There’s more story to the man who writes the stories, Emma fails at trying to fight evil, and the stranger steals stories.

Fairytale Land

We were all surprised to see Sidney as originally being the Genie.

King Leopold found the lamp, but he’s probably not Aladdin.

So much for our Mr. K theory! He was listed to be in this episode, but his scene was probably cut.

1,001 wishes? This could’ve been an actual number (999 plus the two wishes the Genie had just granted), but he also said that he had seen 1,001 bad choices.

The lamp has three green gems that turn red when the wishes have been used.

Is the lamp the actual power force? “I’ve been Genie of the Lamp …”

The Genie’s limitations of the three wishes and of magic reminded us of Disney’s Aladdin.

King Leopold was a happy man and had nothing he wished for. But he was also a good king.

The Genie wanted freedom and then love. King Leopold said he’d find it at the palace. Maybe the King had Snow White in mind?

Queen Regina kept her name—understandable because she enacted the curse on others but not herself. She was deceptively nice in this episode. Thanks, Marisa, for sending this photo before the episode!

The Genie had strange golden tattoos on his wrists.

Regina’s apple tree that she’s tended to since her childhood and a different land. Notice that we’ve never seen someone eat one of these apples? Unless Snow had one of these apples in “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.”

Who was King Leopold’s first wife? Jasmine? Rumpelstiltskin’s divorced wife? He said, “Love makes people do foolish things.” Was this his regret over marrying Regina?

We all thought we would see what Snow White took from Queen Regina. But was it really just the title of “fairest of them all”? Snow did say in the Pilot that the Evil Queen had tried to kill her just because she was prettier. But Evil Queen had also said that she had told Snow White a secret that she couldn’t keep. Could that secret be the queen’s diary?

Regina’s father was supportive of her evil.

The two-headed Agrabah viper was a nice touch.

Did you notice the “lions” (actually dragons) in the floor of King Leopold’s bedroom?

Queen Regina tells the Genie he has no more value to her, which is similar to what she said to Sidney in “The Thing You Love Most.”

The granting of Genie’s last wish reminds us how full Queen Regina is of herself.

Looking back to “The Thing You Love Most,” the Magic Mirror reminded the Evil Queen about her trading the curse for a poisoned apple. So that trade must be yet to happen!

Storybrooke