Once Upon a Time: A Wondrous Place (6x15)

Well, we're finally back to Jasmine and Aladdin! This was a satisfying episode, although I do have a few complaints as always.

Cons:

Emma spends this episode moping about Hook leaving her. A lot of people are pissed at Emma for believing Hook would leave, but I'm not, actually. I'll talk about that in a minute. What does sort of bother me is that nobody else chimes in and suggests that maybe there's more going on. At no point does Henry, Snow, Regina, or David think to question Hook's disappearance. I guess we can give David a pass as well, given what he's just found out. But Henry? C'mon. It's a small thing in the grand scheme, but it makes me feel strange about Hook marrying Emma. Her family very clearly doesn't respect him very much!

In the end, we learn Gideon's plan. He stole some of Emma's tears, and apparently the ears of the Savior are a potent magical force. With them, he can continue to block Hook's return to Storybrooke, until Emma agrees to help him with his mission: to kill the Black Fairy. I have so many problems with this. First of all, is Gideon no longer trying to kill Emma at all? What happened to his strange belief that he needed to be a Savior, and killing Emma was the only way to accomplish that? If all he wanted was the Black Fairy dead, why not ask for help in the first place? Also, this whole Savior tears business comes out of nowhere and connects to nothing. Why would her tears stop a portal back to Storybrooke? What sense does that make? And is this seriously the only leverage Gideon can think to use? Wouldn't it be easier to... I don't know... kidnap Emma's sleeping parental unit or Henry or something? He seems to be able to poof around with magic very easily. This whole thing seems unnecessarily convoluted.

Pros:

Very briefly, let's look at the story taking place in the magical realms. Hook, Nemo, and Liam are looking for kraken blood so they can portal back to Storybrooke. They run into Jasmine and Aladdin, who have been searching fruitlessly for Agrabah. Hook bids farewell to Nemo and Liam and continues on with Aladdin and Jasmine. They then all run into Ariel. In a series of flashbacks, we learn that Jasmine let down Agrabah by falling for Jafar's trap. He told her that Agrabah would only be safe if she married him, and she decided to submit for the good of her people. Turns out, this was all a trick so Jafar could get his hands on a magic gem, which he uses to trap Agrabah. In the present day, Jasmine realizes that she can break any curse with True Love's Kiss, so she gives in to her desire for Aladdin and kisses him. Agrabah is restored.

I really love Jasmine's character arc. She tries to do what's right for her people, and when she fails she thinks it means she doesn't deserve love until she can fix her mistake. Instead, she discovers that love can actually help her to fix that mistake. She needs to accept that she's deserving of happiness. This feels very similar to a much longer arc that Emma had to go through, to learn that it's okay to trust people and be happy. This was truly Jasmine's story, and I really liked that as well. We've already dealt with a lot of Aladdin's issues, and now it's time to see Jasmine get her due. As an added plus, Jasmine and Aladdin are very cute together. They might be the most juvenile-seeming True Loves we've ever had on this show. There's this innocence and giddiness to them, and I love how they both try and ask Killian how he thinks the other person feels. He's exasperated at being forced in the middle, but even in his distracted state, he can tell they love each other.

It was really fun to see Ariel again. I definitely wasn't expecting that. It's good to know that she and Eric are still having their happy ending, and that Ariel continues to collect strange oddities. Her and Jasmine make for an unlikely friendship, but I quite enjoyed it! I also really liked that Ariel hugged both Jasmine and Hook. Aladdin looked super confused, and indeed the fact that these three would all end up in the same place does seem mighty unlikely!

Meanwhile, Hook is still trapped and desperate to get back to Emma. Ariel gives him a shell so he can make contact across realms. He manages to get a message to Emma, telling her that he didn't leave her and is working hard to get back to her. Emma can't get a message back through to Killian, but at least now she knows that he didn't abandon her.

I want to talk about Emma for a moment. I actually don't mind it at all that she "gives up" on Hook so easily. If you'll remember, Hook actually did come very close to leaving with Captain Nemo in the last episode. Sure, he ultimately made the right choice, but first he came very close to bolting. Emma doesn't accuse him of being an awful person or anything, but she believes that when things got tough between them, he decided to bolt instead of talking it over with her. After all she's been through in her life, her abandonment issues aren't just going to poof away. As I mentioned above, it's a little irritating that nobody else thought to question Hook leaving, but all things considered, Emma's reaction makes a lot of sense.

The scene at the end where Hook speaks to Emma through the shell phone works really well. Emma was hurt and felt abandoned. Hook knew she would feel that way. The whole time he's trapped in another realm, all he can think about is getting back to Emma. Not just because he worries she's in danger from Gideon, but because Emma thinks Hook left her. Hook is desperate to tell her that's not the case. It warms my heart to know that despite a massive miscommunication between the two of them, they still know each other pretty well.

A few last tidbits: I adore the fact that Regina and Snow take Emma out drinking at Aesop's Tables, the newest bar in town. Regina sucks at getting Emma to open up, which I loved. Snow lets loose after the stress of having a baby and a sleeping curse at home, and it's great. She almost gets into a bar fight with a bunch of vikings. Ginnifer Goodwin's performance had me laughing out loud.

Henry isn't in this episode much, but when he is, he's a typical teenager: headphones in, staring at his phone. #relatable.

The last thing I'll say is that the atmosphere of this episode felt akin to the earlier seasons of the show, in a very good way. We had things like magic always coming with a price, magical McGuffins, TLK breaking a curse, travel between realms, lots of fun side characters fulfilling their side quests, some humor, some hokey villains... we had it all. This episode wasn't some sort of dramatic masterpiece, but it felt like Once Upon a Time, a show I really enjoy when it's at its best.

9/10