Once Upon a Time Season 5 Episodes 13 & 14 Review

Episode 13: Labor of Love

We get  Hercules and Megara in the episode however Hercules follows his original myth more and Megara is a seemingly normal girl. Both of them were killed by Cerberus and are in the Underworld. Not sure what Megara’s unfinished business was, the show doesn’t say but her only personality type is afraid of the hellhound and not too filled with hope. Enter Snow who was a childhood friend of Hercules who taught her how to fight and stand up to ruffians. She and Herc have a childhood attraction and a kiss. It was nice to see young Snow again.  

Cruella makes an appearance and asks Henry to find the author’s quill he broke to restore her to life. Apparently the quill is a living entity and it’s in the Underworld too and its whole existence is unfinished business.     

Hercules and Megara do get to move on to a paradise which is Mt.Olympus. It would have been nice if they were recurring characters like Hades.  Why does Hades whisper almost all his lines? It’s distracting. Is he Jimmy Whispers?  It’s curious though that Hades is close to his Disney movie counterpart but Hercules was close to his myth. Though Regina called him “Wonder-Boy,” so there is that.  Megara was a glorified name drop as she doesn’t resemble her Disney counterpart or her myth where she was the daughter of King Creon of Thebes and Hercules’ first wife. Although Hercules didn’t start his labors till after Megara’s death. They did get the first and last of Hercules‘ labors correct though according to the myth Hercules strangled the Nemean lion not torched his fur. But they got the fur right.

Doesn’t really matter if they got the myth corrects or not, it’s interesting that something like Brave was literally forced into a narrative and was pretty much a sequel/ prequel like Frozen was but Hercules was done in one episode like Rapunzel.  I wish knew their thought process on picking which Disney movie to work with and how close to make them to the movies. Box-office returns seem to help. Though with Hercules they did both methods with the characters.  Though I hope the show does add a bit of Hades’ myth, like have Persephone in the show.

Speaking of Hades, how does this Underworld work? Do Storybrooke/Enchanted Forest people die often with unfinished business?  A bunch of Dark One get a Real World Visa and Hades doesn’t care but three souls  leave and he goes into vindictive mood? What are souls in Hades’ ambition? In the movie, Hades didn’t care about the souls as he wanted to rule Olympus.

His motivation thus far is keeping the souls put which means there will be more flaming hair and hope speeches.  Or he has some other plan.

Also Snow dropped the identity of Mary Margaret, which should have happened while ago.

This was an  enjoyable episode. Sure Hercules and Megara are relegated to one episode but there was at least and arc with them as they both faced their fear and saved each other. The past section was nice and tied in well to the Underworld plot.  It was a solid episode.

 

Episode 14: Devil’s Due

This is a Rumple focused episode. Rumple finds out that Belle is pregnant and wants to get back to her. He then decides to be helpful in the Hook’s recuse and enlists his ex-wife’s, Milah, for help. Turns out Emma has been with all the men Milah has really loved, Hook and Neal. Kinda of messed up but Milah lets it go and helps Emma save Hook even though she knows Hook loves Emma now. As Emma is recusing Hook, Milah and Rumple are watching the boat, Hades makes a deal with Rumple. Hades will “poof” him home if he destroys the boat. He does but  Hades enacts an old contract that Rumple made with some healer to save Baelfire from a snake bite in exchange for his second born child. Milah was none too happy about that as Rumple sold her future. Hades now owns the contract, so he going to make Rumple work for him. Also Milah got pushed into the River of Lost Souls, she really didn’t deserve that fate.

It is curious that Rumple was always making deal to get babies but then he thought he voided the contract when he killed the healer but deals don’t get voided with death. The legal matters in this show are crazy. It’s an interesting plot development design to give reason for while Rumple was originally after babies in the first two seasons as is in the case with his fairy tale but he thought he had voided it anyway, so why was he after babies?. Bit weird though this development explains what pushed Milah to Hook whom she met in this episode and Rumple’s motivation to work with Hades. Still hate Hades.  

In other plots going on, Regina learns from Cruella about the graves in UnderBrooke. Everyone has one there. If it’s tipped over, the person went to Olympus. If it’s cracked, the went to I guess Hell. Regina finds Daniel’s grave and sees it has been tipped over. Then a weird scene happens, Regina sees a fallen horse and uses her magic to help it up. Apparently this returns her magic to her, didn’t even know it wasn’t working, must not have been paying attention. However before Regina can split Emma’s heart for Hook, Hades traps Regina, Snow and Emma in UnderBrooke by writing their names on tombstones. Hades likes the ladies.

This episode was decent. It’s nice to see Rumple in a pawn position even though he has his Dark powers back. The episode has good pacing, decent character development and moves this arc forward.

Beside the horse scene there is another weird moment. That silent girl behind the diner counter is curious. She has no lines but her styling is suspect. If this show never has Esmeralda or Hunchback, just consider this Esmeralda.