Once Upon a Time- Episode 3.14 "The Tower" Review- It works... it just doesn't fully work

Over the time I’ve been reviewing Once Upon a Time I have made one thing crystal clear: I don’t like Charming/David. That’s something that started kicking in this season, during season 1 and 2 I didn’t care much for him, but I never truly disliked him. His particular storylines during Neverland were the ones that made me dislike him: of all the characters he was the shallowest, he was pretty one dimensional, “he is Mr. right”, he will be brave, he will care for his family, blah, blah, blah, in short, the stereotypical hero.

I didn’t have much faith on an episode centered on him; I did wish the episode would finally ground his character and make him more complex, but I didn’t hold much hope. Did the episode managed to do so? Sort of, some of the episode’s highlights rely on the scenes that don’t feature David, but I will admit there are a few good ones around there.
What I did like about the episode was that David is finally forced to face his fears. Actually, the whole theme of the episode is fear and how we let it control us even when we think we are the ones controlling it. In that regard, the exploration of David’s psyche is a huge step forward and kind of a success. Why kind of? That’s because, even while this exploration has added a layer of depth, the character still feels ridiculously stereotypical.

On the Enchanted Forest, David is concerned about Snow’s pregnancy as he has lost Emma twice. A less than impressive conversation with Robin Hood (which was one of the most boring part of the episode, one that actually made me snore) he decides to go on a quest for a root that if digested would help him face his fear. I was thinking “typical OUAT flaw, resolving issues with magic instead of making any organic development on their characters” and thankfully I was just half right, but at the time I was really unimpressed.

He goes for this root, gets it, but he is interrupted when he hears someone screaming for help. It’s Rapunzel! David climbs her hair as per the story and he learns that Rapunzel is a princess that has been held prisoner in the tower for some years, and that she lost her brother who was going to take the throne. This is another moment of true boredom in the episode for me, my minds drifts and I start thinking “if she has been there for years, how is she so clean? How does she wash her hair? Does she have more than one change of clothes? How does she changes those clothes?” and that’s a really bad sign, it’s usually when you are bored the most when you question the logic of it all.

But those probably were the only parts I truly didn’t like, because I did dig the whole twist to the story, in which the one who kept Rapunzel prisoner was no other than herself and in order to free herself she had to acknowledge that she didn’t want to leave the tower in the first place and that she was afraid of not making a good queen. It connects with the whole theme of the episode, and it shows that the ones that prevent us to move forward are in fact ourselves.
Back on Storybrooke- and as if the show decided to read my last review to make up for Snow being naïve- David gets to meet Zelena, but he’s wary of her intentions (just as Snow should have been). He points out that they don’t know her at all and how convenient is that she is just popping out of nowhere after a second curse in which they don’t remember anything of their time in the Enchanted Forest (“we can’t ask references for a missing year”). Considering the situation that they’re in, reluctance is appreciated.

The scenes surrounding David’s first meeting with Zelena are carefully treated, amazingly shoot and it creates a certain dance of avoidance with the tea Zelena is making. It keeps you wondering “what will happen to David once he drinks that tea”. It’s a little scene treated so well that it leaves some kind of sweet aftertaste for what’s to come.

Trying to track The Wicked Witch, David goes to the forest, where he confronts himself. He claims he is not scared of anything, but that’s not true, fear is supposedly making him weak. I say supposedly because what’s really weakening him is not fear itself but the denial of it; he wants to pretend it’s not there and that only makes it worst. That’s the most complex character work ever done in David, and it falls into one of the most basic resources on fantasy storytelling (facing oneself), but as I said, it is still a step forward and it’s kind of well executed.

I say “kind of” a lot because I feel most of the stuff in the episode works, but they work at half power. And not only David’s scenes, but also Zelena’s meeting with Rumple felt creepy but failed to feel threatening and Hook’s conversation with Emma would have been extremely poignant (especially his line “if it’s broken, it means it still works”) if it wasn’t for the music which made it feel cheesy. They are all working, I’m able to feel something through those scenes, but I’m not feeling all of it, as if something is wrong in the making.

Once David faces and conquers his fears, he rendezvous with Regina, Hook and Emma, and our heroes gather around Zelena’s house as Emma and Hook were able to find her secret basement and they find out that Wicked has stolen David’s courage (and that was the whole point of the tea dance early in the episode) and that Rumple is still alive and has successfully broke out of his prison.

The possibilities for next episodes are endless, there can be a lot of fun and now the show may be able to make David feel a little bit more real, but it still has to figure out a lot of the kinks in the way. This far into the series (the show is already on its 3rd season) it can’t be making mistakes that are understandable in the first season. The episode’s scenes shouldn’t work at half power, but at full power, and that’s something I think Once Upon a Time is still struggling to do time to time.

Grade: B-

Stray Observations:

-Regina once again steals the episode with her short conversation with Henry; it’s poignant, it is lovely and Jared. S Gilmore is doing a much better job when he’s being clueless about what’s going on.

-I didn’t mention Zelena’s brief scene with Belle, mostly because it falls on the category of completely expendable scenes made only for the sake of showing Emily de Ravin. I think Belle has been one of the most forgotten characters this season.

-Another scene I didn’t really care for was the obviously dream sequence at the beginning which portrayed David’s fear of parenthood so obviously that I mostly rolled my eyes (also because it’s hard to picture Emma in those clothes preparing for a ball). Work on the subtlety OUAT, please, things are much better when they are showed via actors expressions than when they are screamed at you.

-Is it me, or did the characters on the show struggled with the word “death” this episode?

-Snow: “She knew Johana, they were friends”
Snow, dearie, just because someone tells you they are friends with your nanny doesn’t make it so.

-Regina: “That’s the good thing about a small town, everybody knows everybody… … it’s like a big family”.
Regina struggled a bit saying those words, but you can see she meant them.
On a side note, can she walk so freely around Storybrooke when most people thinks she casted the curse?

-Hook shaking some berries with his hook.
Emma: “You look for any excuse to use that thing don’t you?”

About the Author - Pablo

I'm currently studying Psychology while also writing fantasy books (one already published in my home country, Chile, you can check it out on the facebook icon). I watch many different types of shows, including my favorites Revenge, Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time and about 23 more. Currently writing reviews for Once Upon a Time, How I Met Your Mother and Community