Evan Vitale Consulting: Once Upon a Time: "Family Business" Review

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Once Upon a Time: "Family Business" Review – IGN

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Everybody wants to be loved.

→ November 2, 2014

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

The Snow Queen wants a perfect family. It’s not a complex motivation, but it’s powerful and a little creepy. If she wipes everyone out with her fancy mirror, what does she expect Emma and Elsa to do? She’d end up forcing them to love her. Ingrid’s desperation for validation combined with the fact that she’s been watching Emma for a long time is unsettling. Elizabeth Mitchell completely sells the Snow Queen’s deranged state of being.

Though we learned when she captured Anna and a little about her plan, there are still gaps in the Snow Queen’s history. That said, tonight’s episode made more progress than I would have expected in furthering her backstory. She’s just the kind of villain the series needed, and her understated brand of evil is enjoyable to watch.

Was anyone else disturbed by Grand Pabbie altering the memories of everyone in Arendelle? It doesn’t seem right for the king and queen to decide that everyone should forget about the existence of the two sisters that disappeared. I’m half kidding, but I am intrigued by rock troll ethics.

Belle’s storyline is taking a disappointing turn this season. She’s in an unhealthy relationship with Rumplestiltskin, and when she apologized to him for hurting and lying to him tonight, it was stomach-turning. Remember when their relationship used to be sweet? Even if it’s an unexpected turn for their love story, it feels like there should be a way to do it that doesn’t paint Belle as being so weak. Yeah, she’s in love. That doesn’t mean she should be blind.

And her longing to be the hero is a theme the series has explored before. She needs to stop being a pushover and embrace honesty to get there. She doesn’t need to transform into some badass femme fatale, she only needs to believe in herself. Plus, Belle comes across as such a kind and good person that it didn’t make sense for her to lie to Elsa about her past with Anna and Arendelle despite feeling ashamed about what happened. The dialogue between Elsa and Belle in the library came across as silly because it highlighted Belle’s lies too many times.

Elizabeth Lail and Scott Michael Foster in Once Upon a Time

Anna and Belle made entertaining partners (incidentally, what was up with Belle’s Arendelle costume – it was like a “sexy” version of a traveling outfit), but there wasn’t anything particularly special about their interaction. Actually, the most interesting part about their time together was that Anna told Belle about Rumple. That connection to the already existing story was so smooth it was like they had it planned all along.

When you watch a series about fairy tale characters and their stories, it’s hard to pass judgment about realism. The devil’s in the details though, and things like no one in town realizing the Snow Queen had an ice cream truck are annoying. If Henry knew of it, why wouldn’t Regina? And shouldn’t the Snow Queen have some sort of property record for it? It’s a small thing to get hung up on, I know, but wondering about it takes me out of the story.

Another distracting aspect of the show tonight was the high number of digital backgrounds. The point doesn’t need to be beleaguered, but scenes inside Elsa and Anna’s home and Belle’s home are hard to watch because the backgrounds are so obviously not real. It’s frustrating that this hasn’t improved much in four years. The rock troll, however, looks pretty decent.

Robin and Regina’s scene tonight was brief but beautifully acted and written. They don’t quite win for the best moment because watching Anna dodge around Sven’s antlers to talk to Kristoff was unbearably cute.

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