‘Operation Mongoose’ managed to take Once Upon a Time back to its roots by focusing on the characters who helped to bring these people together way back when, while also tying it closely to this season’s fundamental themes; a satisfying conclusion to a mostly satisfying season. It may have lacked subtlety, but I think we all know ambiguity was never part of this show’s mantra.
Most of this episode was great, but some parts were kind of frustrating.
‘Lily’, one of this season’s strongest episodes to date, threw a couple of interesting ideas around, the most important of which is that every move and decision that these characters have made is down to “fate”. The character of Lily herself is almost an embodiment of that concept, and her introduction here brought with it a lot of exciting prospects.
It’s been apparent for a while the Once Upon a Time has been playing by a certain set of rules. It never really crosses certain boundaries even when it hints heavily that it will. ‘Sympathy for the De Vil’ surprised me even more so than last week when it changed all that and took an oddly disturbing turn.
For an episode composed almost entirely of exposition, and devoid of much of this season’s major arc, it sure did accomplish a whole lot; not the least of which was a huge twist that I really didn’t see coming.
If you bought what this episode was selling there was a lot to like. Personally I found it a little difficult.
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.
Part of the reason why Once Upon a Time’s flashbacks are (mostly) still relevant is because they always remain consistent where the characters are concerned. We’ve seen Regina at different stages of her villainy, whether it’s the timid beginner or the full on hell bitch, each version of her has always remained believable and this appearance was no exception.
When a series with such a complex mythology gets to a certain point you start to see when the characters’ history is being re-written to serve existing plots. Once has been guilty of that a lot in the past, but in almost every instance it hasn’t compromised continuity. ‘Unforgiven’ pushed the boundaries of these revisions but managed to pull it off pretty well.
‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ was Once Upon a Time doing everything right. The dialogue felt comfortable, the character interactions natural and the new arc was set up in a fun and interesting way that makes it feel different to everything that’s been done before.
Despite being built on some shaky character development, ‘Heroes and Villains’ played with some interesting themes as it welcomed back non-canon mythology.
After so much build up it was strange that there was such a massive 180 this week. Was it all a bit too easy?
After the past few weeks went beyond the Frozen world and started to focus on the established set of characters, as well as the new creations, ‘Fall’ was as Elsa heavy as it gets. It wasn’t anything that detracted from this episode, though it had a few issues elsewhere.
I thought doubling this episode up was more for scheduling reasons that creative ones, but whatever the logic behind it they fit together incredibly well.
So much of this season has felt like a Frozen sequel. While the majority of it has been great so far, ‘The Snow Queen’ was the first episode that made me feel like Once had finally taken the mythology of that world and made it its own.
I’m glad we have a reason why Belle has been such a non-presence all season. I just wish it was a reason I liked.
Focusing on the characters whose journeys have been a lot more successive than certain people we looked at last week meant this episode worked a lot better.
What annoyed me most about this one was how circumstantial all the planning was. Looking back though I think that’s something that’s always plagued Once.
Everything about this season’s major arc has been great so far. I just wish all that was happening outside it was more relevant.
I could bash this episode for how silly some of it was, but the better parts of it were enough that the weaker parts didn’t bother me all that much.
