This is it. We’re nearing the end, and this episode brings everything to a head, assembling the framework for the final two episodes of this half of the season. There are a lot of surprises in store, so let’s dive right in.
Summary
- The Spell of Shattered Sight is a-comin’. However, there might be a way to protect Storybrooke. The bad part is that the final ingredient may be Anna’s necklace, the only thing of Anna’s that Elsa still has, which also still has the potential to locate Anna.
- Back in Arendelle, Anna and Kristoff have melted and search for a way to find Elsa.
Thoughts
This week throws the most curve balls we’ve had all season long. Quite a few twists and turns that are all unpredictable and all exemplify what this show does best. We’ll get to them more in depth in the Moments sections below.
The chemistry of characters within the Frozen storyline is superb this go-around. Anna with Kristoff, Anna with Elsa, Kristoff with Hans (!)… It’s all great fun. The Frozen emphasis may be driving some viewers up the wall, but I feel like we began this season knowing it would be the main focus. In general, this franchise is taking its toll on some who would prefer its popularity to pass. Is there a lot of Frozen goodness happening pretty much everywhere? Yes. However, this is going to be a time we look back on as historic in terms of an animated film making truly huge waves in popular culture, and I’d rather enjoy that ride in the moment rather than beg for it to be over. I’m enjoying seeing how OUAT explores relationships we didn’t see much of in Frozen.
Now that the various storylines of the season are converging, the plot is much simpler to decipher. There are still a few grey areas (the ever-changing game plans of both the Snow Queen and Mr. Gold specifically), but on the whole, we have a clear streamlined progression from point A to point B to point C at a healthy, easy-to-follow pace. The two-parter from two weeks ago was enjoyable, but admittedly a lot to take in at once.
The Snow Queen is absent most of the episode, and the spotlight instead turns to long-standing characters who we haven’t seen much of lately. With everyone working together on one project, we’re able to see many faces at once rather than split our time jumping from small snippets of each of them. Belle gets some hefty facetime, and we even see a return from the Blue Fairy and Grumpy.
The Moments
- The What-The-Heck Moment: Okay, really… Blackbeard? I know we’ve seen him before, but when we start mixing nonfiction with fiction it gets a little weird to me. I suppose next season they’ll have Emma helping Benjamin Franklin find the perfect key with which to conduct his electricity experiment, but only if it contains magical properties suitable enough for a colonial wizard.
- The Magic Moment: Got a few here.
- Aw, Anna wants to get married to Kristoff right before she drowns as we watch them combat their way through way too many claustrophobic, wet close-ups.
- Elsa finds Anna. This is the build-up we’ve been waiting for all season, and it does not disappoint. Disney magic, at the peak of this Frozen surge, in the purest form that these two now-iconic characters stand for.
- As they embrace, did you catch it? Anna looking off to Kristoff as she hugs Elsa is a recreation of the same moment from one of the final scenes in Frozen.
- All the Storybrooke citizens’ goodbyes to each other, knowing the Spell of Shattered Sight is about to set them against themselves. They get a chance to put into words what each person means to them. [Tear.]
- The Woah Moment: Again, more than one, and they’re all fantastic.
- Hans returns! Didn’t see this one coming. Following Hans’s brief, one-time appearance earlier in the season, at first I applauded the writers for not taking the safe, obvious route in making him the main villain. However, deep down, I still wanted to hate his guts more. Having him return here is a nice equilibrium of both avenues.
- The time shift. Midway through the episode we learn that the “flashback” to Arendelle, thought to have taken place years ago like the rest of the Frozen story, is actually happening simultaneously with the action in Storybrooke. Whaaaa?? Yep, Anna and Kristoff were frozen for thirty years. I’m still confused by the overall timeline. (If it was just thirty years, then how come shortly before that Anna visited shepherd David, long before he was a prince?) But the mid-episode time twist was a great refresher, and something we’ve never really experienced before. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to show us everything in order exactly sequentially, but then it’s moments like this, when the reveal wouldn’t have had the same value any other way, that I’m reminded what qualities give this show its hallmarks.
- The bottle. It’s the message Anna and Elsa’s parents wrote to them right before their ship sunk, correct? I hope so.
Sound Off
- The Spell of Shattered Sight opens the floor for some pretty heavy destruction, but also some fun acting. Who are you looking forward to seeing go against each other in ways polar opposite to their true personalities?
- What’s up with the timeline?
- Which did the sorcerer’s apprentice and the Blue Fairy have together when she arrived inside the hat: tea or hot chocolate?
- Were you surprised by this week’s “Woah” moments or did you see those coming?
