Once Upon a Time “A Tale of Two Sisters” 

Once again we are not disappointed as Once Upon a Time picks off immediately where it left off last season. Elsa (Georgina Haig), the ice queen from Frozen, has been pulled through the portal after Emma and Hook, escaping her imprisonment in Rumplestiltskin’s dark vault. How she came to be in the dark vault is still unknown, but if she followed Anna’s (Elizabeth Lail) very badly timed trip to Misthaven a.k.a. the Enchanted Forest, we can guess the nature of her encounter with the Dark One.

Fans of Frozen will be delighted with Elsa and Anna and their easy, effervescent relationship. Their story continues where the animated film left off and also adds some backstory details on the loss of their parents. As always, Once has done a fine job on both casting and costuming so the fairytale sisters are very much like their animated counterparts. To add icing to an already decadent cake, Kristoff (Scott Michael Foster) and Sven (Jack the reindeer) are also present in the flashback scenes and add a very entertaining dimension to life in Arendelle.

All is not fun and snowball fights in Storybrooke though, as Regina is forced to pay for the choice that Emma made in the past. Things appeared to finally be going well for Regina, her happy ending in sight with the dashing Robin Hood, but the woman Emma rescued has turned out to be Marian, Robin Hood’s wife and mother of his son.  The old Regina may have simply done away with the woman, but the new and kinder person she has become doesn’t have that luxury.  Although she still plots and connives to arrange a solution in her favor, to her credit she doesn’t put her plot into action.  At least not yet.

Belle and Mr. Gold, freshly married, are off on their honeymoon. Belle has found a modest castle, which she says appeared in Storybrooke after the last curse and remains unclaimed. She is excited at the prospect of spending her first days with Gold in such a magnificent place, but Gold is not so sure. An odd box catches his attention, and we realize he knows something about the owner. (We later see him open the box to produce the starry hat from Fantasia’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.)

When Belle shows him the ballroom, he takes the opportunity to have their first dance as husband and wife. Naturally the music playing is “Tale as old as time…” as Gold snaps on the familiar chandelier and transforms their clothing to match the Beauty and the Beast film. Some may find the scene a little heavy-handed with Disney references, but it also serves to demonstrate clearly that Belle has achieved the happy ending she deserves. Considering that this show thrives by shaking Disney’s animated apple tree to see how things may land in the real world, it’s a lot of fun to see them point back to the stories we grew up with and show them coming true.

Moment of Goodness: Sven steals the show

I confess, Sven stole the show for me.  They did such a good job of filming his snorting and huffing to make it appear as though he were speaking to Kristoff, and that moment when he looked straight at the camera made me giggle out loud. Well done!

Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8/7c on ABC.