Once Upon a Time: Sisters (5x19)

Well... it wasn't bad. But it wasn't awesome.

Cons:

Our main story focused on Zelena and Regina. I really liked the stuff with the titular sisters, but unfortunately this also came with a rehashing of how evil Cora is. In flashbacks, we see that when Regina was just a child, she injured herself accidentally with her mother's wand. The only way to save her was to find a blood relative with magic who hadn't caused Regina harm. So, Cora goes to where Zelena is being verbally abused by her adoptive father, and takes her away to heal Regina. The two girls quickly become friends, and when Zelena accidentally undoes the blood magic on one of Regina's locked cases, the girls realize that Zelena must be related to Regina. Cora confirms that they're sisters. When Regina expresses a wish for them to all be together as a family, Cora says no, because Regina can't count on anybody but herself. If Zelena comes into their family, Regina will never get the chance to be queen.

Seriously - what was the logic in sending Zelena away? Somebody explain it to me, because I sure as hell don't understand it. Why not try and get both her daughters into positions of power? Instead, she uses a memory potion to wipe both girls' minds so that neither of them knows about the other. Why is Cora such a tyrant? I don't really get it. The lesson about love being weakness was rather lame.

The other sibling-based story focused on David and James. I liked some elements of it, but in the end we get a showdown between the two brothers, and David regretfully pushes James into the River of Lost Souls in self-defense. To me, it just felt like a shoe-horned and wasted opportunity. James' evil plot was an attempt to get back home, with Cruella by his side. His reason for hating David wasn't because he felt abandoned by his mother (which would have made him a nice parallel to Zelena) but rather a simple lust for power, and anger that David stole all the glory. The fight between the two brothers felt uninspired at best. David insisted that he could handle it on his own, because he wanted to try and talk to his brother and get him to see reason. But David's arguments seemed perfunctory at best, and we sort of all knew where this was going from the beginning. Not a god-awful story, but not a particularly clever or nuanced one either.

Pros:

Fortunately, the episode spent a good amount of time focused on Regina and Zelena's bond, and that was the strongest element to be found. The two of them as children were rather sweet. I liked seeing them play and act like real children, goofing off and causing mischief. It made Cora's cruelty all the more hard to watch. In the present, Cora brings the two sisters together by unveiling their lost memories and showing them that at one time, they were truly sisters who loved each other, however briefly. This causes a reconciliation between them.

Earlier, Regina had seen Zelena and Hades together, as Hades announced his plans to trap all the heroes permanently, and get his heart beating again so he and Zelena could leave the Underworld and preside over the real Storybrooke together, instead of this pale imitation. Regina of course wants to stop this from happening, but Zelena continually accuses her of trying to stop Zelena from finding happiness. I like the hints we see that Zelena really is open to being a better person. She's just such a jealous and insecure soul that it's hard for her to believe that anybody is really on her side. Of course Regina doesn't want her entire family to be stuck in the Underworld forever. But she really is also acting in Zelena's best interest when she warns her away from Hades.

As much as Cora's presence doesn't make a lot of sense or add anything new, I was glad to see the continuing theme of people moving on. It seems that in every episode, we either see a soul sent into the river, or else we get to see a soul move on. This week, it was both. Cora got a much more poignant goodbye than James. In many ways, I'm not sure she earned her forgiveness quite yet, but at least her exit allowed a rift to heal between Regina and Zelena, something I'm betting nobody would have believed possible.

Regina, in true hero form, tells Zelena to go to Hades - maybe Hades can be redeemed, too. After all, Regina has first-hand experience with choosing the right path after years of festering in evil. Zelena's reaction to this is so sweet - she asks Regina, quite timidly: "you trust me?" This act of benevolence on Regina's part will go a long way into cementing Zelena as a redeemable character. Hades, though? I'm not so sure he deserves another chance.

As the story ends, Regina is about to join Hades on a date. Until... Rumple shows up. He's pissed at Zelena for giving Belle the means to put herself under a sleeping curse, and he's on a mission to do whatever it takes to win back the rights to his child from Hades. What better way of doing that than kidnapping Zelena? And he's not alone - he's brought dear old dad back into the mix. As the episode ends, Peter Pan attacks Zelena, pulling a bag over her head.

Yay! Pan! This kid is such an all-star performer. It's always so fun to see him play with the odd father/son dynamic between him and Rumple. What a weird freakin' show. Still, Zelena vs. Pan might be really fun to see. This episode made me feel like Zelena was fully and truly relevant in the story proper, which was quite nice.

In subplot news, it wasn't all bad. I did like the "James acting like David" bits of things, especially Emma's reactions to her father's seemingly "off" behavior. James played it off like he was just having a hard time without Snow, and Emma bought it, leading to a fantastic exchange between them - James as David: "Don't tell Snow I forgot our anniversary." Emma: "Between all the curses and the time jumps, who could blame you?" Ha!

Emma and Hook didn't have much to do, but of course my shipper heart sang when Hook and David showed up to rescue Emma and Robin from Cruella and James. Emma ran right into Hook's arms, and he removed the magic-restraining cuff from her arm. Next week seems to be all about Captain Swan, and I'm sure it's not going to be pretty. It's nice to see the little hints here and there that their relationship is on solid footing.

That's all I've got. this was sort of a "meh" episode, but it wasn't insultingly bad or anything. And hey, now two of our significant past characters have exited the show. David's gone, Cora's gone... now the question is: can Pan move on somehow? That would be intense. What about Cruella? I love the concept of this whole Underworld plot, and I still see a lot more possibility they can wring out of it.

7/10