Once Upon a Time - Fall - Review: "The Perfect Episode"

“Fall” is the perfect Once Upon a Time episode. It is fast paced, it has tension balanced with great humor, drama and one incredibly poignant moment followed by a strong final shot. Over the past few weeks I’ve been talking about what the show should be and I think “Fall” is the greatest example I can think of. It’s not that OUAT didn’t have outstanding episodes before, “The Miller’s Daughter”, “Welcome to Storybrooke”, “Going on Home” and “Snow Drift/There’s no Place like Home” are also perfect OUAT episodes, but “Fall” is the one I would use as an example of the show at its best, mostly because it showcases every single one of OUAT’s strengths and none of its weak points.

One of the greatest thing about the episode lies in a subtle detail that the writers set themselves to make really funny lines whenever we went through a “transition” scene, a scene that is merely there to move the plot along. Humor is key to OUAT’s success, because the show is silly by nature the humor makes it not only passable, but also kind of great, as the writers turn one of the show weakness into one of its strengths just with a little twist on the lines. That’s really worthy of praise, and you’ll see on the stray observations some of my favorite lines from last night’s episode.

But humor alone isn’t enough to make the episode great, it is the constant tension and the inevitable sense of doom around everyone, bringing out the best and the worst of the people of Storybrooke. Fantasy is a genre which allows you to peek into deep human emotions that are not easily seen or are usually missed on your daily life, bringing them up with intense and incredible situations. The spell of shattered sight coming to town brings up a lot of stakes and a lot despair and fear to our characters, and it portrays them with grace.

Think about Snow anxiety over Elsa’s unstoppable determination to find Anna; usually Snow is sweet, kind and optimistic, but with the spell of shattered sight coming to town, she can’t hide her fear and it suddenly turns into anger; she doesn’t make a tantrum or anything like that, she just makes an angered comment, but within that subtlety we can see that something that Snow usually trying to ignore (her fear) is coming up and she shows us that she is more than just smiles and good will.

Not much really happens in this episode, it acts mostly like a prologue for next week’s “Shattered Sight”, but it does its job wonderfully.

The writers found a smart way to include Anna, Kristoff -and even Hans- into OUAT’s current timeline by explaining that Ingrid’s spell froze over Arendelle for 30 years; it makes sense and it allows to turn the flashback into a real time event, and it also makes sense that Arendelle would defrost just now as Ingrid is busy concentrating her powers on Shattered Sight.


It is great to see Anna and Kristoff kicking ass while escaping from Hans and his men on the castle -but how did Hans gathered his men so quickly? -and it is also great to see Black Beard again, who wasn’t killed by Hook after all, but saved by a mermaid. It all comes together surprisingly natural.

Meanwhile, on Storybrooke, Elsa is just about to find Anna by using the locator spell used on her necklace, but time is running short and if they can’t find Anna to help them stop the spell the fairies will have to use the necklace instead. That puts Emma and company in a tight spot, and as Regina says, they are not only heroes but leaders and they have to make tough choices sometimes. OUAT is a show that sometimes commits to overly simple solutions via magic, but this time it actually made sure to make stakes that could not be solved that easily.

Elsa tricks them so that she can use her powers to find Anna, but as she gets from the tunnels to the beach and the glow of her necklace grows dimmer, she starts losing hope and Emma grows more desperate to get back to the fairies to try and fix everything. And while this is happening, Anna and Kristoff are drowning, scared for their lives, coming in a perfect combination of love and hopelessness

Elsa talks to her necklace, trying to feel closer to Anna, and she decides not to lose hope, and she makes a wish to see her sister again, bringing Anna and Kristoff to our world. As we know, true love is the most powerful magic there is, powerful enough to pull Anna and Kristoff into our world, and the reunion of the sisters comes up in a moving way with their blabbing and hugging.

Sadly for them, it is a little too late to make use of Anna to prevent the effects of the spell as Hook already sucked them into the sorceress hat by the time they get to them.
Poor Hook has no choice but to obey Rumple since he has his heart, and the dark one is showing his darkest self; making a deal to escape town with Belle and Henry, Rumple chooses to screw the town and save himself and he uses Hook for his dirty bidding. The saddest part comes when he tells Hook that he won’t spare his life and that he has this day to live.

