Season 2, Episode 1:
Broken
Centric Characters: N/A
Previous: A Land Without Magic | Next: We Are Both
Mulan: That thing out there is dangerous. And Phillip... he left to protect you. So even if I don't believe in his methods, I'm going to honor his wishes. I'm going to keep you safe.
Aurora: I never asked him to.
Mulan: You never had to. Everything he does, he does for you. And now he's going to die for you. Love is sacrifice, something you clearly don't understand.
Aurora: I never asked him to.
Mulan: You never had to. Everything he does, he does for you. And now he's going to die for you. Love is sacrifice, something you clearly don't understand.
Emma Swan: What's the problem?
Regina Mills: Magic — it's different here.
Regina Mills: Magic — it's different here.
In New York City, a man arrives home at his apartment to find his window left open. He tries to close it but drops his phone out the window in the process. As he sulks, a pigeon lands on the windowsill and drops a postcard before flying off again. The man picks up the postcard to see a single word written on it: "Broken". He flips the postcard over to see an image of a clock tower captioned "Greetings from Storybrooke, Maine".
In the Enchanted Forest, two riders reach a deserted castle where a young woman, Princess Aurora, lies under a sleeping curse. As one of the riders, Prince Phillip, prepares to deliver a True Love's Kiss, he tells his companion that they won't "tell her everything". Phillip awakens Aurora and they passionately reunite as Phillip's companion begins to look around the ruined building. Seeing the state of the castle and the lack of other people, Aurora asks Phillip just how long she's been asleep for, but he dodges the question and explains that there's a new safe haven where their allies are gathered and that while Maleficent is gone there are new dangers to defend from.
In Storybrooke, the magical storm cloud clears as friends and family reunite in the streets, culminating in Emma finally meeting her real parents. As they begin to discuss the effects of the Curse breaking and the subsequent storm, Mother Superior arrives to tell everyone that magic has come to Storybrooke.
Leroy: Let's go to the person responsible for bringing it. The Queen.
<murmured agreements>
Emma: No. Wait. It wasn't Regina.
<murmured agreements>
Emma: No. Wait. It wasn't Regina.
In the woods, Belle explains that after Rumplestiltskin threw her out she was imprisoned by Regina, which carried over to the psych ward via the Dark Curse. Gold intends to take revenge for this, but Belle forbids him from killing Regina under penalty of dumping him for good, and he complies.
Emma wants to confront Gold and get some answers before getting on with the family reunion, but they are interrupted by Archie who tells everyone that Dr. Whale is leading a mob to the Mayor's house with intent to kill. Realizing that the return of magic could result in a Curb-Stomp Battle in Regina's favor, the group goes to intercept the mob before anyone gets hurt.
Phillip's companion senses that something isn't right and draws a sword just before the ground bursts open, releasing a flying creature in black rags with glowing red eyes. Phillip rushes at the creature and swings his sword at it, knocking a medallion off of it before it flies away. Phillip picks up the medallion, which bears a strange symbol.
Returning to the pawn shop, Gold tells Belle to wait while he searches his stock for a change of clothes for her. Once out of sight, however, he opens a locked cabinet and dons some gloves before selecting a medallion with a strange symbol.
The mob arrives at Regina's house, where she confidently taunts them before trying to blow them away with a spell, but to her shock nothing happens. Whale pins Regina down but Emma and company arrive and stop him and convince the mob to have Regina locked in the holding cells at the police station. Once there, Regina tells Emma and her family that everyone remained in Storybrooke because the Dark Curse erased the Enchanted Forest from existence. Doubtful, Emma leads her family to go find Mr. Gold, who conveniently shows up to taunt Regina right after they leave.
Regina: You're here to finish the job?
Gold: No no no. You're safe from me.
Regina: I feel so relieved.
Gold: I made a promise to someone that I won't kill you.
Regina: Who could elicit that from you?
Gold: Belle.
Regina: She's alive?
Gold: You are… a dreadful liar.
Regina: I could have killed her, but I didn't.
Gold: You did much worse than that. You kept her alive, so you could kill her when it suited you. A Fate Worse than Death. Which, incidentally, is exactly what I've got in store for you.
Gold seizes Regina's arm and presses the medallion into the palm of her hand.Gold: No no no. You're safe from me.
Regina: I feel so relieved.
Gold: I made a promise to someone that I won't kill you.
Regina: Who could elicit that from you?
Gold: Belle.
Regina: She's alive?
Gold: You are… a dreadful liar.
