Once Upon a Time: The Other Shoe (6x03)

I've rated the previous two episodes of this season at 7/10, which indicates a lack of enthusiasm with a lot of hope for improvement. I'm happy to say that this week I got that improvement!

Cons:

I'm still annoyed that Emma isn't telling anybody about her visions. It's tedious. Especially given all the personal growth she did have in this episode.

Rumple does something sweet in this episode, which, okay, fine. He wants to be a good dad. He has David give Belle a recording of him singing to the baby. I didn't have a huge problem with this, per se, but I'm just praying this doesn't mean Belle is going to end up back with him. I genuinely do not want these two to end up together. Please, please, please.

Pros:

The return of Cinderella! Her story, in short, is the classic one we all know and love. The twist is that one of her "evil" stepsisters has just been playing a part, and is secretly in love with a footman. She wants to run off with him. Cinderella tells her evil stepmother where her sister is, when the stepmother threatens to break her glass slipper and take away her chance of proving her identity to the prince. This leads Ella's sister to being trapped in the land of untold stories, along with the evil stepmother. Back in Storybrooke, Ashley (aka Cinderella) tries to track down her sister. The heroes at first think she's trying to hurt her sister, because of course they think of her as evil. In the end, Ashley finds her sister and, despite the evil stepmother trying to kill the footman once and for all, Emma shows up in time to ensure Ashley's happy ending, along with her sister's and her love's.

After the Count of Monte Cristo's not-so-happy ending in the previous episode, I was really relieved that nobody got axed off this time around. Ashley is a really pure and delightful character. I'm glad we got this twist, but I'm equally glad that the story didn't take on too dark of an aspect. Seeing the Evil Stepmother with the hunting rifle was a pretty cool image, too!

Emma's story progressed in a couple of awesome ways as well. She admits to Archie in one of her sessions that she's jealous of everybody else's happy endings. Here she's worked so hard to make sure everybody else is happy, and now she is destined to die without getting her own ending. However, Archie encourages her to take the leap. Maybe it's not about the ending. Maybe it's about the life you lead up to it. With help from Killian and Henry, Emma gains the strength to save Ashley after she's attacked by her evil stepmother. Another happy ending secured, Emma asks Killian to move in with her, and he happily accepts.

There's too much cuteness here to even contemplate. First of all, Henry, Killian and Emma make the cutest little family. I just cannot handle it. Killian teaching Henry to sword fight? Henry helping Emma to find Ashley for "mother-son bonding time?"And Emma letting down her guard and asking Killian to move in? Yes, yes, yes! This is the new vulnerable and open Emma that I've been looking for!

Meanwhile, Regina is trying to learn to think like the Evil Queen to discover her other half's plans, but it's not going so well. Turns out, the Evil Queen has already made herself a dangerous ally: Mr. Hyde. The Evil Queen frees him from his cell. These two look smokin' hot together, walking away from the mental hospital arm in arm, in their dapper outfits. Dayum. I can't wait to see what trouble these two will get in to.

Snow wants to start rebuilding Storybrooke. She doesn't want her life and the life of her family to be one disaster after another - she wants to be able to make some progress. In order to accomplish this, she starts thinking about opening up a new school. Also, she helps Dr. Jekyll in his quest to learn more about the Evil Queen and her extraordinary strength. How? She introduces him to another prominent scientist: Dr. Frankenstein. It looks like these two will be sharing a lab.

I'm beyond excited about Dr. Whale's return. He's such a sass master and I love it. Also, it cracked me up that Snow was thinking about the two of them as potential faculty members for her new school. Um. You might want to rethink that one, there, your majesty. Still, anything that keeps Frankenstein around is good in my book. I love that guy.

David continues on his ill-advised quest to find out the truth about his father. He learns from Rumple that when his father was found dead in the cart accident, he had been stabbed. It wasn't just a drunk driving accident, after all. Snow encourages him to set aside thoughts of vengeance and focus on their bright future. However, as the episode ends, we see that he won't be letting it go. I would be annoyed at David for keeping things hidden from his wife, but I sort of get it. Snow is in this really optimistic, forward-thinking place, and David is still feeling the pangs of unfinished business. I'm curious about the mystery of David's father, and even more curious to see how it's going to tie in with everything else we've got going on.

I must end this review with a shout-out to Grumpy the dwarf. Emma interrupts his session with Archie, and hears him complaining about Dopey going to college and leaving Grumpy to pick up extra work. Emma is confused, since she thought Dopey was a tree. Grumpy replies that they got him back weeks ago. Apparently, the dwarfs don't just sit around and wait to be occasionally relevant to the A-plot! This cracked me up. It was just a brief moment, but I had to get it in there. You tell 'em, Grumpy!

So, in all, I'm a happy camper. Emma and Hook are moving in together, Snow is working towards a brighter tomorrow, Dr. Frankenstein is back and sassier than ever, Mr. Hyde and the Evil Queen are set to be some properly menacing villains, and Cinderella has reaffirmed her happy ending. Can't wait for next week!

9/10