This post may contain spoilers if you haven’t finished the last episode in season 3 of Once Upon A Time (which aired 05/11/14). By the way, this is a fan-made poster from the Internets, not an official ABC image.
All things that are hot and popular will eventually burn out and turn cold. And just as Frozen merchandise is starting to become more readily available, and parents are chucking Frozen CDs out of their car windows on the highway, Once Upon A Time throws us a curve ball in the hopes to synergize.
Without any explanation, or sense really, a person, heavily resembling Elsa from Frozen appeared on the screen with ominous music. Oddly, she appeared in the Wicked Witch Zelena’s time travel alchemy symbol, coming out of a small… uh… urn..? Genie bottle? Container of magical, blue goo? What the heck was that exactly? It didn’t seem like a portal to another realm to me, which implies Elsa was imprisoned in that container at some point. But, how did that container get there? Zelena’s time travel spell included Prince Chamring’s sword (courage), Rumpelstiltskin’s brain, Queen Regina’s heart, and Snow White’s baby for innocence. Nope, no urn-like containers on that list that I noticed. Nor did I notice Emma take/drop anything on her way back through the time portal she opened. My guess – Rumple has Elsa in his vault of scary magical items, and he secretly threw Elsa’s container into the portal for some reason.
The addition of Queen Elsa is puzzling, and with the overtone of her arrival to Storybrooke, I just hope they don’t make her into a villain. The show has gone up, down, left, and right since season 2 started and the writers seemed to have lost their way on how to keep the core of the story going. That is, how do they play on flashbacks and people who don’t remember their pasts now that all memories are returned and magic is returned to Storybrooke? The gratifying conclusion of season 1 has thrown the central idea of the show into ever-changing chaos.
If I may, do you know why I stopped watching Desperate Housewives? Because when season 3 hit there was a bad formula of: here’s a new conflict/character, the problem will unfold, tension will begin to rise, then the problem will be irrationally erased from the storyline mere episodes later (remember Gabi’s mayoral husband who suddenly got impaled? Or Kayla’s mom getting shot in the grocery robbery? How about the lady who was stirring up trouble and literally walked out into a tornado?). I got frustrated, I tapped out, and I was over Desperate Housewives. And I fear Once Upon A Time is going down the same path with their quick plot changes.
Since season 2 began, Once Upon A Time has been doing story lines in half-season format, so from, say, September to December you get a new plot line open and close, then another new story from January-ish to May. And there are some awkward filler episodes that introduce characters for fan-service purposes without seeming to have any intention on keeping them in the story line (Ariel, Rapunzel, etc). Yes, yes, I know Ariel was brought in because she could swim between realms, but she hasn’t had any dire purpose in the show, and could have been replaced by a spell casting. At this point, Ariel has swum away to her happily ever after and will not return to the show in any meaningful way.
Now, I admit that I really liked the Neverland story line. I thought it was a fresh take and that the big Pan reveal was unexpected. But, it ended and wrapped up neatly because, for some reason, the writers decided to switch Pan and Henry’s bodies (which I believed to be a precursor for the rest of season 3), then re-switched their bodies and destroy Pan in one episode for the mid-season finale. What?! There was another half a season of Pan being in Henry’s body that we could have used! Instead, by the time Zelena enters, we never need to fear Pan again, despite the fact that he was this big, long time evil that existed in the background for decades before the main story line. I mean, Trap him? Sure. Banish him? Of course. But flat out destroy him? What if Batman killed every villain in Gotham? He’d have nothing to do! And that is where Once Upon A Time is building itself into a corner. They’ve already brought Rumple back from the dead, predictably, so why should we assume Peter Pan is gone for good? We do, and I’m fairly confident that’s the correct assumption to make, but why should we when the main characters come back from death so readily? Even Prince Charming managed to last a full two minutes as a dead man just a few episodes ago.
Similarly, Zelena, the Wicked Witch, had a lot more story in there to unfold, but they killed her off in an anti-climatic way. When she turned to glass (?) and then a gas, I thought for sure she was licking her wounds and rebuilding her body/powers from inside her magic amulet, but I saw no hint in the season finale to believe that that is the direction the show is headed. But really, here’s the most powerful, dark magic using witch in all the realms, and she’s put down so effortlessly? Yes, Rumple was more powerful, but she had no contingency plan in place? I thought for sure there would be more story to that – chances at redemption, struggling with jealousy, becoming the family that Regina desperately needs. Zelena was layer, complicated, hurting, and completely redeemable, not to mention a clear a shoe in to fulfill the new Evil Queen role that Regina is shirking off. But no, Zelena’s cut short from the story line after only being a part of it for less than half of a season, and Regina predictably loses her 2nd love, giving her a reason to start up another vendetta.
Now we have Elsa, which could go one of three ways: she could become the newest evil presence in Storybrooke, she could be lost and returned to Arendale in an episode or two, or she could be a newly introduced regular, similar to how Belle was brought into the plot. I’m a little nervous to find out which it will be, but I highly suspect she’s another pain-soaked, misunderstood villain who will bring havoc to the show, then be removed quickly and without proper resolution. Forgive me for comparing The Walking Dead to a Disney production, but I liked the anticipation of waiting for The Governor to return much more than I liked him being dead and finalized, and I hope Once Upon A Time can bring more anticipation and less quick plot changes in for season 4.
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