‘Once Upon a Time’ season 3 spoilers: JoAnna Garcia, Ginnifer Goodwin in new ‘Ariel’ photos
The folks behind “Once Upon a Time” seem to know a thing or two about creating buzz around a character. Has there been a more anticipated character on the show? The last time that we saw anyone excited about a fairy-tale personality coming up, it was Captain Hook around the fourth episode of last season, and when you add to the drama this time that people actually know who JoAnna Garcia is (Colin O’Donoghue was an unknown to Americans), it only ups the ante.
In the first promo, we got a good idea that Ariel knows more than one of the characters that are regulars on the show already. Not only is Lana Parrilla’s Regina the show’s version of Ursula, but she also has some sort of relationship in the past with Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow White. What makes this part of the story a little bit interesting is that this Ariel actually was a human earlier on in the story, but we will meet her as a mermaid. Is Neverland her personal exile, like we saw with Rose McIver’s Tinker Bell? It is very well possible, since her punishment could very well be having to deal with the nasty mermaids that are swimming off the coast.
Ariel will be featured in more than one episode, so don’t fret about this being the only appearance of the character this fall. What we’re more curious about is if her time in the universe will be limited to the Neverland story. We’ll find out come the tenth or eleventh episode of the season, which we personally assume to be when the characters figure out whether or not they will be able to leave the island, and if they can take anyone with them. (Before that, there is the issue of trying to win back Henry and defeating Peter Pan … no easy task.)
What do you think: Is Garcia a capable Ariel, or are you withholding judgment until the episode actually airs? You can see the rest of our impressions on this episode (at least for the time being) over at the link here. We’ll have our full review of this installment up after it airs, so stay tuned!
Photo: ABC