Once Upon a Time: You Gotta Have Heart

This week's epsiode of Once Upon a Time was really all about heart.

Cora doesn't have a heart, so she collects hearts from other people. Then she turns those hearts into a zombie army to attack Snow, Emma, Mulan and Aurora, unsuccessfully of course, but still an impressive show of super evil. Sleeping Beauty (Aurora, which means the dawn) is showing signs of sluggishness. She gets captured, something that no self-respecting Princess would allow, and winds up imprisoned by Cora.

Then the handsome Captain Hook steals Aurora's heart -- literally, by ripping it out of her chest--- to use as trade bait with Cora. Yes, I know Hook is evil, but still he must know that Cora is no better than a crocodile. Now Cora can use Aurora to spy on Snow, Amma and Mulan and now Sleeping Beauty doesn't have a heart. That can't be good. And will someone get Aurora some more casual clothing? Seriously. I suggest a sturdy pair of jeans.

The meetings in the sleeping fire caves got too rough for Aurora and Henry, so they passed the 'torch' to Snow and Charming. Of course,Charming needed a sleeping curse to get there, which he thought a kiss from Snow could reverse. This didn't phase him because he and Snow always find one another. But his brave plan didn't work because Snow and Charming were in different planes or something, so now the Prince is asleep, waiting for his Princess warrior to make time in her busy fighting schedule to find, kiss and save him. I say it's about time for this reversal storyline. Well done.

It does make things more complicated in Storybrooke:

 1) Rumple and Regina are now both trying to be good and save the town from Cora, but without Charming/David how long can this last?

2) A sleeping Charming is a boring Charming. How long will he sleep?

3) Who goes into the sleeping curse fire caves next? I hope it's not Henry.

And is he stuck in the part of the fire nightmare where you get burned a lot? This could be a problem if it lasts for more than another epsiode...

There were hints at our group needing a mermaid to fetch something soon. Hello? Ariel, dahling? We need some help. Maybe we'll see that next week.

We have one more episode and then Once is on "winter hiatus" until January. I am not sure I like such a long break, but since I still have my heart in tact, I'll let this one slide. For now.  

And will we ever learn who Baelfire is?