Once Upon a Time Review: Sisters (Season 5 Episode 19)

This is the best episode of Once Upon a Time in quite a while. “Sisters” is by far one of my favorites of the season and easily my favorite of the Underworld arc thus far.

A lot of the strength of “Sisters” has to do with its focus on Regina and her family. Regina has always been one of the strongest characters of the series, so any Once installment that allows for more focus on her is a winner in my book. It’s also the first episode in several seasons to make me legitimately emotional. If you try to tell me you didn’t tear up at Cora’s goodbye even a little bit, you’re a damn liar.

I am rarely a fan of flashback sequences. Some shows overuse them to the point of uselessness (here’s looking at you, Arrow), while others allow them to overshadow and detract from the main, present timeline. The use of flashbacks in Lost was probably consistently the best I’ve seen in a television series, so it makes sense that Once, created by the same writers, would do well with flashbacks.

This season, I’ve generally not been a big fan of the flashbacks. They’re either repetitive, showing us a scene that, while technically new, just reasserts a moral or lesson that the character has already learned… or just straight-up boring. The flashback sequence in “Sisters” is neither of those.

There’s a fantastic retcon at the center of the flashbacks, establishing that Zelena and Regina actually have met before, back in the pre-Dark Curse Enchanted Forest.

Young Regina, desperately bored because her mother (who is, essentially, a workaholic and literally heartless at this point) won’t spend any time or play with her, gets into trouble by opening up Cora’s wand box, which was spelled by Cora to keep anyone except blood relations out. Playing with the wand knocks little Regina out, and the only person who can save her is another magically-inclined blood relative. Enter Zelena.

It’s actually shocking to see just how little Cora cares for anyone but herself (including both daughters) until you recall that Cora had ripped out her own heart and was operating heartless for basically all of Regina’s life. The two sisters have an immediate bond, despite not knowing (at first) that they are actually related, which is both sweet and heartbreaking to see.

Who knows how differently things would have turned out had Cora allowed Zelena to remain with them, as a family, at that point? Cora’s reasoning for keeping the two apart is that the reveal of an illegitimate daughter (Zelena) would destroy the family’s reputation and any chance Regina had at making a worthwhile match and gaining power as queen. Of course, young Regina doesn’t care about any of this–she only wants to keep her sister– so, naturally, Cora ends up erasing Zelena and Regina from each other’s minds.

The flashback sequence is really fantastic. It also works to establish that, apparently, Zelena was far more naturally gifted with magic than Regina was, which is an interesting development. Little Zelena basically lays her hands over little Regina’s inert body and instantly starts healing her with no instruction from Cora. I love that impressed look that Cora shoots her way.

The present-day Zelena/Regina/Cora storyline in the Underworld is equally strong, if not stronger, than the flashbacks.

Zelena is smartly wary about Hades and, interestingly, is not interested in being a villain with him. She hesitates when he tells her his plan to escape the Underworld with him and abandon everyone else in the Underworld for eternity, taking her daughter with them.

As she tells Regina, she believes she can help save Hades as Regina and Robin helped one another, restarting his heart and helping him be good via the power of love. At this point, Zelena clearly wants to be good (for her daughter’s sake, if nothing else). She’s had great character development over the course of this season.

Regina is also smartly wary about the chances of Zelena helping Hades recover and becoming a good guy. With help from the team, she rescues Cora from her Hades-induced torture-by-straw-gathering and enlists her mother’s assistance in resolving the Zelena/Hades problem. Cora, nothing if not consistent, decides that the best course of action is to betray Zelena once again by force-feeding her a memory potion, causing her to forget Hades entirely and eliminating any chance of a True Love’s Kiss between the two.

I have to say, I’m mighty disappointed that Regina goes along with this plan. It seems pretty obvious that tricking Zelena is a great way to get Zelena royally pissed off at her. Zelena is obviously very intelligent, so it should have come as no shock whatsoever when she reveals that she knows what Cora is planning to do to her.

The entire sequence when Cora reveals that Zelena and Regina had met in the past and that Regina desperately wanted to keep her sister with her is fantastic. The present-day performances are absolutely heart-wrenching–easily some of the strongest of the season.

Cora’s moving-on scene is also a winner and long overdue. Cora was once a really strong villain, but she has definitely overstayed her welcome at some point. Now that she’s had her big send-off, the character is finally put to rest.

The scene itself is just fantastic, as she says her goodbyes to both of her daughters and tells them she loves them. It’s definitely a credit to the writing that I felt both Regina’s and Zelena’s pain. Was anyone else’s heart in their throat as they watched Cora walk across the bridge and seriously thought she was going to be pulled down to hell? I mean, Cora has done some awful things, so it would have been completely fair if she’d gone to a worse place rather than a better one.

Regardless, I’m glad Cora wound up walking into the light and not getting pulled down into a pit of flames. It is a great way to resolve her redemption arc. I’m also glad that this scene precipitates Regina and Zelena making amends, with Regina encouraging Zelena to go to Hades.

Of course, Zelena’s plan to help redeem Hades is cut short, thanks to Rumple and his father.

I’m not surprised that Pan reemerges as a player in this storyline. They nicely set up Pan’s reemergence at the beginning of the arc, when Rumple finds him in his shop. I have absolutely no idea what Rumple and Pan’s plan is for Zelena and that definitely intrigues me. My best guess is that they’ll try to use Zelena as leverage to get Hades to lift the contract giving him claim to the Rumbelle baby. I really hope that it’s Regina who rescues her sister and not Hades. After all this time, I want to see the relationship between the two sisters continue to grow, and that would be a great way to do it.

Meanwhile, even without Snow White in the Underworld, another boring Charming subplot flourishes as evil twin James pulls a Parent Trap with an unwitting David.

Apparently, this is all a part of Cruella’s plot to escape the Underworld, a plot that she’s roped her boytoy James into. I like Cruella as a villain, but this subplot is incredibly lame. She sends James-as-David in to retrieve Zelena’s baby from Robin, planning to give the infant to Hades in exchange for her freedom from the Underworld. I’m not sure why Cruella is so confident that this plan will work and that Hades wouldn’t just take the baby and toss her and evil James into the River of Souls. Huge lapse in judgment on Cruella’s part.

On top of all of the other tomfoolery in this subplot, the David/James fight scene is terribly choreographed. Like, I am legitimately embarrassed while watching this scene. It’s a huge weak spot in an otherwise very strong episode. I’m not sad that James got River of Soul’d, though the way it happens is extremely derivative of exactly what Belle did to Gaston a few episodes back.

Other thoughts:

• The entire opening sequence of Zelena and Hades’ date is really artistic–the music, the lighting, the cinematography. All of it is great.
• I’m glad that the next episode appears to be Captain Swan-heavy. Emma and especially Killian have totally gotten shafted this half-season! The entire arc is initially about rescuing Hook and yet all he’s done since being recovered by the team is be crotchety about everything.
• Barbara Hershey, Rebecca Mader, and Lana Parrilla all look stunningly gorgeous in this episode. Their performances are also all top notch, particularly the scene between Cora and Zelena, and Cora’s farewell.
• I love the recurrence of “I will find you,” this time spoken by young Regina to young Zelena.
• The musical score in this episode is lovely.
• James locking David in his own prison proves that both twins are equally dumb. Seriously, the brains in that gene pool are lacking.

What did you think of this episode of Once Upon a Time? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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

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