tvdinner&amovie

Previously on Once Upon a Time: In The Name of the Brother.

This week on Once Upon a Time, nothing much happens. In the pre-curse Enchanted Forest, we learn more about the history of the giants and their involvement with Charming’s evil twin. In Storybrooke, Charming and Snow deal with a giant while Rumpelstiltskin and Henry take their first plane ride with Emma.

In the pre-curse Enchanted Forest, the giants celebrate a century’s worth of work on the magic bean harvest, lead by a gray-haired giant named Arlo (Abraham Benrubi, who played lovable desk clerk Jerry on my favorite TV show of all time, ER). Enter Anton, aka “Tiny” (aka Hurley), the Giant Emma tussled with before. Anton is fascinated with humans in spite of Arlo’s warnings of their destructive nature, and fed up with his family’s teasing, so he climbs down the beanstalk to hang out with them instead. He runs into Evil Twin James and his lady friend Jacqueline, better known as Jack. With the aid of a magic mushroom, Anton is brought down to size and the three go drinking, at which point Jack reveals the kingdom’s impending financial ruin, potentially leading to literal ruin – all of which could be averted with some magic beans. Anton won’t give them beans but offers to raid his family’s treasure room instead. Unfortunately, Evil Twin James and Jack follow him up the beanstalk, determined to get the beans. Somehow two humans with poisoned swords (and “human armies” we never see?) kill all the giants, though Jack does perish in the process. Anton burns and salts the fields to keep the beans from falling into human hands, and before Arlo dies he gives him a cutting from the stalk to grow beans if he ever reaches a new land.

In Storybrooke, Emma refuses to go on Rumpelstiltskin’s quest without taking Henry along. His enchanted scarf does the trick and he’s able to cross the town line with no problems. Meanwhile, Regina shows up at Snow’s door claiming her innocence (and pretending to be innocent of Cora’s involvement). She wants Henry, but Snow mentions he’s left town with Emma, who “doesn’t have to run anything by” Regina. Snow, Charming, and Grumpy have Hook show them the ship, but all he knows of Cora’s plan is that it involves a human-sized version of Anton, locked in a cage. They release him, and when he sees Charming he flies into a rage and escapes. Ruby visits Belle in the hospital, where she freaks out over the man “throwing fire;” Greg overhears and later confides that he saw it too. Charming deduces that the murderous giant may have something to do with his evil twin. Regina decides to use Anton’s rage to her advantage by giving him a mushroom to restore his size and sending him to destroy the town.

At the airport, Rumple must remove his scarf to pass through security (with no ill effects, I think?) and then bloodies his fist punching the wall in the bathroom – which he is unable to heal with magic. Emma senses something’s up; Henry is super excited about quests and Cinnabons. Charming unsuccessfully tries to talk Anton down, then offers himself up to protect the town. The giant tries to step on him and is left dangling over the crater created by his foot when he shrinks back down. Charming rescues Anton, the town embraces him, and he offers to use his cutting to grow beans. Charming is excited about the possibility of going home, but Snow wants to stay with her family.

Next week, Emma, Rumple, and Henry take on New York, while Cora sets her plans in motion.

Thoughts/Theories
• Ok, I’m pretty sure this was one of the worst episodes of OUaT. Jack fell totally flat as a character. Six giants were taken out by two humans (with the aid of an sort of invisible “army,” I guess?). Rumpelstiltskin seems to be surprised he doesn’t have magic in the real world, but didn’t he already know that would happen? It felt like getting magic beans to Storybrooke was the only thing the writers cared about, and everything else was an afterthought.
• Speaking of the magic beans, won’t they take 100 years to grow? How will they get anyone anywhere?
• I’m so tired of Regina being let down and manipulated, but a tiny part of me is excited she’s back in her HBIC evil mode.

Nicole N. decided to justify the countless hours she spends watching television by writing about it here. She is currently upping her political savvy by watching all of The West Wing. For more tv-centric musings, check out her tumblr.