@OED’s Word of the Day yesterday was Maleficent! First recorded in 1678.

Michael’s “Always… no, no… never… forget to check your references.”

Frozen

Of course Anna finds hitting someone in the face and trapping someone in a net romantic. Oh my gosh, why didn’t they get married right there!?!

David: “I’m callin’ you iceman. And you’re from Arendelle! Whattaya doin’ sellin’ ice? The whole place is Frozen!”

Regina’s self impose d imprisonment offers another opportunity to show the iconic back to the closed doors imagery reminiscent of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman,” used in the early episodes of the season.

The extent of Kristoff’s worst self was more or less “I hate it here and you put off the wedding.” Raised by love experts, he’s not the hating type.

Carrot Sherbert. The Olaf reference you’ve waited all season for.

In the end, it’s Anna’s capacity for familial love that melts Ingrid’s frozen heart. Gerda’s letter and the memories it contains turn her around, but it’s the the younger Of Arendelle sister that lays it all on the line. I’m not gonna lie, it got a little dusty in the room. And it allowed for Ingrid’s act of true love to save everyone. Once gets it.

Song of the South

Mary Margaret: “Still wanna hold hands and sing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah?”

Written by Allie Wrubel and Ray Gilbert, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1947. It was Disney’s second win in the category. The first was “When You Wish Upon a Star,” slyly referenced in the last episode. The controversial film has never been released on home video.

Swiss Miss

Snow points out Anna’s partial resemblance to the mascot for ConAgra’s winter institution. It might be random and it might not. Disney has a long-standing relationship with the food giant going back more than sixty years. Most recently, Disney’s Peter Pan became the official mascot for their peanut butter.

Snow White

And she asks for a poison apple which is iconic to the show, the Disney classic, and the original Tale 53, Sneewittchen.

Home Alone

“Welcome to the Jungle”

It gets worse here every day. Regina quotes here favorite terrestrial poet, W. Axl Rose, when she confronts Snow White. “I wanna watch you bleed.”

101 Dalmations

Young Emma grabs a stuffed Dalmation with the claw crane at the state fair. This is a subtle reminder that Pongo actually lives in Storybrooke and sets the stage for Cruella’s entrance next week.

Bonus: The ring around its neck can be seen during 4×05 “Breaking Glass” in Emma’s treasure box.

Harry Potter

The boy who lived gets another shout out from young Emma right before her unstable foster mom tries to get her hit by a car. She wishes she could “poof home,” or Apparate.

Once Upon a Time

David and Mary Margaret recast the events of 1×03 “Snow Falls,” or I suppose 3×21 “Snow Drifts” and 3×22 “There’s No Place Like Home.” Series co-creator Adam Horowitz is with Anna, hitting someone in the face is romantic. He prefers rocks, but when timey wimey goes all wibbly wobbly, you make due.

Snow also references 2×16, “The Miller’s Daughter,” the episode where she effectively tricked Regina into matricide, sullied her own heart (and now Charming’s as well) and set the stage for the angry Mary Margaret we’ve seen this season.

The grand prize winner, though, is 1×18 “The Stable Boy.” Kristoff calls David “stable boy” instead of scruffy looking nerf her… shepherd. David follows up by selling Snow out with his reference to the first of her many spilled secrets. And during the climax of their duel, Regina calls Snow on it and she responds with, “I WAS TEN!” It’s also a good way to point out something the two queens have in common.

As usual, there are many, many more, but they seem to have done something special to close up the arc. Every episode of season four gets a visual or verbal nod, whether it’s the trunk on the beach from last week, the Kingdom Hearts door from “Smash the Mirror,” or the Any Given Sundae scene from the photo found in “Breaking Glass.”

Erin’s Happy Shipper Moments

With the Shattered Sight spell in full force, it was slim pickings for shipper moments. But it wasn’t completely devoid of great couple moments, even if some of them were antithetical to their normal relationships.

Kristanna

Kristanna fared the best of all the couples who actually talked to each other under the Shattered Sight curse. In fact, the worst Kristoff could come up with for aggravations with Anna was that she kept putting off their wedding and had a sister who brought about eternal winter. Perhaps if she hadn’t knocked him out, he would have gotten around to dishing out his Hans resentments, like: “You sang with him?!” Instead, he ultimately proved to be a pretty good guy, even when at his worst.

Snowing

Being the First Couple of True Love, of course the Shattered Sight curse was shown to hit them the hardest (and the funniest). Snow called Charming a fraud, and Charming called Snow a spoiled little brat. Charming complained to Anna that Snow hit him the first time they met, and Snow rebutted with the fact that Charming caught her in a net. Anna tried to point out the romance (odd though it was) in these gestures, but the spell kept them at each other until Regina arrived.

During the Regina-Snow fight, Charming helps Snow win, despite the curse still being in place.

And when the curse is broken, it is Snowing that gets the fantastic reunited kiss.

Captain Swan

Hook and Emma don’t share a single moment on screen, but even apart, their relationship gets more relationshippy. First, Hook goes to gather Henry for Gold. Henry: “I never liked you, and I like you even less now that you and my mom are together.” Hook: “Emma used that word? ‘Together’?”

Hook and Emma don’t share a single moment on screen, but even apart, their relationship gets more relationshippy. First, Hook goes to gather Henry for Gold. Henry: “I never liked you, and I like you even less now that you and my mom are together.” Hook: “Emma used that word? ‘Together’?” In fact she did! When Emma goes to get the ultra-hatred unlocked from Regina, she gloats, “I wanted you to see Hook and I together and happy.”

Swan Queen

When Emma needs help, she goes to Regina. Sure, it’s to garner her hate like never before, but we all know how thin that line between love and hate really is.

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