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For the Enchanted Forest character, see Black Fairy. |
"The Black Fairy" is the nineteenth episode of Season Six of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Jerome Schwartz & Dana Horgan, and directed by Alrick Riley. It is the one hundred and thirtieth episode of the series overall, and premiered on April 30, 2017.
Synopsis
In flashback, after Rumple's mother, Fiona, learns from his fairy godmother that his destiny is prophesized, she does everything in her power to keep it from happening. Ultimately, Fiona will have to make a decision that will change the course of both their lives forever. Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, Rumple faces a similar dilemma.[2]
Recap
In The Characters' Past
Fiona and Malcolm bore a son on a winter's night, but soon learn from the child's fairy godmother - Tiger Lily - that as the Savior, he is prophesied to die fighting a great evil. Fretting over her son's future, Fiona starts to read up on all of the fairy lore that she can, in hopes of stopping the prophecy, and comes to believe that her son's undoing, who will be marked by a crescent, has to be born sometime soon. The amount of information she has gained from the fairy lore allows Fiona to cast a spell and turn herself into a fairy, and she convinces Tiger Lily to travel with her to all of the newborns of that winter to check for the birthmark.
Finding that none have it, Fiona comes up with a new idea that requires being allowed into the sacred fairy vault, but Tiger Lily soon deduces that Fiona's plan involves combining two spells, which is against the rules, to create a curse - the Dark Curse - which will banish all of the children to a land without magic, eliminating the threat they pose to her son. Tiger Lily tries to stop Fiona, but this only results in having her heart ripped out by the now deranged fairy who, upon proclaiming her willingness to kill her own son's fairy godmother, has her magic completely darkened... and the crescent appear on her wrist.
Evil wasn't born this winter, but it was made. The Blue Fairy is able to return Tiger Lily's heart, but Tiger Lily makes one last attempt to reason with Fiona by offering her the Shears of Destiny to remove her powers; however, Fiona instead uses them to cut her son's fate as the Savior, believing that she needs her powers to protect him. Blue is unable to forgive this though, and so she takes Fiona's wand and uses the Ancient Wand to banish her to the Dark Realm. Before Fiona is dragged through the portal, she swears to do everything in her power to reunite with her son.
The fairies return the baby to Malcolm, but he is now embittered by the loss of his wife. Malcolm remarks that once this child was perfect, and now because of him, he believes his wife to be dead. He starts his poor parenthood by giving his son the "perfect" name out of spite: Rumpelstiltskin.
In Storybrooke
At the Pawn Shop, Gold attempts to use a scent to wake up Mother Superior, but after it fails, he steps outside and sends a newspaper box flying as Belle calms him down. When Emma comes out to tell Gold Mother Superior is awake they go back in so they can ask her about the missing wand. Unfortunately, after she tells them that it was in the center of Storybrooke, she becomes unstable; Emma discovers that Snow and David are actually not there and it is in fact Fiona (posing as Snow) and Gideon (posing as David.) Although Fiona escapes with Mother Superior, Gideon is stopped by Gold as Gold places the Anti-Magic Cuffs on Gideon, vowing to get his heart back. As everyone begins searching for the wand, Gold tells Belle and Gideon that he has a better idea. Using a powder to transport them to a Dream realm via Gideon's dream, Gold unleashed the powder on himself, his son, and surprisingly enough, Emma.
At the same time, Regina helps Zelena deal with recent loss of her magic by helping her learn how to drive a car, which she hopes will give her a chance to escape Storybrooke with her daughter and Henry before the final battle. As Snow, David and Hook search for the other part of the wand, Fiona has Mother Superior as her prisoner under the mines. At the Clock Tower, Snow calls Regina for help, Regina and Snow soon discovered that the wand is located inside Granny's. When they converge on the restaurant, they find it under the jukebox, and just in time for Fiona to show up. Regina challenges her to a duel for the wand, and as they step outside into the street, Fiona uses her magic on Regina, but Fiona gets hit by Zelena with the car; Fiona then disappears, after telling them that it's not over.
