'Once Upon a Time' Season 2, Episode 15: 'The Queen is Dead' Recap

Young Snow White shows her mother her new birthday dress. Her mother tells her she has a gift for her, that has been passed through the female line.

An older woman tries on a tiara. Snow and her mother enter, and Snow yells at Johanna for trying on her crown. Snow’s mother chastises her for being sharp. She tells her that they are all the same. Just because they are royals does not mean they are better than others. She says that Snow’s ball is to honor her people, to show them that she will be a kind leader.

As Snow moves to try on the tiara, her mother is seized by pain. Johanna races for the doctor.

Modern Snow shakes off the memory. Charming is making breakfast. Snow snaps at him, and he admits with the curse broken he thought maybe she would change her mind. She finds a birthday present that was left outside the door for her. Reluctantly, she opens it.

It is the tiara. The card reads, “Thinking of you, Johanna.” Snow and Charming are both surprised she is in Storybrooke. Snow rushes to go find her, and Charming wishes her a happy birthday.

“I just wish this day made you happier.”

Charming goes. He is blindsided by Hook, who knocks him out with a crowbar. He finds his hook in a drawer and clicks it into place.

Snow finds Johanna working in the garden. Johanna tells her she came across the tiara in Gold’s shop. Johanna and Snow look at the whiten winter flowers in the garden, which is meant to honor Snow’s mother. Their tender moment is ruined by a noise in the woods.

Snow goes to check on it. She sees Cora and Regina digging in the forest. The two argue about whether the dagger is really there, or if Hook lied to them. Cora tells her she can just reconstruct the map. Snow overhears their plan to find the dagger and kill anyone Regina wants.

Snow finds Charming on the floor at the station and wakes him up. She tells them what she saw. She thinks they need to try to speak to Regina, who already doesn’t trust her mother.

Neal takes his son to get a slice of NY pizza. Gold and Emma are left out. Gold asks Emma to try and convince Neal to go to Storybrooke with them. He suggests one day Henry will go to find Neal as he did Emma. Neal and Henry interrupt them and want to go to the museum.

Regina goes to talk to Snow at Granny’s under the guise of finding out about Henry. Snow tells her she knows what’s up. Snow tells her she can have one last chance. Choose good. Regina tells her she will give her a chance to stay out of her way. Snow tells her Cora doesn’t care about Henry. Or Regina.

“And what would you know about mothers?”

No one knows what is wrong with the sick queen. Her attendant sends for the king, to be by her side. Snow tells her mother she will cancel the ball until she feels better, but the queen won’t let her. The queen coughs, and there is blood on her handkerchief.

Snow asks Johanna if her mother will die, and the older woman comforts her. Johanna says if medicine can’t cure the queen, perhaps magic will. She tells Snow that the queen has a confidant schooled in magic—there is a benevolent fairy who can grant a person’s wish if their heart is true. Johanna tells Snow where to go and wish upon the blue star.

Henry asks Gold if he should call him Grandpa. As Emma walks with Neal, she suggests that he can come with them. He tells her there is something he’s been meaning to tell her, something complicated, but Henry interrupts.

They get back to Neal’s apartment, and Henry and Neal rush upstairs while Gold and Emma talk in the lobby. Unexpectedly, Hook appears, and slashes at Gold, knocking him down. He holds up his bloody hook in preparation.

He talks too much, and Emma hits him from behind. Neal runs back down. He recognizes Hook. They bring Gold upstairs, and Emma says she locked Hook in a storage room. As Henry goes in to see if Gold is okay, Gold snaps at him.

They discuss bringing him to the emergency room, but Gold notes the hook is poisoned, and there is no antidote in this world. They need to get back to Storybrooke… and only Hook’s ship can get there quickly enough. Luckily, Neal knows how to man one.

Snow and Charming find Mother Superior, but she already knows something is happening. Dark magic has been released.

Young Snow looks for the star in the night, but the fairy finds her. She tells her that cheating death is not something she can do. Death is the way of the world. The fairy tells her she may be able to conjure a remedy, but it is forbidden. Snow must keep it a secret. The fairy gives her a candle—but it comes with a price. For one to live, another must die. Who? That is for her to decide.

Neal calls for a car. He admits he knows Hook—this world wasn’t his first stop. He says he would be a couple hundred years old. Henry comes with a text from Snow and Charming. She asks Gold about the dagger, and tells him Cora is after it. She tells him he needs to let Snow get to it first.

Mother Superior uses her wand on Gold’s shop, but it won’t work. They need something stronger. They decide to make an exception for dark magic. Snow says, just as they did before. Mother Superior says she never said any such thing.

Snow races to her mother and tells her what she did. She admits she couldn’t do it. Her mother tells her it was not fear, it was strength. She tells her daughter she is proud of her, and that she will be a great queen. Her mother tells her she will never leave her, as long as she holds the spirit of goodness in her heart. She dies.

Johanna comforts young Snow.

In Storybrooke, Charming and Snow race up to the clock tower. They find his dagger. Cora and Regina interrupt them. Cora conjures Johanna, and grabs her heart. Regina tells Snow it is her choice.

Young Snow is presented the tiara by Johanna, who reminds her the kingdom needs to find strength through her goodness.

Snow walks through the crowd to where her mother’s body lies. She tells her she misses her, and curtsies to the queen. The crowd follows suit. Johanna’s hand touches her shoulder—everyone has left. Johanna tells Snow it is time to let her go.

The blue fairy appears… and changes into Cora. Cora tells the dead queen that poison look good on her.

Regina clutches Johanna’s heart harder. Cora tells Snow she will always do the right thing… Snow realizes that Cora was the fairy, and that she killed her mother to make Regina queen. Snow throws down the dagger, and Cora grabs it. Regina pushes Johanna’s heart back in and she rushes to Snow. However, Regina uses magic and flings her out the clock face. Johanna’s body is dead on the ground.

Regina and Cora go back to Regina’s. Regina seems suspicious. She says that the day she rescued Snow wasn’t an accident, was it?

Flashback to Cora telling Regina about her extra riding lesson. Snow White’s father has been searching for a new queen. Cora frightens Snow’s horse, setting the plan in motion.

Regina tells Cora that Henry is her only interest now. Henry can’t find out that they are using the dagger to kill Gold. Cora tells her she will have Henry and Emma will be just a memory, as she strokes the dagger.

Neal gets ready to take a nice car. A woman, his girlfriend, Tamara, runs up. She tells him he can’t just tell her he’s leaving town for a while, no explanation. Neal introduces her as his fiancee.

Snow weeps over Johanna’s grave. She is tired of making the “right” decision. She tells Charming it’s time for their happy ending. He reminds her the dagger is useless until Gold comes back. They have time for justice. Snow doesn’t want justice anymore.

“I’m going to kill Cora,” she says.