Once Upon a Time
Season 4 Episodes 22 & 23: “Operation Mongoose Parts 1 & 2”
Directed by Romeo Tirone (Part 1), Ralph Hemecker (Part 2)
Written by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Created by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Emilie de Ravin, Colin O’Donoghue, Jared Gilmore, Robert Carlyle
ABC
Air Date: Sunday, May 10th, 2015, 8:00pm

Last week on Once Upon A Time, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) managed to get a vengeful Lily (Agnes Bruckner) back to Storybrooke to meet her mother, Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten), who lost her taste in revenge and now wants to just be happy with her daughter. After Lily “dragons” out, she finally agreeas to give Maleficent a week. The episode title was “Mother” so Emma forgave hers (and her dad) for what they did to Lily to ensure her own goodness. And we were treated to a backstory with Cora (Barbara Hershey), who seemed like she wanted to make up for what she did to Regina (Lana Parilla). That didn’t really work out.

Once Upon a Time
Season 4 Episode 21: “Mother”
Directed by Ron Underwood
Written by Jane Espenson
Created by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Emilie de Ravin, Colin O’Donoghue, Jared Gilmore, Robert Carlyle
ABC
Air Date: Sunday, May 3rd, 2015, 8:00pm

Last week on Once Upon A Time, we delved back into Emma’s (Jennifer Morrison) childhood again to revisit her and Lily’s troubled connection. it seems Lily (The Returned‘s Agnes Bruckner) makes all the wrong life decisions and is very dark, only lightening up when she’s around Emma. In the present, Emma and Regina (Lana Parilla) team up to find Lily and save Robin (Sean Maguire) from Zelena (Rebecca Mader). They are successful on both counts. Well… I guess it depends on how you define success. Zelena is pregnant with Robin’s baby. That is the twist that twisted their hearts – and ours. Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Charming (Josh Dallas) try to appeal to Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten) – to no avail.

Once Upon a Time
Season 4 Episode 20: “Lily”
Directed by Ralph Hemecker
Written by Andrew Chambliss, Dana Horgan
Created by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Emilie de Ravin, Colin O’Donoghue, Jared Gilmore, Robert Carlyle
ABC
Air Date: Sunday, April 26th, 2015, 8:00pm

Last week’s Once Upon A Time went into Cruela De Vil’s (Victoria Smurfit) history. At first we thought her a victim of her mother’s cruel imprisonment. We were fooled and so was the author. That was the twist I mentioned last week. The entire time we were completely taken in. That’s the way of fairy tales, no? The beautiful damsel with the terrible life is a victim of cruel yet uglier people. After giving her the power to control animals, he countered her cruelty by rendering her unable to take a life. Emma (Jennifer Morrison), not knowing that, was orchestrated into killing her, in order to save Henry. Regina (Lana Parilla) grabbed heart leverage in order to be able to save Robin (Sean Maguire) without Gold (Robert Carlyle) sending out a warning.

Once Upon a Time
Season 4 Episode 19: “Sympathy For The De Vil”
Directed by Romeo Tirone
Written by David H. Goodman, Jerome Schwartz
Created by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Emilie de Ravin, Colin O’Donoghue, Jared Gilmore, Robert Carlyle
ABC
Air Date: Sunday, April 19th, 2015, 8:00pm

Before we get to Once Upon a Time 4.19 “Sympathy For The De Vil,” let’s recap the “Heart of Gold” episode from last week.

It was all about Robin Hood (Sean Maguire) and Marian a week ago when Gold (Robert Carlyle) goes to Neal’s apartment and finds the family there. We were all surprised to find out that Zelena (Rebecca Mader) was alive and well and had been posing as Marian, since we met her back in time. So Emma (Jennifer Morrison) didn’t ruin Regina’s (Lana Parilla) happy ending. But Robin is in severe danger and now Regina knows it. She makes a deal with Gold and agrees to help him turn the Savior dark.

Once Upon a Time
Season 4 Episode 18: “Heart Of Gold”
Directed by Billy Gierhart
Written by Tze Chun & Scott Nimerfro
Created by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Emilie de Ravin, Colin O’Donoghue, Jared Gilmore, Robert Carlyle, Sean Maguire, Rebecca Mader
ABC
Air Date: Sunday, April 12th, 2015, 8:00pm

Let’s recap the “Best Laid Plans” from two weeks ago, before we get to Once Upon a Time 4.18 “Heart Of Gold”

The villains are all a twitter trying to find the author so he can rewrite “history” so they can have their happy ending instead of the heroes. In order to do that, they must darken savior Emma’s heart. After much too much effort trying to cover their tracks, Charming and Snow (Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin) finally tell Emma (Jennifer Morrison) what they did in order to ensure her goodness. They took Maleficent’s (Kristin Bauer van Straten) baby and allowed it to be sucked into a portal to another world. I know that means we will eventually run into Maleficent’s spawn, but I’m glad they didn’t outright kill a baby, even though they thought it was just a baby dragon (Khaleesi!). They did release the author who promptly fled.