Last night’s ONCE UPON A TIME turned out to be everything I’ve always wanted to see in this show, but never knew I wanted it until I got it. Regina, Snow and Emma having a girls night out was by far one of the most entertaining sub plots in a while, and drunk Snow White is my new favorite Snow.
But let’s start from the beginning, shall we?
Emma thinks Hook left Storybrooke out of his own free will and is devastated by it, even is she’s trying to be strong and not show any emotion. Regina decides that what Emma needs is a distraction from her heartache and that a girls night on the town is an excellent option, so she tells David to go back to sleep so that Snow can join them. And that right there is character development at its very best, because who would have ever thought that the Evil Queen, Snow White and her daughter, the Savior, would ever go out for drinks together? If you watch the show from the very beginning you can definitely appreciate how far they have come.
I just love when a show knows how to treat their characters and do right by their stories. Even though I loved the fact that Hook, Ariel, Jasmine and Aladdin were teaming up – and we’ll talk about that in a second – the girls were really my favorite part of the episode, even if it ended up on a sour note. Emma ends up talking to the bartender and opening up about her feelings and how Hook broke her heart, and he gets her to shed a few tears. It turns out, though, that the cute bartender was actually pain-in-the-ass Gideon and it looks like the Savior’s tears are pretty powerful stuff, so now he’s making Emma help him defeat the Black Fairy, while he is holding her tears hostage.
I guess it’s a step up from trying to out right murder her at least.
Elsewhere, Hook is stuck in Nemo’s submarine and Gideon sent them through a portal back to the Enchanted Forest. Now they’re stuck in their old realm with no way of getting back home, unless they find a kraken and get some of its blood. A kraken, it seems, is very, very difficult to find and when Killian finally finds one, it’s trying to eat Jasmine and Alladin. He obviously opts to save them and is furious that they’ve cost him the only kraken that he had encountered.
Long story short, Jasmine and Aladdin board the submarine, but some sort of explosion happens and they start taking in water, so they have to abandon ship. Nemo and Killian’s little brother, Liam, take off and Jasmine, Aladdin and Killian go on a search for Jaffar. Killian is convinced that if the guy is powerful enough to make an entire city disappear, then he can definitely help him get back to Storybrooke. They use Nemo’s device to find Jaffar and it leads them to a cabin in the middle of nowhere.
It turns out that it’s Ariel’s home and that Jaffar has been stuck in an urn there for ages. As we discover through flashbacks, Ariel and Jasmine go way back and became fast friends when Ariel was searching for Eric in Agrabah. Anyway, they think that Jaffar must be a genie if he’s stuck in a lamp, so they decide to let him out and use the three wishes. But obviously, things are not that easy and the sorcerer was merely trapped inside, and puts everyone to sleep the moment he is out, just so he can confront Jasmine alone.
The princess is terrified of him, but she faces her fears and, ultimately, defeats him. Before that, however, she demands that he tells her where Agrabah is and he laughs at her and tells her it’s been in her hands all along, inside the engagement ring her father wanted her to wear.
So Jaffar is defeated, Jasmine finally gives in to Aladdin and true love and they free Agrabah. Now Hook is still stuck in another realm, but Ariel has a handy communication device in a shell. Killian decides to give it a shot, saying that he has one just like it back in Storybrooke. He pours his heart out and tells Emma that he would never leave her by choice and how much he loves her and she thankfully hears everything.
However, Gideon – being the little jerk that he is – has cut her side of the shell, so she can hear Killian, but he can’t hear her or know that she knows he’s trapped in another realm. Sigh.
I really, really despise Gideon.
A new episode of ONCE UPON A TIME airs next Sunday, April 9, at 8/7c on ABC.
