Season 4, Episode 6:
Family Business
The race is on to track down the elusive Snow Queen, who was once a foster mother to a young Emma - whose memories of this event have been erased. In order to discover what her ultimate end game is for Elsa and the residents of Storybrooke, and unaware that she does not possess the real blade that controls The Dark One, Belle attempts to use it to get her reluctant husband to show her where the Snow Queen is hiding. Meanwhile, back in the past, Belle travels to Arendelle and, with Anna's help, seeks out Grand Pabbie to help her regain her lost memories in order to discover the fate of her mother.
Tropes
- Adaptation Name Change: Elsa and Anna mother's name in Frozen was 'Iduna', based on reading the Runic language on her tombstone, but here, the name is changed to Gerda. How much you want to bet the king's name was Kai (instead of Agnar, the name written on his tombstone in Frozen)?
- Advertised Extra: Belle's mother Collette was featured prominently in promotional material and her casting was very well-hyped. She had about 5 minutes of screen time and the plot involving her wrapped up very quickly with a talk between Belle and her father.
- The Corrupter: The Snow Queen's mirror specialized in this.
- Couch Gag: The title card features Sarah Fisher's ice cream truck.
- Double-Meaning Title: Or even triple meaning. In the present it refers to Emma trying to find out how and why the Snow Queen could have been her foster mother. In the past it refers to both Belle's search for memories of her mother for closure and to the drama and interaction between the Snow Queen and Anna over who gets Elsa's trust and loyalty.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Anna telling Belle about Rumple (without naming him) and saying she hopes she never meets him. Even more ironically, it's this very reference that makes her research him and thus suggest him to her father as the solution to their ogre problem.
- Belle tearfully confesses her secret regarding Anna, apologizes to Gold for controlling him with the dagger, and then tells him she knows he'd never keep secrets from her... when he knows very well that what the mirror told her about him giving her a fake dagger was the truth. Twisting the knife, to judge by his expression.
- Also, the fact Belle uses the dagger on Gold to make him take her to the Snow Queen's cave so that she can procure the Hat (because she knows Ingrid has it thanks to her actions in Arendelle, and she thinks she can use it as leverage to make her reveal where Anna is)...when Gold already has the Hat, but of course cannot tell her this or why he has it.
- Both Anna and Ingrid were acting based on missing information and wrongful assumptions about each other, in the process breaking the family apart and making their worst fears come true in a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. In fact, if each of them had been completely honest with each other from the start (and if Anna had been honest with Elsa about what she learned in Misthaven), it's entirely possible everything that came next would never have happened; certainly, Anna would have been far more understanding and forgiving than Ingrid ever imagined she would be.
- Dutch Angle: Used on Ingrid in her mirror as the very last shot of the episode, to emphasize the disturbing nature of her plans for Elsa and Emma.
- Everyone Is Related: Hook says this verbatim.
- Evil Versus Evil: While it has yet to be revealed just how or why they came to know each other in the past, this episode makes it clear Gold is not on the Snow Queen's side—and when she dares to threaten Belle, he in turn directly threatens her with the Hat.
- Evil Plan: Emma and co. find out Ingrid’s in this episode—kill everyone in Storybrooke with the Spell Of Shattered Sight until it is only her, Emma and Elsa alive and living there.
- Exact Eavesdropping: The Snow Queen happened to be listening in on Anna and Kristoff's conversation in the stable.
- Foregone Conclusion: Although both the promotional material and the episode itself played up the deadly danger to Anna, the fact her heartbeat was heard through Bo Peep's staff gave away that she would have to survive. What was still left to discover, however, is what did happen to her that left her still alive.
- Foreshadowing: When Anna asks Ingrid what happened to Helga, both the look on her face as she stiffens and her quiet, sober response, "Some secrets are better left buried" hints that whatever the truth is, it's something very awful and painful. The next episode fulfills that in spades.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: When the Snow Queen sends a storm after them while they're on a cliff, Belle has to choose between going after the memory stone Grand Pabbie gave her or Anna. She chooses the stone...which falls and breaks, and then Anna falls anyway.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Belle's mother Collette pulled one to let her escape.
- Good Eyes, Evil Eyes/Mad Eye: Belle's reflection in the Snow Queen's mirror had quite an impressive pair.
