Once Upon a Time: Season Four, Episode Sixteen – “Poor Unfortunate Soul”

First Aired March 22nd, 2015.

Now that Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold (played by Robert Carlyle) has turned Pinocchio/August (played by Eion Bailey) into a man, he begins his interrogation about the author. August refuses to give up any information so Gold comes up with a new plan.

Gold uses a potion to turn August back into a puppet briefly which causes his nose to grow whenever he lies. He tells Gold about a door that has trapped the Author which belongs to the also unknown Sorcerer. The Evil Queen/Regina (played by Lana Parilla) joins Gold for the search but also lets Emma (played by Jennifer Morrison) and the others know that Gold is back and what he’s doing. Hook (played by Colin O’Donogue) decides to use his past with Ursula (played by Merrin Dungey) to find out what Gold is planning.

Flashbacks show a young Ursula (played by Tiffany Boone) as a mermaid forced by her father, Poseidon (played by Ernie Hudson), to use her singing to lure sailors to their deaths. She wants to escape and Hook offers to take her away, and refuses Poseidon’s offer to use a magic shell to take her singing voice in exchange for magical squid ink to get revenge on Rumple. When Poseidon steals the ink, Hook steals Ursula’s voice to spite him while also crushing her. Ursula deems both mankind and her father to be evil and transforms herself into the Sea Witch to rule the oceans with her reign of terror.

You know you’re at a dead end when the unknown person you’re searching for was captured by another unknown person. August barely made any sounds whenever his nose grew, there’s no way that didn’t hurt like hell. My new working theory is that either the Author or the Sorcerer could be evil. Either the Sorcerer trapped the Author behind this door because the Author is evil or the Sorcerer himself is evil.

I enjoyed learning Ursula’s backstory because learning what drives her helps to make her more rounded as a character. Although I was pleasantly surprised her happy ending was recovering her American Idol voice. I was expecting it to involve a certain Little Mermaid but this was much better. That was a nice change of pace from the usual happy ending of someone finding or being reunited with their true love. There was raw emotion behind Ursula wanting to recover the one part of herself that made her feel connected to her dead mother.

Hook makes a deal with Ursula to give her the shell in exchange for information and she agrees. She brings his ship to Storybrooke through an underwater portal but it’s been shrunk and put into a bottle. Once they get it to size, he gives Ursula the shell but the magic doesn’t work. Ursula concludes that it was because she’s a villain and tosses an unconscious Hook overboard and goes to rejoin Gold. He’s saved by Ariel (played by Joanna Garcia Swisher) who had been accidently trapped in the bottle as well (by Elsa of all people). Ursula stops Emma and the others from saving August from Cruella (played by Victoria Smurfit) when Hook appears with her father, Poseidon (brought by Ariel). It turns out the shell didn’t give her singing voice back because only he could do it, which he does after a heartfelt apology. With her voice restored, Ursula decides to go back home with her father and renounces the villains. She tells Hook that Gold’s plan involves turning Emma evil because she gave everyone in the real world their original happy ending.

Even when Elsa isn’t on the show she continues to be part of the story. I can’t see a fathomable way that Gold could turn Emma to the dark side, but it would be interesting to see her take up the role of Evil Queen for a bit.

Ursula got her happy ending without ever facing retribution for any of the evil things she’d done over the years. One of the fundamental rules in the show was that villains could get what they want if they show remorse and make up for their past crimes like Regina did. In fact, as soon as Ursula thought the shell didn’t work, she went right back to terrorizing the heroes. But Ursula gets her happy ending handed to her while Regina has been killing herself trying to find happiness. It’s early in the season for one of the main antagonists to be written out which makes me wonder if the other Queens of Darkness will drop one by one. Hopefully, that won’t be the case. I was enjoying the new format of a team of villains rather than one central one.

Cruella reveals to Gold and the others that Ursula betrayed them (not realizing Regina is the mole). August later tells Emma that the illustration of the door holding the Author is more than just a drawing. The Author is actually trapped within his own book.

It makes so much sense that the Author would end up trapped in his/her own book, not to mention the literary irony. I bet they’ll try every spell imaginable and realize they just have to write in the book for the Author to be released. However, I think that because the Author is in the book that’s how he controls people’s happy endings, so releasing him could have an effect on what’s in the book.

Quotes & Thoughts

“Never go up against a woman who has eight hands, especially when you only have one.”

Insulting the size of a pirate’s ship is a big no-no. Apparently size matters over the motion of the ocean for them.

“I knew she didn’t have the stomach for this.” “Please, I was torturing people back when you were still playing with puppies.”

If the Queens of Darkness do fall one by one, Cruella is the one I bet will go next.

If you enjoyed Manny’s return to Storybrooke, 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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