Once Upon A Time 7x15 Review: “Sisterhood” (Ten Steps Backward) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]

“Sisterhood” 

Original Airdate: March 30, 2018

Weirdly, the latest episode of Once Upon A Time features a story that goes backwards, both in time and in terms of plot progression. The contents of the flashbacks have no real purpose at all in regard to the overarching story of the episode. It is odd timing considering the outcome, but the whole season has been like that. At least we finally know why two of the characters have only been guest stars the entire season.

OPERATION BROMANCE

Before we dive into the flashbacks and their non-relevance to rest of the episode, let’s take a quick look at the subplot. To keep Henry distracted from trying to be with Jacinda, Lucy gets his boys back together at a pretty cool “barcade.” Henry, Hook, and Jack/Nick (who hasn’t been around for several episodes) have a nice night out trying to beat each other’s video game scores and relaxing together. Hook tries to give Henry some dating advice and gets Henry to agree to ask the next woman who walks through the door out on a date.

As fate would have it, Jacinda walks through the door. Henry is beyond happy that it’s Jacinda he has to woo because he hasn’t quite given up on her yet. They get to talking at the bar and decide to hitch their “relationship” and sanity on a coin toss ten feet across the bar counter into a glass. If Henry can sink the shot, then they have to believe in magic and everything that Lucy has been talking about. Just before the coin goes into the glass, the bartender grabs the glass and pulls it away. Henry seems to know it would go in, even though Jacinda leaves. Later that night, Jacinda tries an even harder coin toss trick at home and sinks the shot. I’m not sure what to take out of this storyline, but it will be interesting to see if any worldviews change.

GOING HOME

The bulk of the episode is dedicated to Drizella’s past and present predicaments. In the most useless flashbacks of the season, we see angsty Drizella plotting the curse with Gothel. Since Gothel is evil, she recruits Drizella to join her witch coven. Everything with Gothel comes with a catch, and Drizella is surprised to find out that she is competing with other young witches for a spot in the coven. After lots of talking and no development, Drizella meets, bonds with, and then kills Gretel (another incarnation of the Hansel and Gretel fairytale) to satisfy Gothel’s requirements.

All of that comes at a really weird time because we already know that Drizella has always been a terrible person. Anything about how the curse was created should have been shown in the first half of the season. Back in Seattle, the newly dubbed Candy Killer — a.k.a. the person killing witches — almost takes Drizella’s life. She escapes and goes to Regina for help, yet gets sidetracked when Dr. Facilier turns up to take advantage of her. Anastasia is missing, and everyone is looking for her for different reasons.

Facilier tells Drizella that he will give her a magic bean so she can go back to her realm... but only if she delivers Anastasia to him so he can kill her. The alternative is that Gothel will find Anastasia and also kill her, so why not get something good out of her death? Drizella decides that she will help Facilier and captures Anastasia. Things go wrong quickly, leading Anastasia to practically kill Drizella for her betrayal. Gothel also shows up just to make things more fun, but the sisters’ bond turns out to be more powerful than anything else.

Drizella decides that she can’t go through with letting Anastasia be murdered, which leads Anastasia to realize that her sister has changed. Facilier and Gothel seem to disappear during a commercial break, just in time for Regina and Rumple to show up to see Drizella and Anastasia go back to the fairytale realm. It looks like this is the last we will see of the sisters, even though Drizella’s curse has yet to be broken.

Interestingly, Facilier decides to play good guy for a few minutes and tells Regina that he wasn’t actually trying to kill Anastasia. He did siphon some of her magic and infused it into some powder. He gives Regina the magic powder as a gift of good will, but I’m sure there will be a secret string attached down the road.

THE CANDY KILLER 

The important part of the episode doesn’t technically play out until the end, but it’s clear as day from the opening minutes. The Candy Killer’s identity is revealed quickly through his manly grunts, stature, and actions when trying to kill Drizella. Plus, seeing Nathan Parsons’ name appear on the guest starring list before the Candy Killer appeared on screen pretty much was a dead giveaway. If you didn’t figure it out when he attacked Drizella or during the weird conversations with Hook and Henry during boys’ night, the Candy Killer is none other than Jack/Nick. The real questions are: How is he awake, and how has he been flying under the radar this long? Maybe it’s because he hasn’t appeared on the show in a few weeks, leaving him with plenty of time to kill some witches.