Once Upon a Time Review: “A Bitter Draught”

This episode was more successful for me than the premiere, which I already quite liked. As I mentioned in that review, season premieres, especially Once Upon a Time premieres, are set up episodes by nature. If the first episode provides the outline, the second actually starts the story. And I gotta say, this was a pretty great start.

The first ten minutes or so were excellently paced, giving us the Count of Monte Cristo’s motivation, establishing his connection to the Evil Queen, and setting up the episode’s main conflict, though, impressively, without feeling rushed. The Count was exactly the type of new character I like to see because he mainly existed to further the stories of the characters we already know. His backstory wasn’t overly complicated but was involved enough to make me feel something when he died.

In regards to that backstory, let’s get something out of the way: yes, we’ve seen a gazillion flashbacks about the Evil Queen and her tumultuous relationship with the Charmings, but the repetitiveness doesn’t bother me at this point. The flashbacks don’t add a lot to the past narrative anymore, but they do still have an impact on the present. Plus, with the Evil Queen now a solo entity, it makes even more sense to flashback to that time. As long as past actions are in character and add something to the present-day scenes, I really don’t care that it’s the umpteenth time we’ve seen the Evil Queen manipulate someone to kill the Charmings.

I do care, however, when past actions are out of character, and I think the scenes with Rumple and the Evil Queen were, both in the past and the present. That was my only real issue with this episode; they added some kind of sexual tension between those two characters that has, at least in my mind, never existed before. They’ve had a complicated dynamic, sure, but I never saw it as attraction. The problem with exploring one particular period of your show’s history in such detail is that viewers become very familiar with the character dynamics of that time and know immediately when something doesn’t quite fit in. The Evil Queen shamelessly flirting with Gold will complicate the present dynamic, sure, but you can’t do that by adding sexual tension that was never there in the first place.

The Evil Queen’s dynamic with Regina, however, I’m fully on board with. I love watching actors create two different characters and, while we’ve seen Lana Parrilla play the Evil Queen, hero Regina, and her fascinating journey between those two characters, until the finale we’d never seen her do it in the same scene. And let me tell you, the scenes they shared in this episode left me hoping for many, many more. It was beyond interesting to see Regina’s past self taunt her present hero; the “after everything I did for you” line stood out in particular because it spoke to Regina’s mindset as the Evil Queen, desperate to get her revenge and furious that her current self threw it away in favor of friendship and the chance for happiness. Honestly, I could talk for a long time about that dynamic, but, with the Evil Queen’s premonition about Regina destroying the happy endings, I’m sure they’ll be more opportunities to discuss it as the season goes on.

Even as a fan of Emma and Regina’s friendship, I completely bought Emma’s fear that it could be Regina, not the Evil Queen, that does her in. Emma’s got to be feeling a little paranoid right now, and she did just hear about Regina killing someone the same way she herself dies. Plus, Regina was very pragmatic when Emma was the Dark One last season, realistic about the terrible things she might do despite how much she cared about her, and this was a believable echo of that. I do feel like the logic of “Regina was the only family missing” was a bit lacking, though. Emma and Regina are the only two heroes with magic, and they’ve done the divide and conquer thing before. Gold was also missing from Emma’s vision, as was Hyde, and it’s entirely possible that Regina was stopping either of them from wreaking havoc elsewhere. This is Storybrooke after all; one crisis at a time isn’t really its jam.

A few other thoughts:

It was awesome to see Rumplestiltskin in all his golden glory again. As with Lana Parrilla and the Evil Queen, I will never tire of watching Robert Carlyle work his magic as that character.

Hook and Emma’s conversation at Granny’s was lovely, a great example of how to further a relationship in an episode where it’s not the focus.

Hook offering Belle the Jolly Roger was a nice moment for the two of them; I’ve always enjoyed their dynamic, and the writers have done a nice job of fleshing it out in a relatively small number of one-on-one scenes.

The last scene with Snow, Regina, and Emma at Granny’s was great; I love the thoroughly complicated relationship between those three women, and from Regina saving Snow and Charming despite the personal cost to Emma supporting her friend but later revealing she has misgivings, I can tell even more layers will be added this season.

I’m definitely intrigued by the main characters having untold stories as well. The Evil Queen made it sound like they were stories that the heroes wouldn’t want to be told, but her conversation with Charming seemed like it was more about tempting him with information about his past that he would want.

What are your thoughts on this episode? What about this one compared to the premiere? Let me know in the comments!