Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Once Upon A Time 6x14 Review: “Page 23” (Talking to Myself) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]


“Page 23”
Original Airdate: March 26, 2017

Things have gone sideways in Storybrooke, as multiple characters have spontaneously changed their ways. “Page 23” is another confusing episode that might leave you wondering what just happened and what is coming next. Along with some odd flashbacks and weird appearances by long-forgotten characters, this episode is trippy from start to end.


WHERE DID YOU COME FROM? 


The first oddity of the episode is some random characters coming back from the Once Upon A Time graveyard, as they haven’t appeared on the show for quite some time. In the flashback scenes, both Tinkerbell and Regina’s father show up for really no good reason. The entire flashback story of the episode didn’t quite fit with everything else. There was no reason to take a third of the episode to describe with backstory that Evil Queen Regina, from the Enchanted Forest days, hated herself more than anyone else. It was a waste of time that didn’t add any content to the present day Storybrooke scenes.

Captain Nemo from the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea episode also shows up briefly, which also didn’t make sense. From the promo for the next episode and the ending to this episode, it seems that there is another pointless episode involving the Nautilus and its crew. I didn’t even know that Nemo was still in town, as it hasn’t come up since that one episode how many months ago? Whatever is in store for the next episode, it is sure to be useless.


WAIT, WHAT? 


Even more confusing than random characters showing up briefly was the Evil Queen and Regina face-off that was the capstone of the episode. To bring back another forgotten story element, the Evil Queen has decided to dig up the fate scissors to cut the tie between her and Regina to finally defeat Regina once and for all, muahaha. What could possibly go wrong? Regina surprises everyone by putting her differences aside with the Evil Queen and sharing her love and goodness with her other half.

Regina combines their hearts, which immediately turns the Evil Queen into a decent person. For someone who was so evil, it didn’t seem realistic that she would have such a change of heart right away, no pun intended. The Evil Queen and Regina may be two separate people, but they are practically the same now. They have this very weird and unsettling conversation where they are incredibly cordial to each other, which was also shocking.

So, the Evil Queen is no longer evil and wants to find her own happy ending by getting a fresh start. She winds up back in the Wish World she created with the new version of Robin, where they get a chance to rewrite history and be together. This felt like the end of a major arc and the end of both Robin and the Evil Queen’s stories. It is nice to know that some form of Regina and Robin will get a happy ending together, even if we don’t get to experience it firsthand.


OVERREACTIONS 


The other major character changes come from Storybrooke’s newly engaged couple. Hook has gone into full freak-out mode, feeling incredibly guilty for hiding the truth that he murdered David’s father in cold blood from Emma and her family. Unlucky for Hook, his spiraling becomes worse when Emma finds him trying to destroy the memory by burning a dreamcatcher that conveniently plays the memory back just as she enters the room. Emma also goes off the deep end, and gives Hook back the engagement ring because he didn’t lean on her for support while struggling with the realization of who he murdered all those years ago.

In my opinion, Emma seriously overreacts because she isn’t even mad that Hook killed her grandfather. She doesn’t understand why Hook didn’t want to confide his true feelings about it (he wanted to deal with it himself first before burdening everyone else with the truth). Apparently, Emma has become petty overnight, which she will definitely regret in the next episode. Hook has been trying to figure out a way to right his wrong and wants to make everyone happy to be accepted into Emma’s family. He keeps getting kicked down when he tries to redeem himself. His soul searching takes a little too long, and he gets kidnapped, to a degree, on the Nautilus to set up the crazy plot for the upcoming episode.

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