ONCE UPON A TIME There Was … No Spark

Episode 221 “Second Star to the Right”

[Photos: Jack Rowand/ABC]

Hm. Well, now.

I’m really trying to give this show the benefit of the doubt. Most of the time, it’s pretty solid. It’s rarely bad. And at least in this episode we have some closure on some story arcs and setups to new ones going into the season finale.

I just wish they weren’t these particular setups.

We spend this episode dividing our attention between Bae’s time after he dropped through the portal, and modern time as Greg and Tamara torture Regina. Gotta say, seeing Regina getting zapped has a certain thrill to it, but when coupled with the characters of Greg and Tamara, it loses a bit in the translation. It looks like they’re going to be (at least in the beginning) our season three villains. And like Cora and Hook, they just aren’t strong enough to be very effective villains. And to add some eye-rolling on top of that, the introduction of a “secret society” that wants to eliminate magic from the world? Freemasons? The Catholic church? Toys R Us kids?

The “shadow organization” is a tired trope at this point. Fringe, Alcatraz, Eureka and Alphas all did it. Continuum is in the middle of doing it. Arrow‘s doing it. Beauty and the Beast has one, too. And it looks like we get something like it on both Defiance and Revolution. Enough, already.

Seriously. Enough.

Greg and Tamara are weak villains because we as an audience have no emotional connection to them, and that’s because they’re plot devices more than they are characters. Greg is there to be the boy that set off Regina’s desire for a child. Tamara is there for Neal to realize he needs Emma. As characters, they’re one-dimensional. And Ethan Embry just doesn’t impress me as an actor in this role. I would have preferred to see Greg Mendel a little more creepy as he tortures Regina. It just feels like he’s going through the motions. I don’t buy that he’s got any feelings at all about really finding his father. On a show where many of the best performances embrace the melodrama of the show’s premise, Mendel feels like white bread.

The other half of the episode has us following Bae as he settles into the life of a street rat in London, England, where he meets Wendy Darling. And we’re introduced to “the Shadow” — a glowing-eyed Smoke Monster (had to show up sooner or later, right?) which takes boys off to Neverland. Bae cautions Wendy and her brothers about how magic comes with a price, and actually ends up being the one to go with the Pan-Shadow in order to save Micheal and John.

Now, from the comments Greg and Tamara shared with Regina, magic has crossed over into this land before, so it’s possible that the London Bae fell into could be in the same world. But it could also be another realm, one that’s connected to Neverland. The Barrie World? It’s not entirely clear, nor is it really necessary to the establishment of the point: Bae will become Peter Pan.

So, is this what season three will be all about? Neal — having been shot by Tamara — falls into a Magic Bean Portal before Emma can pull him out. It will be a high coincidence that he just happens to get back into Neverland, since that’s obviously where we’re going next season. Which, quite frankly, I’m not sanguine about, given that Hook has been such a mealy-mouthed character so far. No potential at all. But I’m going to stipulate that yes, he’s been completely out of his element. Maybe when we see him actually in Neverland being Captain Hook he’ll improve as a character.

Maybe.

Some good work from Lana Parrilla this week, as she’s really stuck in one place with no opportunity to act with anything but her face and voice. But she chews it up, and her reactions to the torture-by-electric-shock really sell it more than Embry’s side of the scene.

[Official Show Site at ABC]     [Previous recap: “The Evil Queen”]