"Once Upon a Time" Review/Recap: "Kansas"

Emma Doherty ‘16 / Emertainment Monthly Assistant Editor

Last night’s cyclone disaster storm of an episode on Once Upon a Time was confusing and complicated as ever.
“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.

When Charming leaves Snow in a fit of rage in order to find Zelena, we see Emma admit that she lost her magic. When Regina asks her how it happened she guilty looks away and avoids telling the truth. Hmm now why is saying that you had to give CPR to a dying friend anything to be guilty about? This was a little strange because of how ashamed Emma was acting. It seems as if there is something else bothering her but it is still unclear what. Maybe it’s the fact that she never seemed to have the belief in herself that she had the strength to overcome Zelena and is using this as an excuse. Nevertheless Regina is once again the star of the episode and the true saviour of the show. Henry (Jared Gilmore) finally supports the mother who has done nothing but love him and continuously risk her life over and over and tells her she has the power to beat her. Maybe this scene was necessary for people who still believe that Regina is evil, because it basically screamed “Hey do you guys get it yet? Regina is good!”
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.

Meanwhile, Rumpel (Robert Carlyle) and Belle (Emilie De Ravin) are reunited and we see that she now possesses the dagger. He insists that she keeps it and also asks her to marry him. She asks him to promise not to enact vengeance on Zelena and we all know that Rumpel always keeps his promises (insert sarcastic scoff here). After this lovely scene, he quickly skips over to the Sheriff’s station and swiftly stabs Zelena and turns her into dust. First of all, it is extremely upsetting that Zelena is actually gone. What happened to seeing her get her second chance? One of the most dominant themes of Once Upon a Time is redemption and to have that be ripped away from this bold and unique character was nothing short of devastating.
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