There were a lot of interesting things happening in this week's Once Upon A Time. Lost’s loveable big guy, Jorge Garcia returned as The Giant and his backstory was revealed along with his entrance into Storybrooke. Rumplestiltskin and Emma travelled beyond the borders of Storybrooke and Regina returned to her natural state. So without futher ado, let’s jump into "Tiny".
The Giant’s backstory
The Giant may have missed his family in “Tallahassee” but he hated them in "Tiny". They were always picking on him for being smaller than them and for his fascination with the humans. They nicknamed him Tiny and his brother Arlo warned him against any contact with the humans. The elder giant said they plundered and were greedy and that they must never be trusted.
Tiny’s not one to just take their word for it so he climbs down the beanstalk and checks it out for himself. He meets James (Charming’s twin) and Jacqueline also known as Jack. That’s right ladies and gentleman, Jack is a girl! I bet your fingertips are tingling from this unbelievable twist. No? Mine aren’t either. Anyway, Jack gives Anton, The Giant’s real name, a mushroom to make him smaller. Question: Shouldn’t she be Alice from Alice in Wonderland instead of Jack? Why does she have the mushroom?
They drink at a pub and Jack reveals that James’ kingdom is broke and that they need money in order to save it from being burned to the ground by debtors. So The Giant/Tiny/Anton tells them about all of the gold that he has in his land.
He climbs back up the beanstalk and gathers the gold for them. Unbeknownst to him, James and Jack follow him up the stalk and announce that they’re not there for the gold, they’re there for the beans. They kill all of the giants with poisoned swords except for Anton.
Arlo is able to stab Jack before he dies and give Anton the last remaining bean to plant in a new land. He had ordered Anton earlier to salt the earth in order to stop the humans from getting the beans which made it impossible for the beans to grow in Giant land. All of this causes Anton to adopt his brother's belief that humans can't be trusted.
The Giant’s Storybrooke adventure
Cora has made The Giant small and trapped him in a cage or as Grumpy hilariously put it, “So Cora used magic to make him travel sized?” Hook lets David, Snow and Grumpy on board and gives him the key to his cage. Anton takes one look at David and goes beserk. Snow saves the day with her bow and arrow but Anton gets away.
Later a scorned Regina finds Anton. She’s justifiably angry because Henry is gone (more on that later) and she gives Anton a mushroom to make him big. He terrorizes the town and the prince, princess and dwarf are left to save the town. David offers himself up as a scrafice but before Anton can kill him, Snow pushes David out of the way. Anton lands in a giant (excuses the pun) hole in the ground and the mushroom wears off, leaving Anton dangling from a water pipe. David repels down to save him and Anton’s faith in humanity is restored.
He joins forces with the dwarves to plant the bean in Storybrooke. They give him an axe and his name is revealed to be Tiny. The writers also added an explainer to let us know why David never got an axe when he was a miner. Apparently it’s because he wasn’t a dwarf which is strange because neither is Tiny! Still don’t get it.
Evil Regina is back! Can you blame her?
As stated in “In The Name of The Brother”, Regina WAS trying so hard to be good. Emma taking Henry away pretty much killed that. She went to Snow’s to find Henry only to find out that Emma and Henry have left Storybrooke with Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold to find Rumple's son. Snow felt that Emma was well within her rights to take Henry without notifying Regina.
Ok, it’s understandable that they couldn’t find Regina. That’s a valid reason for not telling her about Henry’s trip but they accused her of murder, took her son away and then had the nerve to act like all of it was ok while still referring to her as evil. Of course, she’s going to turn evil again if you keep treating her like she is! Besides, nobody can play an evil b@#*$! like Regina. Welcome back.
Rumplestiltskin is having an identity crisis
A mentioned over and over in "The Crocodile" and "Desperate Souls," Rumplestiltskin is a coward without his magic. He uses magic to give him courage much like some cowards in our world would use alcohol or buy a gun to suppliment his character. Now that Rumple is traveling in the real world, his magic doesn’t work and he actually has to rely on his magic scarf just to remember who he is. All of this leaves him feeling very vulnerable which Rumple hates more than anything. He takes out his frustration on an innocent toilet seat cover dispenser. Emma is keenly aware of what’s going on but Henry hasn’t lifted his head up from his box of Cinnabons to notice.
Red misses being a wolf
Did anybody else see the coat she was wearing? It looked like a wolf feathers not fur stuffed onto a jacket. It was also varying shades of grey. We get it. You’re a wolf and you want everyone to know it even when you’re human. Wonder if she realizes that a wolf was probably killed to make that coat?
There were a few other appearances by Belle and Mr. Mendell but overall this episode was cut and dry. It wasn't the best of the season but it also wasn't the worst plus it provided additional insight into the characters and you can never call an episode bad if it does that. 3 out of 5 stars.
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