Inside the dream world, Emma learns that Gold wanted her with him so she wouldn't try anything that would prevent him from finding Gideon's heart. When Gold hears a crying baby coming from a cabin nearby, Emma discovered that this is Gold's dream. As they continued to search, Emma talks to Gold about being abandoned by family but Gold says his was different from Emma's and he has no remorse for his mother. Suddenly, Gideon appears, this time to thank his father for fighting for him. Realizing that he couldn't find his son's heart, Gideon suggested that Gold has an advantage by discovering Fiona's secret, if Gold is willing to face it. Thanks to Emma's advice, the three witness the flashback that shows Fiona become the Black Fairy and the revelation that Gold was destined to become the Savior. The three soon wake up afterwards, with Regina giving the other wand fragment to Gold, which he then reunites.
That night at the park, Gold tells Fiona he knows the truth, but as aforementioned in the flashback, she shows Gold what happened after she became the Black Fairy and changed her son's destiny that prevented him from becoming the Savior. As Fiona asked her son for her forgiveness Gold isn't sure if he wants to. Hours later at Granny's, Gold returns to tell Emma, Belle, Snow, David, Hook and Gideon that Fiona was banished, and gives Gideon his heart back. Gold then tells Belle and Gideon that he'll do whatever it takes to keep his family safe.
At Emma's home, Hook asks Henry to be his best man at the upcoming wedding between Emma and Hook. Hook then gives the rings to Henry before telling Emma that he was stepping out for a while. Finally, at another location, it is discovered that Fiona was not banished and Gold is meeting with her. It turned out that they made a trade by allowing Gold to acquire Gideon's heart, in return for letting Fiona start the Final Battle, since Gold believes that he finally understands his mother, and that this would be the best way to protect his family. This meant that Emma is still the Savior meant to fight in the Final Battle. Fiona tells Gold that on Emma's wedding day, she will die.
The Once Upon a Time Wiki encourages users to rewrite the summary in their own words. |
Deleted Scenes
"Growing Up" (Scene 5A)
This scene is included on Once Upon a Time: The Complete Sixth Season.
Standing in her living room, Regina watches as Henry puts on a tie for Emma's wedding. "Since when can you tie a tie?" she asks. He replies that he's known it since he looked it up on YouTube. Finishing with the tie, he asks, "How did I do?" She says that he did perfect and guesses he won't be needing her to tie these anymore. He asks her what's wrong; after all, he's not the one getting married. She says that nothing is wrong; it's just that he's gotten so mature. Suddenly, a female voice yells from the top floor, "Ugh! What's wrong with this?!" Regina remarks that she wishes she could say the same about his aunt Zelena. At that, she goes to help her sister.
Cast[2]
Starring |
Guest Starring
Co-Starring
Uncredited
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Trivia
Title
- The title card features Tiger Lily, Fiona and the Blue Fairy flying in the woods.[4]
- The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on February 17, 2017.[5]
Production Notes
- PRESS RELEASE: In the press release, the word "dilemma" is misspelled as "delimna."[2]
- Jaime Murray, who portrays the Black Fairy, had reservations about the scene where Fiona gives birth to Rumplestiltskin. In order to prepare, the actress watched past scenes of Emilie de Ravin, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison and Rebecca Mader giving birth on-screen. After doing this, she realized there was no attractive way of giving birth on television.[6]
- HIDDEN DETAILS: The spell used by Fiona to transform herself into a fairy is "Le sgiathan cumhachd draoidheil," which is Scottish Gaelic for "with wings magic power"[7] (or, "magic power with wings").
- HIDDEN DETAILS: There are tulips in the Sacred Fairy Vault,[8] just like in the tulip pod chamber where Tinker Bell and the Blue Fairy live in the Season Three episode "Quite a Common Fairy."[9]
- REAL WORLD FACTS: The last ingredient Fiona needs to create the Dark Curse is wolfsbane. According to magic lore, this plant can be used to prevent shapeshifting and has traditionally been used to protect homes from werewolves. Bundles of wolfsbane can be placed around barns and pastures to protect livestock from predators (this requires taking care that the livestock have no access to the plant, as wolfsbane is highly poisonous, and ingesting even a small amount can kill you). It can also be used to bring harm to another by creating "elf bolts" of sharpened flint dipped in wolfsbane juice and using it to pierce a poppet for the victim.[10]
- HIDDEN DETAILS: When Mr. Gold meets up with the Black Fairy at the end of the episode, the moon has the same shape as Fiona's scar.[11]
Event Chronology
- The Enchanted Forest flashbacks take place several years before "Think Lovely Thoughts." (For more details, see the Enchanted Forest timeline)
- The Storybrooke events take place after "Where Bluebirds Fly" and before "The Song in Your Heart." (For more details, see the Land Without Magic timeline)
- The Dream World events take place after "Changelings."
