Tonight we begin with Cinderella in the alternate realm showing up at the rendezvous point to meet Henry, only to be intercepted by a guard – who is quickly dispatched by none other than Tiana.
Tiana was at the ball because she’s the leader of the resistance against Lady Tremaine, and she knows Cinderella didn’t kill the prince. She also knows that Lady Tremaine killed Cinderella’s father. Tiana takes Cinderella to the resistance camp so she can join the cause.
Once they arrive, a kindly old guy named Jeremiah sets Cinderella up with some appropriate footwear, and Tiana tells Cinderella that Lady Tremaine has been transporting and hoarding magic – stuff like dark fairy dust and other enchanted items. Tiana pulls out a picture of what looks like a coffin and Cinderella denies all knowledge of it, even though she clearly recognizes it.
Forward to their apartment in Hyperion Heights and Jacinda is reading a letter from Lucy and missing her fiercely. They’ve been leaving the letters to each other in the community garden (which is now in full bloom) so Victoria doesn’t know they’re communicating.
At Roni’s bar – a powwow has been called between the newest version of the Victoria resistance. Henry brings the donuts and Roni has the info. Her connections have let her know that a certain building commissioner is on Victoria’s dime, and OH MY GOD Rogers just called Roni “love”.
Henry bristles at being “research guy,” but agrees to stay behind as Rogers stakes the out the building commissioner. Unbeknownst to Rogers (who just lied his ass of to his partner about where he’d be), Weaver was staking him out at the same time.
Meanwhile, over at the community garden, Victoria catches Jacinda leaving letters at the well. She’s planning to wipe out the garden and replace it with condos, effective immediately.
Jacinda lets Roni know that Victoria is tearing out the garden and Roni looks up the building codes, discovering that a petition signed by enough of the neighborhood will create an injunction and stop Victoria. Jacinda sets off to get signatures.
Henry gets confronted by Lucy, who is thrilled that Henry is helping her mom again. She’s sure Jacinda is starting to wake up now that she’s fighting back against Victoria. She also swears there’s something below the surface of the garden. She reminds Henry that there was something magical in the mines he explored with Archie, and just as she does, the backhoe stops because it hits something.
Lucy jumps in the hole, determined to find out what’s hidden down there, and Henry jumps after her. After winding through an underground passage, Lucy finds a piece of glass – the remnant of her mother’s slipper, and once again begs Henry to remember his real family, and not the memory of the dead family buried in a cemetery he can’t even find.
“I literally wrote the book on fairytales,” Henry quips, just before he assures her that he still doesn’t believe.
Across town at a local diner, the commissioner – a guy named Griffin – gets cornered by Rogers and he warns the detective not to be sniffing around. He offers Rogers half the money Victoria paid him off with to stay mum.
Over in the alternate realm, our trifecta of heroes have finally tracked down Cinderella at the rebel camp, and offer their services in the fight against Lady Tremaine, once they hear what she’s up to.
Tiana plans to lead half the rebels with Hook, while Cinderella, Henry and Regina head the other half, with a plan to strike in the morning. That’s not going to happen though, because Cinderella takes off in the night, determined to take out Lady Tremaine all by herself.
She confronts Victoria over the coffin. “Will there never be a time when I’ve suffered enough for what I did?” She asks. Victoria opens the coffin, demanding that Cinderella look. Inside is Anastasia, perfectly preserved at the moment of her last breath. The only way to bring her back is with an equally pure heart – like Henry’s. Cinderella balks, but Victoria enchants her hand and threatens to slaughter the entire resistance unless she gets his heart.
Forward to Hyperion Heights, and Victoria confronts Jacinda about the petition, offering to give her and Lucy a condo of their own where she’ll allow them to live together – as long as Jacinda burns the petition. Jacinda jumps at the thought of a home of her own with Lucy and sets the petition ablaze. Lucy is devastated and betrayed.
