"Once Upon A Time" Review/Recap: “New York Serenade”
Emma Doherty ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
When Peter Pan (Robbie Kay) switched bodies and stole Regina’s (Lana Parrilla) curse, he enacted it by taking the heart of the thing he loves the most. Everyone came together to try to get Pan and Henry (Jared Gilmore) switched back, but it was too late. Henry brings the curse to Regina, who then faints when she holds it and is overcome with the realization of what she must do to stop it. She has to undo the curse by making it so the first one never happened.
This means that everyone will return to the Enchanted Forest—except for Henry, because he wasn’t born there. What happens next is probably one of the most significant moments on the show, and one that displays an incredible amount of character growth. Regina tells Emma (Jennifer Morrison) to stay behind, and that she would give both Emma and Henry memories of a happy life together where Emma never gave Henry up. The midseason finale ends with Emma and Henry driving away, and viewers catch a small glimpse of their happy life together in New York City.
It was great to see that they used Neal’s (Michael Raymond-James) apartment as a trigger for Emma and her memories, but it isn’t until she bails Hook out of prison and takes the potion he offered her that she fully gets her memories back. This was definitely an interesting way to get her to remember. It would be nice to see in a future episode how Hook obtained the potion and just how he got to Emma from the Enchanted Forest.
Meanwhile, when all this is going on, the rest of the characters return to the Enchanted Forest and are in for an unfortunate surprise. Everyone is together, and they are all planning their next move. They decide that the best thing to do is return to Regina’s castle together. Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) suggests that she, Regina, and Charming (Josh Dallas) should band together to prove that they are one and can lead as one. Again we see a huge amount of character growth, both from Regina and Snow. The fact that Snow is willing to accept that Regina should lead just as much and she as Charming should is remarkable, but not as much as Regina’s willingness to accept this new arrangement.
This scene was spectacular because of how much Lana Parrilla dives into her character and displays how deep her emotions and love for Henry is. But this also reveals just how different Regina’s and Snow’s parenting styles are. Sure, Snow has lost Emma in the past, so she thinks she knows what it’s like to lose a child, but her experience with children is not the same as Regina’s. Regina had Henry his entire life and was very noble in her reasons for giving him up. Snow’s reasoning for carrying on and just having hope truly shows how she is not as developed as a parent as Regina is.
The two continued to work together, and Snow even risked her life to pull Regina away from what appeared to be a flying monkey. The gang realizes that there is someone occupying the castle, and that person definitely has something to do with these strange new creatures flying around. Not only are we introduced to new characters, but people from the past also make an appearance.
Robin Hood (Sean Maguire) shows up just in time to help the two women escape the flying beast and shoots it with an arrow. Now, of course, we remember that Hood is supposedly Regina’s “true love” so their first interaction was a highly anticipated scene. It did not disappoint, and Regina was just as sassy as ever, saying she did not ask to be helped when Hood offered his hand to help her up. Regina must not have been that convincing with her mask of disdain, because Snow asks if Regina thought he was cute, which prompts Regina’s reaction: “He smells like forest!”
If you thought the story couldn’t get any more complex, then you don’t know Once Upon A Time. When Emma arrives in Storybrooke, she goes back to her parents’ home and is greeted by a very happy David, who remembers her. We then see that Snow is pregnant and also remembers Emma. The two reveal that they have no memory of the past year and have absolutely no idea how they returned to Storybrooke. We know the Wicked Witch had something to do with this… but how? It will be interesting to see the show cover the lives of the characters in the year they were in the Enchanted Forest, and their lives once again back in Storybrooke. One week is definitely too long to wait for the next episode!
Overall Episode Grade: A-
Make sure to tune in to Once Upon A Time Sunday at 8/7c on ABC.