Once Upon a Time: Greenbacks (7x05)

There were a few fantastic revelations and powerful moments in this episode of Once Upon a Time, but there was also a considerable amount of uninteresting or unbelievable crap to wade through. A mixed bag.

Cons:

Our flashbacks of the week deal with Princess Tiana's backstory. I really like the woman playing Sabine/Tiana, but this story just seemed confusing and silly to me. I am absolutely in favor of the idea of Tiana discovering that she doesn't need a prince, and can be her own hero... but we've definitely already done that on this show before, and I felt like nothing new was added to the conversation here. Also, the moment in which the man Tiana was helping turned into a frog to join his love... I mean, I get it. We're referencing the movie. But are we supposed to think that that guy was just a super-intelligent frog the whole time? Or that frogs are all as smart as humans but just trapped in frog form? I wasn't really sure what to make of that.

Similarly, Sabine's role in the Hyperion storyline was kind of cheesy and weird. She decides that the way to save herself, Jacinda, and Lucy from the control of Victoria is to become rich through Sabine's delicious beignets. She and Jacinda take over the fast food restaurant they work at in order to push their original creation. That's got to be illegal, right? And then Victoria conspires to set the building on fire, which is just... going a bit far. In the end, Jacinda decides to believe in Sabine's dream, and spends their rent money on getting her a food truck for her new business. I think the problem here is one of tone and setting. Storybrooke was a great setting because while it was the "real world," it was this sanitized version of it that existed in a very particular little bubble. Hyperion Heights is supposed to be more of a real place, so when fairytale logic and simplistic motivations start making their way into the world, it clashes. This whole beignet plot thread felt like that.

Rogers is continuing his search for the missing girl, and he actually starts to get some leads. There wasn't anything terribly offensive about this plot thread except for the fact that it bored me. I think maybe I should wait to judge until we have a few more pieces of the puzzle. It annoys me that it's moving along as slowly as it is.

Pros:

In the flashbacks, I did like seeing Facilier. He's one of the great Disney villains, and is the best part of The Princess and the Frog. In Jacinda and Sabine's story, I did like seeing the friendship between Sabine and Lucy, and I liked the part where Victoria calls in a favor to a guy named Ralph in order to ruin the restaurant, telling him to "wreck it." Ha! And in the Rogers story-line, I did like the moment at the beginning where we see Roni, Henry, and Rogers all together at the bar. Henry needs to give their operation a code name. Seeing these three together is making me emotional, and I can't wait for Henry to remember his mother.

The "cons" section above encapsulates the main plot this week, but I don't think this episode tanked by any stretch of the imagination, and that's thanks to the Roni, Henry, and Ivy subplot. See, Ivy is doing more and more to turn against her mother and help out the good guys. She tries to get Henry to come see Victoria's weird vault where the still-unidentified witch lives, but Roni intercepts Henry's texts, because she's sure she can't trust Ivy to turn on Victoria. From there, we get two giant revelations.

First, the smaller of the two: Roni finds a picture of her and Henry as a child in Storybrooke. Roni tells Henry that she deceived him about Ivy because she was worried they couldn't trust her, and then produces the picture. She's confused, because she doesn't recognize the clothes she's wearing or the kid she's with. But Henry does... it's him! Obviously we, the audience, know what's up, but it's still an exciting moment to see a big puzzle piece fall into place.

The second revelation I did not see coming at all. I liked the idea of developing Ivy more as a character. I even liked the idea of Henry developing some feelings for her, and being a bit torn about it. I was wondering if Ivy was going to end up turning on Victoria and joining the heroes. Instead, we learn that Ivy was deceiving Roni when she brought her to the vault. Ivy and the witch are aware of each other, and Ivy had the witch hide when Roni was down there. Okay, so at this point I'm thinking - "it's too bad that Ivy is so much in Victoria's pocket. This must be all part of Victoria's plan." But no. Ivy reveals that she's been manipulating her mother as well, and then tells the witch to stop calling her Ivy and to call her Drizella instead. Dun, dun, dunnnnn!

I would never have guessed this! Does this mean that Victoria isn't the one who enacted the curse? Victoria doesn't seem to know that Drizella is aware of her true identity. Does Drizella know that Victoria is? She must! This is all so intriguing! This is the first time maybe all season where I've felt some hint of that old-fashioned Once Upon a Time plot-twist glee. I love this. So much.

We'll have to see where things go from here - it's been a few weeks since we've checked in with the main flashback story. I hope things will speed up a little bit... I need to watch Henry and Cinderella fall in love so I can get more invested in Henry and Jacinda's love story in Hyperion Heights!

7/10