- Title: Once Upon a Time – Page 23
- wiki: link
While Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) does some soul searching after Emma (Jennifer Morrison) discovers the pirate’s secret, the main focus of “Page 23” is the end of the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) storyline. Retrieving the Shears of Destiny, the Evil Queen uses them to separate herself permanently from Regina allowing the pair to duke it out one last time. While I’m not surprised that neither woman ends up dead, I always expected Regina to reabsorb the Queen back into herself. I’ll give the writers credit for finding a third option that allows each character to get their own happy ending and allows Regina to perform one of the most heroic acts seen on the show. Points for tying the whole thing back to the mysterious “extra” page in the storybook as well.
While the main story offers surprises, the B-story involving a moping Hook is far less interesting. Hook’s conundrum of whether both he and Emma would be better off if he left with Captain Nemo (Faran Tahir) gives the show a reason for Emma to believe his departure was voluntary. Instead the pirate will have to fight his way back to his love who now has one less piece of her support system thanks to Gideon (Giles Matthey). If the would-be Savior can’t defeat Emma one-on-one, maybe he can weaken her by taking away those she fights to protect.
