After a great weekend of adventures in New York City with some of my favorite Nerdy Girls (more on that will come later this week), I’m ready to get back to business! 

This week in television started strong once again, with Once Upon a Time‘s return to Storybrooke and another excellent outing for The Good Wife. Monday’s Dancing with the Stars featured some great surprises, and Castle reminded us all of the great story Castle and Beckett are writing together. Tuesday’s New Girl brought all of the cast together in some very fun ways, and The Mindy Project had one of its best episodes of the season. Nashville brought some serious emotion to Wednesday night, with Deacon and Maddie finally getting to bond as father and daughter. And I’m eagerly anticipating devouring the episodes of Parks and Recreation and Scandal I have saved on my DVR from Thursday night.

For another week, Sunday set the bar incredibly high in terms of the quality of the television shows on display. Once Upon a Time proved that Emma is more than just a prize at the point of a love triangle—she’s a mother whose journey to save her son is more important than any journey towards romance. So when Hook reassured her without any doubt that she would get her son back, “I’ve yet to see you fail,” suddenly became one of the most romantic lines this show has ever had. Emma’s role as a mother is all she can focus on right now, but it’s interesting to note that Hook was the one she let her guard down in front of when she began to doubt her ability to fulfill all that role entails. And his complete lack of doubt is exactly what she needed. Emma Swan isn’t used to people believing in her with that kind of sincerity, especially not in her as Emma rather than the Savior. But Hook gave her that—unconditional belief in her ability to save Henry, in her strength as a woman, as a mother, and as a fighter.

Yes, all the stuff about winning her heart was swoon-worthy (mainly because of Colin O’Donoghue’s gift for being completely sincere and sexy at the same time), but Once Upon a Time is a show about belief even more than it is about romance. And in this scene, Hook’s belief in Emma gave new depth to one of the most interesting relationships to develop so far in Season Three.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

My TV-viewing week got off to a great start on Sunday with another fantastic one-two punch of dramatic television, as game-changing secrets were revealed on Once Upon a Time and the tension continued to rise on The Good Wife. Monday gave us the pure entertainment of “Cher Night” on Dancing with the Stars and a Castle episode that began to pave the way for Beckett, Castle, and Alexis to form their own unique family. Tuesday featured the return of Coach on New Girl and another episode of The Mindy Project that had me screaming for Mindy and Danny to just get together already (and I mean that in the best possible way). Thursday’s Once Upon a Time in Wonderland built on the great reveal of Anastasia’s identity, and Scandal forever endeared Lisa Kudrow’s Josie Marcus to me with a brilliant speech on sexism in the political world (and in the media in general). 

This week featured many fantastic acting moments (Kudrow on Scandal, all of the men of New Girl, Christine Baranski on The Good Wife), but no one scene showcased the phenomenal talents of its cast the way the “Echo Cave” scene did on this week’s Once Upon a Time. The entire premise of the scene was brilliant, allowing some of the most emotionally complex and moving relationships on the show to take center stage in way that moved the plot along while being emotionally satisfying as well. 

Each secret packed a huge emotional punch: Hook revealing that Emma is the reason he now has hope that he can love again after 300 years of living in the darkness he clung to after Milah’s death; Snow’s confession of wanting another baby because her relationship with Emma is unique but not what she wanted; Charming finally coming clean about not being able to leave Neverland; and Emma telling Neal that she’d hoped he was dead so she could finally move on from all of the pain associated with their relationship. But what made this scene so compelling and moving was the way each actor gave everything to make us feel the weight of those secrets as well as the impact each one had on every person in that cave.

Colin O’Donoghue made Hook’s vulnerability truly feel like it was coming from a man who hasn’t opened his heart like that in three lifetimes—from the way he was visibly steeling himself before sharing his secret to the way his eyes never left Emma throughout the rest of the scene. Ginnifer Goodwin made me believe Snow was gutted by having to share her secret in front of Emma, her voice strained with emotion as she struggled to come to terms with just how much the curse is still affecting her family. Josh Dallas’s warmth and earnest line delivery once again broke my heart. Even Michael Raymond-James made me emotional in his brief moments on screen; his “You can tell me anything,” was delivered with perfect sincerity.

And then there was Jennifer Morrison. Her work as Emma Swan this season has been nothing short of incredible, and this scene was another highlight. Each word of her secret hurt because you could feel how much it hurt Emma to have to look into the eyes of the man she will always love and tell him she is so broken by their relationship that she’d hoped he was dead. Emma Swan is such a beautifully human character, a fairytale princess whose life has been anything but a fairytale. And in this scene perhaps more than any other, Morrison made us feel the extent of the pain this broken woman has lived with every day since the day Neal let her go to jail. This scene needed to happen; it was cathartic, and every emotional beat it hit was earned.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?

This week in television got off to a strong start with another character-driven and emotionally-charged episode of Once Upon a Time on Sunday. That was followed by a Monday night that featured the first “30” of the season on Dancing with the Stars (Congrats, Elizabeth Berkley!) and a Castle episode that featured Joshua Gomez in the perfectly-cast role of a time-traveler. Tuesday’s New Girl and The Mindy Project were both laugh-out-loud funny, and Wednesday’s Nashville was a roller coaster of emotions as Rayna struggled to sing again. Thursday may have been sadly lacking a new episode of Parks and Recreation, but it did give us one heck of a twist on Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and Lisa Kudrow’s first appearance on Scandal. 

From a fantastic New Girl scene featuring the word “Batmanmobile” to the revelation of Anastasia’s identity on Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, there were a quite a few moments that stood out this week in the vast television landscape. However, the best of the best came from last Sunday’s Once Upon a Time, which once again reminded us of the brilliant talents of Jennifer Morrison and Ginnifer Goodwin. Emma’s grief-stricken and angry breakdown over Neal and Snow’s horrified realization that she has no idea how to comfort her daughter were two standout moments of emotional power in a season already filled with emotional scenes. Both Morrison and Goodwin excel at grounding their characters in honest emotions, and this scene’s power comes from the vulnerability they each give their performances, a vulnerability that keeps this fantasy show anchored in very real moments of human drama.

This moment was so important for both of these women—Emma needed to admit to all of her complicated feelings surrounding Neal in order to find the closure she’s been denied for over 11 years. And Snow needed to admit that she is struggling to be a mother as much as Emma is struggling to be a daughter. This scene was necessary for the emotional arcs of these characters, and it was handled brilliantly by two of the best actors in this incredibly talented cast.

What was the best thing you saw on TV this week?