Once Upon a Time Review: The Song in Your Heart (Season 6 Episode 20)

Going in, I was fully prepared to be unimpressed (or even embarrassed) by Once Upon a Time‘s much-hyped musical episode. Happily, I was proven wrong. So wrong.

“The Song in Your Heart” is the show’s best episode in years. It perfectly embodies everything that makes the series great — everything the show did more consistently well in its first two years. Yes, it’s more than a little bit corny, but that’s also part of the show’s particular charm.

As a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its musical episode (“Once More With Feeling,” aka, the greatest musical episode of any TV show ever) and musical theater in general, the bar was set high for Once Upon a Time to pull off something even remotely comparable. But the fantasy-drama pulls off a wholly unique musical experience that still feels organic to the season’s storyline and the show itself.

The set-up is simple enough: As with most installments of the long-running ABC show, the action is split between flashbacks and present-day Storybrooke.

The past sequences focus on a day, pre-Dark Curse, when Snow (knowing of Emma’s destiny) makes a wish for the power they need to protect their daughter and defeat the Evil Queen. Inexplicably, that lies in the power of… music.

The reasoning behind the whole “songs = POWER” conceit doesn’t exactly get explained and has literally never been a part of the show before, but I don’t even care because the cast singing these silly little songs is just so damn charming (pun not intended). (Okay, pun sort of intended.)

The reason behind the episode’s success lies in the fact that the whole bursting-into-song thing is woven into the story. It forwards the plot, deepens the character interactions, and actually manages to function as the lynchpin in the fight against the Black Fairy.

Also: Colin O’Donoghue SINGING. Oh my god.

Watching his big number (“Revenge Is Gonna Be Mine”) 5+ times has not lessened the impact, FYI. He’s legitimately very talented, and easily the best singer of the cast.

That’s not to say that the other actors are struggling. Surprisingly, quite a few of them are perfectly adept (or even very good) singers. And at the very least, they all give their big numbers their all.

Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas’s adorable duet is the first song in the episode, and fittingly, it’s all about love and lightness being the most “Powerful Magic.” It is very cute, and I’d have expected nothing less of those two. They both also do an excellent job of balancing the corniness of the song with the whole “Hey, WTF is going on with all this sudden singing?!” in the number’s opening moments.

“Powerful Magic” is also a great complement to the Evil Queen’s darker, obviously David Bowie-inspired villain song, “Love Doesn’t Stand a Chance.” Lana Parrilla doesn’t have one of the better voices in the cast, but she has a ton of fun with this song. Her enthusiasm is infectious. And, of course, I always appreciate Lana in the Evil Queen’s amazing wardrobe. Lana in Evil Queen garb dancing is just, like, an amazing bonus.

The sing-off is obviously also a highlight, despite the unavoidable goofiness of the Charmings deflecting the Evil Queen’s literal fireballs with the song in their hearts. I love how “Powerful Magic” and “Love Doesn’t Stand a Chance” are diametrically opposed, thematically, and yet fit together wonderfully, interwoven in this reprisal melody of both tunes.

The final major number in the flashback sequences belongs to Zelena. It doesn’t make a ton of sense that she, in Oz, is also affected by Snow’s song-granting wish, but Rebecca Mader has such a great voice and presence that I’m totally fine with overlooking that glaring plot hole.

It’s clear that Zelena is just shoe-horned in to the flashback sequences so that she can have a big number of her own, but “Wicked Always Wins” is such a fun song that I don’t even mind how contrived it is that Zelena decides to zip over a potion to Regina so she can prove to Rumple that she’s the better witch. (Honestly, though, it’s incredibly contrived.)

Ironically, all of the singing in the Enchanted Forest (and Oz) proves ultimately pointless — Regina uses Zelena’s little anonymous gift to break the spell easily, and the Blue Fairy tells the Charmings that the singing magic was never meant to defeat the Queen anyway.

The big “twist” (for lack of a better term) is that the power of song is something harnessed in unborn Emma’s heart for her later battle against “a much greater evil” — aka, the Black Fairy (though Blue isn’t specific about that).

The separate, present Storybrooke plot remains music-free for the majority. Instead, it focuses on Emma and Hook’s wedding day, and the Black Fairy’s ill-timed interference.

