‘Once Upon a Time’ season 2, episode 3 review: Lancelot’s honor

Before we dive too deep into this week’s installment of “Once Upon a Time,” there is one thing that we have to mention almost right away: we missed Rumpelstiltskin. As a matter of fact, the absence of the excellent Robert Carlyle (coupled with so little Lana Parrilla) made for what really was one of the weaker episodes that we have seen so far this season. (Granted, there has only been three.)

As for what we really learned here, it’s pretty simple: Cora is not only alive in the fairy tale world, but she is causing some serious trouble. In disguising herself as Snow White’s old friend Lancelot, she got herself a valuable in so that she could try to trap them and enact her own form of revenge. While it didn’t entirely work, the presence of this character did give us some insight into how Snow and Charming actually tied the knot just as Charming’s mother was dying. Was it touching? Definitely, but it would have been more powerful had we see much more of her character prior to this episode.

As for Storybrooke, this was actually a pretty Henry-centric story as he was desperate to try and bring Emma and Snow White back from the other world, which was both a good and bad thing. We still don’t think that the writers really know how to give this character much depth, but it was nice to see him not only convince David that they should be working together to help those they love, but that he even convinced Jefferson to do the same exact thing. Now that he and Grace are back together, is it possible that he could actually be a little bit more help? Let’s hope so, since thus far it feels like the producers just wanted to say that they had Sebastian Stan back for a few more episodes.

The biggest cliffhangers here are more or less foregone conclusions. Not only do we know that the King is alive and well in Storybrooke, but we have also been made aware of the fact that Cora has a potion … and she knows how to use it.

What did you think about this episode?