Once Upon a Time “White Out” 

Frightened and angry, Elsa raises an ice barrier around the town to make sure that nobody leaves until her sister Anna is found. Her barrier cuts the outside power to the town and draws Emma and David out to investigate. Emma spots Elsa amongst the snowy stalagmites and in the best spirit of a sister princess, tries to make friends. She might have succeeded, except the boys blunder in and scare Elsa into closing both women off behind the safety of ice. The cold doesn’t bother Elsa, but it has the potential to kill Emma. Despite the cold, the girls get their bonding time and emerge as friends. It’s nice to see Emma take after her mother a little. Snow White has always been a natural at seeing the best in people and bringing it to light. Emma has traditionally seen the darkness instead, no doubt from her years on the street in her youth. While Elsa has every appearance of being a threat, Emma is able to see the scared girl behind the façade. Perhaps they have more in common than they realize.

Anna has sailed safely to Misthaven and on Kristoff’s advice found David, still the young shepherd boy, who may be willing to help her. But David has problems of his own. Local bully Bo Peep is out for her monthly extortion payment and David can’t afford to pay. Under threat of slavery he considers bowing to Bo Peep’s tyranny, but Anna convinces him to fight. And a good thing too, since the next morning Anna finds herself in need of a little rescuing. Her lesson for David is that impossible battles are the ones most worth fighting, and he learns it well. In fact, he learns it so well that he carries it into every aspect of his life, proven by his commitment to Snow White and his promise that they will always find one another. It has always bothered me that when David took over the role of prince from his dead brother, he already knew how to swing a sword. It’s so nice to see the anomaly explained, even so long after the fact. It’s also nice to see him taking lessons from Anna, it puts new perspective on his future acts of derring-do knowing he was taught swordplay by a little girl.

While telling Elsa that his family will never give up the search for Anna, David unknowingly inspires Henry to fight for Regina, who has shut herself away in mourning for her relationship with Robin Hood. Henry is understandably worried that Regina will turn back to her old, evil ways. He wants to help her but doesn’t know how, and David’s speech gives Henry the push he needs to go and confront his mother. His shouting through the door that he won’t give up on her is a reminder to Regina that she isn’t really alone. Perhaps there is hope for her after all. Regina has come such a long way from the Evil Queen she once was, it would be nice to think that her love for Henry is enough to carry her through this hard time. On the other hand, watching her run amok is always fun, too, so however it plays out we’re sure to enjoy it.

With a little goading and a reminder of her responsibilities to the people of Storybrooke, Snow White finds she has a “power”-ful battle of her own to fight. Apparently the town has a generator plant and if only someone could get it working they could restore power. This may feel like a gimmick to get power back on for future episodes, but it does serve to get Snow out of her sleep-deprived new-parent funk.

When Elsa finds she can’t bring down her ice barrier it bodes a hint of danger, but nobody is expecting the emergence of a new Snow Queen (Elizabeth Mitchell). Will she hold the answers to Elsa’s questions? Will the town survive a head-to-head battle of ice and snow? It’s interesting to see Elsa make friends so soon in Storybrooke, when all hints pointed to her being the new evil in town. Hopefully this new Snow Queen will prove to be closer to the evil version as written by Hans Christian Anderson in the story that inspired the Frozen film. Then again, anyone who runs an ice cream shop can’t be all bad, right?

Moment of goodness: Little Bo Peep eats her sheep?

Call me depraved, but seeing Bo Peep as the proprietor of The Chop Shop was a real highlight. Her prowess with a meat cleaver on what was undoubtedly mutton takes the local bully that one extra step and tips her into gleeful villain. My favorite kind.

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