Because this show is good for nothing if not a powerful and mysterious Dark Curse, yet another new one winds up being part of Rumple’s mother’s big plan to defeat Emma. She interrupts Snow and Emma’s cute mom-daughter wedding preparations to reveal that (1) she’s alive, (2) Rumple helped her, and (3) she and Emma are still due to fight their Final Battle.

It doesn’t fully make sense why she wouldn’t have used the element of surprise to sneak up on and kill Emma, keeping her survival (and Rumple’s betrayal) a secret until she makes her move, but I’m trying really hard not to demand too much logic from this show’s villains. I should have learned my lesson with all that by now, but alas.

Though Emma obviously wants to take down the Black Fairy alone, to avoid her family and friends getting hurt, they equally obviously aren’t willing to let her go into battle solo. Zelena and Regina come up with a freezing spell that theoretically should stop the Dark Curse from taking effect, while Hook tries to disable Rumple. Unfortunately, they all play right into the Black Fairy’s hands.

After Rumple and the Black Fairy disable all of Emma’s allies, freezing them with their own spell, Emma is at the end of her rope, and after a quick pep talk from Henry, decides to sacrifice her heart to the Black Fairy (as the villain demands) in order to save everyone else. Jennifer Morrison does an all-around phenomenal job in this episode. Her performances are emotionally nuanced, vulnerable, and so moving.

In particular, her farewells to Henry and to Hook are both very touching.

Luckily, in the nick of time, Henry gets a page from the book explaining the forgotten Enchanted Forest song situation, enabling Emma to realize that ~the song has been in her heart all along~. I had to put tildes around that because, my god, it’s just so cheesy but so cute.

JMo sings her heart out with “Emma’s Theme,” which functions to both disarm the Black Fairy/prevent her from crushing Emma’s heart and to free her family from the freezing spell. Her voice isn’t flawless, but there’s so much emotion behind her performance that any missed notes are easily forgotten. A show-stopping number.

Thematically, “Emma’s Theme” is an excellent summation of her character growth and journey since the show’s first episode. Temporarily defeated, the Black Fairy angrily poofs away, vowing that the Final Battle will be “even worse” than Emma could imagine. But, actually, who even cares because, guys! Emma and Killian successfully get married!!!

I’m not 100% sure why Henry brings the storybook to the wedding as his date, but again, who cares? Captain Swan wedding!

Emma and Hook’s personalized vows are brief but lovely, including mentions of Hook and his ship and Emma’s belief that she’d never find true love. Knowing that the Black Fairy’s Dark Curse was going to hit, I half-expected it to interrupt the ceremony.

But no — Emma and Hook miraculously manage to tie the knot, and there’s even a bit of time for a big group song (“A Happy Beginning”) before the Dark Curse washes over them all, taking them to god knows where. In a great moment marking Emma’s growth this season, she’s fully confident that, with her family beside her, they’ll easily defeat the Black Fairy no matter where she takes them.

It’s one hell of a cliffhanger, and I haven’t been this excited to see the next episode of Once Upon a Time in a very long while. There’s still no word on whether this will be the show’s last season, but Emma’s arc certainly feels complete by the end of this episode. All that’s left to do is squash one pesky fairy.

Stray thoughts:

• Neither Rumple or Henry get a song of their own. I have a feeling that Robert Carlyle was just like, “Yeah… I’m not doing that, guys, sorry” when the writers brought it up to him. Though that fake-out when the Evil Queen visits him in his cell in the flashback is hilarious.
• Henry gets exactly one line of his own in the big ending group-sing, which reminds me of Alyson Hannigan’s one line in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode (because she, too, can’t actually sing).
• The whole time the Charmings are interacting with Hook during his big song, I couldn’t help but wonder why nobody ever mentioned this to Emma in the present. That’s briefly explained when the Blue Fairy confirms that no one will remember their little singing adventure.
• Emma looks beyond stunning in that wedding gown. Grace Kelly vibes like whoa.
• Hook’s black velvet tux isn’t too shabby either.
• I’m still holding out hope that Rumple is pulling some kind of long-con, but that seems unlikely after he helps his mother yet again against the Charmings et al. in this episode. It really does appear that he just selfishly looked out for his and his family’s best interests, and screw everybody else. How enormously disappointing.

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 9/8c on ABC.

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