Ever After – Once Upon a Time: Operation Mongoose Review

It does not do to dwell on dreams, but it does for Once Upon a Time. The time is nigh for our heroes as The Author finally breaks out his quill for penning the ultimate revisionist history and give our villains the happy endings they didn’t earn. Light is dark and dark is light in the upside down world of evil fan-fiction, but is doing right thing still the right thing? Time to send in “the kid.” Enter Operation Mongoose, because yes, Henry’s twelve now and that’s still a thing. It’s all too tempting to think what might’ve been, but this time, Once Upon a Time dreams big.

Now the famed novelist behind the best-selling “Heroes and Villains” that Storybrooke’s trapped in, it’s a kid who’s out to foil The Author’s plans in true Disney fashion, one who also happens to be Henry. We’ve seen Henry mature a lot lately and Jared Gilmore’s seemed to have grown into the role as much as Henry’s grown into his place in the story. Needless to say, it’s with a strange sense of pride that Henry comes into his own, even as the youthful plot device of the finale.

As far as the fun role reversal went – and fun’s the best word for it – it’s clear that the cast enjoyed the change up as much as the audience was clearly meant to. I’ll never quite buy Ginnifer Goodwin’s “Ice Queen” schtick, nor will I buy Josh Dallas’s less dopey-eyed man servant, but I’ll admit it looked like she had a great time playing dress up if nothing else, sans Disney’s usual AAA cleavage. Snow’s always so modest. Red just does that to a girl, as does fur hunting coats for Regina. Yup, if Snow stole Regina’s thunder (err, fireball) than it was Lana Parilla’s turn to get her show at the bow and arrow for an episode. It’s remarkable how much I buy her in anything: heroine, villainess, or the resident snark. I do wish we could’ve seen her get to shoot a few arrows, though.

And of course, not to be left out of the party, good ‘ole Hook’s now Wuss Hook in slightly more eye-shadow. I couldn’t spoil much more than that if I wanted to beyond, of course, the captain’s always poor fencing technique. It’s a similar delight watching Robert Carlyle playing the cheesy knight in golden armor as the only character here that got to be who he wanted to be, but curiously restrained in revising a couple of old subplots of his. And Robin’s…not evil, because he’s a hunk.

Writers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis went out of their way to explain a few points so you didn’t get distracted from what was happening because you were obsessing over little questions. If you wondered why or how Emma fits right into this, they had an answer – a touch convenient, granted. And where’s Neil? In a show about magic, it doesn’t take much to explain them away, but it takes a heck of a lot of times. There’s additionally a few inescapably TV moments for our otherwise subversive change ups. Robin and Regina playing cold footsies outside a church in the age-old “will they, won’t they” game can’t help but feel a bit orchestrated to serve the bigger picture, which they did, but just a taaaaadd obvious, Once Upon a Time.

“You’ve just gotta believe in yourself!” is what Operation Mongoose seems to scream at every turn, but to the advantage of the fantastic actors saying it in subtler means. Of everyone here, it’s Rumple’s who’s fallen the farthest from the apple tree and karma’s unsurprisingly caught up to him, so to speak. Robert Carlyle gets a doozy of a not-so-last will and testament. Second chances are something he doesn’t deserve, nor do most of the show’s characters, but Rumple’s fate is tragic and telling all at once with repercussions that I dare say are deserved, complete with Snow’s “what did we learn today?” finger-wagging speech. *sigh*

After teasing a Dark One 2.0 for the back half of the season, we finally got the one you probably see coming thanks to what feels like six months of campaigning on behalf of the show makers. While you might’ve guessed the new name on Rumple’s dagger by now, its future possibilities are endless and keeps the double-length finale on its toes for all two hours of it. Just when you feel they were safely past the possibility of it happening, the change certainly feels like the natural next step and very much follows through on the “the wrong thing for the right reasons” sacrifices the show’s promised us all season.

That the now-confirmed season five should center on an existing cast member’s a refreshing prospect, to say the least. They didn’t hint at another villain from the Disney line-up or another theme. We get to see a story driven by a character we already know, much more in the Arthurian legend that the show’s been trolling us with for two years. I’m in.

I’m proud to say that I walked away from this fourth season with the most satisfaction I’ve had from Once Upon a Time in years. Operation Mongoose shows exactly what the show’s capable of when it’s not trying so hard for you to like it and opts for the hard choices instead. It’s heartening to see the series continuing to rearrange its chessboard for what may be seasons more to come and in some surreal way, become the show that it’s always meant to be. Now, Henry, about writing me that Pirates of the Caribbean crossover…