Regina: I could have killed her, but I didn't.
Gold: You did much worse than that. You kept her alive, so you could kill her when it suited you. A Fate Worse than Death. Which, incidentally, is exactly what I've got in store for you.
Regina: Is that-
Gold: Yes, dearie. The one thing no one can escape. Destiny. And I promise… yours is particularly unpleasant.
Gold: Yes, dearie. The one thing no one can escape. Destiny. And I promise… yours is particularly unpleasant.
Phillip's companion introduces herself to Aurora as Mulan and explains that the creature was a wraith, which marks its victims before extracting their souls for damnation. As Phillip assures Aurora that they'll be safe with their allies, he notices that the medallion's symbol has been burned into his hand but hides it from Aurora.
In the woods, Gold drops the medallion and raises his dagger into the air.
Gold: The Dark One summons thee.
Gold plunges the dagger into the ground beside the medallion, and in her cell Regina awakens with a start to see the medallion's symbol appearing on her palm. The wraith rises from the medallion and zooms off in search of its prey.Mary Margaret asks Emma why she doesn't seem super happy to finally be with her parents, and Emma confesses that she can't help but resent their decision to send her away, even if it was for the greater good, since it meant she spent her entire life alone.
After some time riding through the woods, Mulan proposes that the three of them set up a camp for the night since the wraith is most powerful in the dark and it would be best to lay low while it searches for a new victim. As they work, Aurora can tell that something is bothering Phillip but he blows it off and tells her that he's going to gather firewood, shedding a tear as he turns away from her.
Emma and her parents enter the pawn shop to confront Gold, but they don't learn much before a violent windstorm starts outside, which Gold explains as a result of his in-progress elimination of Regina. They hurry off to intervene before Belle emerges from the back of the shop, disappointed that Gold used a loophole to get his way while technically obeying her, and she storms out despite his apologies.
Aurora and Mulan hear the wraith's screams, and when Mulan sees the horses gone she pieces together that Phillip was marked and has gone to give himself to the wraith to save them. Mulan runs off to find Phillip with Aurora lagging behind.
The wraith attacks Regina at the police station and starts to suck out her soul before David, Mary Margaret and Emma arrive and drive it away with an Aerosol Flamethrower. Regina explains to them what it is and that it can't be killed, only disappearing once it's claimed its victim. Emma refuses to let Regina die since she promised Henry to protect her, so Regina comes up with a plan to banish the wraith. After picking up Jefferson's hat, the four go to the city courthouse to set up the trap, but Regina can't get it to work.
Aurora catches up to Mulan, having found one of the horses, and she soon realizes that Mulan has fallen in love with Phillip despite her denial.
The wraith enters the courtroom and David fends it off with a torch as Regina struggles to get it to work.
Mulan and Aurora get to the clearing where Phillip is waiting for the wraith. Mulan asks Phillip to give her the medallion so she can take the mark and his place as the wraith's target, but he refuses. The wraith descends and they can only watch in horror as the wraith extracts Phillip's soul, disappearing into the medallion once it's done.
Regina realizes that the hat isn't working because "magic [is] different here", but as Emma touches her the hat begins to spin and the portal opens. The wraith dives at Regina but is sucked into the portal as Emma tackles her out of the way. The wraith tries to pull Regina in but grabs Emma instead, pulling her through the portal. Refusing to be separated again, Emma's parents jump in but only Mary Margaret makes it through before the portal closes.
Mulan and Aurora take Phillip's body back to the castle, laying him on the same bed he awoke Aurora from the day before. Mulan places the wraith's medallion in a bag and gives it to Aurora.
David demands answers from Regina but she doesn't know what will become of his family on the other side of the portal. When David threatens her she throws him back with magic and prepares to kill him when Henry arrives with Ruby. Henry tells Regina that he doesn't want to see her again until she brings Emma and Mary Margaret back.
Belle returns to the pawn shop, having realized that she still loves Gold but more importantly that he needs her to help him make better choices.
David and Henry go to Mary Margaret's apartment where David promises that he will find Mary Margaret and Emma.
Mulan explains to Aurora that while she was asleep, Queen Regina cast a Dark Curse that transported everyone to another land, save for the region they're in which was spared for unknown reasons. Everyone left in the Enchanted Forest was frozen in time for twenty-eight years until the Curse was weakened, at which point new dangers had arisen. Mulan and Aurora hear something move nearby and dig through a pile of rubble to find two unconscious women: Emma and Mary Margaret.
