In “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” we return to some good, old fashioned (if you can call it that, with a show that only has 10 other episodes so far) Emma vs. Regina conflict, beginning with Regina tearing down Henry’s castle, after it is damaged in a huge storm. This time, however, Emma has an ally in Sidney Glass, the newspaper man. He bears a grudge against Regina these days, and is determined to expose her for what she really is. He has what seems to be proof of her wrongdoing, $50,000 missing from one of the city accounts, with the public records for that transfer missing. Sidney is determined to get Emma to do whatever it takes to find out what Regina is up to.
Meanwhile, in fairy tale land, the King finds a magic lamp and, upon rubbing it, uncovers a genie.
The King is not a man out for his own gain, though, and doesn’t have anything he desires, other than the happiness of the people in his kingdom. Accordingly, his first wish is to free the genie, and his second wish is to give the genie his third wish. After granting the genie his freedom, the King brings him back to the court for his birthday celebration, where the genie means both the King’s daughter Snow, and his second wife, Regina.
I have to say, Snow’s father is sort of an idiot. He’s a good man, in a bumbling sort of way, but who is going to fail to piss off their second wife by saying that their first wife was the fairest in all the land? Really, he means to be good but he’s cruel. I’m not sure to what extent Regina (interestingly, she seems to be the one character who maintains her fairy tale name in Storybrooke) was evil when she married the King, and to what extent the lack of love he showed her turned her into the person she became. I am increasingly interested to know what it is that Snow took from Regina. I had assumed that it had to do with the death of Snow’s father, I suppose it could still be the alienation of his affection, but the mystery remains.
Either way, by this point Regina is evil, if perhaps not yet a witch. She is able to trick the genie into murdering her husband, the King, under the guise of wanting a relationship with him.
Neither the fairy tale nor the Storybrooke storyline ends with much a surprise, the motivations and twists are evident a mile away, but they do both set up for interesting – although not necessarily positive – developments in the future.
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