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Once Upon A Time, Ep. 2.18, “Selfless, Brave and True” – Storybrooke just got a little more dangerous

Once Upon A Time, Ep. 2.18, “Selfless, Brave and True” – Storybrooke just got a little more dangerous

Once 2.18 August Primary Pic

Once Upon A Time, Season 2, Episode 18: “Selfless, Brave and True”
Written by Robert Hull & Kalinda Vazquez
Directed by Ralph Hemecker
Airs Sundays at 8pm (ET) on ABC

After a quick visit to Hong Kong where we see August (Pinocchio) turning back into wood, the titles pull up and this week’s Once Upon a Time is out of the chute.

While the episode this week does seem to focus of some pretty key story elements and its delightful to see Eion Bailey back as August; it seems to be mostly a filler episode that is setting up for the Season Finale. The episode tends to focus on August’s journey back to Storybrooke and the way/reasons why he finally returned.

One of the exiting things in the episode was seeing Snow finally getting out of her bed, in which caused her to find August living alone out in the woods. And gave August a stern heart to heart talking to, like we know Snow is capable over. The only thing here is that maybe Snow should listen to her own advice! After several whining moments in the past week’s episode it was nice to see the writers actually make Snow getting out of her slump and attempting to move on.

Once 2.18 Bae Tamara

Another exciting thing was seeing Bae’s fiancé show up in Storybrooke. We can feel the tension in the room while watching the scene with him, Emma, Henry and Tamara. While we haven’t seen much from Tamara, except for a brief introduction in New York, it was interesting to see her show up in Storybrooke. When Bae told her just exactly who he was she reacted in the typical way you would expect. However, in typical Once fashion the writers throw a huge curve ball at us when Tamara just happens to show up in August’s backstory. Sonequa Martin-Green handles all the twists and turn facing her character with brilliance and ease. She nails the part of making us feel sorry for her at first, but then questioning just WHO IS SHE, for the rest of the episode. And eventually end up loathing her as much as Regina, Hook or Cora. Martin-Green defintley goes to prove the fact that the guest stars of Once Upon a Time don’t mess around. The give us just as much a performance and hard work that the main casts gives us, from week to week.

Other events that take place in the episode are Regina confronting Ethan Embry’s character, who we know is really named Owen, the child from Regina’s past. Snow, hopefully, coming to terms with things that has happened to her and the return, demise and redemption of Pinocchio. While it is sad that Bailey probably won’t be seen anymore since Pinocchio got changed into a real boy again, it was a nice and almost heartfelt scene between Geppetto and his son being finally reunited. Now they have a second chance at a life together.

All in all, while the episode was good, it seemed more like a stepping stone that had to be taken to get to the Season Finale. The episode was more focused on stretching out the Pinocchio story-line and less on the action and drama. It wasn’t necessarily an on the edge of the seat episode like the past few episodes have been.

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That being said, it did pose several different questions for us. Questions that are bound to stay up in the air until the season finale, what is Regina going to do to Owen if he doesn’t get out of town? How is Charming and Snow going to find the ultimate way to redeem Snow’s heart? Is Bae going to stick around for good? While we did find out some of Tamara’s backstory there is more to be answered, who is she? Where is she from? And what exactly is she planning on doing with magic? And lastly, where are Ruby and Belle? Are they going to make an appearance before the Season Finale?

As the second season of Once Upon a Time draws to a close the roller coaster is throwing us right and left and picking up speed. It shows no signs of slowing down and the writers’ probably have one or two more hills that we are going to plummet down. Until then just grab on to the handle bars and continue to let out your excited screams.

– Joshua Bouye

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