Last night’s ONCE UPON A TIME continued the trend of incredibly solid episodes it has been pulling off since season 6 started a few weeks ago. With the exception of the the second episode, this season has been pretty fantastic and – despite my initial reservations, the Evil Queen is doing wonders for this show.
Lana Parrilla continues to be absolutely breathtaking in her job, and I admit I almost forget that the Evil Queen and Regina are played by the same person. Regina is so serious now and so intent on helping, while the Evil Queen is just delightful. Even though she is evil incarnate, she is just light and funny and sarcastic and I would seriously watch an hour of the Evil Queen being fabulous. Now that she has paired up with Zelena and is slowly turning the Wicked Witch back to the dark side – which is her best, most entertaining self – those two will be a force to be reckoned with.
That SPA day scene was just so entertaining – especially with them discussing if they had ever been involved with the Dark One – that I just had a ridiculous grin on my face for the entire thing. Even though Archie had been kidnapped and forced to be a babysitter to little Robin, they put him in a spot that allowed the two villains to be fantastically funny.
That said, I just absolutely adored the Agrabah flashbacks. It has been a solid 20 years since I last saw Alladin – and I was never much of a Disney girl – but I remember that Alladin was one of the movies that I actually really liked. Seeing Jasmine and Alladin in those outfits made me feel like I was 8 years old again and that the cartoon I watched as a kid had just come to life. And that is the biggest compliment I could ever give them.
The way they connected both stories was really well done and I was actually surprised to find out that Alladin did give up his powers. For a moment there, I actually believed he was dead and, to be honest, I don’t know what is the worst for Emma – him being alive or dead. Because if he were dead, that would mean she was really destined to die. But if he gave up his powers and then Agrabah fell, then that means that if she were to do the same, Storybrooke is doomed. Poor Emma just can’t catch a break.
But what I really loved in this episode was that Emma finally came clean and told her family everything. Those quiet family moments are what make this show great and we were sorely missing those lately. Maybe that’s why I like this season so much. Of course, the Evil Queen forced her hand, but this is the Emma that has grown and evolved since season 1. This was the Emma that we had last seen in the season 5 finale – not that scared, I-can-do-everything-by-myself shadow of a character we had been treated to in the past four episodes. So kudos for that.
But it’s like they can’t have one single moment of happiness. I love my CaptainSwan. I really do. I’ll be honest and confess that they’re the reason I still stick around, five years later. But they’re just repeating the same tired old formula every single season. When one of them has a breakthrough and takes a step forward, the other goes and does something incredibly stupid and takes ten steps back. And I get it. I really do understand why Killian did what he did, but my god, man, what part of the “let’s not keep secrets from each other anymore” memo did you not understand?
Why, why would you lie to Emma? I know you’re afraid to lose her, but you’re missing the bigger picture here. You’re risking an entire town and all the people in it. God only knows what may happen if you force Emma to give up her powers. But then again, why does everyone always take a villain at their word? Who says that those visions are actually true?
I don’t know. What I know is – there’s no more ONCE UPON A TIME if they kill the Savior, so they are going to figure something out. And Emma is not giving up her powers because she would never sacrifice Storybrooke just to save herself. So it’s going to be okay. There may be a bumpy ride ahead, but our girl Emma will be just fine in the end.
And on a last note, I absolutely loved that touching moment between Emma and Henry in the crypt. It had been a while since we last had such a great scene between Jennifer Morrison and Jared Gilmore, but they really knocked it out of the park. It felt like season 1 all over again.
ONCE UPON A TIME airs Sundays at 8/7c on ABC (U.S.) and CTV (Canada).