The Other Shoe

The Other Shoe
Season 6, Episode 3
Airdate	October 9, 2016
Written by	Jane Espenson Jerome Schwartz
Directed by	Steve Pearlman
Episode Guide
Previous A Bitter Draught	Next Strange Case

The Other Shoe is the third episode of the sixth season of the American fantasy drama series Once Upon a Time, which aired on October 9, 2016.

In this episode, Cinderella's actions in the Enchanted Forest involving her stepfamily suddenly plays out in Storybrooke, as Emma, Henry, and Hook must stop Ashley from going after her stepsister after she blames herself for ruining her happy ending, while Regina discovers that Hyde has made a deal with the Evil Queen, Gold helps David find out the truth about his father's death by delivering a message to Belle, and Snow helps Jekyll with a plan to destroy the Evil Queen.

Plot

Opening sequence

Gus the field mouse running inside the glass "O" hamster wheel of Once Upon a Time.

Event chronology

The Enchanted Forest events before the ball take place before Cinderella signs Rumplestiltskin's contract in "The Price of Gold", while the rest of the events take place between this scene and Cinderella and Thomas' wedding from that same episode. The Storybrooke events take place after "A Bitter Draught".

In the Character's Past

In the Enchanted Forest, Ella is being forced to clean by her stepmother, Lady Tramaine, when they receive an invitation to go to a ball from the messenger Jacob, the Prince's Footman. When Ella shows them her Mother's gown, her stepsister Clorinda throws it into the cinder and leave laughing at her, earning Ella the name Cinderella. Ella then sees a key drop out of the pocket of the gown, which she discovers leads to a magical door through the Land of Untold Stories that belong to her Mother. During the night at the ball, Ella meets up with Snow for the first time, then encounter Prince Thomas, and the two dance together. After he excused himself, Ella noticed Thomas talking to her stepsister, Clorinda, and when Lady Tramaine tells Ella that he was making fun of her, she runs off, leaving her glass slipper.

Later that night, Gus tells Ella about the key in the box, which opened up portal to the Land Untold Stories to her closet, but Clorinda stops her because she is marrying Jacob and wants Ella to marry Prince Thomas. Clorinda wants to get away from her mother as soon as possible. When Lady Tramaine returned home, she confronted Ella and demanded answers to where Clorinda went. She then noticed the glass slipper and used it as bait to make Ella tell the truth, and Ella gives in, but Lady Tramaine drops the glass slipper and it shatters into pieces, and then locks Ella inside the place. When Thomas and Snow arrived, Gus alerted them and rescued Ella. Prince Thomas asked Ella to marry him after she apologized, but afterwards went to warn Clorinda, who was about to leave to the Land of Untold Stories with Jacob, when Lady Tramaine showed up to stab Jacob, injure Clorinda and then opens the portal to take her daughter with her.

In Storybrooke

At the mental hospital, Regina, Snow and David pays a visit to see Hyde with Regina's favorite dish as a bribe, but discovered the Evil Queen had beaten her to the punch; Hyde now has luxurious furniture in his cell, and tells them the only way he'll talk is if they remove the cuffs. Regina is upset that Zelena is keeping her other half away from her after she noticed a baby rattle that Cora gave Regina.

Over at Granny's, Emma, Henry, and Hook are joined by Ashley and her daughter, Alexandra, who is happy to help out with assimilating the new children into Storybrooke. After Emma stopped by to see Archie involving her visions, she runs into Sean, who tells Emma that Ashley took off with a shotgun. Emma believes she's going after her stepfamily. With help from Henry and Hook, they start looking for Ashley by using her shoe to locate her. When they catch up with Ashley, Emma, Henry and Hook learn that Ashley wants to find Clorinda. Emma's hand starts shaking just as Ashley gets away, but soon the Evil Queen shows up and takes advantage of the situation by sending Emma, Hook, and Henry "off the chessboard."

