‘Once Upon A Time’ Recap: Snow & Charming Reunite — Season 2 Episode 8

Courtesy of ABC (2)

Plus, Cora & Hook hatch a wicked new plan — and I’m not-so-secretly rooting for them.

Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) finally ‘found each other’ again on the Nov. 25 episode of Once Upon A Time, even if it wasn’t under the best circumstances. Unwilling to let Henry (Jared Gilmore) suffer from the flames anymore, Charming allowed Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) and Regina (Lana Parrilla) to put a sleeping curse on him — because curses are apparently the cause and solution to every problem on this show.

But here’s the snag: Shortly after ‘reuniting’ in the fiery in-between world, Snow and Charming realized they couldn’t actually touch each other, which made the possibility of a kiss — well, pretty impossible. So Charming will remain cursed, while Snow and her questionable little-boy haircut must return to square one. Again.

Shortly before all of this dream nonsense went down, Cora (Barbara Hershey) revived everyone she had ‘killed’ at the base camp to attack the girls and kidnap Aurora (Sarah Bolger), who was an easy target — you know, due to her complete and utter uselessness in battle/life. And although Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) snuck into Cora’s dungeon and set Aurora free, he had a nasty little plan up his sleeve. His other sleeve. The one without the hook.

What the audience didn’t see — presumably while we were all entranced by Hook’s unparalleled beauty — was that Hook stole Aurora’s heart, which Cora used to put a few choice words into the narcoleptic princess’s mouth. Now Snow, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Mulan (Jamie Chung) think Hook is one of the good guys. (See ya, compass!)

A few observations (but mostly judgments):

— When Hook told Cora he had a special surprise for her just below his belt, did anyone else get the uh-oh feeling?

— Am I the only one who got visibly giddy when Cora told Aurora there’s a chance she can see Prince Phillip (Julian Morris) again?

— And don’t pretend like you didn’t get excited when Rumpelstiltskin said the m-word: mermaid! (Don’t forget, Ariel will be on the show at some point.)

— How should we be referring to these characters now that they’re self-aware? Josh’s character was referred to as Charming and David this week, and it confused me.

What’s your take on this week’s episode? Do you think Hook really is as bad as he seems? And are you secretly rooting for Cora, like I am? Drop me a comment with your thoughts and theories!