Once Upon A Time: White Out Recap

Synopsis of 4×02: There’s a wall of ice surrounding Storybrooke. With the power out, new Mayor Snow White must bring back the power while Charming and Hook rescue Emma from an icy prison.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Flash back to the Enchanted Forest, way before Charming was Charming. Back when he was a shepherd with bad hair, we find out that he and Kristoff were friends. Anna, or Joan as she is calling herself, comes to him for help. While she tries to be coy and not give anything away, David’s perceptiveness, and her lack of lying ability, gives it all away. She just needs a place to stay for a night while she’s off on her secret mission. Enter Bo Peep, the landlord of David’s farm and apparently a really bad lady.

Back in Storybrooke, Henry gets a note via crow (raven?) from Regina stating that she doesn’t think it is best that she sees him right now. You know, the whole being destroyed over Robin Hood and turning evil again thing. This hurts Henry on a level he’s never been hurt before. Emma does her best awkward parenting to make it all right, but then the power goes out and she has to do her duty and find out why. So she leaves Henry alone in Granny’s diner while she goes with David to find out what just happened.

David and Emma pull up to a wall of ice. A massively impressive one that took the power out, they determine that the power outage was not intentional and go out on a search as to why it’s out. Meanwhile, Snow is dealing with Happy, Granny, and Grumpy who are pretty upset that the power is out. They tell her she’s the mayor now, because Regina doesn’t want it and Snow’s really the queen so it’s her problem. That’s cold.

Enter Hook. Trying to be super smooth, he brings up that this is their second date. David tries to be a father and asks about Hook’s intentions with Emma. Hook tells him straight up that is it as much her decision as his, therefore David can cool his dad jets and let them be.

While they are being manly, Emma goes and finds Elsa, who is hiding within the wall. Elsa demands that her sister be found. Hook and David figure out what is going on, rush in to try to save Emma and only end up panicking Elsa. Elsa in return creates a room that traps herself and Emma in, which would be cool, if you know, it wasn’t made of ice. Emma uses her magic power of quickly building rapport to calm Elsa down and make her not feel so alone. Unfortunately, while the cold doesn’t bother Elsa, it’s starting to freeze Emma to death.

Flash back to the Enchanted Forest (we’re just going to stay here for a bit, okay?), and Bo Peep is telling David and his mom it’s time to pay up. They have until tomorrow at noon to pay, unless David gives up his horse. Of course he doesn’t go for this, and tries to tell his mom that they can go, leave and start over. Bo Peep brands them with her crook and lets them know that they can’t ever leave her flock. Anna tries to convince David that he needs to fight this battle. A jaded David says that it’s a useless battle, not worth fighting.

After letting it slip that she has had some practice with a sword, she manages to convince him that it’s time to pick up the sword. We get to find out here that David’s sword twirl was learned from her, all of his sword tricks were in fact. His strange courage also comes from Anna after she calls him out for being a scared little shepherd who doesn’t stretch beyond his meadow. Cue heartbreaking tale about David’s father and how he passed on. Anna goes off to the barn with the promise of leaving tomorrow afternoon if David doesn’t show up for morning sword lessons.

The next day David runs out to the barn with a bag of supplies for Anna to take on her journey. Instead of finding Anna, he finds Bo Peep. She’s found out about his lessons, lets him know that Anna is now in her flock, and he’s got to pay today or be a slave forever. David shows up at Peep’s place, finds some courage and fights her guards. Apparently, her entire army consists of two easily defeated guys. Peep decides to take matters into her own hands, which ends up with her being tied to a pole, David taking her staff, and freeing Anna. Such a hard fight. Back at the farm, David gives his beloved steed to Anna for her mission. Ruth gives her some sandwiches and the name of Rumpelstiltskin written on a piece of paper.

Forward to Storybrooke, Snow is dealing with the upset trio, Emma is slowly freezing to death in the cave, and David and Hook are badgering Mr and Mrs Gold about freeing Emma. First things first, Snow gives some real talk to the electricity happy trio about the real state of things and tells them to go buy a flashlight (Go, Snow!). She does eventually figure out how to turn on the generator with the help of a fussy baby Neal. Snow saves electricity!

David and Hook go to the Golds’ to find out who Anna is. Rumple tells them that if he were to melt the snow, he’d also kill Emma, which doesn’t faze David as much as it does Hook. Always a good time to get in a Hook dig. David asks about the necklace, realizes who Anna is, and goes off to find Bo Peep. In Storybrooke, Peep is a butcher without any henchmen. Easily over powered by the duo, they steal her staff and rush back to Elsa and the slowly dying Emma.

Back at the ice wall, Hook proves his love for Emma by chipping away at the wall with his hook. David manages to talk to Elsa and lets her know that he knows who Anna is, and that Anna would not want this for Elsa. He somehow gives her the strength to melt away a hole in the ice so they can save Emma.  A very white Emma emerges followed by a slightly less panicked Elsa, and the group goes off to the Charming apartment. Emma is surrounded by blankets, heaters, and the entire crew.

David gives an inspiring speech about how this family doesn’t ever give up, and how they will find Anna. Elsa and Emma go back to the ice wall to melt it down, since it isn’t needed anymore. Elsa does her best to melt it, but it stays up, defying her power. While they wonder about why it’s up and how to take it down, on the other side of town Grumpy is buying some ice cream from a lady who apparently has ice powers too. Possible Snow Queen?

Frozen references: ★★★☆☆