Once Upon A Time Season 2 Premiere Review

Emily White ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff

Once upon a time, in a quiet town called Storybrooke…there was a season premiere. And it was just as beautiful and twisted as I hoped it would be!
The first season finale left our favorite amnesiac fairy tale friends freed from the curse and fully aware of their true, fairy tale identities. However, an evil presence was also released at the end of the episode by the always deceiving Rumpelstiltskin  Every time we think we know which team he plays for he turns the tables, and this new season is no different. Season two finds Rumplestiltskin and Belle trying to patch up a relationship lost for years, while Rumpelstiltskin also grapples with his humanity and evil nature. Emma is reunited with her parents, but struggles to grasp the concept of accepting a family who is the same age as her and has played an entirely different role in her life for the whole time she has known them. Her fairy tale image of family has been shattered.
And what of the fairy tale world itself? What is to become of the fairy tale back stories that have become a central part of the show’s plot structure last season? Season two surprises again by reintroducing the fairy tale world – but this time in the same time period as Storybrooke. It also introduces two promising new characters, Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and, perhaps the season’s biggest shocker, Mulan. It will be interesting seeing how their opposite characters repel and attract, given their simultaneous distaste and necessity for each other. The way the two worlds collide has to do with this season’s new evil presence, an evil soul-sucking spirit eerily reminiscent to a certain Harry Potter creature. This is the one thing that I am skeptical about for season 2, given its previous good vs. evil formula. Now Regina is just as endangered as the rest of the fairy tale world and now subjected to some sort of massive evil.
However, this season promises plenty of magic, romance, tears, and mommy issues just as last season did so well. It also promises new intrigue with some exciting new characters and plot twists that will hopefully get even more deliciously twisted as season two progresses.