Once Upon a Time 4.16: Poor Unfortunate Soul

After finishing this episode, I was left wondering how this new arc was going to play out. What transpired here essentially pacified one of the queens who are supposed to be be these bad-ass villains. Everything we learned about past events and everything that happened in the present day during ‘Poor Unfortunate Soul’ broke that facade to pieces.

Is watching these villains get their happy endings one by one what we’re in for? I like the idea to a certain extent but there was so much wasted potential here. Ursella could have been ten times more interesting, but he fell flat most of the time. Part of that was poor casting, but part of it was more than likely due to poor development. Blaming lack of screen time would be unfair considering how much fun Cruella’s been already.

It was an odd choice to use The Little Mermaid to fill in the majority of Ursella’s past. It worked for the most part, but I couldn’t buy into her transforming into a bad guy so quickly. It took Regina years to change, and with Ursella we only saw a glimpse of that journey, the moment that she made a bad choice that set her on that path not the transformation itself. Sure, Hook stealing her voice did destroy the memory of her mother, but there were a lot more influences in Regina’s life to make her the Queen she used to be and I don’t think that we saw anything as compelling in Ursella’s flashback.

In any case, there was a lot of fun elsewhere, particularly with Regina’s undercover operation. I figured Gold would be slow to accept her as part of the team, but they made her attempts to persuade him really convincing. They also made his moments of villainy convincing as well. You’d easily have forgotten how bad he used to be.

Plus

We now know that the author is trapped in the book her actually wrote. Where’s the sorcerer?

It was great to see Ariel again. Also nice to hear a quick reference to Elsa, who’s been using her powers to exert control over Arendelle.

Emma is apparently the key to the villains’ happy endings. Does this mean that Regina’s will change when Emma does, too? Or is she officially considered a hero now?

He Said, She Said

Cruella: “She doesn’t have the stomach for this.”
Regina: “Oh please. I was torturing people back when you were still playing with puppies.”

I am happy with what we’ve seen of this arc so far. I just wasn’t as drawn into it this time around. With such a wealth of potential to draw from, I don’t want to see the remaining queens get knocked out of the game so easily.

6/10