Once Upon a Time 1.20 'The Stranger'

Once Upon a Time has been toying with the idea of getting Emma to make that leap of faith that would put everything in place to kick start the fight to free all those trapped in Storybrooke for a while now. The Stranger was the first episode to confront Emma directly with that aversion she’s been showing towards her role as the town’s savior. A lot of her inability to concede to such an outlandish truth seemed to rest on her narrow-minded “man of science” mantra, but here the idea of it being part of reluctance to accept her part in a destiny that puts the fate of so many people on her shoulders is the main focus.

The story of Pinnochio is revealed in ‘The Stranger’ along with how Emma came to be discovered when she was sent through the wardrobe. Mary Margaret returns to work after her false accusation and August reveals the truth to Emma the truth behind his visit to Storybrooke.

We all know that Emma has always shown that in the case of “fight or flight”, her initial response is almost always the same. When she first arrived in Storybrooke, it took a lot to get her to stay, and now that she’s been faced with something this big, she’s once again opted for the easy way out. That’s not to diminish her role as a hero in this story; it’s just her way of coping with stress and fear. Whether or not she’ll accept her destiny in time to save her friends and family is the big question now.

This episode mastered an important balancing act between the myriad of important plots that it had going on. Though August played a huge stint in Emma’s plot, his voyage of discovery was just as important, and equally as gripping. So many of the characters in this show have shown strength and loyalty, even without knowing their true identities and purpose in life, but Emma and August, the two characters that escaped, are most tainted by real world superficiality, so to speak. August gave into his weak side, and took the easy way out of life, something I’m sure people like Mary Margaret and Jiminy wouldn’t do. But the magic of Storybrooke brought him around. All that remains is for Emma to do the same.

It must be strange for Regina to have to put on a front when she’s interacting with all these people that she hates so much, but who never sink to her level of spite. Even though Mary is one of the few who has witnessed Regina’s despicability first hand, she still stays strong. After all David had gone through, he didn’t give into temptation with Regina. Whether his rejection will serve as a catalyst for a big move on Regina’s part is still in question, but it’d be nice to see the writers explore the intricacies of her position in Storybrooke more.

If you’re not me, and you haven’t been enjoying the past few episodes, then the Stranger was undoubtedly the episode you needed to get sucked in to this shows year-ending arc. With only two episodes left in the season, this show is in a very strong position. Let’s just see where it goes next.

9/10