Once Upon a Time: Labor of Love (5x13)

Wow! An episode about Snow that I really enjoyed! I have two things to complain about, but a lot to praise. Let's go.

Cons:

There was a small subplot with Henry that, for the most part, I enjoyed... but there was one annoying thing about it. Basically, Henry sneaks into his mother's office (or, the Underworld equivalent) hoping to find detailed maps of the Underworld to aid in the search for Hook. He runs in to Maleficent, who coerces Henry into trying to help her find a way out of the Underworld and back to the land of the living. There were a lot of clever things going on with this, but then as the plot thread ended, Henry leaves the office to find Robin waiting for him outside. Robin asks him what happened, and Henry evades the question. Ugh. I get why Henry would be tempted to help Maleficent, (I'll get there in a sec) but why do we have to do this whole secretive plot thread? We all know that eventually somebody is going to find out and there will be all these feelings of betrayal and anger and yadda yadda. Henry should know better than to keep things from his family by now.

The main plot this week involved Hercules helping Snow and the others to defeat Cerberus, the three-headed dog in the Underworld, in order to get to Hook. I loved Hercules, but there was one part of this plot thread that was a big disappointment: earlier, Hook helped a young girl escape from the tortures of Hades, and this girl finds Emma and later helps Herc and Snow defeat Cerberus. Then the "plot twist" comes: this girl's name is Meg, and she and Herc actually met once briefly before, just before Cerberus killed them both and sent them down to the Underworld. Now, with Cerberus defeated and Meg properly rescued, Hercules' unfinished business has been finished, and he gets to go to Olympus with Meg.

Okay... Meg was lame. It's not the actress's fault or anything... Here's the deal - they decided to do the Greek myth route with Hercules' character, rather than the Disney version, and I'm thrilled. But from the second Hook helped this young nameless girl escape, and then Hercules turned up, I figured she was going to be Meg. But I thought maybe the actual twist was going to be that she was working for Hades. It would explain why one of Disney's most sassy and bad-ass ladies had turned into such a waifish damsel in distress. Maybe she was only pretending the whole time! But no... she was just a waif. And Herc rescued her. And then left with her to Olympus. The End. Given that this half of the season takes place in the Underworld, it really would have been okay to have Herc and Meg stick around for a bit and get their own subplot. They could have done something interesting with Meg, anyway, even if it wasn't what Disney did. As it was, her character was the one big disappointment of the episode for me.

Pros:

That being said... this episode was quite awesome overall.

Henry and Maleficent's subplot, while ending in a disappointing deception, had an awesome setup. Basically, Maleficent wants Henry's help getting back to the world of the living, because, as Henry points out, she's probably not going to move on to anywhere very good from here. Why should Henry want to help her? Well... so that Henry can help absolve Emma of the sin of killing her. Now, obviously that's very twisted. Emma still would have committed the "murder," if you can call it that, even if Maleficent gets brought back. But the logic is tempting. Henry would want to do anything he could to restore his mother to Savior Status, especially after her recent sojourn as the Dark One. Also, Maleficent knows that Henry can help because he's the Author, and thus can write her out of Hell. Does that mean he can write Hook out, too, once he finds the Underworld's equivalent of the quill? I'm so excited to see the Author stuff come back up. That was the strongest thing this show has done for Henry's character. Also, snarky Henry is the best, and this plot thread had a great line: "I think I know where you'll end up." Oh, Henry. You condemn that evil witch to Hell. I'm right there with ya.

This episode's main plot thread was all about Snow White and her first crush, Hercules. The flashbacks showed young Snow, played by Bailee Madison, as she suffers a crisis of confidence over her leadership abilities. This is back before Regina had banished her and was hunting for her. At this point, the Evil Queen has a different game in mind - she has hired bandits to make trouble in the area so that the people will hate Snow for being unable to rescue them. Snow then meets Hercules, who helps Snow believe in herself and take risks. Snow learns how to use a bow and arrow, and manages to scare off the bandits, winning her the love of the people.

