ONCE UPON A TIME “The Thing You Love Most” Review

ONCE UPON A TIME “The Thing You Love Most” Season 1 Episode 2 – After last week’s episode of Once Upon a Time, I wasn’t certain if the Evil Queen’s real world counterpart, Regina, was completely aware of the true nature of her town or if she was just evil by nature. But after watching “The Thing You Love Most,” that question has been answered. (She is.) But we also learned this week that she’s not the only fairytale character who retained their memories.

Having decided to stay in town, Emma has put herself in the line of fire; Regina wants her gone, be it via poisoned apple or by using Jiminy Cricket to frame Emma for theft. Fortunately for Emma, not only does Sister Mary (better known as Snow White, her mother) believe in Emma’s innocence, but the sheriff of the town isn’t taking Regina’s word for face value anymore, although he continues to do her bidding. One wonders what character he is…and what hold the Evil Queen has over him.

After nearly being separated by Regina’s manipulations, Emma decides that even though Henry’s story is almost too fantastic to be true, she is going to go along with it, for the sake of his mental health. Emma even burns the pages of the story book that talk about her birth; the Queen must never know that she is Snow White’s daughter.

Meanwhile, we are treated (and I do say “treated” because the flashbacks are delicious) to the story of how the Queen brought about her evil curse. It wasn’t easy; it required dueling her only girlfriend (Maleficent) for the curse which she had traded for M’s sleeping curse (which didn’t work any better on Snow White than it did on Sleeping Beauty). After that, she had to take a trip to see Rumpelstiltskin in his cage. Fresh off the visit where he told a pregnant Snow White that her baby would save them all from the curse, Rumpelstiltskin tells the Queen what she needs to know in order to initiate the curse. But the knowledge comes at a price; in the world the curse will create, the Queen must make him rich and she must do him favors. Thinking he’ll never remember this promise, she agrees.

The Queen then must sacrifice her own father, the only person in the world that she loved, in order to bring about her vengeance. We still don’t know exactly what Snow White did to the Queen, but it’s heavily hinted that it wasn’t a simple case of jealousy as the stories would have us believe.

And clever, devious Rumpelstiltskin goes into the new world, knowing exactly who he is, who everyone else is and what the Queen owes him. We learn that it was he who brought Regina baby Henry (who she named after the father she killed). Rumpelstiltskin is always on his own side, but in setting up Emma’s return to the town, could he be working against the Queen?

I continue to really enjoy this show. I find myself getting sucked into the mythology, wanting to know more about the past events that led to this current reality. Maleficent was always my favorite Disney villain, so getting to see her fight the Evil Queen (the greatest frenemies ever!) was a delightful treat. I hope we see her again.

It’s a charming show. Maybe it doesn’t have its tongue in its cheek, but I don’t really care. I love seeing fairy tales come to life and Once Upon a Time gives me just that, along with a healthy dose of modern magic.

What did you think of the episode? What did Snow White do to the Queen? Are you craving an apple as much as me right now? Let me know below!