‘Once Upon a Time’ season 4, episode 8 review: Rumpelstiltskin, the Snow Queen battle over two hours

ABC spent a whole lot of time hyping up Sunday night’s new “Once Upon a Time” episode “Smash the Mirror,” and for good reason. This one lasted for a full two hours, and there was so much story to cram in here. Still, there was somehow no room for Belle. Strange, right?

This episode firmly cemented Rumpelstiltskin entirely as a bad guy yet again, and largely because of his desire to do anything he could to completely break free of that dreaded dagger. For a time, a part of his plan was to use Emma letting go of her magic to make it happen, but this failed at first. Despite her problems controlling her newfound abilities, she was convinced by Elsa to keep the powers, and use them potentially to her advantage.

In flashbacks, we saw the real reason that Anna ended up trapping Elsa in the urn, and it was due to some evil spells by Ingrid to bring out the worst emotions that were within her.

Going into this episode, we had no idea it was going to be the Snow Queen and Rumpelstiltskin doing battle, and setting the stage for what could be an epic final few episodes this fall. She was able to ultimately use Rumple’s desire to take away Emma’s powers to link her, Elsa, and Emma, and create a force that is definitely to be reckoned with.

The funny thing about this episode is that while there were good moments for Regina and Robin, there actually wasn’t that much that happened over these two hours … which means that it probably didn’t need to be this long in the first place. Grade: B.

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