Once Upon a Time recap: 'Greenbacks'

Remember that cool girl who Vicky went to see at the end of the last episode? Well, she’s back, and Vicky has returned to bring her some tea and news about Lucy. Turns out if Lucy doesn’t give up believing in magic, Victoria will never see Anastasia again. Sad! Anyway, that lady wants her tea, but Vicky is holding it back until she gets what she wants, which is, if I’m not mistaken, how Great Britain got involved in World War II.

Anyway, after Victoria leaves chain lady behind, she heads back to her condo business, where Sabine has stopped by to see Lucy and bring her beignets. That’s when Vicky sets Ivy on the case to, you know, extinguish Lucy’s wild growing weed of belief. She also takes the opportunity to tell Sabine she’s going to raise her rent. And that sets up the episode for sweet Sabine, who is Tiana in the world we keep referring back to years ago. Back then, her mom and her are having the fanciest yard sale ever because otherwise, they’ll have to sell their castle. Ivy/Drizella is there trying to buy stuff up, but it’s breaking Tiana’s heart. Of course, the way out is (as we all know) to marry up. So Tiana goes on the search for a man with dollar bills, y’all.

Back in Hyperion Heights, Rogers and Henry are going through a box of old documents at Roni’s. As Rogers pardons himself, Roni takes the opportunity to address this business of Henry getting cozy with Ivy. She is, after all, Victoria Belfrey’s daughter, and she has a way of ruining people… like raising the rent on Tiana and Jacinda. But Tiana has an idea for Jacinda. She’s unilaterally taken their rent money and bought the raw materials to make a surplus of beignets because THEY CAN MAKE MONEY THIS WAY! Jacinda is, like a reasonable person, doubtful, but when Sabine says it’s only money and they should do it to make Lucy proud, Jacinda is down because why the hell not?

Back in the magical land, Tiana is looking for herself a rich man. But when she reaches a town of beggars, they mob her for assistance. But in that moment, Doctor Facilier appears, and if you remember, he’s a voodoo man who has nothing good up his sleeve. He pours out a turtle shell of bones and tells Tiana her own story and then says he has friends on the other side. But for a small price, he’ll help her. She’ll find the prince she seeks if she follows the red crow.

At Vicky’s business, she’s demanding more out of Ivy because she wants to get this Lucy situation buttoned up. When Ivy gives her the slightest version of sass, Victoria tells her she’d be happy to replace her. It doesn’t rub Ivy the right way, who then checks out the security cameras and sees that Victoria went to that secret place with chain lady who likes tea. With that in her pocket, she calls Henry and says, “Call me back. I have some dirt on my mother, if you’re still interested.” Henry gets the info and runs over to Roni’s to let her know, and Roni calls him out: partly for believing her but also because he needs to date Jacinda. He essentially says she’s not his mother, which is hilarious, because… well, duh. But when Henry goes to the bathroom and gets a text from Ivy, Roni deletes it.

Back at Mr. Cluck’s they’ve turned the restaurant into the new beignet restaurant and people are into it. Lucy makes them a firefly logo because, remember that cute little firefly/star romance from the movie? Exactly. So that’s the new logo for the business, but we don’t get too much beignet time before going back to Tiana’s world. Turns out she didn’t get the money, but when a bar man comes up to steal her earrings, Prince Marius shows up and protects her, only in exchange for dinner. So Tiana’s world is working out in the past just like Sabine’s is in the pres… oh. Victoria got a beignet? And she enjoyed it? That’s great! Oh, she called a guy named Ralph immediately after to go destroy Mr. Cluck’s? Perfect. Of course. Wonderful.

Back at the police station, Rogers shows up to find an unruly guy who’s been arrested. When they finally settle him down, he realizes he has a wrist tattoo that looks just like a sketch in that notebook he’s been carrying around from that box. So when he finally gets the chance to sit down, he explains that his tattoo is in that notebook. And that notebook is part of a missing girl case: Eloise Gardner. She’s been missing 10 years, but the man insists the tattoo is just to ward off evil. But at the end of the day, he says that if she has that logo, he’d hate to see what evil she’s facing.

