Once Upon a Time: Season Seven Premiere

First Aired October 6th, 2017

Regina (played by Lana Parilla) saying goodbye to Henry (played by Jared Gilmore) as he prepares to leave Storybrooke to figure out his own story. Having discovered French and Italian versions of classic fairytales Henry wants to discover his identity outside of being the Author.

Years later in a ‘new realm’ an adult Henry (played by Andrew J. West) nearly crashes his motorcycle into a carriage driven by Cinderella (played by Dania Ramirez). He remarks that Cinderella’s story needs to be ‘fixed’ and offers her a ride to the ball to find her prince, but Cinderella knocks Henry down and steals the bike.

In present day Seattle, Henry works as a Swift driver and wrote a successful book about his past adventures but suffers from writers block. He’s visited by Lucy (played by Allison Fernandez) who introduces herself as his daughter, Henry has no memory of her and believes his past are just ideas he created for his book but she claims it’s because of a curse. Lucy tells Henry her neighborhood Hyperion Heights is where cursed fairytale characters including his true love Cinderella live.

Cinderella is known in the real world as Jacinda and struggles to get by as a single mother under the thumb of her stepmother Victoria Belfrey/Lady Tremaine (played by Gabrielle Anwar).  Lucy claims her step-grandmother Victoria is trying to move real world people there to keep the fairytale characters separated. Lucy steals Henry’s laptop to force him to go to a bar called Roni’s that’s run by Regina living under a cursed identity.

Once Upon a Time announced it was rebooting it’s story but after watching the premiere it’s more of a remake. Only instead of taking place in a fictional small town the action is in a real Seattle neighborhood, but the close proximity to the real world diminishes the magical aspect of the story. Even the main story of Victoria trying to price people out of the neighborhood doesn’t have a sinister feel to it other than a woman acting out of greed. But unlike young Henry, Lucy has a sass that makes her funny while adult Henry at least seems less irritable than his younger self.

We also have to point out how ironic it is that Henry left home to find his identity away from being the Author and ends up a struggling writer. But the idea of other versions of fairytales is intriguing and presents lots of narrative possibilities. However the entire first season was fairytale characters living out their false lives; curses aren’t broken in a day but if we’re forced to spend an entire season waiting for people to remember their true selves it’ll be a long one.

In the past Lady Tremaine captures Cinderella’s fairy godmother and kills her with her own wand. Her plan is for her daughter Drizella (played by Adelaide Kane) to meet the prince. Henry catches up to Cinderella and finds out she plans to kill the prince in revenge for him killing her father. Henry offers to bring her to a land where she can start over but she refuses, Henry is then drugged by Alice (played by Rose Reynolds).

Alice reveals she knows Rumpelstiltskin (played by Robert Carlyle) and warns that this is not Henry’s story and bad things can happen if he interferes but he is determined to help Cinderella. In Seattle, Alice aka Tilly tells a man named Weaver someone new has arrived and Weaver is revealed to be Rumple (played by Robert Carlyle). Jacinda learns about Henry from Lucy and returns his laptop and although there’s an attraction their memories don’t return. Victoria barges into Roni’s and declares she will be taking full custody of Lucy and warns Henry to leave. Henry finds his car stolen and an officer named Rogers (played by Colin O’Donoghue) aka Hook offers to help.

The flashbacks were actually the best part of the episode, watching this new Cinderella story unfold where she wants her Prince Charming dead. Lady Tremaine is a good enough villain but she doesn’t have the campy fun of the Evil Queen and other villains from previous seasons. The premiere tried to introduce too many characters which made it a little hard to follow.

The biggest oversight; Princess Tiana (played by Mekia Cox) also Jacinda’s roommate, you would only guess her identity due to a small joke about her refusing to eat frog legs. The big reveal of Regina had an impact but by the time it was done for Hook and Rumple it could be seen coming. But these faces are a welcome sight because Regina and Rumple in particular were among the more interesting and complex characters in the series. In fact it’s their presence that helps keep things intriguing while we watch yet another curse play out.

In flashbacks Cinderella can’t bring herself to kill the prince and Lady Tremaine stabs him. The prince rejected Drizella but his younger brother didn’t so she framed Cinderella for his murder, Henry helps her escape and asks her to leave the realm with him. Henry almost leaves but finds a glass slipper and resolves to find Cinderella. In the present, Lucy continues trying to get Henry to believe but he says his wife and daughter died in a fire.

Jacinda takes Lucy and tries to leave but their caught by Rogers and Ivy/Drizella who takes the ‘Once Upon a Time’ book from Lucy. Rogers is assigned a new partner who is revealed to be Weaver, meanwhile Roni stands up to Victoria and doesn’t sell her bar. Henry goes to leave flowers at the graves of his family but finds only a vacant lot. At the same time that Jacinda drops a coin into a well, Henry begins to write again with the words ‘once upon a time’.

The ‘once upon a time’ opening sentence was a little too on the nose along with Roni’s monologue but things have kicked into gear. The story of Henry and Cinderella’s love story has enough action to make it worthwhile and we obviously want to see what happens with Regina, Rumple and Hook. But the sooner this season breaks away from the familiar storytelling the better because the longer it drags out the more it’ll drag down the narrative.

Overall the season premiere was lackluster but with hopeful hints that it can pull together and deliver a compelling story. There especially needs to be better development with some of these new characters as they will now be carrying the show.

Quotes/Thoughts

“You know I didn’t exactly write Harry Potter.” “Or anything since that one book.”

Victoria’s entering her office was almost an exact replica of a scene from The Devil Wears Prada, I half expected Meryl Streep to step off the elevator.

“Wait Alice? You’re the ‘Alice’ from Wonderland?” “And other places! You have one weird trip and it’s all anyone knows about you.”

I’m curious to see what other new fairytale characters we might get to see, or if we’ll see the same ones with new actors and stories.

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