User Reviews

When 'Once Upon a Time' first started it was highly addictive and made the most of a truly great and creative premise. Really loved the idea of turning familiar fairy tales on their heads and putting own interpretations on them and the show early on clearly had clearly had a ball. Watched it without fail every time it came on and it was often a highlight of the week. Which was why it was sad when it ran out of ideas and lost its magic in the later seasons.

Season 2 started off very promisingly, but had a three episode dip starting with "Tallahassee" up to "Into the Deep". "Queen of Hearts" for me is the best 'Once Upon a Time' episode since "We are Both", the best Season 2 episode up to this point in the season and a Season 2 high-point. It is one of the finer examples of the enormous promise that generally Season 2 showed and started with, where everything began feeling more settled, old characters and plot lines were expanded upon and new ones were introduced with richer content.

Here in "Queen of Hearts", questions that needed to be answered are resolved, loose ends are tied up, character relationships are back on track and more interesting than they ever were, surprising revelations are made (especially the true identity of the Queen of Hearts, didn't see that one coming) and the episode does such a great job setting up what is to come and makes fans feel excited. It is not even the season finale, but is done in a way that feels like it and is the episode up to this point that most advances the plot.

Visually, "Queen of Hearts" is a very handsomely mounted episode, the best looking episode since "The Doctor". the settings and costumes are both colourful and atmospheric, not too dark or garish and never cookie-cutter. It is photographed beautifully too. The effects are not as sloppy here. The music is haunting, ethereal and cleverly used with a memorable main theme.

Humour, mysterious intrigue, charm and pathos are beautifully balanced, the corn and unintentional humour seen in the previous three episodes are not just toned down or minimalized, they are also not obvious. Some of the best lines come from Hook. The story is beautifully paced and compelling, giving every character a crucial role, showing good development to Regina, a delightful chemistry between Hook and Cora and with a lot happening without trying to do too much and still keeping focused. Aurora still needs to be more interesting but because everything else is done so well this isn't as obvious or as problematic as in her previous appearances.

Of the uniformly great performances, the standouts are Lana Parrilla's Regina/Evil Queen at her most conflicted, Colin O'Donaghue managing to make Hook even more nefarious than in "Into the Deep" and Barbara Herschey's Cora succeeding in out-bitching Regina. They are helped by that they are the most interesting characters here.

In summary, wonderful. 10/10 Bethany Cox