Once Upon a Time: Enter The Dragon Review

My roommate was an ardent Once Upon a Time fan well before I decided to give the show a shot. I mainly held out because I was quietly resentful that someone had beaten me to the idea and out of jealousy refused to watch.

Eventually realizing that to be insane, I found myself tuning in weekly. When my best friend became my roommate, our Sunday nights were transformed into weekly viewing parties replete with ice cream and giggling. This week was no exception which was appropriate given that Regina’s undercover turn in the world of female villainy was basically the fairy tale equivalent of slumber party. A campy, kidnappy, and utterly destructive slumber party.

After a rough couple of weeks, it was great to see Once Upon A Time do what it does really, really well — provide a great forum for complex, strong female characters to strive, battle, fail, and persevere. Also, for them to do ridiculous things and make fools of themselves to my continual delight. The stakes were supposed to feel very high this week — will Regina cave to her baser instincts and join the lady-villains? But while stakes were present, it was more of a “will Regina totally ruin this whole undercover thing by being terrible at it?” situation than anything else. 

I never for a second doubted Regina this week. Even though the flashes back to Regina’s first ever meeting with Maleficent and her studies with Rumple were maybe supposed to remind us that this broad can and has eaten hearts for breakfast, I remained mostly unmoved by any concern that the former queen of mean was up to her old tricks. It was much more interesting to watch the burgeoning friendship between Swan and Regina. I loved seeing Emma chomping at the bit to advise Regina about undercover goings-on. I swear, both her parents and Regina were a step away from rolling their eyes every time Emma quietly but firmly reminded them that she had been a bail-bonds-person. Yeah, Emma. We know. WE KNOW.

Regina’s not-entirely-great undercover endeavor gave us one wonderful plot-point (aside from intimating through all the close-talking that maybe Reggie and Male were slightly more than friends once upon a time ago – come on, you were thinking it too, you wonderful perverts) of August being returned to his adult form! Yay! A potential male love interest for Emma who is not the living breathing hook-for-a-hand having Killian! THE WORLD REJOICES! I will say, this week’s installment definitely got me thinking about the author – and for the first time caring. I know I’m supposed to be invested in making sure everyone gets their happy ending, but this is television! Isn’t it supposed to be all about the journey? That said, it feels like we’re inching closer to another big reveal and that’s always exciting.

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