‘Once Upon a Time’ season 4, episode 5 review: The Snow Queen has her own magic mirror

Tonight’s “Once Upon a Time” episode was another interesting one for a variety of reasons, with the principal one being simply that there wasn’t really a whole lot of Rumpelstiltskin after such a big week.

Instead, this was a big episode for Regina and Emma, and also Elizabeth Mitchell’s mysterious Snow Queen. Despite seeing her for a few episodes now, it is still not entirely clear just what she wants, other than to get some semblance of a family and love back. Somehow, this is connected to shards of a super-large mirror, and she had to get a piece back from Regina in the process. This led to the return of Sidney Glass (who was freed), and also a pretty epic battle with Emma, Regina, and Elsa squaring off against this villain.

Elsewhere in this episode, we had what was at least a pretty charming little sideplot regarding Snow White and Charming, where she started to think she was sending him on a wild chase to catch a thief, just so that she could feel better about himself in the end. The problem? The man she caught in Will Scarlet lied, and made her think that he was set up by Charming to get a pardon.

The biggest shocker was saved for the end, though, as we wondered how in the world these flashbacks with Emma were really that important: Apparently, at some point during her past there was a time when she actually lived with the Snow Queen, though that part of her memory was erased. This isn’t that shocking of an ending, but no matter where it goes, we just hope it isn’t too sappy. Grade: B.

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