What an episode! A flying monster, the Sorcerer's Hat, the queens of darkness' back story, the re-assemble of the villainous group, Rumpelstiltskin re-entering town. Once Upon A Time is back on our screens for good, the show came back with more than a few shockers for the fans & the introduction of new vital points for the overall plot, there's no doubt that the season 4B will be even better than the Frozen-arc.
Months have passed since the midseason finale & our fairytale characters are living boring common lives, thanks to God the trouble is back, let's be honest, no one wants to see their happily ever after, the rocky path towards accomplishing it, it's better for us to watch.
The Queens of Darkness enter the big picture on this new episode, its been pretty clear from the beginning that these villains want to have a happy ending for them, we now know that apparently there's no limits as what they are capable to do to have it. Since they allied forces with the villainous Rumple.
I'm happy that they discovered a way to unleash the magical beings on the hat; the useless extras casted as fairies, Mother Superior AKA the Blue Fairy & a winged heart-sucking demon known as the Chernabog. Later, Rumplestiltskin revealed that the was the 'Oxford professor' that gave Belle the spell do it. Altering it, in order to let the demonic beast escape too.
The Chernabog's appearance was a clever way to connect the backstory from the Queens of Darkness & the Fantasia mythology established during the current season. It's worth mentioning that an important detail was revealed; The Sorcerer & The Author are not the same person. That means the search is now for two important people, Blue revealed that she got the chance to meet The Sorcerer, hope she can tell us more about it on more episodes. I think that 'The Sorcerer' is like a Godly entity of magic from the Fairytale World, but there are just my theories.
The Chernabog was taken to the town line & it disappeared, because it's a being made purely of magic. Everyone thought it was following Regina, alternatively it was pursuing Emma. We were teased by the writers that we'll explore what makes a villain & a hero, in addition Emma we'll be trapped between those two concepts, because she has the potential to go dark.
There's one queen left to complete the female group, Maleficent's return is expected with anxiety by all of us. She's wicked & poisonous, we love to hate her as much as Rumple.
In sum, everything was on place for the second part of season 4, we have a few questions that need to be answered by the end of the season. For example, Will Emma go dark? How dark? Who are The Author & The Sorcerer? What influence do they have on the destinies of the characters? What's the secret between Snow, Charming, Ursula & Cruella? Why did Cruella & Ursula appeared outside of Storybrooke? What else is inside of The Sorcerer's Hat? Will they free The Apprentice?
The verdict from 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' reflects the impact it had on me as a viewer, as well as plot-related issues.