Tropes
- Aerosol Flamethrower: Mary Margaret makes one.
- After the End: Emma and Snow are sent back to the Enchanted Forest and find that it still exists and there are still people there.
- Ambiguous Situation: Phillip says "I love you" while looking at both Aurora and Mulan. We have no idea who it's directed to.
- Big Damn Kiss: Lampshaded by Aurora when Phillip kisses her passionately in the forest* .Aurora: That was a 'see you in five minutes' kiss?
- Brought Down to Normal: Regina thinks she has her magic back. She finds out the contrary at precisely the worst possible time.
- Calling the Old Man Out: After Henry sees Regina choking Charming and being the one who sent Emma and Snow into the Enchanted Forest. He tells her that she has to fix this or he will never see her again.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Jefferson's hat.
- Continuity Nod: References when Mary Margaret had a one night stand with Dr Whale.
- The opening of the episode is similar to that of the Pilot: A prince is riding on horseback and awakens his lover with True Love's Kiss.
- Couch Gag: The title card features the wraith.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The dwarves have some questions about what the hell happened last episode.Grumpy: Why are we still here?
David: That, my friend, is an excellent question.
Sneezy: <sneezes> And what was that smoke?
Doc: Who did this?
Bashful: And what was that smoke?
Sleepy: And why?
Happy: And what was that smoke? - Flat "What": Regina gives one after she is unable to cast a spell at the angry mob.
- Exact Words: Mr. Gold uses this when assuring Belle that he won't kill Regina. The wraith he's summoned will...or will devour her soul, a Fate Worse than Death.
- Belle calls him out on this in her "The Reason You Suck" Speech.Belle: You toy with words like you do people.
- Belle calls him out on this in her "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: A spinning wheel can be seen beside Aurora's bed. With the nod by Mr Gold a few episodes later that a spindle is the 'traditional' way of enacting the sleeping curse - it adds more to the theory that Aurora willingly pricked her finger.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Both Phillip and Aurora. Phillip sacrifices himself to the Wraith to protect both Mulan and Aurora. Aurora is implied to have possibly willingly entered the sleeping curse. When Mulan asks her how she got to Phillip and Aurora's palace while under her cursed state Aurora makes a comment about how Mulan is not the only one who knows about sacrifice.
- Legacy Character: Sort of. It's implied that Aurora's mother was the original 'Sleeping Beauty'.
- The Lost Lenore: Phillip becomes this for Mulan and Aurora. However it's eventually subverted when Phillip is revived offscreen.
- Only Mostly Dead: Phillip is apparently killed by the wraith but Cora later reveals that his soul was just transported to another plane - and can be retrieved. It's revealed in the finale that, for once, Cora is actually not lying.
- Rabble Rouser: Dr. Whale stirs up an angry mob against Regina. For maximum Irony, Dr. Whale is the cursed identity of Dr. Frankenstein. Guess that explains how he knows how to rouse a rabble of people... it's already happened to him!
- Samus Is a Girl: Mulan's introduction. Though one wonders why she was concealing her identity at all - since she goes without the helmet for the rest of her time on the show.
- Super-Empowering: Although it's never seen again after this episode (probably because from now on magic is active in Storybrooke), Emma apparently has this ability since it's her touching Regina's shoulder that makes Jefferson's hat work. Interestingly, this doesn't give Regina all of her personal magic back (just the vine-spell, which seems to happen due to emotion/instinct), since she still needs Rumple's book next episode; perhaps because Emma only wanted the hat specifically to work, to get rid of the Wraith?
- Title Drop: A visual one occurs at the beginning of the episode, via the postcard August sent to Neal—though we won't learn about this, or even who the guy in the opening scene is, for a number of episodes.
- Tomato Surprise: The episode begins with the usual Enchanted Forest/Storybrooke split only for it to be revealed at the end that the Enchanted Forest segment is not taking place in the past. It's actually taking place at exactly the same time as the Storybrooke segment. Even a little bit into the future - the wraith that appears in the beginning and marks Phillip, is the same one that Rumple summoned and that was banished to the Enchanted Forest (taking Emma and Snow with it) somewhere in the middle.
- True Love's Kiss: Phillip wakes Aurora up from the Sleeping Curse with it.
- The Unreveal: When Charming asks Dr. Whale about his real identity, he simply replies with, "That's my business." That answer won't be revealed until a few episodes later.
- Wham Episode:The episode's flashbacks are not flashbacks at all - part of the Enchanted Forest survived The Curse, and Emma and Snow are currently trapped there.
