ONCE UPON A TIME: “Second Star to the Right” S2E21 (review)

By Laura Akers

One of the things I love about television narratives (especially geeky ones) is the way that they often become cross-referential: NCIS’s Gibbs describing what Ducky looked like when he was younger (“Illya Kuryakin”) Mulder and Scully showing up on The Simpsons, Richard Castle dressing up as Malcolm Reynolds (excuse me, “space cowboy”) for Halloween.


What is less enjoyable is when one show steals from another. And I’m a little worried that this is what we’re about to see on Once Upon a Time.

More on that in a minute.

This week’s episode absolutely felt like the penultimate one of the season.

Last week’s slow and somewhat scattered emotional build-up served as a good foundation for this week’s action. So many strands are coming together—Tamara and Greg’s machinations, Rumple’s regression into evil, Regina’s plans for Storybrooke, and Snow’s quest for redemption.

But that didn’t keep the writers from adding an entirely new wrinkle: the Peter Pan story.



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