Once Upon a Time Review: A Wondrous Place (Season 6 Episode 15)

Gideon’s plan takes a new turn, as Jasmine comes face-to-face with her nemesis once again on Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 15.

When we left off with Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 14 — one of the best episodes (if not the single best episode) of the season, if you ask me — Regina’s storyline (and Robin 2.0’s) had been wrapped up in a neat bow. Regina’s darker half had been sent to a place she could start over (Robin 2.0’s wishverse), where it was implied that the not-so-evil Queen (now with a mix of Regina’s goodness and her own badness) would find a fresh start and romance with Fake-Robin.

Things were less tidy for Emma and Killian, who rapidly went from newly-engaged bliss to a forced separation on last week’s “Page 23.” Are all these separations for Captain Swan reminding anybody else of a certain other oft-separated couple on this show…?

At the very least, Hook’s secret — about killing Emma’s grandfather/David’s father, back when he was a scoundrel — is out of the bag. I’m glad they didn’t excruciatingly draw that out. David’s obviously not pleased with Hook, but he’s also not apoplectic. In a brief scene, we see the aftermath of Emma revealing the truth to her father, at the same time she reports back that Hook has (apparently skipped town).

As the viewers know, that’s not the case at all. In the closing moments of “Page 23,” Hook decides to make his way back to Emma to make things right, before Gideon commandeers Nemo’s submarine in order to get Hook out of the way.

In the last scene of “A Wondrous Place,” we find out exactly why Gideon needed Hook out of Storybrooke — he intends, now, to manipulate the Savior to do his bidding for him, rather than kill her and steal her powers. Which is…an improvement, I guess?

But let’s back up and start at the beginning.

The primary focus of “A Wondrous Place” — as is made clear by the title, a reference to Aladdin‘s signature song “A Whole New World” —is Agrabah. In particular, it’s Aladdin and Jasmine’s quest to find Jasmine’s missing kingdom.

Along the way, they encounter Ariel, who Jasmine has a past with, and we learn exactly what went down between Jasmine and Jafar when Agrabah fell.

Overall, I’m pretty underwhelmed with how the Aladdin-Jasmine-Jafar arc played out. Nothing about it is particularly inventive or interesting. But one thing I do like is that Jasmine, not Aladdin, is unambiguously the hero in this version of events.

Aladdin may have been the Savior once, but it’s Jasmine who saves the day. I also appreciate that they gave her a nuanced backstory, where her failure to realize Jafar’s true plan — to steal the jewel of Agrabah to imprison the kingdom in it, not to marry Jasmine — inadvertently causes Agrabah’s downfall.

Jasmine manages to find her courage and defeat Jafar once and for all in a very cathartic scene, with some help from her old friend Ariel, using one of his potions against him to turn him into a very creepy walking stick. Seriously, was anyone else completely weirded out by the visual of the stick?

To be honest, I’m not crazy about Ariel’s inclusion in this installment. It doesn’t feel organic, at all, to me. It seems that she’s shoe-horned in for two reasons — (1) yet another gratuitous Disney princess “crossover” moment and (2) to give Hook the conch shell allowing him to get word back to Emma that he didn’t actually leave Storybrooke of his own volition.

I certainly like Joanna Garcia Swisher and her portrayal of the little mermaid we all know and love, but it feels like something more could have been done with her to warrant her appearances in both the flashbacks and present narrative.

Oded Fehr is a great Jafar, and if anything, I’m most disappointed in the fact that we didn’t get nearly enough of him. Jasmine turns him into a stick and unleashes Agrabah from his jewel-imprisonment using True Love’s Kiss with Aladdin (how convenient!), so I’m guessing that’s it for his arc this season. Oh, well.

A side effect of the Agrabah plot is to strand Hook in a land far away from Emma.

Ariel is able to take off for wherever whenever she damn well pleases (perks of being part fish?), but it appears that Hook’s journey back to Emma will take a bit longer. I’m intrigued to see who Hook manages to find in Agrabah that will help him make his way back to Storybrooke.

Thank goodness Hook manages to get word back to Emma via Ariel’s shell about the fact that he didn’t mean to leave. Seeing Emma so sad and depressed over their apparent breakup is awful. I half-expected the shell communication to be a near-miss, so it’s a pleasant surprise that Hook actually does make it through to Emma to assure her that he’ll find his way back.

Of course, Hook doesn’t know that Emma hears him, so that’s another issue altogether.

Despite how heart-wrenching it is to see Emma in pain over Hook, Regina and Snow taking Emma to burn off steam/drink away her sorrows/trash talk that scoundrel pirate is easily the hour’s best plot.

Drunk Snow White, anybody?

She’s got a toddler and a sleeping curse at home, okay? She needs this. I love when they allow Ginnifer Goodwin to unleash her sassy/funny side as Snow White.

The scenes at Aesop’s Tables (best restaurant name EVER, by the way) provide great comic relief — particularly how quickly Snow gets sloshed and her subsequent challenge to those guys I’m pretty sure are supposed to be vikings? — but the end result is less than funny.

Who knew that crying over a breakup into a napkin can be harnessed into a magic spell to keep your fiancé in another realm? Apparently, them’s the breaks when you’re the Savior.

It’s such a classic Once Upon a Time contrived plot device. Have we ever heard of Savior tears having this effect before? Why would another villain not have attempted to use this hack in the past? Or is this some Gideon next-level magic, learned from the Black Fairy?

In any case, by posing as Aesop, Gideon gets his hands on Emma’s tears, thereby insuring he can keep Hook away and that she’ll do what he asks so she can get her pirate back. And what Gideon wants is Emma to kill his evil grandmother.

I’m not fond of the fact that Gideon’s decision not to kill Emma happens off-screen. I mean, that’s a significant development for his character. The show’s made a huge deal of the fact that he’s willing to murder for the greater good (or what he perceives as the greater good), so it feels like a cop-out for him to have the realization that he shouldn’t do it off-screen.

And what even was it that changed his mind? Rumple? Belle? Who knows, because those two are completely absent from the action on “A Wondrous Place”  — and “Page 23” before it.

I’m looking forward to seeing our heroes encounter the Black Fairy and to see Gideon be brought into the fold as a good guy, but the way it all unfolded definitely leaves something to be desired.

Stray thoughts:

• The set design for Agrabah was capital-b Bad. Just painfully awkward.
• Despite being underwhelmed with Ariel’s appearance, her jittery carpet ride with Jasmine is a lot of fun. Bad CGI and all.
• I hate how grumpy Hook is at the beginning of this episode, particularly when Aladdin is trying to get some advice about Jasmine. He’s so mean! And Aladdin is so sheepish and adorable about loving Jasmine. I get that Hook is stressed about Emma, but he snaps at basically everyone for the first half of the episode. Not cute.
• Bon voyage, Other Liam. We hardly knew ye.
• Regina’s hair looks FIERCE in this episode.

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

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

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