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All of
this is front and center in a dramatic contrast between Emma (Henry’s real
mother who gave him up for adoption as a baby) and Regina (who adopted Henry in
revengeful scheming against Snow White and Prince Charming, who are Emma’s
parents and Henry’s grandparents). Emma’s love for Henry is true; we see proof
of it when her kiss breaks the spell of death and restores everyone’s memory. But
we’ve already seen evidence that Emma’s love is true in the actions and choices
she has made and continues to make—sacrificial choices, choices to risk her
life for Henry and others, but perhaps most poignant, choices to do what is in
the best interest of her son instead of herself. In “Broken,” Henry asks Emma
to protect Regina and she does—in spite of her anger and desire for retribution.
But it costs her: once again, Emma is separated from Henry.
The
role of sacrifice in true love is enriched and supported by the story we simultaneously
watch unfold in the Enchanted Forest—one that cleverly is revealed at the end
of the episode to be not a flashback but “flash-present” (the influence of Lost writers
plays out well here). Against a soul-sucking wraith, Prince Phillip sacrifices
his life to protect Sleeping Beauty and Mulan. "Love is a sacrifice of your own happiness," Mulan
tells Beauty.
In
contrast to this thread, are characters like Regina and Mr. Gold (aka Rumplestiltskin). While Regina
professes love for Henry, her actions speak otherwise. While she may have deep
feelings for Henry, she constantly chooses to put her own desires for revenge,
control and power above Henry’s best interest. In “Broken,” in an effort to
manipulate Charming and Snow to protect her from wraith unleashed in revenge by
Gold against her, she tells Charming that he must be a role model of compassion
for his daughter Emma. Yet when Regina regains her power of magic, her very
first act is not compassion but an attempt to kill Charming. In Once Upon a Time, magic always has a
cost—and Regina’s first use of magic has an immediate one: Henry walks in as
she’s strangling his grandfather and he calls her “a monster.” Her words of
love are lost on him. Her love is not true love; it is selfishness masquerading
as love. She only succeeds in driving Henry farther from her.
We also
see the destructive power of selfishness on love in the relationship between
Gold and Belle. Gold is bent on revenge against Regina. Manipulating others
with clever words and machinations has become his default—even with his beloved
Belle. When she calls him on his deceitful behavior towards her in his quest
for revenge, he automatically reverts to sarcasm and she leaves him.
Yet,
unlike Regina, Gold is aware of and even regrets who he has become—we see it on
his face when Belle leaves and hear him confess it to her when she returns. While
Gold tells Belle he will not leave this dark path, she sees his honesty and
awareness as hope and stays with him, determined to help him turn from darkness
to good.
But we
get the feeling Belle is in the same boat as Henry. While both Regina and Gold
long for love, their selfishness is paramount. They are bent on their own
agendas and desires, and even though it has cost them the objects of their
desire in the past (Regina her father and Gold his son), they continue down the
same paths.
On a
larger scale, I am also intrigued by the pivotal role love is playing in
breaking Regina’s curse on the inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest and the
fairy tale world. While the folks of Storybrooke remember who they are and time
has started in the fairy tale land again, there are relationships to repair and
a land to heal—and love seems to be playing a central role in all that.
All this
reminds me of our own Story and the powerful Love that is breaking our own
curse, bringing resurrection out of death. And this sacrificial Love invites
and helps us to recall who we are—and enables us to love with the Love we are
loved by. Yet even as our own curse is breaking, we are still on the yet-to-be
side of our Happy Ending. Death and sin are doomed, but they still wreak havoc.
We live in a land that aches for repair and restoration. Our relationships cry
out for healing and reconciliation. But the power the Truest Love advances us
forward in the work of the Creator to heal and repair his land—to give us the Happy
Ending we were created for.
The
inhabitants of Once Upon a Time are
working towards their own happy endings—and in fairy tales, we know they always
get one. That is one of the best things about fairy tales. I resonate with J.R.R.
Tolkien’s description of the “Consolation of the Happy Ending.” As I mentioned
awhile back, Tolkien shows us how fairy tales help us make sense of our own
Story. They don’t deny the existence of sorrow
and failure, Tolkien says — in fact, “the possibility of these is necessary to
the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will)
universal final defeat and … [gives] a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the
walls of the world, poignant as grief.” Fairy tales, says Tolkien, give us a
taste of the deepest truth: the gospel itself, a Story with the happiest
of endings.
Once Upon a Time keeps giving tastes
of that—and that’s why it continues to bring God-talk into these open spaces.