Once Upon a Time Recap: Girl Fight

This week on Once Upon a Time, there were all sorts of hijinx, and plenty of secrets revealed.

We begin with the town waking up to discover that the clock has started moving again, resulting in, well, actually very little. Sure, there are some half smiles, some resolved glances, but if I lived in a world where the clocks never moved, and that was a thing, I might think the world was ending. I would at least bring it up in conversation. Everyone in Storybrooke, however, seems nonplussed by the situation, except for those who know what's up.

Anyway.

From there, we move to the Mayor menacing people in that way she does. She confronts Henry about the missing pages in his book, and then goes over to Emma's rented room to present her with a basket of apples (the symbolism is not lost here, and Lana Parrilla pulls it off really well. Does anyone else love her as the Evil Queen?), and from there on, it's a fight. Emma won't leave until she knows Henry is okay, and Regina wants her gone, like, yesterday. Some highlights:

Regina gets Emma arrested by framing her for stealing a file from Henry's psychiatrist.

Emma chops a branch off Regina's apple tree.

Regina gets Emma kicked out of Little Red's grandma's boarding house.

Emma talks to Henry's teacher.

Regina arranges for Henry to overhear Emma calling his fairy tale world idea crazy.

Like this looks like checkmate for the Evil Queen, Emma manages to track down Henry and convince him that she believes him and wants to help. So there.

Meanwhile, back in the old world, the Queen is trying to get that pesky dark curse to work.  Turns out collecting the hair of the darkest souls in the land and sacrificing her prize steed just don't cut it, which is very frustrating, considering all the trouble she went to to get her dark curse back from Maleficient, played by True Blood's delightful Kristin Bauer (in a nice twist, it's revealed that she borrowed another curse from Maleficient, a sleeping spell that was a little less effective on Snow White than one Sleeping Beauty). When she visits the one who gave her the curse in the first place, we learn that:

Cage or no, Rumpelstiltskin is the boss of everything in this place. He provided the curse, the prophecy, and we later find out, Henry. Most mysterious character prize goes to the goldspinner for sure.

If she enacts the curse, the Queen will be plagued with a sense of emptiness she can never fill.

To make it work, she needs to sacrifice the thing she loves most, which is obviously not her horse.

So she goes back home to discuss matters with the thing she loves most (aside, of course, from whomever Snow White took away from her -- she could mean Snow White's dad, but Beatrix Cottonpants has another theory she's keeping hush-hush for now. Soon, my pretties), which turns out to be -- her dad. After this revelation, he's got about a scene to suggest they just start a new life somewhere, before the Queen literally stabs him in the back for the good of the curse.

Cold. Really cold. That's what we can about that.

So we end the show, knowing a little more about the Queen, a little less than we want to about Rumpelstiltskin, and watching Emma and Henry start hatching their plan. Next week, Snow White meets her prince!