'Once Upon a Time' 5x02 Review: 'The Price'

Camelot

When they arrive, Arthur explains there will be a ball held in honor of their arrival. Always impatient, Hook doesn’t want to waste time dancing when his girl needs saving. He inquires when they will begin looking for Merlin, at which point Arthur takes them to a tree that is Merlin or has Merlin trapped inside. Does this have anything to do with what turned Dopey into a tree, or the fury that kidnapped Robin?

Arthur asks them who the savior is. Emma begins to acknowledge it when Regina grabs the hilt of the dagger and steps forward, cutting her off to tell Arthur that she is the savior. Later, she and Emma search Merlin’s tower for clues or objects that may help them free him from the tree. Emma warns Regina not to use the dagger to control her again. Regina explains that she was only attempting to prevent Emma from having to use dark magic again. Emma accepts her reasoning and thanks her.

While Regina and Robin are contemplating how to free Merlin, Percival shows up with a gift for Regina. It is a necklace that isn’t just a pretty jewel. It’s actually a way for him to spy on her. Why is revealed at the ball when he cuts in to dance with her. It turns out that he was a boy who watched the atrocities that she committed as the Evil Queen. After confessing that he recognized her, Percival attempted to kill her; an attempt that ended in Robin becoming mortally wounded and Charming killing Percival.

In desperation, Regina attempts to heal Robin, but can’t. She explains that there was an enchantment on the sword that harmed him preventing her from healing him. She begs Emma to save him. Hook insists that Emma not use any magic, since each time it draws her further into the darkness, but she is compelled to help Regina. Rumpelstiltskin pops up and interrupts Emma to explain that to save a life you have to give a life up. That someone will have to pay the price for that life. Emma says she’ll pay it, but evidently that is not what happened, because everyone made it back to Storybrooke.

Arthur comes to apologize for Percival’s attack, and Regina admits that he had reason, because she is in fact the Evil Queen. As Emma watches from a side doorway, Arthur tells Regina that Camelot is a place of second chances and that if she is the one who healed Robin, then she is the savior. Emma displays a look of disbelief and hurt as Regina tells Arthur “Thank you.”