Title Nasty Habits

Two-Sentence Summary After Neal arrives in Neverland, he joins forces with his father to rescue Henry, but his discovery of the prophecy of Rumplestiltskin’s undoing leads him to run away with his son—only to have both of them captured by Peter Pan, whose plan to turn Henry into a Lost Boy appears to be working. In flashbacks, we see Rumplestiltskin trying to free Bae from the clutches of the Pied Piper, who turns out to be Pan himself.

Favorite Lines
Emma: According to uh…
Tinker Bell: Tinker Bell.
Emma: Yes, I know—still weird to say.
Tinker Bell: Tink is fine.
Emma: Not sure that’s any better.

My Thoughts I’m still trying to process what I think and how I feel about “Nasty Habits.” I’ve been picking apart this episode in my brain ever since it ended, including a stretch of a few hours in the middle of the night where I couldn’t sleep because my head was swimming with thoughts about Emma Swan and what this episode meant for her as a character. If pressed, I would say that it was my least favorite episode of this young third season, but I still think it was better than the majority of Season Two. It ultimately had enough moments of solid twists and strong acting to make up for its circular storytelling.

If we’re talking about strong twists and solid acting, we have to start with Robbie Kay’s Peter Pan. I cannot say enough about this actor and the way this character has been written. There is so much controlled malice in Kay’s performance; he’s a beautiful little psychopath and he’s a phenomenal addition to the great pantheon of Once Upon a Time antagonists. It takes a great actor to command a scene that’s shared with Robert Carlyle, but Kay more than held his own throughout this episode. I cannot wait for more of Pan and Rumplestiltskin’s relationship to be explored. It has the potential for more fantastic plot twists and even more fabulous interaction between two of the show’s most powerful actors. And just what do I think their relationship is? I honestly have no idea, and I love that. This show is at its best when it surprises me, and I have a feeling this particular storyline is going to be full of surprises.

I wasn’t surprised by Pan’s “Pied Piper” identity, but that was okay because there were already so many similarities between both of those stories that it seemed almost inevitable. The flashbacks themselves weren’t as emotionally engaging as some of the best ones involving Rumplestiltskin and Bae, but they did set up one of my favorite moments of the episode: Pan stating that Rumplestiltskin’s biggest fear isn’t his son being taken from him; it’s his son leaving him. That ability to draw out and prey on people’s deepest fears seems to be playing a huge part in Pan’s psychological gamesmanship with Emma (and her parents), but I’ll say more about that later.

Every second Kay was onscreen, I found myself believing everything he was saying while also trying to remind myself that this version of Peter Pan is a master manipulator who no one is supposed to trust. Did he really orchestrate everything from Neal’s escape from Neverland to Henry’s birth? I hope not—because my favorite thing about Emma and Neal’s relationship is that their love was something real and human and messy in the midst of their fairytale lineages. But I found myself wondering if Pan is as much of a master manipulator as he wants Neal (and Henry) to believe he is; he’s just that convincing.

Pan’s powers of persuasion also worked to make the end of the episode a bit more palatable. I loved that Henry couldn’t hear Pan’s music at first because we know he’s not abandoned and unloved, and we know that he knows that. So when he heard the music at the end of the episode, I was initially angry that this “Truest Believer” would give up on his family so easily. However, there is a part of Henry that did grow up feeling lost and alone (Regina did send him to a psychiatrist, after all), and even with the knowledge of his mothers’ love, he might be more susceptible to Pan’s mind games than we previously thought. And I think even the most faithful people might start to doubt when put in such close proximity to Pan. He’s just that good a villain.

While Kay is so good because makes Pan so completely unsympathetic, Carlyle is so good because he always makes us feel for Rumplestiltskin regardless of the horrible things the character has done. In this episode, he had me cringing in the flashbacks because of his cowardly decision to force Bae to come back home rather that letting his son choose; holding my breath as he attacked the son he thought was dead; and crying when he told Neal that he was his happy ending. I believed every single one of those complicated emotions, and it’s only because Carlyle is so brilliant. He brings out the best in Michael Raymond-James, too. Each of their scenes was filled with such distrust and pain but also so much love. I was angry that their relationship was ignored for so much of the second half of Season Two, but their scenes together in this episode continued this season’s theme of giving the audience the deep moments of character interaction that last season lacked.