Meanwhile, Regina does everything she can to protect the people she loves. She warns Robin Hood and his men about the incoming spell and she locks Henry in a room, protecting him with light magic, so that he would be safe; Henry puts his trust on Regina and it turns into quite an emotional moment for the two of them, but the following one is even stronger.

Robin Hood came to see if Regina needed him to be with her, but she insist to lock herself up alone. She knows that the worst side of her is coming out with the spell and as such she can’t allow herself to hurt anyone, so she bravely decides to use her light magic to try to contain herself in there. Regina has come so far in her path to be a better person and to make good decisions that she is willing to do everything in his power to avoid hurting people. The darkness is still in her, she is aware of that, but the goodness in Regina is what makes her take this decision and as she cast the spell to lock herself up. We see how worried she is and it just hit all kinds of highlights for the character; seasons of trying to redeem herself are in shown right on this moment.

We are reaching the end of the episode: Snow and David are locked in the cells of the sheriff office while Kristoff gets handcuffed. Hook comes to say goodbye before he dies and Emma allows herself to a moment of vulnerability, she starts to tear up and she goes and kiss Hook in an incredibly touching moment. And talking about emotionally affecting moments, Snow and David hand holds until the spell reaches them and then they slowly retreat their hands, looking each other quite conflicted. Cut to black.

There was something arty about the way the spell came down and the way the last scene was shot was beyond wonderful, closing a perfect episode with the perfect ending, with a lot of symbolism and build up for next week’s episode.

OUAT is great when it is honest about who the characters are and when the stories it tells on the flashbacks have a clear connection to what is going on with the story. “Fall” does exactly that and portrays a lot of deep human emotion that just lands; it connects with fear and uses it to showcase despair and what it brings to the table, some lingering hope, panic and evil, and it does so wonderfully.

The show centered itself on one theme and it built up with it with tension and a lot of high stakes, and it didn’t shy away from the incoming disaster; instead of fixing or preventing the spell, the show allowed it to hit our characters so that it can showcase how the inevitability of it affects the people on Storybrooke and it does an amazing job on it. This is the perfect example of what a great OUAT episode is: an episode that isn’t afraid of dealing with high stakes.

Grade: A

Stray Observations:

-Regina: “Looks like that wall doesn’t care much for your brute force.”
Regina delivered some of the funniest lines on the episode, so expect to see many of her lines on these stray observations.

-Elsa: “It is a sign! A sign that we are going to win!”
Regina: “Is everyone into this hope thing now?”

-Is it me or was Emily de Ravin shaking every time she talked to Emma and Elsa? It was weird.

-Elsa: “Sometimes sentimentalism pays off.”
Emma: “Point Elsa.”

-Does Rumple have something against fairies? If so, it came pretty much without notice.

-Rumple: “If I have to choose between me and everyone else, me wins, every time.”

-Lana Parilla really killed it on his scene with Robin Hood! She really looked like she was in love with him. She is such a great actress.

-Elsa: “Do you think she is down there.”
Emma: “Regina held a dragon there for 28 years, I think she can fit a small princess.”

-Snow: “You are talking like a hero.”
Regina: “Yeah, like all you Charmings always do.”

-Kristoff: “I told you pirates were easier to deal than wizards.”
Anna: “I told you that!”

-Regina: “It will be sundown before you munchkins finish!”
Grumpy: “Dwarfs, sister.”
Regina: “Like I care!”

-Regina: “I should know better than trust blonds by now.”

-Snow: “It seems like Elsa’s blind faith is screwing us right now!”
Regina: “Coming from you that’s terrifying.”
I agree with Regina, it is terrifying (and I love it!)

-Anna: “You rolled around in gold bars? Weird. And, ouch!”

-Anna: “What a funny looking world!”
Elsa: “Right?”

-And that's it for this week! What confrontation are you looking forward the most during next week's "Shattered Sight"? For me it has to be Snow and Regina.

About the Author - Pablo

I'm currently studying Psychology while also writing fantasy books (one already published in my home country, Chile, you can check it out on the facebook icon). I watch many different types of shows, including my favorites Revenge, Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time and about 23 more. Currently writing reviews for Once Upon a Time, The 100, Community and Marry Me

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