Episode Connections
- The lights flicker when Rumplestiltskin is born, just like they did when Henry was born in "The Heart of the Truest Believer," and when Prince Neal was born in "Kansas."
- When Emma enters the Dream Realm she says she thought there would be "talking doughnuts or something." This is the same thing Neal says in "Souls of the Departed" when he surprises Emma on her way to the Underworld. ("If this were a dream, there'd be, like, talking doughnuts or something weird like that")
- Mother Superior was drained of her powers in "Ill-Boding Patterns" and began to wake up after regaining them in "Where Bluebirds Fly."
- Zelena sacrificed her powers to stop the Black Fairy in "Where Bluebirds Fly."
- The Black Fairy took Gideon's heart in "Mother's Little Helper."
- Tiger Lily gave Hook her half of the wand that banished the Black Fairy in "Awake."
- Zelena has become a better driver by the time of "Leaving Storybrooke."
- The Sands of Morpheus were first used by Mr. Gold in "The Savior."
- Tiger Lily states that the Dark Curse will send everyone to a Land Without Magic. This eventually happens when the curse is cast for the first time in "Pilot," a second time in "A Curious Thing," and a third time in "Broken Heart," it will do this for a fourth time in "The Song in Your Heart and fifth time in "The Eighth Witch.
- Hook mentions Henry's "Wookiee prisoner gag" from "Operation Mongoose Part 2" and "that time on the Nautilus" from "Dark Waters."
- Emma and Hook get married in "The Song in Your Heart."
- The others find out about Mr. Gold's deception in "The Song in Your Heart."
Disney
- When the Blue Fairy arrives, she takes the form of a blue star descending from the night sky, just like in Disney's Pinocchio. Similarly, her fellow fairy Tiger Lily takes the form of an orange star.
- Hook mentions Henry's "Wookiee prisoner gag" from the Season 4 episode "Operation Mongoose Part 2"; a reference to the scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, where Han Solo and Luke Skywalker pretend Chewbacca is their prisoner in order to enter the Death Star's detention area.
Fairy Tales and Folklore
- This episode is a rendition of the Villeneuve version of the fairy tale of "Beauty and the Beast," focusing on Beast's childhood, his mother's fear of losing him, his childhood with the wicked fairy, his transformation into a beast and the loss of a parent at a young age.
- This episode features Rumplestiltskin from the "Rumpelstiltskin" fairy tale (who is also the Beast from the "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale), the Fairy with turquoise hair from The Adventures of Pinocchio story, Tiger Lily and Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, the ugly duckling from the titular fairy tale, and the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story.
- In the original version of "Beauty and the Beast" by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Beast's father died when he was little and his mother was later forced to go off to war. Scared of losing her young son, she left him in the care of a fairy who turned out to be evil. Initially, the fairy took good care of the prince but when he grew older, she transformed him into the beast in retaliation for rejecting her advances. On Once Upon a Time, Beast's mother and the wicked fairy are combined into one: Fiona learns about a prophecy about her child's destiny to become the Savior and die fighting a great evil. Scared of losing Rumplestiltskin, she desperately seeks to protect him, even turning herself into a fairy in order to do so. Although she initially seeks to take care of her infant son, she eventually turns evil and ends up cutting her son from his fate of a Savior, which eventually led him down the path to becoming a "beast." When Fiona is banished to the Dark Realm, Beast's father is lead to believe that she is dead and the child grows up with a single parent.
