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Once Upon a Time Review: A Coming-of-Age Tale

Anyone who’s read my reviews before knows that I’m a big fan of episodes focused on Emma and Regina’s friendship and relationship as co-parents, and this one delivered on both fronts. It also had a nice focus, with the bulk of the hour centered on Henry and his moms (all three of them, actually). The side plots were efficient and effective, especially Snow and Charming’s. They only had two scenes together: that montage at the beginning and the bittersweet moment at the end, but their story still packed an emotional punch in spite of, or maybe because of, its brevity. The montage was both heartbreaking and adorable, and the juxtaposition between that and their final scene completely in-character. The Charmings know how to make the best of a situation, absolutely, but they also know when they have the right to miss each other.

One of the other B stories, Aladdin stealing the wand for Belle, felt a tad unnecessary—Zelena or Belle could have swiped it somehow—but I understand why they went with Aladdin instead. He’s a thief, so that bit obviously fit, and it was an easy way to remind viewers that Aladdin and Jasmine are still around and will presumably get another piece of their story told soon. Honestly, their appearance was worth it just for the monkey reference and their entirely awkward response to Zelena assuming they were a couple.

Zelena has been used a little more sparingly this season, which I think is a wise move; she’s a great character but more effective in small doses. She and Belle made for an unexpected pairing, and I appreciated Zelena mocking the assumption that two mothers automatically share some sort of kindred connection. I’ve talked quite a bit about how refreshing it is to see Belle hold her ground against Rumple, how frustrating it is to see him completely ignore that, and how creepy it is to see Rumple and the Evil Queen’s out of nowhere relationship, so I’ll just say that my feelings on all of those things haven’t changed.

As I said above, I do love a good Regina and Emma episode, especially when it’s focused on their relationship with Henry. Their conversations about him were frank, bittersweet, and completely believable coming from two women terrified that they won’t see their son reach adulthood but hellbent on making sure the other one does. Of course, by episode’s end, they realized that in many ways Henry is already grown, and Jennifer Morrison and Lana Parrilla were particularly good as they watched Henry and Violet dance, their faces both proud and a little sad.

Appropriately, this episode felt like the climax of Henry’s coming-of-age story, a story that’s been playing out since the pilot but has really accelerated in the last season or two. We’ve seen Henry make a tough choice before, but this particular one showed his intelligence and maturity on a level we haven’t seen yet. After all, he didn’t face just any villain in this episode, he faced a version of his own mother, yet he kept a clear head and didn’t allow himself to be “Darth Vadered,” as it were. Also, let us marvel at Lana Parrilla playing the Evil Queen playing Regina with just enough subtle tweaks for me to understand why Henry realized but Snow did not.

Killian also knew, though because of Emma’s odd behavior, not Regina’s. It would have been easy for Hook to accept it, but instead the writers smartly took advantage of another opportunity to show how well Killian knows Emma; there was a time when she would have left without saying goodbye, but this isn’t it.

Finally, romance is often a part of the coming-of-age story, so Violet’s presence here made complete sense. There isn’t nearly enough of their innocent and realistic brand of puppy love on TV these days, and it fits perfectly well with a show so devoted to hope and true love.

How’d everyone else feel about this episode? Let me know down below!