Article first published as ONCE UPON A TIME Review "The Price" on Seat42F.
This
week’s installment of ONCE UPON A TIME is entitled “The Price.” An evil
creature is unleashed upon Storybrooke, coming to collect an unpaid
price from magic used. Because only Emma (Jennifer Morrison) has memory
of the past six weeks, only she knows why it’s here. She says it’s
Regina (Lana Parrilla) who has drawn it to the hamlet. Can Regina step
up and be the hero that the town needs?
I’d be lying if I said I weren’t
enjoying the role reversal of Emma and Regina. Regina has long been my
favorite character, and to see her trying to be the Savior while Emma
descends into darkness is great. But I feel like “The Price” is a bit
too on-the-nose in portraying this. The situation is too perfect, and
because Robin Hood (Sean Maguire) is the life threatened, Regina doesn’t
even have to be all that selfless to save him, already being in love
with him. It would have been much more powerful to see Regina struggle
to step up or do the unexpected for someone she doesn’t care as much
about.
That being said, it’s satisfying that
the town begins to back up Regina. Many do not believe she has it in her
to be the Savior, Leroy (Lee Arenberg) chief among them. And Leroy is
one who ends up supporting her and believing in her later. I am sure
Regina can be a hero, though not entirely sure she can be the Savior.
But I like that Regina has shown enough goodness that others are
standing up and paying attention.
On the other hand, I am not entirely
convinced Emma is as evil as she seems. She definitely has some darkness
in her; the scene where she and the Dark One (Robert Carlyle) look at
Excalibur shows she’s still trying to grab power. Yet, she isn’t
actively trying to hurt anyone. Rumple, as the Dark One, didn’t always
act malevolently. Often, he stayed at home and was just selfish. Emma is
displaying the same characteristics, and it leaves me wondering why
everyone is so bent on destroying the Dark One. Sure, they want Emma
back, but it’s not like the Dark One seeks to kill everyone and destroy
the town or anything.
There is the curse, though. Dopey steps
across the town line and becomes wrapped up in a tree. Why has Emma cast
this curse? What is her purpose? Why did she bring the Camelot group
back with her? These are the unanswered questions that will give great
insight into this year’s plot when they are revealed.
In Camelot, we see Percival (Andrew
Jenkins) try to kill Regina, knowing she was the Evil Queen. He is
stopped, David (Josh Dallas) slaying him, and that is when Emma uses
deep magic to save Robin Hood at the request of Regina, spurring the
creature who is in Storybrooke. (Albeit six weeks late, no? Did it get
lost on the way?)
What confuses me is why Arthur (Liam
Garrigan) and Guinevere (Joana Metrass) don’t raise a finger to defend
their knight. True, these strangers in their midst have come as Merlin’s
prophecy said they would, and the king and queen expect something to
happen because of them. But why aren’t they more upset that one of their
Round Table has been killed? Why does no one in the kingdom, people
that know less about the prophecy, demand justice that the interlopers
have killed one of their own? Doesn’t anyone seek to know why he
attacked? Is the prophecy so clear and so important that and so widely
known that the kingdom would allow friends to die in order to not stand
in its way? I have serious doubts it will prove to clear this up.
“The Price” is a worrying hour. On the
whole, it’s very enjoyable, with some great dialogue and performances.
Yet, the holes I’m poking, while not entirely being exposed as flaws yet
until we have more information, point to an uneven, non-cohesive story.
ONCE UPON A TIME often falls into this trap, starting out strong and
then losing steam along the way. It’s a little too early in the fall to
be seeing these stumbles, and it makes me worry that season five will
not pay off as it should.
At least we get to see Henry (Jared
Gilmore) fall for young Violet (Olivia Steele-Falconer, Red Riding Hood)
not once, but twice! That softens the blow of the underlying flaws of
the hour.
ONCE UPON A TIME airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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