- Title: Once Upon a Time – Street Rats
- wiki: link
Once the Oracle turns up dead Jasmine (Karen David) is forced to reveal herself to Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and her family beginning a search for Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) and revealing the secret Emma has been keeping concerning her visions of the future. While the heroes of Storybrooke search for the lost Savior in the present the episode offers us flashbacks to Aladdin’s first meeting with Jasmine, their journey to the Cave of Wonders, and Aladdin’s first step on the road to becoming the Savior of Agrabah. Although Aladdin is eventually found, his method for avoiding the fate of all Saviors isn’t one Emma wants any part of if it would lead to Storybrooke facing the same fate of Aladdin and Jasmine’s home.
“Street Rats” parallels Aladdin’s (far shorter) reluctant journey to becoming a Savior with that of Emma. We don’t get a manic genie in this version of Aladdin’s tale, and Jafar‘s (Oded Fehr) defeat is rather anti-climactic, but the introduction of a previous Savior does give Emma a resource she’s never had in her quest to give all the inhabitants of Storybrooke their happy endings. We’re far from hearing his full story, but the introduction of a method for a Savior to avoid their fate is an intriguing one that at least one character isn’t as quick to dismiss as Emma. The B-story involving the Evil Queen‘s (Lana Parrilla) mayhem and sister bonding with Zelena (Rebecca Mader) may cause some momentary in-fighting among the heroes but ultimately is likely to be helpful with all the secrets now revealed… well, almost all.
