Recap: ONCE UPON A TIME Hercules Entered … And Left
Episode 513: “Labor of Love”
Written by Andrew Chambliss and Dana Horgan
Directed by Billy Gierhart
This one was another good episode, but with one major disappointment.
This episode had a great setup for an ongoing story for the rest of the season. But it was over by the end of the episode. Quick resolutions of subplots works well on shows like Supergirl, but Once Upon A Time is a show that thrives on its ongoing arcs. Talk about a letdown. But it was still a really good story.
On one hand, there was Killian (Colin O’Donoghue), who seemed to be experiencing the kind of Underworld that Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) described before the winter break. There was a woman (Kacey Rohl) with him who he helped to escape so she could send a message to Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and our other intrepid heroes that he was being held captive. She later turned out to be Megara.
On the other hand, it seems that Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) in her younger days (Bailee Madison) was trained to fight by her childhood friend, the Greek demigod known as Hercules (Jonathan Whitesell). The two became very close and seemed to have a romantic interest. She took a bit to learn, but her acquired abilities allowed her to stand up against thieves and unite villagers under her rule.
Hercules had his own mission, to defeat Cerberus, the three-headed dog from Hell. He died in the process. When he would attack one head, the other two would strike. But Cerberus was no match for the combined might of Snowcules! Snow, Hercules, and Megara together were able to defeat the beast. Then Hercules, along with his new found love Meg, crossed over into what in last episode appeared to be Heaven, but in this episode turned out to be Olympus. After the announcement last fall about Hercules appearing, I expected a longer story arc than just one episode. And I liked the team of Snowcules. Hopefully, they’ll bring Hercules back later on.
Also in the episode, Killian was being tortured by Hades (Greg Germann) whom Mr. Gold, now once again the Dark One, ended up making a deal with. But which one is actually making a deal with the devil? Or are they both?
And other than Henry (Jared Gilmore) making a deal with Cruella De Vil (Victoria Smurfit) while trying to retrieve files from Cora’s office, there wasn’t a whole lot going on in this episode.
It was a really good episode. I just really wish they did a lot more with Snowcules: they made for a wonderful team up.
