This was the first episode of Once Upon A Time in a while that didn’t feel like an early season episode, and I’m not sure it worked to the show’s advantage. There were moments in here that worked really well, but others that just felt like every other season of “try to stop the villain” stuff. Admittedly, the new obstacles are unique and interesting, but the flashbacks only introduced one new character, and it wasn’t much of a showstopper.
This week on Once Upon A Time: The flashbacks detail Snow White’s running from the Woodsman shortly after leaving the kingdom, and Charming meeting the Woodsman on his way to sell his family farm. In Storybrooke, the Blue Fairy helps the gang devise a way to trap the Evil Queen, to no avail. The Evil Queen sets her wrath upon Snow White and Charming. Zelena walks in on Rumplestiltskin and the Evil Queen…”making a deal”, and proceeds to tell Belle.
I hinted in my opening paragraph, but it was the flashbacks that made “Heartless” feel like it was spinning its wheels. I see how they were relevant to the story, but I think the (spoilers) curse bestowed upon the Charming and Snow and their shared heart would’ve been a bigger gut punch if the flashbacks had been about a different time in their lives. It didn’t feel much like a Season 1 or 2 episode like some of the previous Season 6 episodes have been, but probably only because Charming and Snow’s stories have been told. A lot.
What I liked about “Heartless”, though, was it did not live up to its name. There were several impactful, genuine moments that played out. The “heart” (womp womp) of this show is the true love relationships and the characters living out their true love. While that played out in Snow and Charming and we all went “awww…but this is every episode”, we also saw a really great moment between Hook and Emma. Hook reading to her from the storybook was an incredibly sweet, heartfelt moment between the two. I was not always the biggest “Captain Swan” fan, I’ll admit (I was team Neal), but they’ve really grown on me as Killian has grown more into a human who expresses real feelings and less of a witty, brooding caricature. Colin O’Donoghue has done a great job, but an especially great one in this episode.
The other scene that got to me was Belle and Rumple’s confrontation in the shop. I very much enjoy watching devil-may-care Belle as she lambasts Rumple for his wishy-washy cowardice. She’s right, too, when she says he could be a good man and he just doesn’t try to be. It’s a source of conflict for the show I’m sure, because on the one hand, he’s a seriously compelling villain, and the show would have an identity crisis without Rumplestiltskin the Dark One in play. But on the other hand, his redemption interests me more than anything because of exactly what Belle said. We all know that he could be a good man. It may have frustrated me the most when she left the shop and he growled “Zelena” as if Zelena is the problem. Zelena got back at him by pointing out the problem, but even killing Zelena would not gain him any ground with Belle. Classic Rumple.
One or two other thoughts I had during this episode:
- I know it would probably cost too much, but I’d love to have a familiar face or two in the crowd when the Evil Queen gathers the whole town.
- I would like to be reassured that David’s dog gets a happy ending, please.
All in all, this was still much better than the best episodes of a few previous seasons. But hey, there’s always room for improvement, right?
What did you guys think? Did you enjoy the episode? Let us know in the comments!
Once Upon A Time airs Sundays at 8/7c on ABC
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