Rocky Road

"Eventually, everyone turns on people like us. Even friends. Even family. They're just waiting for a reason."

- Ingrid

"Rocky Road" is the third episode of Season Four of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by David H. Goodman & Jerome Schwartz and directed by Morgan Beggs. It is the sixty-ninth episode of the series overall, and premiered on October 12, 2014.

Synopsis
When an icy spell is cast on Marian, which will ultimately freeze her heart and kill her, the Storybrooke residents place the blame on Elsa. But unbeknownst to anyone, a mysterious woman who runs the town’s ice cream parlor has the same powers as Elsa and is trying to frame her. Emma and David find former Merry Men member Will Scarlet rummaging through Robin Hood’s tent, Regina teams up with Henry to try and discover who the author of the fairy tale book is, Mary Margaret is having trouble balancing her duties as leader of Storybrooke and mother to young Prince Neal, and Hook begins to suspect that Mr. Gold is still in control of the dagger that calls upon him to be the Dark One. Meanwhile, in Arendelle of the past, Elsa and Kristoff set off to stop Hans from attempting to take control of the kingdom.

Recap
The episode starts out with the Hood family walking through Storybrooke. Robin Hood is attempting to explain things to Marian while Roland begs his mother for ice cream. The trio goes into Any Given Sundae where the Snow Queen serves Robin and Roland some rocky road ice cream and serves Marian vanilla ice cream on a cone with sprinkles, which she secretly curses before giving it to her. In the next scene, Emma, Hook, and Elsa interrogate Mr. Gold. Belle uses the dagger on him and proves to the trio that he's not lying.

In the next scene, Mary Margaret is holding a town meeting while also taking care of Neal. The town is upset over Elsa's mayhem while Mary Margaret, David, and the Hood family defend her. As they speak, a strand of white begins to frost into Marian's hair and she collapses, causing a panic.

At Granny's Diner, Henry is sipping on a mug of hot chocolate when Regina comes in and puts down some comic books for him. He is happy over her gift, to which Regina remarks that she wasn't sure which kind he liked anymore, so she got a bunch. As Henry begins flipping through one, Regina questions him about the writer of his storybook. He inquiries why she is asking. At first, Regina says she wants to force the storybook author, before changing her wording, and explaining she wants to ask the author to rewrite a happy ending for her. Henry agrees to help her find him, and the two decide on the name of the mission to be "Operation Mongoose". Robin bursts in to the diner and requests that Regina help Marian. Henry, Regina, and Robin rush to town hall where Regina observes Marian. Emma and Elsa later come too. Elsa states there is only one way to save Marian, which Regina knows painfully, is true love's kiss. Robin then kisses Marian, hoping it will cure the curse, however, nothing happens.

Emma and Killian set off to find who has hurt Marian.

"Unnamed Scene"
Mr. Gold, Belle, Elsa, Emma and Hook approach the farmhouse in order to help Elsa understand her origins in Storybrooke. Gold collects ashes from the urn and explains that magic can never be destroyed, only change. Emma then assures Elsa that they will find her sister.

Starring

 * Ginnifer Goodwin as Mary Margaret Blanchard
 * Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan
 * Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills
 * Josh Dallas as David Nolan
 * Emilie de Ravin as Belle French
 * Colin O'Donoghue as Hook
 * Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills
 * Michael Socha as Will Scarlet
 * Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold

Guest Starring

 * Lee Arenberg as Leroy
 * Beverley Elliott as Granny
 * Scott Michael Foster as Kristoff
 * Georgina Haig as Elsa
 * Christie Laing as Maid Marian
 * Sean Maguire as Robin Hood
 * Elizabeth Mitchell as Snow Queen
 * Tyler Jacob Moore as Hans
 * Raphael Sbarge as Archie Hopper

Co-Starring

 * Raphael Alejandro as Roland
 * Nils Hognestad as Franz
 * Marcus Rosner as Jurgen
 * Charles Raahul Singh as General

Uncredited

 * Jack as Sven
 * Mark Goldman as Sven (Voice)
 * Unknown baby as Prince Neal
 * Unknown as Floyd

Trivia
Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * The title card features Any Given Sundae.
 * The title of this episode was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on July 30, 2014.
 * This episode shares its name with a type of ice cream, which was mentioned by David when he offered to give Regina a ride home in the first season episode "The Stranger".
 * For at least one filming day, Christie Laing was ill with food poisoning, so it was a reprieve for her to lay down during the scenes where her character is supposed to be a frozen ice statue.
 * The Snow Queen is barefoot as she walks, which was Elizabeth Mitchell's decision. She described herself as a "gazelle in galoshes", and otherwise, she would be "tripping over everything."
 * For the scene where the Snow Queen freezes Hans, Tyler Jacob Moore had to be 3D modeled, and stand with his hands up and a frozen look on his face.
 * Henry and Regina's mission, Operation Mongoose, references the real-life carnivorous animal of the same name. Mongooses feed on cobras in the wild, and are usually unaffected by cobra venom at low doses. This is ironic considering Emma and Henry's first mission together was named Operation Cobra.


 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Arendelle flashbacks occur after "A Tale of Two Sisters" and before "The Apprentice".
 * The Storybrooke events take place after "White Out" and before "The Apprentice".

