Wrap up warm, it’s getting chilly in Storybrooke!

It’s all about Emma on this week’s Once Upon A Time, as we finally delve further into her backstory and find out she has even more connections than we thought possible. While on the run from her foster home, a young orphan Emma Swan meets an unlikely friend in a girl named Lily, who affects her in a decidedly unforgettable way. Meanwhile, with her new friend Elsa, Emma goes to Regina to get help with finding answers about the mysterious Snow Queen. Can the two make amends and work together to achieve their common goal? Leaving those two to argue it out, Elsa takes things into to her own hands and is lured into the Snow Queen’s trap. And we see Snow White and Charming struggle with leaving baby Neal alone for the first time, resulting in a comedic encounter with an escaped Will Scarlet. We’re finally getting some answers about the Snow Queen and it looks like it’s going to be one hell of a ride so let’s get cracking, shall we?

Can Emma and Regina ever be friends?

Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Regina (Lana Parrilla) are two women that definitely don’t have a history of good relations. And in this episode Emma wants to change that. She goes to Regina with good intentions and endless (though unwarranted) apologies, in the hopes of reconciling their differences to focus on the matter at hand: the Snow Queen. And Regina completely shuts her down, belittling her efforts at making amends. While it’s understandable that Regina is heartbroken over her break up with Robin, her misplaced blame on Emma for saving Marian’s life and indirectly causing this, is not fair in the slightest. Throughout the entire episode we see Emma extend a hand only for it to be thrown back at her, laced in scorn and snarky remarks. It’s disappointing and tiresome to watch Regina, a character that’s shown significant development since the first season, written as though nothing has changed. Sure compassion is one of Emma’s most prevalent character traits, and so it makes sense for her to feel a little guilty and want to help Regina. But when we saw the way she was being mistreated and put down, all we wanted her to do was stand up for herself; stop feeling guilty over making a right decision; and walk away from a disparaging situation. Emma’s never one to bring up the fact that Regina cast the curse all those years ago, leaving her to grow up alone, as an orphan and essentially ruining her life for a while. Yet when Emma makes one wrong move that unintentionally hurts her, Regina won’t let her forget it. Honestly, we felt the writing of these two characters felt lazy and their interactions forced.

“You’ve had my back and I want you to know I have yours.” ⁓ Emma

“Miss Swan, one thing’s abundantly clear. You’ve never had my back.” ⁓ Regina

However, Parrilla and Morrison are extremely talented actors who always bring their A-game to the table. After discovering that Sydney double-crossed them to earn his freedom from the mirror that enslaved him, we watch the pair battle the Snow Queen’s fearsome creation (some ‘snowman’), with elation and excitement. The atmospheric buzz surrounding the event brought the scene to life. And only by working together and combining their magic did they eventually defeat their foe. Emma and Regina doing magic is something we love seeing. It’s a fun change to their usual dynamic, and we would certainly appreciate more scenes like this, in the future. At the end of the episode some progress is made between the two, with Regina saying that she doesn’t actually want to kill Emma (some compliment). Morrison’s adorable overjoyed smile at this revelation and Parrilla’s confused expression at Emma wanting to be her friend, after living a life as a friendless villain, were completely on point; and made the scene one to remember. We’d love nothing more than to see these two women getting along but until Regina takes responsibility for her past actions and stops playing the victim, we don’t see a peaceful solution being reached. If there’s going to be any sort of friendship between the two, we feel they’ve quite a way to go.

Mama Snow Queen?

Without a doubt our favourite aspect of this week’s episode is Elizabeth Mitchell’s performance as the Snow Queen. She brings something we’ve never seen before, on the show, to a villainous character – subtlety. And we can’t get enough of her! Her underplayed, sophisticated acting choices are utterly breath taking and the eerie softness to her voice never fails to send a chill through our bones, particularly in the scene with Elsa (Georgina Haig). The Snow Queen ensnares Elsa by tricking her and making her think she’s following her lost sister, Anna (Elizabeth Lail). The ghostly appearance and echo in Anna’s voice and the foggy scenery were nicely executed touches to the scene. But it was Mitchell’s and Haig’s chemistry that made it one of the stand out moments of the episode. After facing her fears to escape Snow Queen’s trap, Elsa ends the episode by knocking the Snow Queen flying with her magic before she disappears back to her icy quarters. It was great seeing Elsa finally able to overcome some of her anxiety issues and empowering watching her quite literally knock her enemy to the ground.

“Soon I will have what I want: a family who loves me.” ⁓ Snow Queen

It was also revealed this episode that the Snow Queen’s intentions are to find a family who loves her: strange and not what we expected. However, something we did guess was that the Snow Queen was one of Emma’s foster parents! In what was supposed to be a shock turn of events at the end of the episode, Emma watches a video from her childhood showing the Snow Queen in one of her previous homes but she has no memories of this. Anyone who’s a fan of the show knows just how much the producers love making all of the characters related to one another. Is there anyone on this show that’s not somehow a member of the family? It was fairly obvious that the Snow Queen would have some sort of familial connection to Emma, with all of the dramatic build up. And with it already known that she’s supposedly Elsa and Anna’s aunt, being Emma’s foster mother isn’t too much of a stretch. We’d expect the Snow Queen’s story line to be much further along by now and with so many questions still left unanswered, we’re wondering which direction the writers are going to head in.

