Recap: ONCE UPON A TIME Aladdin Became A Weapon

Episode 610 “Wish You Were Here”
Written by Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis
Directed by Ron Underwood

In this episode, there was a genie, an abduction, and an alternate universe. Overall, this was a good episode and a good winter finale. But there are a couple of things that annoyed me.

 

The first is that the tactic of using genie wishes on others to circumvent the magic backlash (always a price to pay) was picked up on so quickly and often without any setup. Dramatically, someone should have gotten burned for everyone to have learned the lesson. Instead, everyone knew the issue right off the bat.

The other issue is the main topic of the season (Emma’s vision) keeps getting upstaged and buried by the subplots. In previous seasons, subplots either supported the overall arc or at least worked alongside without drowning it out. Not this time. Luckily, this episode redeemed that.

Now that we’ve gotten the things that annoy me out of the way, let’s get to the rest of it.

Emma and Regina found the Evil Queen kneeling by Robin Hood’s grave, infuriating Regina. Emma took the vision sword out and cut EQ on the cheek. The injury wasn’t echoed on Regina’s cheek. The sword can harm one without affecting the other.

So EQ summoned Aladdin, now a genie, to grant Emma her wish to never have been the Savior. And Emma was transported away to an alternate realm. Later, Regina tracked down the EQ. Knowing that they were the same person, and that wished couldn’t be undone, made the wish to Aladdin to transport her to the same place he sent Emma. And she disappeared.

David confronted the EQ and got her into a fight, just long enough to grab the lamp. He wished to Aladdin that she be given exactly what she deserves. Nothing seemed to happen. So he gave the lamp to Jasmine so that she could wish them to Agrabah, which she did. She and Aladdin disappeared.

Mr. Gold wasn’t able to locate his son. As a sign of good faith, he released the bonds he put on Belle, and the two agreed to work together to find him. At the convent, they found the Mother Superior in bad shape. She revealed that their son had been taken by the Black Fairy.

EQ saw a flash of light inside Granny’s and the hooded figure from Emma’s vision came out. The hooded person turned EQ into a snake, giving her what she deserved. He went to Gold’s shop and revealed himself to Gold and Belle. He was their son, Gideon, all grown up.

Off in Wishworld, Emma was a princess in the Enchanted Forest with an elderly King Charming and Queen Snow White. She had no knowledge of Storybrooke. And Regina showing up frightened everyone since they had apparently long since defeated their version of the Evil Queen. So with the help of that world’s Rumpelstiltskin, she needed to pretend to be the Evil Queen again in order to jog her memory about being the Savior. And in exchange for his help providing a magic bean that would allow them back into the real world, he would get his freedom.

At Henry’s knighting ceremony, Regina showed up and kidnapped David and Snow. Emma showed up at the Evil Queen’s castle where Regina had the two. But instead of standing up and fighting Regina, Emma offered her the key to the kingdom and surrendered. Then Henry showed up to try to be the bold and daring knight. He was eager to kill Regina. Apparently, his behaving like Emma never wanted him to was enough to jog her memory and she realized it wasn’t real.

By the river, they activated the magic bean which opened up a portal. But then Wishworld’s Robin Hood showed up, distracting Regina. And they missed their chance to return.

 

So unlike other seasons, the winter finale wasn’t the end of one story and the start of a new one. Instead, it’s a cliffhanger that is meant to hold us over for three months until the remaining five (yes, FIVE!) episodes left on this season’s calendar. And March can’t get here soon enough.

 

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