Once Upon a Time: Be Careful What You Wish For

First Aired December 4th, 2016.

Regina (played by Lana Parilla) is furious to find the Evil Queen at Robin Hood’s (played by Sean Maguire) grave. Emma (played by Jennifer Morrison) attacks her with the magical sword and when it hurts the Evil Queen and not Regina they realize they can finally kill her.

Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold (played by Robert Carlyle) puts a tracking cuff on the Evil Queen and promises to kill her as revenge for her part in Belle (played by Emilie de Ravin) sending their son away. Emma confronts the Evil Queen and finds she has Jasmine (played by Karen David) hostage. The Evil Queen uses Aladdin (played by Deniz Akdeniz), now a genie, to wish Emma was never the Savior and Emma vanishes. The action switches to the Enchanted Forest where Emma is a princess, the Dark Curse was never cast, and she believes Storybrooke was a dream. Regina confronts the Evil Queen, who claims this is what Regina always wanted. Because they’re the same person, Regina wishes to be sent to where Emma is, but is met with fear as she’s still the “Evil Queen” in that reality. She attempts to reason with Emma, but is chased away by Snow White/Mary Margaret (played by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming/David (played by Josh Dallas). Regina goes to Rumple, and he tells her Emma needs a villain to remind her she’s the Savior.

Things were going south for the Evil Queen at the start of the episode, but she made quite the comeback. Aladdin and Jasmine’s season long search for Agrabah and the lamp ended up being important to the story after all. Better late than never. It’s also funny that after spending all season trying various methods to tear the heroes apart, the Evil Queen succeeded with a simple wish. Although she wouldn’t be happy to know Emma was sent to a happy alternate reality, so maybe it’s more of a draw than an outright win. Side note: it’s hilarious that Snow and Charming were just put in gray wigs and Regina acted like they had “aged” so much. The juxtaposition of Regina having to temporarily return to being evil to save Emma was a great contrast to previous alternate reality episodes. It’s also ironic that after going to such great lengths to rid herself of being the Evil Queen, Regina is donning the crown once again.

Back in Storybrooke, everyone tries to figure out how to find Emma while Gold attempts to use a crystal ball to find his son—but fails. Gold goes to Belle and tells her he’s worried something happened, and when she calls the nunnery she confirms something is wrong. In the alternate reality, Henry (played by Jared Gilmore) is being knighted when Regina crashes the ceremony (similar to the pilot) and immobilizes Snow and Charming before kidnapping them. David gets the lamp away from the Evil Queen and wishes she got what she “deserves,” but it doesn’t work because her revenge is what she always wanted. In the alternate reality, Emma attempts to surrender the kingdom to Regina to protect her parents, which frustrates Regina. Regina crushes Snow and Charming’s hearts to ignite a fire in Emma, but it only leaves her devastated. Henry appears and nearly kills Regina, but her sacrifice is enough to make Emma remember and she saves Regina. In Storybrooke, the Hooded Figure from the visions arrives and traps the Evil Queen in a cage as a snake.

Belle gave up her son for his safety minutes after he was born and just days later something happened to him. Looks like Gold and Belle will be working together to find their son, but at least this time she seems smart enough not to fall for any attempts at reconciliation. The callback to the pilot was nice, it’s fun to work in nods to the old days of the series every once in awhile. Emma was a complete wimp in the alternate reality, it was actually kind of sad. Lucky for her, Regina wasn’t truly evil. It’s also ironic that Regina got her revenge and finally killed Snow and Charming. The Evil Queen should have wished herself to this reality—she would have loved it. David tries to be a badass and save the day, but failed horribly. That is, unless it was his wish that brought the Hooded Figure. Whoever it is, they are a force to be reckoned with. It took them seconds to defeat the Evil Queen. Or it could mean the heroes are losing their touch.

Jasmine and Aladdin use the power of the lamp to be transported to Agrabah. In the alternate reality, Emma and Regina use a magic bean from Rumple to return home, but Robin Hood appears to rob them and Regina is so transfixed the portal closes before they can leave. Belle and Gold find Mother Superior/the Blue Fairy (played by Keegan Connor Tracy) in the hospital and she tells them the Black Fairy (played by Jamie Murray) took their son. As Belle and Gold worry about what happened to their son, the figure under the hood is revealed to be their son Gideon (played by Giles Matthey).

So long Aladdin and Jasmine, you’ll be missed (not really). Emma and Regina are trapped in the Bizarro World, but it might be for the best; Regina has a second shot at love and Emma can avoid the Hooded Figure AKA Gideon. First, his pregnancy was sped up, and now Gideon grew into an adult in just days, the guy must only be a week old. He’s embraced his dark side with gusto, which proves the apple doesn’t fall far from the evil tree.

Quotes/Thoughts

“How do you share a home with someone and not know their secrets?”

Now that Gideon has seemingly embraced his inner darkness, maybe there’s hope he can reconcile with Gold.

“Show her your inner darkness, and the Savior will be reborn!”

It seems the Land of Untold Stories’ plot won’t get a proper ending, which, in a weird way, is the perfect ending.

If you enjoyed Manny’s review, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

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