Rapunezel was never a character that I found that intriguing while growing up and even looking back on that story as an adult, it still doesn’t hold up to me. However, bringing in this character to Once Upon a Time as a one-shot actually worked out better than expected. The episode was mostly, if not completely, focused on Charming which was a nice change because it has been a while since they focused a lot on him. This wasn’t’ really the first time that Charming displayed a fear of not being able to be a good father for Emma.
One of the deepest moments in “The Tower” was actually the first scene when Charming dreamed about Emma telling him that he failed her. While Jennifer Morrison looked beautiful in that dress, it’s still weird everytime Emma dresses differently. That scene and the episode overall made us realize that Charming has really suffered a lot as a father, just as much as Snow White. This is however one of the rare times when they actually showed it more from his persepctive.
But they went deeper into it and because Zelena does rely a bit on fear from these characters, that theme will come and play a bigger part than it ever has previously. The idea of having to fight your deepest fear in the shape of yourself was a cool concept and prior to seeing this episode, we had no idea what that cloaked creature was.
Mader continues to own it as Zelena/Wicked and while we do hope to see her reveal a certain green part of herself to the main characters, they are doing a good job with making the heroes fall for her act. It remains to be seen for how long she will be able to keep her cover until one of the characters actually discovers her real identity. They continued to tease why Zelena brought Rumple back to begin with and the scene between them in the stormcellar got so intimate that we really thought that she would just start making out with him.
The cliffhanger at the end was a big surprise because we didn’t expect that Rumple would break out so early. It goes without saying that you can’t keep Rumple locked up forever, but this was almost too early. We can’t wait to see where he went when we see the next episode on Sunday and it would be nice to get more scenes of him in that one.
Despite that we are clearly in the minority when it comes to this subject, the whole thing between Hook and Emma is still something that I’m not really into. It’s not that the actors doesn’t have chemistry with each other because they do, but it’s not something that I feel invested in. We enjoy them more as allies rather, but who knows, maybe they will turn us around at some point.
Overall, “The Tower” fell a little bit when it comes to the story’s quailty, but as always, the actors were on their A-game, the arc is definitely moving forward as we get closer to the season finale (which will a 2-hour finale on Sunday, May 11). The best part of “The Tower” was that they focused more on Charming and went deep into his mind.
It’s also one of Josh Dallas’s best episode this season and hopefully we will have at least one more episode this season that will focus a lot on him again. Whenever they have the spotlight on Charming, we always enjoy it and a lot of that can esepcially be seen in the first half of the season and will hopefully be shown here in the second hald as well.
Once Upon a Time airs on Sunday nights, 8/7c on ABC.
[Photo via Jack Rowand/ABC]
