SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
Bringing back The Evil Queen only reminded me of the high hopes I had for her story last season and how disappointed I was when the writers did nothing with and wasted her character. What we got in this episode is what I wish we had gotten in the first half of the season. Finally we got the epic showdown between Regina and The Evil Queen that was promised last season, but it’s still a bit of a disappointment in that it was only for one episode and a filler episode at that.
This thing between Regina and The Evil Queen isn’t relevant anymore. I’d dare say that it hasn’t been relevant all season given how they treated it in the first half. It was built up at the end of the last season only to be trivialised this season. I don’t even think that the whole point of separating The Evil Queen and Regina was ever about her/them learning to love herself/themselves. I’m more convinced that it was an afterthought that the writers only came up with as they were writing this second half of the season. They did absolutely no justice to Regina and The Evil Queen.
The plot of their storyline in this episode was pretty predictable; I knew that the Arrow would lead flashback Regina to herself and I knew that The Evil Queen would end up with Robin 2.0 (I knew that since last week!). The idea that this new incarnation of Outlaw Queen would happen was made even more apparent when Robin 2.0 himself said that the two of them were alike.
I was surprised that we actually got the fight between Regina and The Evil Queen (with swords and barely any magic for some reason) since it looked like they weren’t going to face each other for the longest time (thirteen episodes in fact). Regina giving The Evil Queen some of her love and in turn taking some of her darkness into her heart was a nice touch. I expected her to fuse their hearts together as one so that they would return to being the same person (which I think would have reinforced the idea of her coming to love herself a lot better).
The existence of The Evil Queen let them get away with a few technicalities in this episode. I found it strange that Snow didn’t believe in The Evil Queen’s ability to change when she believed in Regina. But technically, they aren’t the same person. Henry could use his power as the author on The Evil Queen because she technically wasn’t a part of his story. Tinkerbell was right that “Robin” was “Regina’s” happy ending because technically Robin 2.0 and The Evil Queen are “Robin” and “Regina” and those two are the ones who ended up together.
And poor Regina still doesn’t have her happy ending.
The unnecessary drama between Hook and Emma continues. Can anyone on this show have a moment of happiness without it being soured by something? Hook did the most foolish thing imaginable by using the dream catcher at home. Of course Emma would have walked in on him and found out about him being David’s father’s murderer that way. It was such half-assed writing.
Emma had a point when she said that her parents would forgive him. They’d be upset, but Snowing are not so unreasonable that they would not understand that that was in his past, when he was a different person. Emma wasn’t even mad at him for not telling her, she was mat because he was going to burn the memory. The best thing that Hook could have done was confess in the early. But he did say that the issue was not them forgiving him but him forgiving himself.
Running away was not the way to deal with his guilt, especially without telling Emma and after she said that they should be working through things together. She told him that that was the kind of relationship she thought that they had and he was only proving her wrong by doing so. That was his moment to prove her right. He eventually came to his senses – thanks to Snow showing up in the right place, at the right time and saying the right thing – but he was thwarted by Gideon; who I forgot was in the series and that he was plotting to kill Emma until he appeared.
Now Emma is left to believe that Hook chickened out and left her.
Random thoughts:
- Why is this guard on a first name basis with the queen?
- Henry should hide that pen better.
- Of course The Evil Queen is still unhappy.
- Your father is on your side Regina.
- That was not a smart thing to do Hook.
- Dammit Gideon!
Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8 PM on ABC.
