Once Upon a Time: Eloise Gardener/Pretty in Blue (7x07/08)

I'm going to try and rapid-fire this review, and I'll be treating the two episodes as one.

Cons:

Things got just a tad bit convoluted with Hook's plot. See, he had sex with Rapunzel but Rapunzel was actually Mother Gothal in disguise, and that's who the witch is that Victoria has had imprisoned all this time, but wait Hook's daughter's name is Eloise, but later it's Alice, and they can't be together because of a curse on Hook's heart, but then Alice is in Wonderland for a while, and Drizella is causing more mischief... I feel like there were so many moments that were meant to be shocking that the impact of them started to fade. I like the reveal that Alice is Hook's daughter. I wish we could have just sat with that for a while without throwing in so many twists and turns.

We still don't have official confirmation of whether or not Rumple is awake, and now I'm getting annoyed. Regina tries to confront him, he denies it, and it's like... for once could you just be straight with us, Rumple? It'd be cool to see you and Regina partnering up!

Pros:

I really like Jack/Nick so far. This show has an utter absence of bromance nowadays, and for the most part I like that. It's not as if there's a lack of other material out there for strong male bonds. But I'll admit, I'm already enjoying Henry and Jack's friendship in the flashbacks, for the brief moment we got to see it, and I like the idea of Nick and Henry in Hyperion Heights, vying for Jacinda's affections while feeling a strange connection of their own.

Jacinda and Henry are super cute, and they have a love connection that made Jacinda's parents' love necklaces glow because magic and True Love and all that, and they finally had their first kiss and it was adorable The End.

Poor Regina, having to sabotage her son's happiness. Every second of her time on screen is sad, because she's being forced into this very manipulative role, and she's good at it because of her past experience being the Evil Queen, and yet it's the very antithesis of what she wants to be doing.

I like that Drizella is pretty much entirely evil now. I was a little bit unsure if I was going to enjoy this turn for her character, but the campiness is actually quite fun. She gets her mother arrested, which was a twist I definitely did not see coming. I love how they set up Victoria to be the Regina 2.0 for this new arc, but then Drizella swooped in and stole the crown of evil.

I mentioned that there were a few too many twists and turns in the Hook plot, but I do love the fact that Rogers now believes he has succeeded in his goal of finding Eloise Gardener, when in reality Alice has been right in front of him the whole time. This was such a clever way to reveal the identity of his daughter while adding in complexities to the plot by freeing Gothel to wreak havoc. I want to see more of this. Hook and Alice were really cute when they were reuniting in the Wish Realm.

I said I was going to be brief! I'm absolutely sure I've forgotten aspects of this two part episode, but oh well. The important thing is that even if things felt a bit disorganized at times, we actually have some chess pieces moving on the board now. We know who Hook's daughter is. We've introduced Lucy's "father" in Hyperion Heights. We've gotten Victoria off to jail, and Gothel out of her own imprisonment. Let's keep this forward momentum going!

7.5/10