Once Upon a Time: Chosen (7x17)

I'm so happy that Rogers gets to save Henry. And I'm pretty happy with this Zelena-centric episode!

Cons:

I wish that Naveen wasn't working with Facilier. And by that I mean I wish that we could cut through the crap and just get past the part where everybody has their feelings hurt about this. With so few episodes left in the show, I'm just not all that interested in furthering the Facilier plot in this way. I want him and Regina to be happy together, and for that to happen I don't want all of this deception and nonsense getting in the way. That said, it appears that Facilier has gotten Nick/Jack/Hansel out of the way, so that can only be good news...

Pros:

I thought this episode was going to be mainly focused on Henry and Nick, and in a way it was. But oddly the real star of the episode was Zelena, as we see how her backstory intertwines with Nick's. When he and his sister were captives of a witch who wished to eat them, Zelena saw the two poor kids being held in cages, and did nothing to save them, merely warning the witch to get out of town, because there's only room for one ruling witch. Later, however, Zelena is saved by a blind man who ends up being Hansel and Gretel's father. Zelena goes back to save the children, but finds they are gone... turns out, they had already escaped. Zelena's new love interest is horrified to learn that Zelena knew where his kids were all along and didn't tell him, and in a fit of rage, Zelena punishes him by burning Hansel's arms in the fire.

There's a lot of intriguing stuff to unpack with this. First, I love it when this show does switcharoos with popular stories. We knew that Hansel had scars on his arms, but it turns out that these were given to him by Zelena, not by the witch who wanted to eat him, like you would expect. And Zelena's experience with a kindly blind man is exactly what you would expect for someone who has been starved for love her whole life. It doesn't excuse her actions, but it does explain her mindset, and tracks with what we've known about her for a long time.

And then you've got Hansel, who went crazy. I'm still not sure how his time as Henry's good friend Jack fits in to his whole persona, but at least we get a little bit more insight into that. I love that Henry tries to relate to Hansel, tries to find a way to get in to his mind and connect with him so he can get out of his situation. But then, there's a breaking point. As Nick explains that Kelly is the Wicked Witch and that she's also Henry's aunt, Henry snaps, telling him to leave this real person out of his crazy delusions. I like that Henry is a bit stubborn about believing - like mother, like son, I guess. There's the moment when he sees the blood test that Nick took from the hospital and learns that he is supposedly actually Lucy's father. But he can't let himself believe that, for so many reasons. It's crazy, and there's this big part of him that wants it to be true badly enough to mess with his head.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, I am tickled that Rogers gets to rescue Henry. We're seeing some patterns repeat from Season One of this show: the idea that the true relationships of these cursed people can't be totally repressed. Obviously Henry and Jacinda are the main example, but it's happening with Rogers and Henry, Rogers and Tilly, Tilly and Margot... I'm just eating it up.

Zelena decides to leave town with her fiance, because she's realized that she wants to keep parts of Kelly alive, even though she remembers her past now. Obviously she can't tell this guy everything about her past, but she is going to share a somewhat censored version with him. At first I was annoyed that we don't know anything about this dude who is going to marry Zelena, but actually I kind of enjoyed him being a generic nice guy, symbolizing the life that Zelena wants to build for herself. And Margot decides to stay behind in Hyperion Heights. Might that have something to do with a certain cute blonde? Her mom sure thinks so! I love Tilly and Margot. Margot's glasses are the cutest.

So... yeah. That's all she wrote. I want the curse to be broken now. I really wish it could happen before the finale.

8.5/10