‘Once Upon a Time’ season 2, episode 11 review: For whom the Belle tolls

After a few episodes during season 1 that sputtered along, “Once Upon a Time” season 2 is now moving at a pretty brisk pace. For some more evidence of that, just check out what happen on the show with “The Outsider” Sunday night. It was an episode that in many ways undid what took place during “The Cricket Game,” though the ramifications were still very much in place following what happened. (Warning: the following contains spoilers from the episode.)

What was the biggest surprise here is that save for a brief flashback late in the episode, Regina had almost no role in this installment at all. However, we did see Emma and Henry learn during this episode that Archie is alive and well, and that the former Evil Queen was not guilty at all in his death. Captain Hook and Cora are now exposed as a major part of the Storybrooke community, and this means that there is going to be trouble for just about everyone moving forward on the show.

Unfortunately, their arrival in the town did come at a price. This episode was really all about Belle, and the discovery that at one point she was for more of a warrior than we ever imagined her to be. She used some of this same gumption in order to help Mr. Gold in Storybrooke take back the cloak that he needed to leave the town, but in the end she learned some rather terrible things: not only was he really responsible for Captain Hook’s path of revenge, but she saw that there was still plenty of darkness within the man. In the end, her own decision to ignore Rumple’s advice to go into hiding upon Hook’s arrival both helped and hurt her. While she helped him obtain the cloak and to free Archie, she was shot over the town limits in the process. Now, she has no memory at all; and to make matters even more chaotic, we also have a new arrival to the town who drove in via car (but not before sending Hook flying in the air).

We really have no idea what is going to happen next; but after this episode, we have to say that there is plenty of reason to be excited.

Want to know more reaction from this season of “Once Upon a Time”? If so, be sure to head over here for some thoughts on Regina from Lana Parrilla.

Photo: ABC