Once Upon a Time (2011) -1×17- Hat Trick

Oh god, this episode was SO fantastic. I absolutely loved it. I'm incredibly intrigued by Regina and Jefferson — he can call her by her given name to her face and not even receive a death glare in response? She seemed completely different in that scene, too; my immediate thought upon seeing her was "why is Mayor!Regina dressed up in Queen!Regina's clothes?" I realized about halfway through the episode, after mulling over all of the talk about Jefferson and his daughter, that the Queen of Hearts had kidnapped Daddy!Henry. After seeing that the Queen of Hearts has the same style vault of hearts that Regina has, and considering that we were never shown her face and that she and Regina seem to have an animosity-laden relationship, I have a feeling that the Queen of Hearts will turn out to be none other than Regina's mother, Cora.

I LOVED Regina using magic to get through the maze; she was just so badass throughout that whole scene, and it's been way too long since we last saw her do magic (eight episodes!). I didn't find her choice not to teleport off-putting, though, because there are a handful of reasons why she might not have. For starters, she might not be able to teleport someone along with her, and she didn't want to get separated from Jefferson; or maybe the Queen of Hearts doesn't allow teleportation on her grounds, sort of like Hogwarts.

I felt for Jefferson, but I was kind of annoyed with him at the same time — the kid was perfectly happy with the rabbit that you made for her, dude. Quite often, I feel bad for the people who get caught up in Rumpel and Regina's schemes, because they are very rarely given a choice between two valid options, but tonight I just felt like Jefferson had two perfectly valid choices, and he made his choice out of greed. Still, I feel bad that his one terrible choice resulted in being separated from his daughter for so long. I interpreted that last scene of him sewing hats as taking place before the curse, after the Queen of Hearts ordered him to make a new one, although I could be wrong. I figured that the hat that Emma made started working when he disappeared, too.

Also: Snow's badassery coming out of Mary Margaret was awesome. I thought it was kind of ridiculous, though, that Emma's fluffy, fairytale princess curls were so perfect when she was at the police station in the first scene, but then five minutes later when she was on the road, her hair was all scraggly.