‘Once Upon a Time’ season 3, episode 9 review: Lana Parrilla shines in emotional ‘Save Henry’

Did you think that “Save Henry” was going to be the best episode of “Once Upon a Time” season 3? Going in, we had high hopes that it would be something great, but there was still some uncertainty after some episodes this year have turned out to be rather hit-or-miss.

Well, we are thrilled to report that there was nothing to worry about here at all. Not only was this the best episode of the season, it’s one of our favorites of the entire run thanks to one reason: Giving Regina so many more layers as a character. Lana Parrilla hit this performance out of the park as we saw how the “Evil Queen” realized that she wanted to adopt a child, and then almost gave him up the moment she realized that Mr. Gold had found her the kid of David and Mary Margaret. She then eventually took a potion to try and forget about all of the terrible things that could befall her, and tried to go on to be a happy mom during her son’s early years.

What really tied everything together for us was the scene when Regina, Snow, and Emma were all tied together by Peter Pan, where he was using their regret to keep them hostage. The problem here? He was dealing with someone in Regina who had no regrets, because everything that she did in her life led to her having her son. This ended up being the catalyst that freed everyone, saved Henry, and got them all off of Neverland seemingly for good.

The problem here? Well, there is still another twist in that Pan is not someone who goes down without a fight. Just as Rumpelstiltskin was trying to do away with him for good, he swapped bodies with Henry. That means that Henry is now stuck as Pan inside of the magic box, and Pan is now Henry. This does make matters all the more complicated, since it could be pretty hard for everyone else to figure this out.

But just from an emotional perspective, this was fantastic. There were tons of great character moments, and with many of the show’s strongest characters (Regina, Bae, Rumple) front and center, it helped to avoid some of the show’s flaws and gave us something that we will remember for some time. Grade: A.

What did you think about this “Once Upon a Time” episode? Share your thoughts below, and click here if you want to read some more news related to the show. We’ll have a preview for this episode soon enough.

Photo: ABC