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"Fall"
Episode Review
It's good to be back! Forgive my absence; I was away for two weeks. But now that I've returned, I'm catching up on what I rate the recent episodes, beginning with "Fall."
In my opinion, the episode was a step backward from the very good episode "Smash the Mirror" two weeks before. "Fall" was heavily Frozen-centric, which so far, as I've mentioned, hasn't been up to OUAT standards. Both Anna and Elsa dragged the story down. As far as the backstory goes, it basically consisted of Anna and Kristoff running away unsuccessfully from a pesky Hans, who somehow managed to not only be around the corner at every possible moment and make a deal with Blackbeard at the same time. (But I have to admit, I was glad to see the pirate again. I was so glad that he didn't die after walking the plank! The best part was the tie-in with the mermaid, bringing in what must almost certainly be Ariel and explaining how she managed to find her Prince Eric - by getting the secret from pirate, the only one who knew his whereabouts.) The storyline didn't further the plot; it felt like a retread of everything we've already seen: Anna gobbling up valuable screen time with her irritating blabbering, while Hans seems kind of like a 3rd (or 4th, or 5th, or 6th) wheel to the host of Frozen characters. He seems like an unnecessary addition to the already overcrowded icy crew, particularly as he serves no real purpose.
Storybrooke was a bit better, but just like her sister, Elsa dragged the story down. She was frustrating in this episode, never taking no for an answer as far as Anna goes, even if it meant the destruction of the whole town. Then while the whole place is about to go up in chaos, she feels the need to stand on the beach and make a speech about her sister. The whole time I wished I could just see a little less talk and a little more action. But AT LAST we got the sister reunion!!! Thank goodness. It actually was very sweet, although again I felt like hurrying them up so they could save the people from the curse. But we got some Charming/Mills teamwork, so at least the episode had that in its favor.
And Gold...who knows what in the world is going on with his character. (More on that coming up in a review about Rumplestiltskin's character arc this season.) I did enjoy seeing the Blue Fairy again though, as I'm beginning to get homesick for some familiar faces from past seasons that have been almost forgotten in the Frozen wake. The best parts came from the ending. I was very happy to see a curse actually hit, as it's a very interesting and different one from the curses we've seen so far. The glass shard effect was actually quite well done, giving me a bit of a chill when Charming and Snow stopped holding hands and their eyes turned evil.
Perhaps the best part was when Snow gave Neal to Emma. We've seen Snow have to give her children their best chance throughout the whole show, Her character shines through as selfless as ever; despite what she regrets missing with her daughter, she is willing to have the same happen with her son to save his life. The parallel between the episode and the pilot was great, and now Emma was able to see firsthand the sacrifice her parents had to make in giving her up.
The episode wasn't terrible, just lukewarm. It was slow, not really solving anything except at last finding Anna. All in all, I give it a 6/10. How about you?