- Title: Once Upon a Time – Witch Hunt
- wiki: link
As with last week’s episode, “Witch Hunt” is split equally into current events in Storybrooke and those from one-year ago following the actions of the characters returned to the Enchanted Forest. In both storylines attacks of flying monkeys lead Regina (Lana Parrilla) to eventually discover who her unseen enemy is, although it takes far longer is Storybrooke (where characters keep disappearing) than it did in the Enchanted Forest.
Most of the flashbacks involving Regina and Robin Hood (Sean Maguire) sneaking into her former castle to take down the magical barrier, while teasing a possible relationship between the two, and allow Snow White and the others to lead an attack against the Wicked Witch of the West (Rebecca Mader). However, Regina has her own plans after destroying the protection spell involving a deep sleep for herself where she won’t have to face the emptiness of her life without Henry (Jared Gilmore). Her meeting with Zelena, and the discovery of their familial connection and the Witch’s plan to destroy her life, gives Regina something worth living for – a new enemy.
In Storybrooke Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) and Regina work together in an attempt to draw-out the person responsible for the curse while letting the rest of he population believe Regina to be at fault. Although all their plans involving making new memory potion and setting a sting for their unknown adversary fail, the discovery of the flying monkeys leads the group to guess who exactly is responsible for the reinstated curse (although not the Witch’s reasons for doing so).
Although there is still a large gap to be filled-in during the time the characters remained in the Enchanted Forest, “Witch Hunt” offers quite a bit of information including where the Wicked Witch’s animosity for Regina comes from and her plans for destroying her half-sister’s life. The episode comes to a close with the return of a captured Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) who Zelena has returned to the land of the living only to get her revenge on the man who trained her and, just as with their mother, choose instead to favor her younger sister.
