Once Upon a Time “Best Laid Plans” 

After wondering for weeks, we finally get the big payoff on the two biggest secrets of the season. We meet The Author and find out why he was locked away, and we finally find out the big secret that those Charming parents have been trying to keep under wraps.

Now, I have to be honest. I can’t decide whether or not I’m disappointed with The Author reveal. On the one hand, the Storybrooke residents have built him up in their minds to be this great and powerful all-seeing scribe who holds the power to grant their wishes….. and then we meet this weaselly little man who messes around with Fate just for the fun of it. It feels like a let down.

But then something occurs to me. Isn’t that exactly what the writers of Once Upon a Time are doing? Messing with Fate just for the fun of it? Twisting and reshaping each character to see what might ooze out? Have the Once writers actually just written themselves into the script?

And that thought is kind of cool.

But then I realize that those writers might all be weaselly little creepy folks and I get a little scared. After all, we’re trusting these people with our hearts, our minds, and our favorite fairy tale characters. Sure, they’ve treated us well so far, they only killed off some of the population, and only screwed over some of the characters’ love lives. But now they have introduced their little mini-me Author and forced him to force the Sorcerer’s Apprentice to force the Charmings to force Maleficent to lose her child. Oh writers, be gentle!

And as for the reveal of the big baby secret, who saw that coming? We all guessed, I’m sure, that the potential darkness was siphoned from Emma and dumped into Maleficent’s baby. But did you guess that baby’s identity? I confess, I read a post weeks ago that suggested this name, and I dismissed it out of hand. I should have known better, nothing, but NOTHING is done on this show without good reason! The funny thing is, it occurred to me back when watching “Breaking Glass” that Lilith is a well-known female demon name stretching back millennia into our past. Had the episodes aired closer together I might have guessed, but those weaselly little writers do like to trick us whenever they can.

One thing I liked very much this episode was how The Author reached out to Henry through the keyhole. It’s just another example of how Henry is special in a way we don’t yet fully realize. There’s a chance, of course, that this only happened now because the page was within sight of the key for the first time, but I choose to believe that it wouldn’t have happened this way for anyone but Henry.

Circumstances do seem a bit iffy right now, though. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice trapped The Author, but his quill was left behind. The Apprentice is now trapped in the hat, but where is the quill? If it’s in Gold’s shop — which seems likely — does anyone realize what it is, and what it’s capable of? If so, they really didn’t need The Author at all, did they? This episode has me banging my head against the wall in frustration. They showed us so much, but told us so little. I feel like I’ve been twirling around for an hour, and am still waiting for the room to stop spinning around me. Thankfully, there is a break next week to give us time to add these new facts into their appropriate boxes.

Moment of Goodness: A Mother’s Love

Maleficent continues to surprise me week after week. She has shown us the depth of her hatred for Briar Rose and Aurora. She has shown us her power as a dragon. She has shown us the strength of her magic. This week she shows us the depth of her love for her child. She had Snow White dead to rights; caught her red-handed trying to sneak away with the egg. When Snow threatened the egg, Maleficent could have incinerated them, or turned her into a toad, or frozen her and taken the egg away, or pretty much anything that can be imagined. But no, she refused to do anything that put the egg at risk, and instead she appealed to Snow as a mother, expecting the so-called hero to do the right thing. It was a beautiful moment.

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