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Title Quite a Common Fairy

Two-Sentence Summary In Neverland, the Charming Family (and Hook) try to form an alliance with Tinker Bell, who has a complicated history with Regina, which is shown in flashbacks to a time when Tinker Bell tried to help the lonely queen find a second chance at love. Second chances at love is the theme of the episode in the Enchanted Forest, too, as Neal uses Robin Hood’s son to get back to Neverland and Mulan decides to confess her own romantic feelings before discovering that the object of her affection is about to start a family with someone else.

Favorite Lines
Regina: Trust me, my staying out of her sight is probably best for Operation Henry.
Emma: Operation Henry?
Regina: That’s what I’ve been calling it in my head because…
Emma: …Because that’s what he’d call it.
Regina: He’d have a better name.

My Thoughts Another week, another excellent episode of Once Upon a Time. This season seems to have found a formula that works for moving the plot along (both in the flashbacks and in the present-day storylines) while still giving us a wealth of character-driven moments, especially between characters who have been long overdue for some meaningful interaction. Those moments allowed the show’s strongest actors to shine in this episode, and they brought out the best in actors who I felt hadn’t really been given shining moments until now. As soon as I saw that this was an episode penned by Jane Espenson, I knew it was going to be a great showcase for the actors, and I loved that I was proven right. It’s no secret that Espenson knows her craft like few others in the fantasy genre, and her gift for realistic dialogue, nuance, and layered characterizations and relationships was once again on full display in “Quite a Common Fairy.”

The big selling point of this episode was the introduction of Tinker Bell, and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed at all. Rose McIver played the innocence, spunk, and darkness in this fairy perfectly. I also liked the twist on the idea of believing in fairies to keep them alive. Changing it to believing in the specific fairy in order for them to have magic makes it feel more realistic and fits in really well with the running theme of this season: believing in the people we care about. Part of the reason Tinker Bell lost her magic because Regina didn’t want to believe in the happiness she was offering, but she really lost her magic because the Blue Fairy didn’t believe in her abilities. Losing her magic made Tinker Bell lose her sense of self; it made her feel isolated and alone, and we’ve seen time and again on this show what the absence of love and support (aka belief) does to a person. Tinker Bell’s story fit in perfectly with the thematic narrative of Once Upon a Time.

One of my favorite parts of Tinker Bell’s story was the way it forced Regina to confront her own destructive sense of self-pity. For so much of Season Two, the only thing I liked about Regina’s story was Lana Parrilla’s acting. I hated being told I was supposed to feel bad for this woman who did so many terrible things all because she felt her life was ruined by the honest mistake of a little girl. In this episode, Regina finally had to admit that she had no one to blame but herself for refusing to choose the happiness Tinker Bell was offering her. There was no deflecting blame or “I was a victim” in that scene between Regina and Tinker Bell in the cave. There was only a broken woman finally coming to terms with the fact that she was afraid to be happy because she didn’t know who she would be without her grief and anger.

That scene was the first time in a long time that I felt genuine sympathy towards Regina. I liked that the episode began with Rumplestiltskin once again pulling the strings and planting the idea in Regina’s head that she needs her anger to be powerful. The way he manipulated Regina for so much of her life all for the sake of his own plan continues to horrify me even as it adds depth to their interactions and the show as a whole.

Regina’s fear of happiness and desperation to cling to her self-pity are such relatable emotions. I love when Once Upon a Time takes fairytale characters and puts them in real, human situations, and that’s what Regina’s story was all about. She was afraid to be happy, afraid that loving someone again would make her weak—and I understood those motivations, even as I was internally screaming at her to go through that door and take that chance to be happy again.

But I think we all know she’s going to take that chance someday—because now we’ve seen her true love. I’m so happy it’s Robin Hood because he’s the perfect mixture of idealism and realism (he wants to give to the poor but he’ll steal in order to do it). Also, he’s a loving father who lost his first love. I think he’s going to be a great match for Regina, and I can’t wait for them to finally meet. I know I shouldn’t be rooting so hard for the happiness of a woman who’s done some really terrible things, but the thing that’s so great about Regina is that we know she is still capable of goodness; we’ve seen it. We saw it in this episode when she and Emma were talking about Henry. To see those two mothers bonding over their shared love for their son was a moment I’ve been waiting such a long time so see. Regina’s love for Henry is such a defining part of her character; it’s what makes her so complex and human. Like Emma, Regina found a chance to learn to love again through Henry, and I think it’s about time these broken, all-too-human women shared a moment to gently connect over the boy they both miss with their whole hearts.