‘The past is in the past’

Having had only a couple of Emma flashbacks over the course of the past three seasons, finally witnessing more of Emma as a child was long overdue. Young Emma (Abby Ross) is of an uncanny likeness to the Emma we know and love and props definitely go to the casting department for their excellent choice. Not only does she look the part, she acts it too. Ross’ performance as a child broken by the pain of loneliness and abandonment is borderline perfect. Our hearts broke for her as she spoke of feeling invisible and made a connection to a young girl, Lily (Nicole Munoz), who claimed to also have experienced the same pain. You can see in her eyes that spark of hope restored to her as she befriends this girl and we all loved watching her happy and able to experience a child-like joy for a while. But that happiness is short lived and, in true Once Upon A Time fashion, Emma is betrayed yet again as we find out Lily lied to her – she does have a family and isn’t in the same situation. It was clear from the offset that she wasn’t quite telling the truth but this girl was also just looking for a friend and Emma walks away (well, gets taken back to the system), too hurt to forgive her.

“That’s when I realized that no one was ever going to look at me the way those parents looked at her. I’m too old. I missed my chance.” ⁓ Young Emma Swan

And while we’re on the subject of Emma feeling as though she’d never have a family, let’s talk about how untrue that is now. We’ve said it before and we’ll likely say it again but it’s beautiful how the show’s main character goes from having nobody to having a full line up of characters ready to do absolutely anything for her: Snow, Charming, Henry and Hook, being prime examples. The final scene between Emma and Hook (O’Donoghue) was incredibly moving and poignant. Emma completely lowering her walls and allowing Hook to look into her past, something she’s never allowed anyone to do before; is heart warming to the core. And Morrison and O’Donoghue played this delicate moment perfectly. Hook’s supportive glances and Emma’s small sigh of relief at his reaction were excellent acting choices, highlighting the importance of the moment. Emma’s complete trust in Hook is shown here by letting him see a part of herself that no one else ever has. Their relationship is definitely moving in the right direction and we’re loving it! And how cute were they all cozied up to watch the video at the end?!

Will Scarlet on the run!

Something that definitely deserves a quick mention is Snow and Charming’s (Josh Dallas) first outing without their new son, Neal. Understandably it’s difficult to make Snow part with her child for the first time and things don’t exactly go to plan when they notice Will (Michael Socha) has escaped from his cell and have to go looking for him. But this makes for some absolutely hilarious one-liners when Snow finds Will digging around for his getaway map, that he mistakenly buried with his bag. The interaction between the two is thoroughly entertaining and saved the episode from a having a complete lack of humour. The writing of this scene in particular was our favourite of the episode and had us laughing from start to finish. Especially when he manages to convince Snow to pardon him when she talks herself into thinking it’s all an elaborate scheme by her other half. Socha has been a wonderful addition to the show and every scene he’s in brings something magical to the episode. There’s just something about this character we can’t help but love and we hope he’s here to stay.

“You know, in your mugshot you look taller. And smarter.” ⁓ Snow White
“Did the sheriff’s wife just call me short and dumb?” ⁓ Will Scarlet

FINAL VERDICT

Unfortunately, we were quite disappointed with this week’s episode. After looking forward to seeing more of Regina, considering she’s been fairly absent this season so far, her story line and the writing of her character was disheartening at best. And considering a large portion of the episode was dedicated to watching Regina tear Emma apart, it wasn’t too enjoyable to watch. We’re hoping for more, maybe more peaceful and less demeaning, interactions between the two in episodes to come. But if they’re anything like what we experienced this week, they’re better off not interacting with one another at all. And we’re really hoping it doesn’t come to that.

We’re certainly intrigued by the Snow Queen’s plans and while Mitchell’s talent can’t be faulted, we do wish they’d get a move on with her story. It’s the fifth episode now and we’re not really any closer to or deeper into her character, who’s supposed to be the main threat of the season.

Emma’s backstory, her opening up to Hook and Will Scarlet’s witty comebacks were some of the most gratifying parts of the episode. But in all honestly, the episode as a whole was a bit of a tangled mess. Hopefully next week they can pick up the pace of the season and deliver an episode good enough to make up for the slightly lacklustre, mediocre episode that was this one.

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• Will Scarlet is a gift that just keeps on giving.
• Killian kissing Emma on the cheek.. so cute I can’t even talk about it!
• And the fact that Henry’s going out sailing with him makes me so happy.
• It sucks seeing Regina look so unhappy all the time.
• Elsa and Emma and just the best bffs.
• How dare they show Regina crying over the photo of her and Robin! So cruel.
• But wait.. who takes these photos?! Creepy..
• Elsa building her ice bridge was such a fun moment - loved and a great Frozen shout out!
• Snow Queenie’s ‘I’m going to build a snowman’ line gave us LIFE! Elizabeth Mitchell is just crazy talented.
• But where did her strange ice lair suddenly appear from?
• Emma, Regina and Elsa doing magic is so badass. Love the ladies of Once Upon A Time!
• And that final scene between Emma and Hook is perfection. One of their best little moments so far. So much character development shown there.
• Dun dun DUN, Snow Queen was one of Emma’s foster moms?! Hmm but what did she do and why do Emma and Elsa have no memories of her?