- In the Villeneuve version of "Beauty and the Beast," the wicked fairy, planning to seduce Beauty's real father, assigns a protective fairy, and two subaltern and invisible fairies, to watch over Beast in her absence.[12] On Once Upon a Time, the protector and the wicked fairy are combined into one, with Fiona desperately seeking to protect the infant Rumplestiltskin, even turning herself into a fairy in order to do so. The other two fairies are alluded to when, on the night Fiona gives birth to Rumplestiltskin, two fairies, Tiger Lily and the Blue Fairy, visit Fiona to tell her about the prophecy about her child being destined to be a Savior and fight a great evil.
- The good fairy and the wicked fairy have also been merged into one figure, with Fiona embodying a desperate mother determined to safeguard her child, transforming herself into a fairy to enhance her ability to fulfill this role. However, she ends up turning evil in the process.
- In Villeneuve's version of "Beauty and the Beast," the fairies have a book referred to as "the general book"[13] and "the great book,"[12] in which all that they do is magically written down at the very same instant that the action takes place.[13] This book is used by the wicked fairy to find proof that Beauty's real mother was not living according to the laws of the fairies.[12] On Once Upon a Time, the fairies have a book known as the Book of Prophecy, which Fiona uses to find out her infant son's fate.
Popular Culture
Props Notes
- BRAND INFO: As Zelena correctly states, the piece of nursery furniture she's assembling[14] is a Sniglar baby crib from IKEA.[15]
- HIDDEN DETAILS: A monkey key chain is attached to the car keys that Regina gives Zelena,[16] a reference to the flying monkeys.
- REUSED PROPS: Fiona's curse scroll for the Dark Curse[17] is the same prop that was used for the Curse of the Empty-Hearted in the Season Two episode "Welcome to Storybrooke."[18]
Set Dressing
- REUSED PROPS: The lamp seen sitting on a table in the clock tower[19] is the same prop that was used in Zelena's quarters at the Emerald Castle in the Season Five episode "Our Decay."[20]
Costume Notes
- BRAND INFO: Belle is wearing[21] a Isabel Marant Etoile Walt Check Top[22] and a Babaton Maurice Coat[23] (both are no longer available).
- BRAND INFO: Regina is wearing[24] a Ted Baker Piped Belted A-Line Macintosh Coat[25] (no longer available).
- BRAND INFO: After transforming into a fairy, Fiona is wearing[26] an Alice + Olivia Lined Lace Jacket[27] (note that the costume department altered the coat for the episode) and a pair of Pleaser Day & Night FANTASIA Boots.[28]
- BRAND INFO: While at home, Emma is wearing[29] a Rachel Comey Laurel Ruffled-Sleeve Top[30] (no longer available). She wears the same garment again in the Season Seven episode "A Pirate's Life."[31]
Filming Locations
- The outdoor scenes in the Enchanted Forest were filmed in Robert Burnaby Park.[32]
- RECYCLED SET: The exterior of Malcolm and Fiona's cottage[33] is a redressed version of the Apprentice's cottage from Season Four.[34] This can be seen from the identical pattern of the brick stones (the ones by the door, on the right hand side, are easiest to compare). The Apprentice's roof tiles were replaced with a thatched roof for the episode.
- The Apprentice's cottage also doubles as one of the cottages in the village of Camelot in the Season Five episode "The Broken Kingdom."[35] This can easily be seen from the identical architecture and window panes and the identical pattern of the brick stones (the ones around the window are easiest to compare).
- A redressed version of the cottage doubles as the exterior of Brennan's cottage in the Season Five episode "Swan Song."[36] The wooden floor on the Apprentice's front porch has been replaced by a stone floor and climbing plants have been added to the walls to make the cottage look different.
- The same set doubles as the exterior of the Woodcutter's cottage in the Season Five episode "Sisters."[37] Although the cottage was heavily redressed to double as the Woodcutter's home (most noticeably, the roof of his cottage has a completely different shape, and the chimney is in a different position), the door, the window panes and the pattern of the brick stones (again, the ones around the window are easiest to compare) are the same.
International Titles
| International Titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Language | Title | Translation |
| French | "Le Livre des Prophéties" | "The Book of Prophecies" |
| German | "Die Schwarze Fee und das Erwachen der Nacht" | "The Black Fairy and the Awakening of the Night" |
| Italian | "La madre di Tremotino" | "Rumplestilskin's Mother" |
| Portuguese | "A Fada Negra" | "The Black Fairy" |
Videos
References
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