‘Once Upon a Time’ season 5, episode 9 review: Was ‘The Bear King’ a fun journey for Ruby, Mulan, Merida?

Let us start this “Once Upon a Time” episode review with the following sentiment: We were really excited to see Mulan and Ruby back on the show. We just wish that it was in a slightly different form than ultimately what we got in this episode.

As enjoyable as Merida has been this season, there have been times when it has felt as though the character was shoehorned into the season so that there could be a memorable Disney presence mixed in there with Camelot and King Arthur. After seeing her coronation and also getting a chance to see her talk to her late father, we feel like in the flashbacks like a part of her story may be complete.

Meanwhile, we finally learned just what happened to Ruby, as we learned that she wanted to go back to the Enchanted Forest, but not long after that she was captured and basically turned into a wolf doing the bidding of Zelena, who was very active within these two hours of television. She is working now to help Mulan get over some of her heartache, which she is still nursing as a result of what happened with Aurora. Could this be the couple that we see in the second half of the season? It’s a little early to tell when it comes to that.

While we think the majority of this episode was fun, it was also at the same time fairly meaningless. Just how much of this story are we going to be remembering a little bit down the road? We’re not sure if there is a right answer other than “little.” Grade: B-.

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