Title The Cricket Game

Two-Sentence Summary The joy of Emma and Snow’s return to Storybrooke soon disappears after Archie is found dead after a supposed visit from Regina, who turns out to be Cora in disguise. In flashbacks to Fairytale Land, Snow saves Regina from execution but the final pieces to the curse are set in motion.

Favorite Line “It’s impressive that we can still provide her with a few traumatic childhood memories at this stage of the game.” (Charming, after Emma walks in on him in bed with Snow)

My Thoughts I found myself alternately fascinated and frustrated by this episode. There were some moments that made me incredibly happy as well as some good plot development. However, I found myself angry with the central plot of the episode. Sometimes dramatic irony is a beautiful thing (which Once Upon a Time proved over and over again last season), but sometimes it’s almost painful to watch characters make incorrect assumptions and do the wrong thing because they don’t know what we as an audience know.

Let’s begin with the good stuff, shall we? The scene with Charming and Snow being interrupted by Emma and Henry was played to perfection by all involved. Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin’s bright, joyful chemistry leapt off the screen. Goodwin’s smile was especially luminous; she made me feel every bit of Snow’s giddiness at being reunited with her husband after 28 long years. The brief moment where Charming stole a kiss at the end of the scene was the perfect touch. If these two in that moment are what “happily ever after” looks like (both on and off-screen), then sign me up for my own fairytale.

I also have to give credit to Jennifer Morrison for her perfect reaction to walking in on her parents in bed together. What could have been cringe-worthy was instead hilarious because Morrison played Emma’s shock with the subtle humor I have come to love from her as an actress. All three characters are in such a strange situation, and this was the best possible way to introduce the complications of their relationships with humor (while the end of the episode, with Charming talking about his insecurities about being a parent, was the perfect way to introduce it with heart).

I loved Emma’s emotional arc throughout the episode—from her open support of Regina to her crisis of faith, culminating in their showdown. It was nice to see someone finally invite Regina to dinner! And I loved that Emma initially saw a lot of herself in Regina’s quest for redemption. They are more similar than it would seem at first glance—both closed off to love until Henry came into their lives.

But the difference between these women is that Emma has a mother who is the epitome of noble while Regina’s mother is as evil as they come. I love how evil Cora is; there’s something deliciously dramatic about the sight of her walking around with her black parasol in the dead of night. It fits well with the flourish Lana Parrilla gives to her performance as the Evil Queen. Evil runs in the family, but so does style.

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Title Queen of Hearts

Two-Sentence Summary In this season’s winter finale, Emma and Snow go head-to-head with Cora and Hook in order to get back to their loved ones in Storybrooke, and Emma discovers some interesting side-effects of being the product of Snow and Charming’s true love. Before they can get back, though, Henry must convince Regina to undo Rumplestiltskin’s deadly spell on the portal, which is designed to kill Cora and Hook but could end up killing Snow and Emma instead.

Favorite Lines
Emma: Your mom, she’s…She’s a piece of work, you know?
Regina: Indeed, I do.

My Thoughts This was truly the perfect midseason finale. It left the audience with some excellent new questions, raised the stakes for the second half of the season, and resolved important story arcs with major questions being answered. What I liked the most about it, though, was that it did all of these things in an organic way. Each plot development also came with character development. Though the hour raced along, it was grounded in beautiful interactions between characters we have come to care so much about as well as stunning performances from the leading ladies who make this show so consistently powerful on an emotional level.

One of those leading ladies was Jennifer Morrison, who showcased incredible layers of vulnerability in “Queen of Hearts.” Morrison played Emma’s self-doubt with an understated sadness; when she said that optimism skipped a generation in her family, I felt the broken heart underneath the humor, and that’s when Emma feels her most real.

I also loved Emma’s interactions with Captain Hook. Their dynamic is so interesting because it can go from surprising depth (their interactions in Rumplestiltskin’s cell) to cheeky innuendos (Hook’s sword fighting dialogue) without feeling forced. But my favorite thing about the two of them in this episode had to be the fact Emma bested Hook by taking advantage of his compulsion to turn their fight into a twisted kind of flirting.

I really enjoyed Hook as a character in this episode, especially after worrying that his character would become irredeemable after taking Aurora’s heart. My favorite thing about him so far has been his moral ambiguity, so I didn’t want him to become Cora-like levels of pure evil. The explanation for him being able to take Aurora’s heart was smart; I’m happy that this power is canonically reserved for our three main villains. Also, it felt wrong that Hook would be so willing to take a heart after what happened to Milah, so I really appreciated the writing choice of having him give Aurora her heart back.

Speaking of hearts, Aurora and Mulan finally felt useful and well-written in this episode! Aurora’s selfless streak brings out a strength in her that she didn’t have initially, and even Mulan felt more complex and interesting once she was given more to do as a character. The moment when Mulan put Aurora’s heart back in was surprisingly intimate and lovely, and I found myself hoping that this isn’t the last we see of these two princesses now that their motivations aren’t overshadowed by Emma and Snow’s.

I’ve loved seeing Emma and Snow work as a team so far this season, and that continued in a really beautiful way in this episode. I liked seeing Snow’s knowledge of Fairytale Land come in handy once again when she got them out of the cell (even though I did want to scream, “The ink is on the scroll!” at them for the longest time). But I was most impressed with seeing Emma truly become her mother’s daughter at exactly the right time.

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Title Into the Deep

Two-Sentence Summary After Henry suffers intense burns and Aurora is captured by Cora, Charming willingly subjects himself to the sleeping curse in order to communicate with Snow. Lives are endangered, alliances are tested, and one broken family struggles to keep their faith as both good and evil race to get back to Storybrooke.

Favorite Line “And if there’s one thing I know about your grandparents…They always find each other.” (Regina)

My Thoughts “Into the Deep” was one of the strongest episodes of this season (so far, at least). There was a tightness to the plotting and character interactions that had been missing in other episodes as the writers sometimes struggled to balance multiple plotlines and a growing cast of characters. This episode worked because it was about the people we have cared about since the pilot: Charming, Snow, Henry, Emma, Regina, and Rumplestiltskin. By focusing the plot on these characters and their interactions, this episode’s stakes felt higher and its emotional moments felt more resonant. The plot progressed, the characters deepened, and all of this was done with the beguilingly earnest sentimentality that has been Once Upon a Time’s calling card from the start.

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