Written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Directed by Milan Cheylov
Airs Sundays at 8pm (ET) on ABC
Once Upon a Time returned after a four week hiatus and the train shot out of the station within the first few minutes. The opening scene was intense to say the least. It involved Rumplestiltskin turning Henry into glass and then smashing him into little pieces. Thankfully Rumplestiltskin shot up in bed mere seconds later and the whole part was revealed to be a dream.
After the interesting and somewhat disturbing opening the writers take us into full gear. We come to find out that the episode is actually going to switch it up and be very Belle centric. This is a good thing, especially since the show bumped Emilie de Ravin up to series regular and then shoved her into a hospital bed for half of the season. De Ravin always has a certain charm about her when she is playing Belle; something that made her standout in the first season when she was a guest star. The writers really threw a curveball in material at de Ravin this week and she handled it with the upmost grace. After a scheming Regina brings back Belle’s cursed memory, Belle does a complete turnaround. Her cursed ego is a bar-hopping, pool shooting, rocker chick named Lacey; and de Ravin pulls the roll of wonderfully. She’s flirtation, edgy, kind of a punk. She’s everything that Belle is not. But the writers’ don’t leave us craving the old Belle, because that’s exactly who we get in the past Enchanted Forrest storyline.
The entire Belle/Lacey storyline is utterly captivating and interesting. It’s also fun to watch Rumplestiltskin play to Lacey, especially with her being the rocker chick and him trying to be the good person that the real Belle fell in love with. The ending of the episode where Belle finds out that the rumors about Rumple are true was another curveball that the writers threw at us too. Especially when she tells Rumple that she likes that he is as dark as the rumors made him out to be.
The whole reason why Belle morphed into Lacey was because of the ever caring mayor Regina Mills. It was enjoyable watching Lana Parrilla back to her old tricks, as the scheming and conniving Regina. With Cora being around for the majority of the season we never really got to witness the Evil Queen that we came to love from the first season. Parrilla undeniably gave the Rumplestiltskin/Belle storyline a run for its money. Parrilla has grown so much with how she plays Regina. It’s almost flawless how she can capture us in and hook us with so much as a look nowadays.
Other storylines of the show included Henry getting closer to Bae and Snow and Charming showing Emma what they had been doing with the beans. It was enjoyable to see Jorge Garcia back as the giant, Anton.
One of the downsides of the episode was the buildup to the appearance of Robin Hood. It was exciting to see another beloved storybook character make his debut, but it wasn’t all too exciting. The Sheriff of Nottingham had more screen time then he did. Hopefully, Robin Hood will end up making another appearance before the show’s season finale in a few weeks.
The writers did raise a few questions and eyebrows during the episode. For instance, what is Regina going to do now that she knows there are magic beans? What is going to happen with Rumplestiltskin and Belle? Now that she likes him being dark is he still going to want to change her? Is Emma going to convince Bae that they should go back to the Enchanted Forest? And just how are Tamara and Greg going to use Captain Hook to further their plans?
The second season of Once Upon a Time is drawing for a close, but the writers don’t plan on this season to end quietly. Everything is starting to come together as, of course, in typical Once fashion more and more questions are beginning to rise.
– Joshua Bouye