Episode Connections

 * The ice cream shop, Any Given Sundae, was first featured in "White Out".
 * Emma informs Mr. Gold that Elsa was trapped inside an urn he stored in his vault. She saw this relic in "There's No Place Like Home".
 * Mr. Gold insists he is a changed man since losing a son and gaining a wife. These events occurred in "Quiet Minds" and "There's No Place Like Home".
 * Emma warns that she can tell when someone is lying by using her superpower. She first noted this in "Pilot".
 * Mary Margaret welcomes townspeople into her office since becoming mayor, a role she first took on in "White Out".
 * The ice wall surrounding the town was created in "White Out".
 * Leroy mentions Elsa freezing his car in "A Tale of Two Sisters".
 * Granny's recollection of Elsa creating the snow monster and the creature attacking Maid Marian are events from "A Tale of Two Sisters".
 * Maid Marian's affliction is cured in "Heroes and Villains".
 * Regina conceived the plan to change Henry's storybook in "A Tale of Two Sisters".
 * At Henry's suggestion they undertake a mission together, Regina recalls "Operation Cobra" that he had with Emma, which began in "The Thing You Love Most".
 * When Robin Hood fails to wake his wife with true love's kiss, David remembers Frederick, a knight, who was accidentally turned into golden statue. Frederick's fate is further explored in "What Happened to Frederick".
 * Breaking into Any Given Sundae, Emma once again performs a lock-picking trick, which she used to escape the Evil Queen's dungeon in "There's No Place Like Home". How Neal taught her the trick is also featured in the same episode.
 * The reason behind Any Given Sundae's missing cooling system is explained in "White Out".
 * Elsa says that she should have destroyed the urn when she had the chance, which she eventually does in "There's No Place Like Home".
 * How Snow Queen ended up inside the urn, and why Elsa has never heard of her aunt, is revealed in "The Snow Queen".
 * How Elsa herself was trapped inside the urn, and how it ended up in Rumplestiltskin's vault, is revealed in "Smash the Mirror".
 * The real reason why Anna's necklace came into Mr. Gold's possession is explained in "Smash the Mirror".
 * How the Snow Queen knows Emma is first revealed in "Breaking Glass", and further explored in "Shattered Sight".
 * Why Emma has no memory of the Snow Queen is explained in "Shattered Sight". Emma gets her memories back in the same episode.
 * Graham and Neal's deaths occurred in "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" and "Quiet Minds". Walsh's death occurred in "New York City Serenade".
 * Emma's reason for distancing herself from Hook is revealed in this episode, and was previously alluded to in "A Tale of Two Sisters".
 * Hook claims to be good at surviving. Pan described him the same way in "Good Form", and Hook himself used those words for the first time in "The Evil Queen".
 * Hook refers to what he says to Emma in "Heroes and Villains".


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

 * This episode features Elsa, Kristoff, Sven and Hans from the Disney movie Frozen, as well as their homeland Arendelle.
 * Elsa talks about making a living snow man with the Snow Queen, which is a reference to Olaf from Frozen.

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode features the Snow Queen from the fairytale of the same name, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, as well as Maid Marian from the ballad "Robin Hood".

Popular Culture

 * Robin Hood buys Rocky Road ice cream for himself and Roland at Any Given Sundae.
 * Regina gives Henry a set of comics, which includes issues of the Marvel Comics Thor and S.H.I.E.L.D.. A Spider-Man advertisement can be seen on the back cover of the comic that Regina is reading.
 * Emma calls the Snow Queen "Dairy Queen", a reference to the ice cream franchise of the same name.
 * Operation Mongoose is the name of a United States Government mission to overthrow Fidel Castro and return democracy to Cuba.


 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * When Elsa touches the magic urn, strange characters appear. Elsa recognizes the inscription as "ancient Futhark runes", but is unable to read them. However, two of the characters are Elder Futhark runes:
 * Laguz (ᛚ, meaning L), which means "water" or "lake"
 * Isaz (ᛁ, meaning I), which means "ice"
 * Ironically, in "A Tale of Two Sisters", Elsa's mother's diary contain Elder Futhark characters, which she could read perfectly. However, the characters also look similar to old Italic script, which the runic alphabet was derived from.

Set Dressing

 * The painting outside the mayor's office in the town hall is A Calm at a Mediterranean Port, an oil painting from 1770 by the French painter Claude Joseph Vernet.
 * In "Labor of Love", the Underworld version of the painting is hanging outside Cruella's office.

Costume Notes

 * Roland is wearing a J.Crew Boys' Baseball Henley (no longer available).
 * The epaulettes worn by the General are the same design worn by Gerhart and Alphonse Frankenstein in the Season Two episode "In the Name of the Brother", the Royal Palace Guards of Oz in "Heart of Gold", the Season Five episode "Our Decay" and the Season Six episode "Where Bluebirds Fly" and by Captain Nemo in the Season Six episodes "Dark Waters", "Page 23" and "A Wondrous Place". The same epaulettes are worn by the Duke of Weselton and King Harald in "The Snow Queen".
 * Belle is wearing a Tory Burch Lidia Lace & Ruffles Polo Shirt (no longer available). Note that the buttons on Belle's shirt have been changed and the sleeves have been shortened by the costume department.
 * Mary Margaret is wearing a Christopher Kane Gray Pleated Carnation Skirt (no longer available).
 * Emma is wearing a James PerseSheer Slub Crew Neck Tee.
 * David is wearing a Tailored Plaid Shirt from Paul Smith Jeans (no longer available).
 * The same shirt was worn by the character Andrew Lofland on an episode of the romantic comedy television series A to Z.