Thanks to Henry's quick thinking, he looks at the book to find out how to bring them to Clorinda. When Ashley arrived to the stable, she finds an injured Clorinda who was faking it as bait, when Lady Tramaine points the shotgun at her. Clorinda then threatens to shoot Ashley but stops and she learns that Jacob is alive and that they are in his farm. As they are reunited, Lady Tramaine threatens to shoot them but Ashley protects them but is stabbed with Lady Tramaine's poisoned cane. Emma, Henry and Hook arrived and stopped Lady Tramaine from doing any more damage. With encouragement from Henry, Emma uses her magic to heal Ashley. Later on, Emma asked Hook to move in with her, and he agrees. As part of her punishment for stabbing Ashley, Tramaine is jailed and forced to do clean up detail under Leroy's supervision.

David is still concerned over how his father died, and as he gives Snow encouragement to teach again, he visits Gold and makes a deal with him. David visits Belle and tells her about the deal and then gives Belle the gift. At the same time, Snow comes up with a plan to help Jekyll, and later shows Regina a lab located in Whale's garage to prepare the plans to stop the Evil Queen. Later that night, Snow tells David not to seek revenge on what happened to his father as he reads a note over a candle. The note reveals that David's father was murdered in a cart accident. Belle listened to the tape from Gold. Back at the mental hospital, The Evil Queen visits Hyde again, and uses her magic to free him from the cuffs and they walk out of the cell together, linking arms.

Cultural References

• Cinderella is a European fairytale.
  • Cinderella's stepsisters Clorinda and Tisbe are from La Cenerentola, an opera adapting the story of Cinderella.
  • The stepmother's name, Lady Tremaine, is taken from Disney's Cinderella.

Production

• Ted Whittal portrayed the King (Cinderella's father-in-law) in the season 1 episode "The Price of Gold"; he was supposed to be in this episode, but his appearance was cut for an unknown reason.
• Spin-off series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland had previously implied that one of Cinderella's stepsisters was Anastasia, whose mother was portrayed in one scene by Sarah-Jane Redmond; after her stepsister achieved her happy ending, Anastasia escaped her bitter mother by fleeing with her lover to Wonderland. This would appear to have been ignored in creating this episode.

Reception

Ratings

• The episode saw a ratings increase from the previous episode, posting a 1.3/4 among 18-49s with 4.56 million viewers tuning in.

Reviews

• Justin Kirkland of Entertainment Weekly gave the episode a B+.
• Christine Laskodi of TV Fantic gave the episode a positive review: 4.5 out of 5.0

Trivia

• The poem that Mr. Gold reads to his unborn child via cassette tape is "Sleep Well" by Scottish poet Murdoch Maclean.
• There is an exchange between Cinderella and Snow when Cinderella asks if the Prince might be "Charming" and Snow says that is taken. This is a reference to the fact that "Prince Charming" was used to refer to the princes in the Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White stories.
• Jessy Schram and Jennifer Morrison previously appeared on House: Needle in a Haystack (2007) together.
• The names of Ashley's stepsisters, Clorinda and Tisbe, are taken from "La Cenerentola", an operatic adaptation of the Cinderella story composed by Gioachino Rossini.

Goofs

• When at the pumpkin farm, Clorinda undoes the rope around Jacob's wrists, but in the next shot, they are back around his wrists.

Quotes

Sean Herman: Where are you going? Emma Swan: To find her. Sean Herman: How? Emma Swan: The way you find Cinderella. [Poofs a sneaker into her hand] Emma Swan: With her shoe.

Cinderella: Is that...? Snow White: The Prince. Don't worry. They're not all as stuffy as you think. Cinderella: You think he could be charming? Snow White: Oh, that name's taken.

Regina Mills: No offense, but this is not the Evil Queen you remember. I crushed her heart, and somehow she's still alive. How is that possible? Mary Margaret Blanchard: I... I don't know. Regina Mills: I'm betting Hyde does. David Nolan: And you think that's gonna make him talk? Regina Mills: Compared to the cup of noodles Nurse Ratched serves, my lasagna... is fit for a king.

Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones: That's quite the little charmer you've got there. Ashley Boyd: Yeah, thanks to Emma. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have any of this. What about the two of you, anyway? Any chance of a fairy-tale ending? Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones: Uh, we're taking things slow. Quite slow, actually. I'm still sleeping on a cot on a pirate ship near a pregnant woman who likes to snore.

Cinderella: I feel terrible about your dress. Snow White: Don't. I stopped worrying about dresses a long time ago. I'm not your typical princess. But I get the feeling neither are you.

Henry Mills: Stay away from my mom. Evil Queen: Henry. Now, is that any way to speak to your *real* mother?<br.Henry Mills: You're not my mother. Evil Queen: Well, sure I am. I raised you. I helped you with your homework. I packed your lunches. Regina and I may have split, but I am as much your mother as she is. Now stop slouching.

Emma Swan: Why would you want to hurt Ashley? Evil Queen: I don't. I want to hurt you. I want you to see how pointless you are. Emma Swan: I saved her once. I'll save her again. Evil Queen: Oh, that's the tragic thing about being a savior. You have to keep saving people. But once you're off the chessboard... everything falls apart. All those happy endings turn to dust, and your entire life means... nothing.

Henry Mills: Ashley said she was trying to help her stepsister, uh, Camilla? Emma Swan: Calinda? Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones: Ca... uh... Emma Swan: Calinda. Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones: Callista? Emma Swan: I thought it was Calinda. Henry Mills: It's Clorinda.

Emma Swan: You know that I'm not a jealous person. Dr. Archibald 'Archie' Hopper: But? Emma Swan: But... seeing Ashley today with her perfectly happy family... Dr. Archibald 'Archie' Hopper: Made you jealous. Because... because you're not happy? Emma Swan: No, because I *am* happy, and I know it's going away. That vision of my future... my number is up. And every time I think about it, then that thing happens and my magic goes away. Dr. Archibald 'Archie' Hopper: The mind has a profound effect on the body. Whenever I get nervous, I get hives. Emma Swan: My magic doesn't have hives! My magic is failing! [flops over the back of Archie's couch and lies down] Dr. Archibald 'Archie' Hopper: Okay. Um... let's just say it is, okay? Is that a reason to stop striving for what you want? Emma, any day I could walk out that door and I could get hit by a bus, but that hasn't stopped me from walking out the door. Emma Swan: This is not about a bus. It's very hard to keep this secret from my family. Like Hook and me, we should be living together. He wants to, I want to, Hook's waiting for me to ask him. Dr. Archibald 'Archie' Hopper: So why don't you?<br.Emma Swan: Because he deserves a future and I can't give that to him. I feel like a fraud. This happiness is an illusion. I went and fought for everybody else's happy endings, and then... I don't get mine. Dr. Archibald 'Archie' Hopper: Emma... maybe it's not about how you end things. Maybe it's about how you live them.

Regina Mills: Just whose garage are we in, anyhow? Dr. Whale: That would be mine. Please, help yourself to any of the equipment, but, um, steer clear of the refrigerator. It's not food in there.

Mary Margaret Blanchard: Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Frankenstein. You know what that sounds like? Regina Mills: The world's scariest-sounding pediatrician's office?

Emma Swan: Move in with me. Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones: What? Emma Swan: Move in with me. I know everything in life is uncertain, but sometimes you have to walk out the door and hope there's not a bus. [Hook laughs] Emma Swan: I mean... I have a closet full of red jackets. I feel like I could make some space for some black leather.

Lady Tremaine: Girls, I've scraped and fought your whole lives for this... an invitation to the Royal Ball... and a chance to dig your claws into a prince.

Emma Swan: Sorry. I can come back later. Dr. Archibald 'Archie' Hopper: Oh, no need. Um, we were just wrapping up. Leroy: Wrapping up? I paid for an hour. We haven't even gotten to the work stuff. I mean, I'm stuck toiling in the mines and Dopey goes off and gets his master's degree? Now I got to pick up his slack; he's flirting with coeds. Emma Swan: I thought Dopey was a tree. Leroy: No, we got him out weeks ago. Emma Swan: Really? Leroy: Yeah. You think we sit around waiting for you to do everything?