Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 17 Review: Chosen
Paul Dailly
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Nick's reign of terror against the witches of Hyperion Heights is finally over.
Former Wicked Witch, Zelena, was front and center on Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 17, and it resulted in the most enjoyable episode of the series in quite some time.
If this hour proved anything, it was that Zelena had an identity crisis, and she needed to snap out of it, but that involved looking into the past.
Let's just say Zelena had a reputation and she wanted to leave that in her rear-view mirror. It was fitting that her cursed life was not a curse for her, and proved that the former villain could leave magic behind in the name of love.
Witch: Don't be shy. I made these, just for you two.
Gretel: We can't eat anymore. Please.
Witch: Don't you know there are starving children in Arendelle? Now, mungie, I need you to be plump and juicy for my full moon feast.
I appreciated the flashbacks to tie the story together. There were a lot of questions heading into this hour surrounding how Hansel and Zelena even knew one another, but it was all executed very well.
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Zelena's weakness has always been love, and if she finds someone who likes her for her, she will change everything about herself just to make it work.
Zelena's battles with the witch were comical, but I felt horrible when she returned to set Hansel and Gretel free. This proved that, even in the past, there was good in Zelena.
She's a wonderfully complex character, and I wasn't even mad at her for lashing out and burning the sight she stole from the witch for Hansel and Gretel's father.
Gretel: Miss, please help us, before the witch gets back up.
Hansel: Quiet, Gretel. Don't you know who she is? She's not gonna help us.
Zelena: The boy is right.
Gretel: Please, she's gonna eat us.
Zelena: Let go, you little brat.
Hansel's motives for murdering witches made sense. He must have had PTSD thanks to Zelena burning him and the other witch threatening to turn him and his sister into a stew. Oh, being locked in a cage probably didn't help matters either.
I wasn't a fan of the way Rogers managed to figure out there was something wrong based on a text message. Furthermore, it was a little too convenient that Jacinda never thought there was something wrong before Rogers pointed out.
Are we to assume she was too consumed by her feelings towards Henry that her judgment was being clouded? It's a stretch, but it's the more likely assumption to make.
I'm still not digging Henry and Jacinda together, but they apparently function well when there are no curses involved. For that matter, I'm willing to reserve further judgment on the pairing until we get to see more of them as a couple.
At this stage, there's probably no point in trying to take the curse away from Henry. He's already coming around to the idea that things are not as they seem. It is a far cry from the mindset he was in earlier on Once Upon a Time Season 7.
Nick and Henry may have shared several adventures in the past, but Henry was still oblivious to it when the episode kicked off.
I am so ready for all the characters to "wake up" to join forces and take down Facilier and Gothel. The two villains may be against each other, but the world will be a much better place without both of them.
I should have known that Facilier was the one pulling strings with Nick. That man does not miss a trick, and I'm still expecting him to stick the knife into Regina in the coming episodes.
He's the type of man who lures people into a false sense of security before dropping them like a misshaped beignet. The scene of him taking the perfect pastry was strange, but it helped bring the episode to a satisfying conclusion.
It's sad that Zelena is now out of the picture because she's one of the best characters. But she has to go off and carve her own path, or she will always be orbiting the latest schemes that plague the characters.
It was great that Regina was okay with her going away. Yes, it's going to take longer to get through to Henry, but it showed us that Regina cared a lot about her sister's happiness.
It's difficult to think about how all of this is going to end. It would be easy to say the characters will get happy endings, but there are some that don't even deserve it.
There's also the issue of whether everything in Hyperion Heights will be rendered redundant when the characters return to Storybrooke. That would be a massive slap in the face for longtime fans, but anything is possible.
Related: Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 16 Review: Breadcrumbs
OK. That's all I've got, Once Upon a Time Fanatics.
What did you think of the way the Nick situation was handled? Was it too convenient, or are you happy we're on to the next villain? Did you like Lana Parrilla as the director?
Hit the comments below.
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Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
