Secrets And Lies | Once Upon a Time: ‘Unforgiven’ Review

<p>Can a villain &lpar;or villainess&rpar; ever change their evil ways&quest; Probably not&comma; if <em>Once Upon a Time<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s being honest with us&period; Everyone&&num;8217&semi;s got their lies to tell&comma; their secrets to hide&comma; and their stories to spin – chief among them being David and Mary Margaret like the terrible liars they usually are&period; Their not-so-truth-detecting daughter aside&comma;<em> Unforgiven<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s sealed lips sank much bigger ships than anyone could predict and we got ourselves another Queen of Darkness in the process to show for it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Some Spoilers Follow<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was incredibly frustrating to see them pull back from telling Emma what happened and possibly more frustrating to know Emma didn&&num;8217&semi;t see through them&period; She caught onto Hook acting weird in a second&comma; but let her parents off the hook &lpar;ha&excl;&rpar; when they were behaving more strangely&quest; None of that aspect of the story felt right&comma; but I was pleasantly surprised that we got to learn the secret&period; It seemed like Mary Margaret was going to lean in and tell only Regina rather than the audience&period; The mere idea of her turning to Regina in her time of need says so much&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;OUAT-Unforgiven-Cast-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-78952 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;OUAT-Unforgiven-Cast-BagoGames-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"OUAT 'Unforgiven' Cast BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There&&num;8217&semi;s a Grand Canyon of distance that the two of them have come since the series&&num;8217&semi; premiere so many seasons ago and it&&num;8217&semi;s refreshing how naturally they&&num;8217&semi;ve kept their distance&comma; unlike Regina and Emma&period; The last thing I want is to see Regina being tempted by evil again&comma; but this looks like it could be a way to keep the regular cast more involved with the current theme&period; If Regina&&num;8217&semi;s side by side with the Queens of Darkness&comma; at least we&&num;8217&semi;ll see her &lpar;and Rumple&rpar; at the forefront&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As far as Mary Margaret and David&&num;8217&semi;s secret&comma; it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t sound good&comma; but how directly involved could they have been&quest; They clearly feel guilty about it&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;m dying to know the details now&period; If whatever&&num;8217&semi;s got Maleficent in a state about them is as bad as it sounds&comma; I have to wonder why&comma; seasons ago&comma; we never saw a big &&num;8216&semi;old dark spot on Snow&&num;8217&semi;s heart&period; You could argue that it was&comma; but it sure took this long for the Charmings to be not-so-charming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Then there&&num;8217&semi;s the question of this alleged &&num;8220&semi;darkness&&num;8221&semi; in Emma that I can&&num;8217&semi;t begin to take seriously&period; As far as I can tell&comma; there haven&&num;8217&semi;t been any times where we&&num;8217&semi;ve seen anything remotely evil about Emma&period; Without a history&comma; maybe it&&num;8217&semi;ll take one or two big deaths in the family to drive her into the Queens&&num;8217&semi;s arms or maybe they&&num;8217&semi;ll just control her with a spell or potion in a big cop out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05021621&sol;OUAT-S4-Unforgiven-Cruella-Ursula-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-79131 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05021621&sol;OUAT-S4-Unforgiven-Cruella-Ursula-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"OUAT S4 'Unforgiven' Cruella &amp&semi; Ursula BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Maleficent&&num;8217&semi;s resurrection definitely gave the girls an edge this episode and they&&num;8217&semi;re proving to be quite the fun additions&period; Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s just silly good&comma; but Ursula&&num;8217&semi;s just a spare tentacle&period; The little things they do with Cruella&&num;8217&semi;s character are rather amusing – her dalmatian print phone case and parking violations included&comma; despite my thinking she&&num;8217&semi;s hardly enchanted enough for the Enchanted Forest flashbacks&comma; but that&&num;8217&semi;s just this series for you&period; Kristin Bauer van Straten&&num;8217&semi;s Maleficent is predictably vicious&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;m doubtful whether a maternal grudge will make her motives more interesting than Zelina&&num;8217&semi;s sisterly angst was&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Elsewhere&comma; Regina seemed to enjoy getting her cranky on – even uncharacteristically so given how &&num;8220&semi;good&&num;8221&semi; she&&num;8217&semi;s tried to be lately&period; Nevertheless&comma; it did net her a sweet moment with Geppetto&sol;Marco regarding another blatantly obvious clue about the series elusive fairy tale &&num;8220&semi;author&&num;8221&semi; stashed away amidst the show&&num;8217&semi;s literal pile of forgotten plot devices&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure if the show makers ever intended Regina&&num;8217&semi;s characterization to be her struggling not to call out her friends on their crap the stupider they seem to get&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s working awfully well&period; Lana Parrilla conveys the role with the nuance and heart her peers desperately need and that she gets the best lines is well deserved by now&period; Case in point&colon; &&num;8220&semi;Should have known fish sticks and pound puppy were here for more than a second chance&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While David and Mary Margaret continue to be the most confusing couple in the series&comma;<em> Unforgiven<&sol;em> took great strides in stepping up our Queens of Darkness arc and plotting out some interesting new story threads&period; The show&&num;8217&semi;s last-minute&comma; window-side glimpse at Belle&&num;8217&semi;s renewed love-life&&num;8217&semi;s got me eager to revisit Rumplestiltskin as soon as possible&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s the more the merrier by this point and for once in <em>Once Upon a Time<&sol;em>&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m feeling like the sky &lpar;and Emma&&num;8217&semi;s faulty lie-detector&rpar; is the limit to where this half-season can go&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Once Upon a Time<&sol;em> airs Sunday nights on ABC at 8&sol;7 Central&period; Catch all the latest episodes at<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;abc&period;com"><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;800000&semi;"><strong> ABC&period;com<&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;a> and all the latest reviews here at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com"><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;800000&semi;"><strong>BagoGames<&sol;strong><&sol;span><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;