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Title Lost Girl

Two-Sentence Summary After Peter Pan gives Emma a magical map to Henry, she must come to terms with her own past as a lost girl in order to read it. However, it seems Pan has more nefarious deeds in mind than just keeping Henry from her; his goal is to make Henry embrace his own past as a lost boy in order to keep him on the island—and to turn Emma from a woman who still feels like an orphan into a woman who is an orphan, which seems to be slowly happening as Charming is wounded by a poisoned arrow.

Favorite Lines
Hook: Just who are you, Swan?
Emma: Wouldn’t you like to know?
Hook: Perhaps I would.

My Thoughts Once Upon a Time began as Emma Swan’s story, and somewhere along the way it got lost in all the other cool stories springing up around her, which I think was a huge reason Season Two struggled as much as it did. I will never be upset with an occasional look into Regina’s psyche, a Rumplestiltskin-centric episode or two, or even a chunk of time devoted to developing a new character. I love how many deep and interesting characters inhabit this show’s various realms, but every show needs a focus—and Once Upon a Time is most successful when that focus is on Emma Swan and the relationships she’s forming with the characters around her.

The character of Emma Swan grounds this show in realism, and sometimes that result is funny but, even more often, that result is heartbreaking. In a show built around magical conflicts and fairytale love stories, Emma’s story is a very human—very real—story about a woman who was broken so many times by so many different abandonments that she can’t be magically fixed. She can only slowly grow and learn how to heal, and while that growth and healing might not make for action-packed storytelling, it creates something even better: real character development, not just for Emma but for everyone around her.

I thought “Lost Girl” was an even stronger episode than last week’s premiere. Everyone has their reasons for watching Once Upon a Time, and mine has always been the development of the characters within the “Charming Family.” Needless to say, I was blown away by the emotional power of this episode. It allowed each character to do what they do best, and, therefore, it allowed every member of the cast to shine.

Let’s begin from the outer edges of the episode and work our way to its emotional center. I think the decision to separate Rumplestiltskin from the rest of the Neverland group was very smart. If any actor can compel viewers with a solitary storyline, it’s Robert Carlyle. I was captivated just watching him walk through the jungle, unable to get away from the doll his father gave to him. (Thanks for answer that so quickly, writers!) I’m not sure we needed Belle in order to see his inner struggle to do the right thing, but it was a lovely reminder that he’s always believed her to be his conscience, his heart. Belle has always seen who Rumplestiltskin really is, and she believes in what he can be. And in this episode, that’s what true love is all about.

The theme of true love being belief in the one you love (even after they’ve lost faith in themselves) has always been a part of Snow White and Prince Charming’s story, and it was the focal point of their flashbacks in this episode. What I love about Snow and Charming’s relationship is that it might wear the very idealistic label of “true love,” but it’s so much more than just a one-dimensional, “fairytale” romance. It’s not an idealized love story; rather, it’s a love story about two people with flaws and faults and weak moments who can lean on each other for support when they don’t feel like heroes.

I enjoyed seeing the way Snow’s identity crisis paralleled Emma’s in this episode. I wish Emma knew all the things about Snow we learn from these flashbacks because it’s so important to remember that Snow was an orphan, too, but she learned to move on from letting that define her to become the leader she needed to be for her people.

Did the flashbacks reveal anything groundbreaking in terms of the overall plot of this show? No. They featured some great moments of Regina in all her Evil Queen glory (and gorgeous gowns), some overprotective “big brother” dwarves, and a nice twist on the classic story of the Sword in the Stone—none of which moved the plot along or revealed important information. But that’s not to say they were a waste of time. They served as a great reminder that Snow and Charming aren’t these far-off legends Emma seems to view them as. They’re as human as she is, with plenty of self-doubt and moments where they are anything but “infuriatingly optimistic.”

And more than anything else, these flashbacks were a wonderful reminder of the power of true love. Yes, it breaks curses and creates saviors. But the real power of true love is in its ability to help us be our best selves—and that’s what Charming did for Snow in this episode. His faith in his wife has always been such a beautiful thing to see, and so much of that comes from the earnest way Josh Dallas plays Charming. Somehow, Charming’s belief in Snow never comes across as sappy or unrealistic. It’s genuine and believable in a way that makes me not only want that it my own life; it makes me feel like it’s attainable. Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin have such a special chemistry, and I will never turn down a set of flashbacks where I get to watch them flirt and kiss and remind us all what true love really looks like.

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