The Lady of the Lake recap

He releases Snow and throws her into the forest alone where Lancelot finds her. A defensive Snow is prepared to fight until she realizes that Lancelot is there to help. He tells her that the king’s men are on their way to Ruth’s cabin to kill Charming. So the two race to save Charming & his mother but they arrive too late. Charming is able to defeat the all of king’s men but Ruth gets hit by an arrow in the process.

Charming then comes up with the idea to take his mother to the healing waters of the lake. As they make their way, Snow tries to comfort Ruth. The subject of childbirth comes up and Ruth tries to use an amulet blessed by a gypsy to determine the sex of Snow’s future children. If the amulet swings north to south, it’s a boy. If it swings east to west, it’s a girl but when she tries this on Snow, it barely moves forcing Snow to admit the truth about King George’s curse. Snow’s only hope is that the lake waters will heal her too.

They arrive at the lake only to find it bone dry, an unintended side effect of Charming killing the Lady of the Lake earlier. Lancelot, however, finds a small seashell full of water which is their one glimmer of hope.

From this point on, it’s pretty predictable. Ruth wants Snow to take the potion and Snow is totally against it but everyone knows that Snow will end up with the water anyway, otherwise Emma wouldn’t exist and the curse wouldn’t be broken. So Snow decides to fulfill Ruth’s dying wish of getting married to Charming with Lancelot acting their ordained minister. Snow and Charming drink from a cup of love and are married just as Ruth dies. Through the amulet Snow discovers that she can conceive and that she has Ruth and Lancelot to thank for it. She never tells Charming about King George’s curse or Ruth and Lancelot’s gift.

Flash forward to present day Fairytale Land. We last left Emma, Cora and an unconscious Snow in the haven’s dungeon. Snow awakens and is horrified to learn that her cellmate is Cora and she warns Emma that Cora is much worse than Regina ever was but Emma is still not convinced. She has this I-can-take-care-of-myself complex meshed with her unwillingness to forgive her parents and her disbelief that fairytales are real. She’s a mess right now trying to pretend that she’s got it together and Snow can tell.

A rope is let down into the makeshift dungeon. The leader of the haven has requested an audience with Emma & Snow. He turns out to be Lancelot. He greets Snow happily while Mulan (Jamie Chung) and Aurora (Sarah Bolger) watch from distance. Mulan is content to follow orders but Aurora is still seething with vengeance from Phillip’s death. Against Mulan’s warning she readies a dagger from under her cloak.

Snow, Emma & Lancelot talk and Snow reveals that she knows where another portal is but she doesn’t divulge the location for fear of Cora hearing. So Lancelot sends her and Emma off with his best warrior, Mulan, to find the portal otherwise known as the wardrobe that carried baby Emma to Storybrooke.

After hours of walking, Mulan finds the perfect place to camp for the night. She and Snow go off to find firewood and leave Emma alone, which does not sit well with Emma. She leaves to find Snow and happens upon her as Snow is being attacked by Aurora. Mulan breaks up the two and a brash Emma shoots her gun in the air to ward off Aurora. Big mistake! The gunshot alerts the ogres, who are blind and rely totally on their hearing to hunt. The group splits up and Mulan and Aurora take off in one direction while Emma and Snow go in another. Emma makes yet another mistake while running and falls over a branch. The ogre corners her and knocks away her gun. Snow whistles to get the ogre’s attention. He turns to face her and she shoots him right between the eyes, saving Emma. It seems Emma has finally got the chance to see how badass Snow used to be and apparently still is.

They arrive at the castle and Emma is flabbergasted at the life she could have had. As they look around, Mulan and Aurora leave to guard the main gate. Shortly afterwards, Lancelot arrives to Snow’s surprise. He seems mighty interested in the portal, which is something that Snow picks up on instantly. He shrugs it off saying that he just wants to send Snow home to her husband and Emma home to her son, Henry. Busted! Snow draws her sword towards Lancelot. There is only one person who Emma told the name of her son to in Fairytale Land, Cora. The jig is up and Cora reveals herself. She also reveals that she killed Lancelot long ago and assumed his identity to infiltrate the haven.

She throws Snow up against a wall and trips Emma up with a carpet. Quick thinking Emma, starts a fire in the portal to protect Henry from Cora. Cora then turns the fire into a fireball and hurls it at Emma. Mulan’s sword deflects the fireball just in time. Cornered, Cora disappears and the fire completely destroys the portal.

The four women decide that the haven has to be defended from Cora and they make Snow their leader. Emma in the meantime is happy to discover the truth that her mother only gave her up to protect her. She finally lets her guard down and accepts Snow has her mother and that fact that she now has someone who is going to look out for her. They all leave to return to the haven.

As soon as they do, Cora reappears and gathers the dust from the burned portal into a flask. The flask glows red signifying that there is still magic left and unfortunately for Storybrooke, they might be getting a visit from Cora in the near future.