Years later, Snow finds Hercules in the Underworld and encourages him to be the hero she remembers - he still needs to complete his last labor: defeating Cerberus. Since Cerberus is the one who killed him, Herc is understandably nervous. Snow and Meg help him, and the three each take one head of Cerberus on. The mythic beast is defeated, and Herc and Snow have both remembered how to be the heroes they taught each other to be.

Okay. I already mentioned that I liked the Greek Myth version of Hercules coming in to play here, as well as the decision to keep him as a young kid. Of course, the actual myth version involves a lot more slaughtering of his own family, but we're going to ignore that. It was cool to see this show take a Disney-fied character and pull back from the Disney story, the way they did so successfully with characters like Snow White and Prince Charming in the first place. It was refreshing, after the more toe-the-line stories around Frozen and Brave.

And Snow having a love interest before she met Charming? Awww! It was just puppy love, but Herc and Snow really did have a nice little connection. They even share a sweet kiss before Herc leaves to try and complete his final labor. Snow never knew what became of him until years later when she saw his grave in the Underworld.  As the flashback showed Herc helping Snow become a hero, the plot in the Underworld showed Snow help Herc regain his heroic courage. There was a nice symmetry there, but that's not all this episode did for Snow's character...

Mary Margaret has been put to rest for good, as we now have her reaffirming her identity as Snow. She wants to be the bad-ass hero she once was, and not the speechifying in-the-background character she has been for the past couple of seasons. It's weird, because until Snow made this pronouncement, I hadn't really realized how much I missed the bad-ass Snow of old. I'm really excited to see her take charge and reclaim her awesomeness. The quote of the night goes to Snow: "I was someone who took risks even when she was afraid. I was someone who, I guess, inspired people. An old enemy reminded me of that... I don't want to be Mary Margaret anymore. I want to be Snow White again."

And that old enemy she mentioned? Regina. In quite possibly my favorite Regina and Snow scene ever, we have Regina reminding Snow that she's a worthy hero and a true inspiration. She knows that Snow can help Hercules, and therefore help in the search for Hook: she just needs to remember her own strength. Regina tells Snow: "You defeated me in a way no one thought was possible. You made me your friend by never giving up on me." Oh my goodness I actually got a little misty-eyed during that part. What an awesome speech from Regina!

Hook is taking a real beating down in the Underworld, and we're still not clear why. Other people get to go about their business - the Blind Witch gets to run Granny's, and Herc has a job at the docks... so why does Hook get this cruel treatment? We still don't have all the answers. I love how much faith he has in Emma - he got her message from last week's episode, and he knows that she'll never stop until she finds him. Aww! "When you love someone..." need I say more? And Emma has only one priority: find her pirate boyfriend. She's a little manic about it, scouring the forest again and again for some sign of him, not stopping when the others suggest she take a break. These two are so in love!

As the episode ends, we see that Hades is very displeased that Herc and Meg have escaped the Underworld and moved on. After Henry Sr. last week, that makes for three souls he's lost due to Emma and the gang's interference. Hades decides that three of these living visitors should stay in the Underworld to replace the victims he's lost... and Hook should decide which three are going to stay. Dun dun dun...

If I know anything about hero!Hook, it's that he's not going to want to choose anybody. He might not even be willing to put down Rumple's name to stay, because when he's not the Dark One, he's gotten over his desire for revenge. I love this setup, because I think it'll be an interesting way for us to solidify Hook's position as one of the family. We know he loves Emma, and we see hints of his good relationship with Henry and David especially... but now his loyalty will hopefully bond him to the others all the more strongly.

I've got to say, I'm really loving the idea of the "save souls" campaign down in the Underworld. It gives a unique focus to each backstory plot, as we see the different people that our crew is trying to help. The A-plot with rescuing Hook is moving along at a comfortably suspenseful pace: they aren't tying everything up too quickly, or dragging it out too slowly. I think we're in for an exciting ride!

There was no Rumple this week, which I find slightly ominous... did he skedaddle back to Storybrooke, or is he still down in the Underworld? I mean, I'm guessing the latter. But what is he up to, in that case? I can't wait to find out more!

8/10