"Once Upon a Time" Review/Recap: "Kansas"
Emma Doherty ‘16 / Emertainment Monthly Assistant Editor
“Kansas” starts weak as Emma (Jennifer Morrison) decides her best move is to abandon her defenseless family to find Zelena (Rebecca Mader) on her own. Has anyone noticed that Emma appears to be getting dumber and dumber? She knows that the witch is planning on coming to the hospital so why would she leave everyone and go off into the woods? And why would the only person she bring with her be the leather-clad pirate who could be the cause of her losing her powers? Seriously, Emma has been making her own decisions her entire life and it came as quite a shock when she submitted to taking Hook with her just because her father told her to. She seems to be losing a lot of what makes her independent when she is with her parents and it’s discouraging to see the “saviour” second guessing herself.
Once Upon a Time is really having a field day by constantly using the theme of losing your newborn child, as Zelena steals the baby almost immediately. The thought alone is sickening, but watching it happen to the Charming family over and over is almost unbearable. Maybe it was more emotional after watching Snow’s face when she realized she once again lost her baby because she is so heavily pregnant with her own child. There was definitely a lot of love for Charming (Josh Dallas) when he placed the baby in her arms, but we don’t get to focus on that because this show is all about speed and skipping over deep emotional moments and focusing on what portal will appear next.
Perhaps the most important scene was Zelena dangling Regina in the air and telling her who she will always be, to which Regina responds that she cannot be told who she is. This scene was so important because Regina has been told what to do/who to be her entire life and this time not only does she stand up for herself, but she also contains the power of good to fight back. We all want to believe that people can redeem themselves and really change. Here we finally got physical proof that it’s possible. There is nothing more pure than light magic and to see someone that has been deemed a “villain” for so long have this power was absolutely essential to Regina’s full character development.
Finally, fans of Once Upon a Time gave a collective eye roll as we see yet again another portal that will no doubt break up our Storybrooke gang and break all the amazing character bonding we’ve seen as of late. In the promo, Hook and Emma are whisked away to the Enchanted forest and it appears that Emma will finally experience her loved one’s counterparts. We’ll just have to wait and see and make sure to watch the season finale two hour special this Sunday at 8/7c on ABC.
Overall Episode Grade: C