Last night’s Once Upon a Time continued the heroes’ and the villains’ respective searches for the Author, as major secrets are revealed, including what Charming and Snow White did to Maleficent’s child in the past.
I’m going to be completely honest here when I say that I was almost ready to give up on Charming and Snow White by the time we had reached the first half of the episode. It had gotten to the point where I just didn’t recognize these characters anymore, neither in the present or in flashbacks. All their secrets and lies just felt so out of character from everything that they have presented to us for the first on Once Upon a Time in the first three and a half seasons. While I’m aware that you don’t just want to have characters that are 100% good all the time, this was just overdoing it. I understand Snow’s fear of her own kid becoming dark, especially after the vision she had when she touched that unicorn’s horn (because in fiction, that’s what a unicorn horn does?), but to be willing to just dump any potential darkness that her kid would have onto Maleficent’s child without thinking carefully what the Apprentice had warned her about just felt wrong.
I have said repeatedly that I wasn’t a huge fan of Maleficent from the start, but Kristin Bauer van Straten is winning me over, and the scene where the Charmings took the egg away from her was devastating. The point where we see the egg, along with Cruella and Ursula, being sucked into the portal that brought them to our world was where I rolled my eyes over and over when the Charmings realized what they had done. But there is still hope, which we will get to in a bit.
In the present, everything is starting to ramp up big time, as everyone is seeking the page that leads to the Author, and it was definitely what made this episode one of the show’s more intense episodes to watch. The cat-and-mouse game with the real page was okay, I guess, although it was a little bit predictable that Regina and Henry would stage something in front of Cruella and Maleficent. We finally get to the point where the Charmings tells Emma everything after realizing what they have become. Emma’s reaction was more haunting than I expected, mostly because of how dead her eyes looked (and I mean it in the best way possible).
The episode ends with Emma opening the door inside the page, and we finally get to meet the Author, who is none other than the peddler that the Charmings met in the forest all those years ago. I do appreciate that we got the explanation of the whole Author mythology by August, as the Author wasn’t just one person but actually a role that had passed on from person to person. As we learned from the flashbacks, this particular Author is a bit of a power abuser, so, of course, when Emma tried to get some answers out of him, he decided to run for it and….scene! Looks like they should have torn up that page after all like the Charmings suggested.
Overall, I was very happy with this episode, as it featured many enjoyable elements, and hopefully, when the show returns in two weeks, it will continue that streak, because I want this show to be good, especially after we had such a strong Season 4A.
Once Upon a Time returns with new episodes on Sunday, April 12, 8/7c on ABC.
[Photo via ABC]
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