Once Upon a Time: The Bear and the Bow (5x06)

This episode had a focus on Merida, Belle, and Rumple. Because of that, I'm actually rather surprised that I liked it as much as I did. It's not like I have a problem with Merida or Belle, but I wouldn't have been surprised if this episode had bored me. But it didn't! I have some complaints, but I'm generally pretty pleased!

Cons:

In Storybrooke, Emma is still on a quest to pull Excalibur from the stone, and she still believes Rumple is the one who should do this. Rumple escapes Merida and runs to Belle, so Emma forces Merida to try and kill Belle so that Rumple will be a hero to defend her. In the end Rumple ends up pulling Excalibur from the stone. Rumple declares that Emma has made a mistake - now Emma has the sword, sure, but she's also made Rumple into a powerful enemy. So... this bothers me. It feels like a bit of a letdown, to have the sword out of the stone so quickly. I wanted more drama and buildup with that! Also, I don't believe for a second that Rumple is suddenly a hero. He did the bare minimum (unintentional pun lol) in defeating Merida, and suddenly he's gained all his confidence? I think this show is more complex than that, and I'm hoping we'll see that it's not as easy as all that. As it stands, I think Rumple got let off rather easy.

Then there's Zelena. In Storybrooke, Emma shows up and offers Zelena her freedom in exchange for Zelena's assistance in working Merlin's magic. Zelena turns Emma down for some reason, although Emma says that she's sure Zelena will change her mind soon. No matter what they do, I don't feel like Zelena is relevant in this story. She's awkwardly shoe-horned in, and I don't really care about whatever she and Emma might eventually do together. With both of these villainous women chewing the scenery and being evil, it felt like a little bit too much.

Pros:

The backstory this week focused on Merida and Belle. Apparently, Merlin and our heroes managed to bust Lancelot and Merida out of Arthur's cells. Merida then kidnaps Belle to have her help rescue her three brothers. Merida wants to take a potion that will turn her into a bear in order to rescue them, but Belle convinces her that she needs to rescue her brothers and unite the clans as their queen, not with the aid of magic. This was a perfectly lovely subplot, and it actually felt a lot like stuff from Season One, where we got a simple origin story with a clever mix of elements from the source, and original content. I was surprised by how compelling I found Belle and Merida's friendship, and I'd actually love to see more of it.

We also get some more information about Merlin this week, as he and Emma talk in Camelot. Emma recognizes Merlin as the usher who stopped Emma from stealing a candy bar in a movie theatre when she was a child. This was really fascinating. All of this stuff about Merlin's prophecies is really drawing me in. You get the sense that while he knows vaguely what's going to happen, he is in many cases powerless to change it. All he can do is try and help people find the right path. On top of that, the scene at the beginning with Merlin, Hook, Belle, and the Charmings was awesome. They made such a bad ass team, breaking Lancelot and Merida out of prison like that! Belle got to shine, as she was the one who came up with the solution for getting rid of the bars on the dungeon cells. Go Belle!

In Storybrooke, I really like the continuing struggle of Regina, Hook, Mary Margaret and David to figure out what happened with Emma. They try to contact Merlin this week, but their first try doesn't work out so well. They go to Arthur, because they figure that only somebody who has been chosen by Merlin will be able to contact him. This is the first step in figuring out that Arthur isn't good news, as they learn that Arthur lies about not being able to get in touch with Merlin. I love watching their slow progress on this front. And they do manage to make contact with Merlin - using Henry! Finally, the fact that he's the Author gains some relevance in the story. Henry is able to get through to Merlin, and they get a disturbing message - the Dark One is coming; everything is worse than it seems. The only way to defeat the Dark One is to find Nimue.

I'm totally pumped about this! As much as I did enjoy seeing Belle and Merida get some screen time, the parts of the episode focusing on the bigger mystery of the missing six weeks was what got me really pumped to see more.

I guess that's what I've got. This wasn't what I thought I wanted out of an episode. It didn't bring my favorite characters a lot of screen time. But I actually enjoyed it a lot!

8/10