At Mr. Cluck’s, it looks like Ralph has done his job. He sets Mr. Cluck’s on fire and Sabine grabs their money box and heads out the door, unable to stop the fires. And that’s when we launch back again. The Prince and Tiana have gone back to her place where she shows him the Firefly Ruby and tells her father’s story. She says she might lose it all, but he says he’ll do anything he can to stop that. He says he’d like to see her tomorrow, and she says she’d love that… but when she turns around, the ruby is gone. She stops him with a bowl to the base of the skull and gets it back, but that’s when he admits he has his own situation with Facilier where his lady friend is a frog. It’s a rough situation. So he escapes and Tiana is pretty bummed because she let her mom down, but her mom insists she shouldn’t have sent her out to begin with. They have everything they need because her father’s legacy is within her. Guys, how nice!

Back in the real world, Jacinda is NOT pleased with this situation that’s transpired at Mr. Cluck’s. She loses her business on Sabine, and then Lucy loses her business on her mom. So Sabine turns over the money, enough for two months rent (okay, guys, where do these people live where one day’s worth of beignet sales can cover two months of rent??), and tells Jacinda she can have it and find a new roommate. Lucy chases Sabine down where she says, “Sometimes you lose and you have to give up on your dreams and the bad guys win.” Oh, cool, Sabine. She insists that there are some things in life that even she can’t fight. And that’s when we flash back to Tiana visiting Facilier again. He’s working on a voodoo doll when she turns over her father’s medal to him in exchange for that kidnapped woman/frog. She insists there’s no magic in that ruby, so he can have it. The power is inside of her. But when he holds it, he insists otherwise. He says he’s keeping the ruby and the frog, but when she pulls a sword, he jabs a small dagger into the doll. It hits Tiana hard, but she does manage to escape with the frog before Facilier disappears with the Ruby.

In Hyperion Heights, Jacinda chases down Sabine and admits she made a mistake. And she’s going to prove that she’s here for Sabine and to prove it, she bought her the skeleton of what’s going to be their very own food truck because the existential fear of not paying rent is apparently something that doesn’t affect these people. Meanwhile, presumably while Henry’s still in the bathroom, Roni heads to Belfrey Towers herself to confront Ivy. Ivy insists she’s not here to screw anyone over because the reward isn’t worth the risk. So Roni tells her to prove it, so they head up to that floor they’re keeping Tea Chain Princess in. But upon inspection, Roni finds a safe, opens it up and finds a picture… of her and Henry.

Back in the past, Tiana delivers the frog to Prince Marius, and boy howdy is he jazzed. She admits she doesn’t need that medal from her father. She then explains she would love for him and his lady love to join her at the palace in her pursuit of a prince, but he has to admit… in regard to his lady love, he wasn’t clear. I get excited because I’m thinking “Double Prince action! How LGBT friendly, Disney!” but no. Prince Marius turns into a damn frog. Because monogamous frogs are more likely than gay princes in this world. Le sigh.

At the police station, Sabine and Rogers exchange notes and beignets and he fills her in on that man with the tattoo and that notebook, but from outside, that man gives someone a call and explains that “someone is looking for the girl.” And if things aren’t already looking rough, when Ivy goes to see Victoria, Mommy Vicky launches into a speech about how adequate Ivy is. It’s a full-blown Ellis Grey speech (any Grey’s fans out there?) about how she’s nothing more than ordinary and messy. Poor Ivy. Whodathunk we’d be rooting for her? And with one more mystery to solve, Roni takes that image of her as Regina and explains the Ivy situation to Henry, who is at first pretty disappointed, but when he sees the picture and realizes it’s him, he’s as confused as anyone.

Back at the top floor, I immediately have to eat my words over Ivy. She’s returned to see that woman at the top of Belfrey Tower, who it appears she’s totally in cahoots with. They’re getting Henry and Regina to trust her to do God knows what moving forward. And in the meantime, they’re keeping Victoria totally in the dark. Damnit, Ivy. Oh wait… as she tells the woman up on the top floor, it’s not Ivy… it’s Drizella.

So with that, we still don’t know who that woman is. We know Drizella is a total mean girl and that Regina and Henry need to watch their backs. And that notebook/tattoo situation? Well, guys, we have a lot to discuss. Hit the comments with your theories, spells, and best beignet recipes and we’ll talk again next week when Regina gets back to being Regina again and all is right in the world.