Tangled: The Series S1 E16

## Plot

In Old Corona, the black rocks are continuing to spread. They're destroying everything in their path, including homes, wells, fields with crops, etc. Quirin, the village's leader and Varian's father, assures everyone that he has the situation under control. He tells his son to stay away from the rocks. He also gives him permission to travel with him to see the king about it. Rapunzel has been shadowing her parents for the past few days to learn how to rule. She'll be queen temporarily while they go on a vacation for their anniversary. Quirin is old friends with Frederic. He claims that Old Corona's harvest was so bountiful that they need new land for it. Despite being told by Nigel that there have been no such crop reports, Frederic grants the request. Varian is dismayed that his dad would lie to the king and tells Rapunzel the truth. She says that they'll figure it out, but asks for until her dad gets back. She promises him that everything will be okay. It's never explicitly revealed in the show, but Quirin and Frederic were actually secretly communicating to each other in code. There are plenty of references to previous episodes. For example, Lance Strongbow, a thief and an old friend of Eugene's, since they grew up in the same orphanage together, was introduced in episode 6 and has been a recurring character since then. Same thing with Xavier, the town blacksmith and legends expert that the audience met in episode 9, which was basically a Valentine's Day episode. Frederic and Arianna leave for their vacation with Max pulling the carriage. Before they do, Rapunzel's dad tells her that once she's queen, many voices will demand to be heard, but in the end, the voice in her heart is the one she must listen to. He made a callback earlier to episode 10 about her defending Attila, one of the thugs from the movie. Varian decides to use alchemy on the rocks to make them go away, disobeying his dad. Running away from the problem won't solve anything. Within a matter of months, the rocks will have reached the castle. Rapunzel discovers that ruling is harder than she thought. She quickly solves a bunch of problems, only to learn that they created new problems. Later, she admits to Eugene that once she's really queen, she's not sure that she'll be able to handle it all. Eugene points out she's done some amazing stuff since leaving the tower, and she wouldn't have done it if she always stopped and worried about how to do it. The fact that it starts snowing also cheers her up. On their way up a mountain, the carriage Frederic and Arianna are in goes over a cliff when the ropes connecting them to Max snap. He leaves to go back to the castle and get help. Quirin gets rid of a false wall in his house that was hiding an old chest. There's an old portrait of himself, his most likely deceased wife, and a baby Varian in the room. I bet the wife fell victim to the dreaded and cliche Dead Parent Syndrome. I personally just call it the Dead Mom trope, because it seems to happen to mothers more often. Cinderella's mom, Ariel's mom, Jasmine's mom, Jane's mom, Snow White's mom, Elsa and Anna's mom, Belle's mom, Pocahontas's mom, etc. Anyways, there's a peculiar symbol on the chest. It's a circle with three slashes through it. Among the things inside is an old helmet with the same symbol, and a longer slash, likely from an attack, on the left side of it. Yep, Quirin has a secret past. He goes downstairs and sees Varian messing with the rocks. They proceed to yell at each other. Quirin refuses to tell Varian about his secret past and the rocks, saying that he's not ready. What they don't notice is that Varian's chemical solution is reacting to the rocks. Quirin notices just in time and pushes his son out of the way. Also, he has that same symbol on his left hand. The rocks have turned into yellow amber, and they continue growing. Quirin's arm is trapped, and since it's indestructible, there's no way out. Varian leaves to go get help. Meanwhile, with all the snow, Rapunzel declares a snow day. That night, Xavier tells everyone a legend. An evil warlock named Zhan Tiri hated Corona, and cast a spell that caused a terrible blizzard, destroying everything in its path. An engineer who used both magic and science, named Demanitus, built a machine that changed the direction of the wind, sending the blizzard out towards the ocean. Some say that the curse is still active though, waiting to strike. Needless to say, it hurts Rapunzel's self confidence to hear that the storm would strike when Corona was at its weakest. Max arrives, and everyone learns that Rapunzel's parents are in danger. Eugene, Lance, and the thugs from the movie go searching for them. Quirin writes a letter addressed to Varian, most likely about his mysterious past. Speaking of which, after singing an amazing song about how he just wants to make his dad proud, he finally arrives at the castle. If they don't do something soon, the whole island will be buried. Nigel thinks that their best bet is to declare a state of emergency, evacuate to shelter on the mainland, and hope that the storm ends soon. They'll never be able to evacuate everyone in time though. Rapunzel thinks that Xavier's story was true, but Nigel says that it's just a fairy tale. Varian shows up, asking for Rapunzel's help with his dad. However, she can't right now, and is forced to watch as he's dragged away by guards. Arianna and Frederic survived the fall, but the king hurt his ankle, so he can't climb back up, and they don't have any climbing gear anyways. The guys have to go down and save them. Rapunzel, with no choice left, evacuates the island. Varian returns home and sees that his dad has been completely encased in amber. Rapunzel remembers her dad's advice about following her heart. She, Cass, Xavier, and Pascal go on a quest through secret tunnels to find the Demanitus device. Meanwhile, the bridge is destroyed, so the evacuation isn't going anywhere. Rapunzel, Cass, Xavier, and Pascal find the machine and get it to work, but a rock is wedged in the gears, stopping it. Pascal is sent down by Rapunzel's hair, but even that's not long enough. Pascal seemingly sacrifices himself to get the machine working again. Eugene's group saves Arianna and Frederic, and it finally stops snowing. Pascal survived… somehow. However, Rapunzel later admits to Eugene that this has been the most difficult day of her life, and she's not sure that she even wants to be queen anymore. He assures her that her becoming queen is still a long time away, and when that time comes, no matter what she decides, he'll always stand by her and support her decisions. The day is saved, and everyone's okay… for the most part. **Varian:** "Don't worry Dad. I will get to the bottom of this. I promise." *I will make you proud Get the answers and set you free Don't you worry, whatever it might take I'm finding a way And I swear right now That no matter what comes of me Anybody who stands or has stood in my path They're going to pay! They. Will.* "Pay." Varian, in a shocking twist, vows to free his dad… and get revenge on anyone who's ever stood in his way. That was the single most shocking minute of my entire life. Jeremy Jordan is an amazing singer and actor. After so many slice of life episodes, the plot finally kicks into high gear after this. I will admit that this is a problem in every season of the show. There are so many filler episodes until the mid-season special, and after that the pace and plot tend to move at lightning fast speed, especially in the first season. There's no time to take a breath and try to absorb the information in a logical way, because so much is coming at you all at once, and you're just a teenager, you don't know how to handle all of this, you never wanted or asked to have so much power and responsibility, etc. Yeah, I emphasize with Rapunzel a lot, even though Varian is my favorite character in the entire show.