colin O'Donoghue), since Gold has his heart, to stop the fairies and take their magic with the Sorcerer's Hat, so he can gain the power to free himself from the Dagger. Hook reluctantly does so, and when Gold takes Belle out of the diner with the excuse that fairies can never be trusted, Hook captures all of the fairies. Gold then takes Belle to his shop, and after kissing her, locks her in for her own protection.

Elsa desperately wants to find her sister and blast through the wall with her powers, and is aided by Emma, who has decided to help her search for Anna. The necklace leads the two to the beach, where the glowing from the locator spell stops, but Anna is not there. Emma tells her that magic is not always accurate, and that she needs to accept the truth that Anna may no longer even be alive. Elsa weeps and wishes that she could know what happened to her and that she could see her again. Suddenly the necklace begins to glow. The necklace turns out to be the Wishing Star, and a trunk emerges from the water, where Anna and Kristoff (Scott Michael Foster) come out of it. Then, Gerda's message in the bottle for her daughters appears ashore on the beach, unnoticed by anyone.

After a brief reunion, they run to Granny's to take Anna's hair to finish the counter spell, but surprisingly they find out that no one there, since Hook had captured the fairies, who remains hiding behind the counter as the others leave. The four head to the sheriff's office, and find Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin), David (Josh Dallas), and Neal there. David reunites with Kristoff & Joan (Anna's brief codename) and gives each of them hugs. David introduces Kristoff & Anna to his family: Snow (his wife), Neal (his son), and Emma (his daughter). Anna asks David how Emma could be his daughter since they appeared so close in age, but Emma says she'll explain once the curse is broken. Mary Margaret then hands Emma the keys to the jail, and says to lock her and David in separate cells, as they don't want to hurt themselves or anyone else, while Kristoff handcuffs himself to a sheriff's desk. Emma reluctantly does so, and takes her baby brother Neal to protect him. Hook comes in, stating that he had to see Emma one last time and the two tearfully kiss goodbye, before Hook leaves to chain himself to a dock at the marina.

In the mayor's office, Regina (Lana Parrilla) tells Henry to stay in her office and to not let anyone in or out. She seals the door to her office and runs into Robin (Sean Maguire) who pleads he is not afraid of her and wants to stay by her side, but she replies that no one will be safe when this curse hits. Hidden with Marian, she then runs to her vault and seals herself in. Finally, the curse falls upon the town and Ingrid directs the movement of the Spell of Shattered Sight, an indigo thunderstorm covers the town, and mirror shards begin to rain down from the sky, as Hook looks on from the docks. Then, mirror shards begin raining into the police station through the ventilation shafts, as Elsa, Anna, Emma, and Neal huddle on the floor holding on to each other, as Kristoff tries to blink the mirror shards out of his eyes. Then, Mary Margaret's and David's eyes frost over and "crack," and they let go of each other's hands and begin looking menacingly at each other.

Reception

The episode received mixed to positive reviews.

Christine Orlando of TV Fanatic gave the episode a positive review, rating it 4.8 out of 5, saying "It was quite a relief to see Anna and Elsa finally reunited and the necklace being the wishing star was a fun twist. Unfortunately, getting Anna to Storybrooke proved to be too little too late."^[2]

Amy Ratcliffe of IGN gave the episode a moderate review, saying the episode "delivered on the Frozen storyline front and brought the reunion we've been dying to see, but some scenes seemed created to fill time. They stretched to make connections with Blackbeard and spent too much energy trying to make Hans seem dangerous. However, characters such as Regina and Snow White had some nice dialogue and development. It would be a pleasant change to see the story turns back towards them instead of the villain of the moment."^[3] Ratcliffe gave the episode a 6.7 rating out of 10.^[3]

References