- Identical Stranger: Apparently Emma is a dead ringer for the missing Helga.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Regina makes a comment about Emma and Hook "making eyes" at each other, which Emma firmly denies. She and Hook immediately start making eyes at each other after that.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Because she can't find any way to break the ice spell, and she can't defeat the Snow Queen, Regina insists Robin needs to find a way to love Marian again, so he can break it with True Love's Kiss.
- Loophole Abuse: Gold, forced to obey Belle's commands so as not to give away the dagger she has is a fake, is told to stay outside the cave while she goes in to find the Sorcerer's Hat. He eventually comes in to rescue her from the mirror, and when he conjures them back to the pawn shop he is able to explain his ability to disobey (and thus defuse the mirror's reveal about the dagger) by claiming he'd sensed the Snow Queen coming—and, because she'd actually told him to keep watch, this change in the situation allowed him to come in and save her. (She also ordered him several times during the struggle to let her go, but luckily for Gold, she doesn't recall this due to the mirror's spell.)
- Manipulative Bitch: The Snow Queen deliberately leaves her ice cream truck in the woods for Emma and the others to find, with a locked ice chest containing files and folders holding all of the mementos from their time as a foster family together—clearly intended to show Emma she once cared for her deeply so as to encourage her to go along with her current plans to make a new family together with Elsa. She also leaves the prophecy about Emma being the Savior to show why she considered Emma so special and how she wanted her to be a new sister, knowing Elsa would be able to translate it.
- Meet the New Boss: Critics of this episode had criticized Ingrid of being one to Zelena, the previous Big Bad: a social outcast, isolated because of their magical power, had a family tie to the main cast and a mysterious tie to Rumpelstiltskin, had an Evil Plan the ultimate purpose of which was to get them love while killing/erasing everyone else from existence. And they both had a large crystal necklace that may or may not be their power source/focusing crystal.
- My Greatest Failure: Belle's is having selfishly tried to get her memory stone instead of saving Anna's life, thus allowing her to fall and be captured by the Snow Queen. After having lied about this in the present, she is determined to make up for it.
- Mythology Gag:
- Aside from the revelation of the Queen of Arendelle's name, there's what the mirror does to Belle, confronting her only with everything bad and ugly in herself (and more than a hint of truth in a lot of it). This is further extended into the Snow Queen's plan for the mirror to make everyone in Storybrooke turn on each other by bringing out their worst traits. Even the name for the spell, Shattered Sight, alludes to The Snow Queen.
- To Frozen:
- Having a scene at Wandering Oaken's Trading Post & Sauna. Oaken being totally in-character.
- It's been two years since the events of Frozen, but Anna still can't climb!
- Anna and Kristoff have an argument about Anna being a "good judge of character," hearkening back on how she fell for Hans in the span of one duet.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Much of what the Snow Queen said was either untrue or (as in her claim about Anna imprisoning Elsa) conveniently left out critical details, and Ingrid calling Anna the "odd woman out" suggested that she'd been thinking of replacing Anna for a while, but didn't act on it because of Elsa. But if Anna's suspicions of her had not led her to go and visit the trolls and learn the truth about their heritage, which the Snow Queen overheard, thus seemingly proving Ingrid right about her (and making her seem just like Gerda), it's quite possible none of the terrible events after this would have happened, and they could have had a happy family together.
- Replacement Goldfish: The Snow Queen's entire plan: replace her sisters with Elsa and Emma, kill everyone else.
- The Reveal: A lot was revealed in this episode:
- Anna was indeed trapped by the Snow Queen.
- The three sisters: Ingrid, Helga, Gerda.
- The Snow Queen's plan, including the prophecy, the spell her mirror can cast, and how much (and for how long) she's known about Emma.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Not only did Belle's quest to Arendelle result in both Anna falling and being captured by the Snow Queen and the breaking of the memory stone, but it ended up being completely unnecessary because Maurice already knew what happened to her mother. Lampshaded by Belle herself. The only good to come out of it was it inspiring Belle to be heroic in the future, thus setting up for her agreeing to Rumple's deal to save her land from the ogres.
- Title Drop: By Ingrid to Belle asking her to stay out of it.
- Unperson: Elsa and Anna's aunts Ingrid and Helga were removed from history after they vanished under mysterious circumstances.
- Wham Episode: The reason for why Elsa and Anna didn't know the Snow Queen, what happened to Anna and how, what the Snow Queen's plan is and why she is interested in Emma...yeah, a lot happens.
