Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Once Upon A Time Episode Guide
one she was given as a young girl in episode 215, ’The Queen is Dead’! The candle has the power
to save a life in exchange for taking another. In this case, she could light the candle and whisper
Cora’s name over her heart. Then she’d have to get Cora’s heart back into her body to transfer
Mr. Gold’s mortal wound to Cora. Since she refused to use the candle to save her own mother,
Mary Margaret’s not really interested in using it to save Mr. Gold. Her plan is to get Cora’s heart
and use it to take control of her. With that, she could force Cora to do the right thing, but, as
Gold points out, then she’d be letting Henry’s grandfather die.
In Fairy Tale Land, Cora steals a nice dress and crashes a masquerade ball being thrown as
a means of introducing Prince Henry to wealthy young women whom he could marry to increase
the kingdom’s fortunes. The ruse doesn’t last long before the King catches on to Cora. He again
insults her and this time she claims she can spin straw into gold. He challenges her to prove it.
She is to spend a night loked in a tower full of straw with a spinning wheel. By morning she will
either have proven her outrageous claim or be executed. Needless to say, Cora is in way over her
head when suddenly Rumplestiltskin appears. He has seen the future thanks to the powers he
gained in episode 214, ’Manhattan’ and he knows he’ll need Regina to get his Dark Curse cast.
He offers Cora a deal — he’ll spin all of the straw into gold in exchange for her first-born child.
Cora accepts the deal, but only on the condition that he teach her how to spin straw into gold
herself. He does, and the two grow very close in the process. By morning, she is spinning straw
into gold as promised and wins the hand of Prince Henry.
The day of Cora and Prince Henry’s wedding approaches, but she has clearly been seeing
Rumplestiltskin on the side. As they meet for what may be the final time before she is married,
they decide that perhaps they should run away together. Rumplestiltskin is so taken with Cora,
he even amends their deal so that Cora promises to give him HIS child. Cora only has one more
thing to do. She wants revenge on the King for humiliating her. She wants to rip out his heart
and show it to him before he dies. Coincidentally, Rumplestiltskin is great at that. He teaches
her everything she needs to know about ripping out hearts and they plan to meet outside the
castle walls that night after she’s done the deed.
Cora visits the King in his chambers, where the cold and pragmatic ruler lays out the facts
plainly. He knows she’s been seeing Rumplestiltskin and he knows she has to decide whether
to run away with him for the sake of love or to stay and rule a Princess by marrying his son —
who he himself doesn’t even seem too fond of. Presented so clearly as a choice between love and
power, Cora makes her decision. That night, she meets Rumplestiltskin and dispassionately tells
him that she is going to stay and marry Prince Henry, rather than go with him. He asks what
happened and whose heart she now carries in a box. The heart is her own, which she removed
herself, to keep herself from choosing love over power. Rumple is hurt and outraged and reminds
Cora of their deal. But Cora reminds him that he amended the deal and she would never have a
child with him.
In Storybrooke, Regina and Cora burst through the magical barrier protecting Mr. Gold’s shop.
After a quick tussle, Mary Margaret slips out of a side door to find Cora’s heart. David is magically
thrown out of the shop and, while Neal and Emma hold their own as best they can against two
sorceresses, they wind up backing into the store room with the dying Mr. Gold and sealing it up
with more magic. As Cora prepares to break through, she realizes something’s amiss with her
heart and sends Regina off to protect it.
As Cora hammers the magical barrier, Mr. Gold begins to realize the end is near. He calls
Belle, who’s still in the hospital with no memory of her true self, and tells her he knows who
she is. He finds words of such love and tenderness for her, it’s almost impossible to believe that
they’re coming from The Dark One. Neal and Emma overhear everything and Neal is shocked to
hear his father’s dying words to a woman he loves. While it’s not a complete reconciliation, father
and son come together in what may be the few moments they have left together.
Meanwhile, in Regina’s hidden chambers beneath her family mausoleum, Mary Margaret finds
Cora’s heart. She ponders for a moment, but then does the unthinkable, lighting the candle and
whispering Cora’s name over her heart. After the deed is done, Regina finds her there, holding
the box with her mother’s heart. But Mary Margaret tricks Regina, telling her that putting her
mother’s heart back in her chest will be the only way for Cora to truly love Regina and for them
to really start a family that Henry may one day be able to be a part of.
Back in the store room, Cora finally bursts through. She quickly banishes Emma and Neal
to the woods outside of town and stands ready to finish off Mr. Gold. She sits with him for a
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