Recap: ONCE UPON A TIME Mirrors Did More Than Reflect

Episode 608 “I’ll Be Your Mirror”
Written by Jerome Schwartz and Leah Fong
Directed by Jennifer Lynch

In this episode, there were a wand, a dragon, and a whole lot of mirrors. It’s unusual to see an episode that didn’t have even a single flashback. And it’s a good thing too. An occasional break from time jumps is refreshing.

Snow (Gennifer Goodwin) and David (Josh Dallas) seem to be doing fairly well with their Ladyhawke-like situation. They started tag-teaming their lives and time with the baby. It showed the depth of their commitment with one cooking for the other before tagging off, and leaving video messages for each other. And it’s started to take its toll. Snow, though, figured out that the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) was watching them through a mirror on the wall.

Regina (also Lana Parrilla) got the idea to trap the EQ in the mirror world. She enchanted a mirror to capture the villain. Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) was used as bait to attract her to the beach. Then when Henry disappeared and Regina and Emma (Jennifer Morrison) tried using the mirror, it didn’t work. EQ switched the mirrors and trapped them instead. She then took the place of Regina and convinced the others that Emma had gone to New York to seek out the Dragon. Meanwhile, the two were in a mirror world where they could do nothing more than look at the real world through people’s mirrors.

It didn’t take long for Henry to catch on. As much as I criticize their use (or lack thereof) of Henry, he showed his capability in this one. I still wish they had made him drunk with power as the Author, but they never seem to want to make him a villain. However, if they can keep him clever and relevant, I’ll accept that. He saw through EQ’s disguise and, with Violet’s (Olivia Steele Falconer) help, got to the vault to try to find a way out for Regina and Emma.

In the Mirror Universe, Regina and Emma found the Dragon (Tzi Ma), who, had been sent there by the Evil Queen. He found a back door out, but it was a broken mirror which had to be re-assembled. While they were working on it, EQ, with the Dragon’s heart, commanded him to turn into a full dragon and attack them. Regina tried to tempt Henry with power from a magical hammer she acquired from Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle). When he refused, she got mad and threw the hammer which broke the mirror and freed Regina and Emma.

Not trusting Gold, Belle (Emilie de Ravin) decided to skip town. She employed the help of Zelena (Rebecca Mader) to do it. They got Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) to break in to the pawn shop and steal the magic wand she would need to escape. He barely escaped being caught, but saw Gold spinning straw into gold on a spinning wheel. He also got the wand. Gold ended up taking the wand back from Zelena and putting a gold bracelet that he was weaving on Belle; this would allow him to track her wherever she went. But he wasn’t able to harm Zelena. So EQ and Rumple decided to work together to get revenge, Rumple wanting the EQ to get Zelena for him.

Another good episode. I like the fact that they’re continuing to move through subplots quickly and not stretching them out. Unfortunately, the main plot about the Savior once again has taken a back seat, just getting a couple of small mentions.. Hopefully they’ll get back to having it back in the forefront soon.

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