The second season of Once Upon A Time has been spectacular so far, but this hour was undoubtedly the weakest yet.
The highlight of this episode for me was Lana Parilla. She really was the MVP of this hour; truly phenomenal. What a difference a season makes because unlike last year, Regina finally has depth and layers. She’s practically one of the show’s heroes now which is just awesome. Sadly, Noah Bean was really miscast as Daniel (he’s better on Nikita) and he ruined the storyline for me. Thankfully, we won’t be seeing him again anytime soon (now that’s he’s crumbled to pieces and all).
Emma was also excellent here as I was beyond ecstatic that she didn’t fall for Hook’s ploy. I hate it when characters play dumb for the sake of the plot so I’m glad they used her instincts and had her figure Hook out early on. Mulan on the other hand continues to be positively useless (and the less said about Aurora the better). Here’s hoping these two lame brains show a purpose and are utilized soon.
And finally, I’m unsure how I feel about the Frankenstein reveal. It’s not very fairytale-ish but I guess it could work. I’m just not the biggest David Anders fan (although he was good on Alias) so I hope he won’t get too much of the limelight.
Conclusion
A somewhat disappointing hour after the season’s superb opening stretch.
Nad Rating
C