‘Once Upon a Time’ season 5, episode 19 review: Cora tells Zelena, Regina the truth

“Sisters” was the title for Sunday night’s episode of “Once Upon a Time,” and over the course of this hour, we certainly had plenty of evidence that this was the right name. In turn, this may have been the strongest episode of the show since the 100th installment “Souls of the Departed,” mostly in that there is something subtle and yet moving about the way in which this show deals with crossing over from the Underworld to whatever is next.

Tonight, this meant saying goodbye to someone in Cora who finally saw some of the error of her ways, and brought Zelena and Regina together, revealing that she had cast a spell on them to make them forget their past. We still don’t know if she entirely redeemed herself for everything terrible that she did, but this was at least her best effort.

We do want to spend a minute talking about the epic battle between the Charming brothers in here, as well, if for no other reason than that this proved itself to very much a showdown. David had to kill James by throwing him into the River of Lost Souls, mostly because he seemed to have no other choice. We do think that this show does run into problems when their heroes kill, but this was constructed in a way where if David didn’t do it, he’d probably be killed himself.

From start to finish, including the whole Peter Pan capture at the end of the hour, we really do think that this episode was incredibly strong. It brought a lot to the table in terms of entertainment, surprises, drama, and emotion. A really great job all around. Grade: A-.

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