Rogers returns to the station to see a smirking, satisfied building commissioner shaking hands with Weaver. Weaver is seriously pissed that Rogers went around him. He cautions Rogers to show some finesse – after their meeting, Weaver now has the commissioner on his dime, and he’ll be in the know when the commissioner gets a call from Victoria.
Back in the other realm, Cinderella returns to the camp, but can’t seem to make herself take Henry’s heart. She starts to take Jeremiah’s heart instead, but Regina stops her, cautioning her that this isn’t the way to do things as she unenchants Cinderella’s hand.
Now we learn part of the story from Cinderella. – Anastasia died at 14. Lady Tremaine blamed her father but it was Cinderella’s fault.
“If you want to take this woman down, you have to forgive yourself,” Regina tells her sagely, reminding her that bearing her stepmother’s brutality and allowing herself to be called “Cinder-Ella” isn’t going to absolve her of anything. Cinderella lets Regina know that Lady Tremaine is after Henry’s heart.
The next morning, Cinderella is “just Ella now.” She lets the resistance know it’s a trap and they shouldn’t storm Lady Tremaine’s palace, so they all call it a day.
Ahead now to Roni’s and Jacinda is day drinking again, morose and crying over the burning of the petition. This isn’t about Lucy, Roni reminds her. It’s about stopping the Victoria Belfry’s of the world.
Henry finds Lucy, and then they both find Jacinda making a passionate plea to her neighbors to sign the petition once again. And they all look at her like:
No, of course not. This show is always good for a motivational speech. She begs them all to fight with her, and plant the garden to spite Victoria, and they all smile and clap and re-sign the petition they just signed but the dumbass burned while betraying the cause she originally rallied for and is now returning to. Oh, and none of them have jobs because they’re all here staring at a vacant lot.
Later we see Henry eating ice cream with Jacinda and Lucy. Lucy gives him the shard of slipper, because the prince should have it so he can find his true love. She reminds him again that his family is right in front of him.
After leaving them, Henry walks home and wanders into the Hyperion Heights cemetery and finds his family’s graves, crushing the little bit of belief he had growing from that shard of slipper.
Victoria, meanwhile is loading a coffin into the elevator at Belfry Tower and using a secure keypad to head up to the top of the tower.
There we meet a witch in chains, and Victoria presents the coffin – the real reason she was digging in the community garden. The witch warns her that bringing her daughter back is not necessarily a good thing.
Victoria knows that Henry’s heart is protected, so she’ showing after his daughter. Lucy has to give up her belief to bring back Anastasia. “You may destroy the girl, you may get your daughter back, then you’ll have to deal with me,” the witch cautions, as we fade to black.
I’m giving this one two coffins out of five.
And I chose coffins because if next week is as boring as this week, I predict a mid-season death for this show. What a snoozer. And honestly? I just don’t care how or why Cinderella killed her stepsister. I am also still not feeling the chemistry between Jacinda and Henry.
My thoughts:
1. I’m guessing the witch is the same one who Hook feels is responsible for imprisoning his daughter. My money says she either didn’t do it (Victoria did) or she did it to protect the girl.
2. Why did Henry suddenly find his family’s graves? And I’m guessing this will be a big clue when he goes back through those cemetery listings that Rogers gave him and doesn’t find them in there, despite what his eyes have seen.
3. I like that Tiana is a rebel badass. And I love how they keep throwing little references in to her Disney storyline (she mentioned her boss’s name was Lilly in this episode).
4. I love that they’re keeping some antagonism between Weaver and Rogers – even though you get the feeling they’re both on the same side. It’ll be interesting (I hope) to see how they finally find common ground.
5. I LOVED LOVED LOVED Regina’s hair in this episode. So . . . There’s that, at least.
Oh, I hope they pick up the pace next week. Please. I was so hopeful after the solid opening and some of the things we learned last week. This week just felt flat.
What did you think?
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