‘Once Upon A Time’ Review: Lady Of The Lake

Oh my Snowing! Once Upon A Time was all kinds of perfect last night! I’ll admit, I cried… A few times. ‘Lady of the Lake’ emphasized the real meaning of being a parent; putting your child first. Between Lancelot being introduced, Snow killing an Ogre, and Charming in leather, this episode had a lot of excellent moments!

The Fairytale World (Past):

On her way to meet Prince Charming’s (Josh Dallas) mother, Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) is abducted by Lancelot (Sinqua Walls)! If you’re a fan of King Arthur, you should be excited for this new character addition! Sadly, Lancelot is working for the King and brings Snow to him. Snow is given a drink which turns out to be cursed, and now she is unable to have children. Seriously, she should know by now not to take food/drinks from strangers. It never ends well! Luckily for her, Lancelot joins her side, and warns her of the King’s plans to attack Charming and his mother. A few swordfights and a neck snapping later, Ruth (Gabrielle Rose) is shot by a poisonous arrow which leads Lancelot, Snow, and Charming on a journey to the enchanted waters (where Charming killed the mermaid) to save Ruth. Once they arrive, the water is completely dried out except for one small sip of water. It was given to Ruth, but is later revealed that she pretended to drink it, only to slip the magical water into Snow’s drink to heal her of the curse. Really, she needs to stop accepting drinks from people, they’re always slipping something into them! But in the end, Snow and Charming got married so that Ruth could witness their wedding before her death, and Snow was healed of the curse.

This moment was extremely touching, yet so heartbreaking. I honestly cried so much. Ruth truly put her child first, and the fact that Charming possibly doesn’t know it is sad.

The Enchanted Forest:

OGRES! We get a taste of the two sides of Snow White: The motherly Snow, and the badass Snow. Snow reveals that she knows of a way to get back to Storybrooke, which initiates a journey between her, Emma (Jennifer Morrison), Mulan (Jamie Chung), and Aurora (Sarah Bolger). I’ll be honest, I really dislike Aurora. She complains too much, and the fact that she attempted to kill Snow is just not okay. Besides the point, well they hit a rough patch. Seeing as Emma is completely clueless when it comes to anything fairytale related, she pretty much leads a deadly Ogre to the group, but is inevitably saved by Snow! I loved this scene, not only because of the epic special effects with the Ogre, but also because of Snow and Emma’s relationship. The love is definitely there.

The group makes it to the place where it all started; Emma’s nursery. There still stood the portal that transported Emma (and Pinocchio) to the real world. It’s supposed to be completely out of magic, but Lancelot (who showed up out of nowhere) thought otherwise. Cue major plot twist! “Lancelot” is really Cora (Barbara Hershey) who has been posing as him for awhile, because she killed him a long time ago. Hated this! I actually loved Lancelot. First Prince Philip, now this. Not cool OUAT writers! But Emma did make up for it by torching the one thing keeping Cora out of Storybrooke… Yet, I’m kind of curious to see how her reunion with Regina (Lana Parrilla) will go. Only time will tell, I suppose.

Storybrooke:

Henry (Jared Gilmore) takes matters into his own hands. While Charming is off being perfect, Henry decides to chat with Jefferson (Sebastian Stan) and steal keys from Regina’s office. Both do not end too well. Upon stealing the keys, he ends up opening a box filled with two vipers… Awkward. And while chatting with Jefferson, he is inevitably shot down with his request for help. One good thing does come out of all of this, though. Henry convinces Jefferson to reunite with his daughter, and I am in full blown tears. I have waited for this reunion since the Madhatter episode, and it was probably the biggest tear-jerking scene during Lady of the Lake.

Side Note: Charming and Henry play sword fighting was the most adorable thing in the history of all Once Upon A Time. That is all.

Love, love, love! I always appreciate when TV shows tug at my heartstrings. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever disliked an episode of Once Upon A Time. There is always something that makes it stand out from other episodes, but still tie into the story. For example, the Ogre and Lancelot were two interesting choices to bring in. Yet, they still tied into the story. And although three different worlds/time periods exist in the show, it all connects somehow. I’m not surprised, though. This was created by the LOST writers. Bringing Cora into the mix was an excellent decision as well. I always like a little evil thrown in to stir things up. The only negative I have of this episode was the lack of Rumplestiltskin, but I’m sure they’ll make up for it next week!

Rating:
A-

Questions:

• Who was the man at the end of the episode?
• Thoughts on Cora trying to get to Storybrooke? And what was the potion she was making?
• Are you excited to see Hook be introduced next week?