Article first published as ONCE UPON A TIME Review Season 4 Episode 1 A Tale of Two Sisters on Seat42F.
WARNING: There are spoilers below, but as always for unaired episodes, I don’t give away anything too major.
ABC’s ONCE UPON A TIME
is back this weekend, kicking off a whole new arc related to the recent
blockbuster movie Frozen, beginning with the episode “A Tale of Two
Sisters.” While last spring’s Oz arc didn’t live up to expectations, the
previous fall’s Neverland run was nothing short of spectacular. We’re
only one episode in to the new story, but as far as first impressions
go, this is a solid one, favoring the latter’s quality, rather than the
former’s.
As some fans have been
eagerly anticipating, “A Tale of Two Sisters” brings Elsa (Georgina
Haig, Fringe) and her sibling, Anna (newcomer Elizabeth Lail), into ONCE
UPON A TIME. And there is no shortage of the girls in the premiere. We
see them in multiple time periods and get Elsa in both their home and in
Storybrooke. Whatever this immediate plot entails, it will have plenty
of them.
The main portion of Elsa and
Anna’s scenes are set in their kingdom after the end of the movie. So
if you haven’t seen Frozen, you may want to check it out this beforehand
to catch you up on who these people are. ONCE UPON A TIME may
eventually reveal enough to follow along without prior knowledge, but
the scenes with Elsa, Anna, Kristoff (Scott Michael Foster, Greek), Sven
(played by an actual reindeer, hilariously used!), and Pabbie the Troll
(CGI, voiced by John Rhys Davies from The Lord of the Rings) may seem
confusing to those who don’t already know them.
By
beginning after the movie (spoiler for those who haven’t seen Frozen!),
Elsa isn’t a villain the way she is for much of the film. She isn’t
completely good either, though, as she is still struggling to control
her powers. Suddenly dropped into a strange land, and likely on a very
important mission viewers can guess at, it makes sense for her to panic
and perhaps get a bit defensive. I’m not quite sure yet how she’ll fold
in (or not) with the Storybrooke residents, but there is definitely the
potential for conflict here, and I will say the earliest, indirect
encounters don’t exactly go smoothly.
Some
have criticized ONCE UPON A TIME in the past for periodically giving
too much screen time to guest stars and not developing the core cast
enough. While “A Tale of Two Sisters” definitely has a lot of Frozen
fare, it does provide good, character-driven scenes to many of the
primary players, too, striking what I feel is a respectable balance
between the two camps.
Obviously, the
biggest question after last spring’s finale is if Regina (Lana
Parrilla) will slip back into her evil ways. This question is addressed a
lot in the hour, but not answered this week. She is definitely tempted
to smite Marian (Christie Laing), who is long believed dead until she
suddenly shows back up to claim her husband, Regina’s boyfriend, Robin
Hood (Sean Maguire). She even recruits an old henchman (yay!) to help
her out. But Regina is no longer just the Evil Queen, and slipping back
to her old ways doesn’t come as naturally as it once did. She also has a
perhaps-unexpected ally trying to save her. Parrilla gives an as-usual
fantastic performance as Regina struggles with her warring motivations.
Those
who prefer the romantic side of things should be happy with “A Tale of
Two Sisters.” There is some great stuff between Emma (Jennifer Morrison)
and Hook (Colin O’Donoghue), and some even better stuff between Rumple
(Robert Carlyle) and Belle (Emilie de Ravin). The latter’s honeymoon
becomes quite fairy tale-esque in a scene that will make many Beauty and
the Beast fans smile.
Both Rumple
and Regina also kick off some extremely interesting arcs, one relating
to another familiar tale not yet covered in ONCE UPON A TIME, and the
other diving deeper into the base mythology of the show, exploring
something not dwelled upon for some time. These are promising, excellent
threads that should hopefully pair nicely with the Frozen line,
succeeding in keeping everyone important busy in the coming season.
As
for the announced new main cast member, the Knave of Hearts (Michael
Socha) from the spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, he’s completely
MIA in the first episode back. But his name graces the opening credits,
so I expect that won’t be the case for long, and there’s still time to
hold out hope that he won’t be coming to Storybrooke alone.
In
all, ONCE UPON A TIME has a great return to form, beginning a
fascinating series of stories and doing justice to the best characters
in the show, even while introducing yet another batch of new ones. It’s
too early to tell if this fall will rival the show’s Neverland zenith,
but it’s got the right ingredients in place to serve the show well,
should they be mixed correctly and baked for the right amount of time.
ONCE UPON A TIME airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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