Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 7 Review: Heartless 

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It is good to see Snow White and her Prince on an adventure again.

With some really fantastic standout moments, 

Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 7 is better than it has been in a while, giving us fewer moments that induce eye-rolls and more that just hit us right in the feels.

True love grows on trees, there might be poison in the water, and someone\'s getting sleepy! 

The Evil Queen is once again at the center of the episode, leading the way in quips and questionable fashion sense. She\'s determined to force Snow White and David to hand over their hearts within 12 hours or else she plans to force the residents of Storybrooke to drink water that\'ll kill them from the Underworld. (Dammit, that Underworld is STILL haunting us.)

I wish there had been a little more here about how exactly the Queen planned to force them to drink the water. Dropping it in the water supply seems too simple for her. The vial is too tiny to make it rain down...I\'m getting off-track.

The Evil Queen is really just looking to have the best day ever, much like Snow White did on her birthday as a kid. 

The Evil Queen is clinging to a ridiculous memory of Snow White from like, a bajillion years ago that\'s brought her to this revelation of a villainous plan. Let it go, your highness. Let. It. Go.

Snow: Blue said that it was created from True Love; maybe that\'s just what it does, shows you your own True Love?

After ALL of these years, the writers concocted yet ANOTHER crazy random happenstance that brought Snow and Charming together, a chance meeting that they didn\'t even realize that they\'d had.

I love the Charmings. I love their love – it\'s the stuff that relationship goals are made of. 

How many years have they been together? They NEVER knew that they had met the other in that flashback story? Did the Prince just never talk about saving his mother\'s farm? That\'s a pretty epic story to just glaze over when you\'re getting to know someone.

It\'s not all bad – in fact, Snow White and David\'s adventurous flashback is easily the best part of the hour. Just seeing them working together in their pre-Emma days is a fun reminder of their history, and it allows us to fall in love with their love all over again. 

Hook: Now, you\'re worried about your parents, and that\'s making this worse, but they\'re gonna alright. They\'ll find that magic little baby tree thing and defeat the Evil Queen.

Emma: They\'re gonna find that magic little tree thing.

Permalink: They\'re gonna find that magic little tree thing.

Everyone is after this baby tree that was created from the first spark of True Love because, while it won\'t cure the effects of some Underworldly water, it will help them cage the Evil Queen. 

I\'ll admit, the whole tree thing was lost on me. I was glad that Hook had similar thoughts about it.

I\'m actually still a bit baffled by the tree. Why did they need it? Based on the flashback, it appears that Snow and Charming were the creators of the tree. They also created Emma – isn\'t she basically the same as the little baby tree? If both are products of True Love, shouldn\'t they both be effective in locking away the Evil Queen?

Permalink: Remember who you are; the product of true love.

In an episode that basically centered around the truest love that\'s ever existed, it was interesting to see how that love paralleled the True Love of the other central couples on Once Upon a Time.

Emma\'s tremors are getting worse, and to calm her, Hook tells her a story from Henry\'s book: the story of her parents, the story that led to her and to their own love.

Come on...even if you\'re not a Captain Swan shipper, you can\'t deny that it was a pretty sweet moment between the two. 

And then there\'s Rumbelle, the \'ship that\'s been slowly sinking more and more with every passing week. 

Belle: If you were pure evil, like the Queen, then maybe I could forgive you, because that\'s all you could be. But you, you do feel love, and you could be a good man if you tried. You want your son\'s love? Don\'t take it - be worthy of it.

Belle: Listen to yourself! That\'s just you all over, isn\'t it? Afraid of failing. That\'s worse than being evil. That\'s - that\'s just being too weak to be good.

Permalink: Listen to yourself! That\'s just you all over, isn\'t it? Afraid of failing. That\'s worse than...

There are two things that I love about this moment. 

Belle\'s courage is still in full effect. She\'s straight shooting with Rumple here: he\'s too weak to be good.

This has always been the difference between Rumple and Regina.

Regina WANTED to be good. She worked her butt off to fight her own darkness, and when she suffered losses along the way, she used them to make herself stronger. 

Rumple gets by on deals and power. He could have changed for Neal. He didn\'t. He could have changed for Belle. He didn\'t. Rumple doesn\'t have the courage to let go of darkness – yet. That doesn\'t mean that he WON\'T. I, personally, hold out hope that he will, and that he and Belle will move forward to a happy ending. 

Which brings me to the second thing I love about this moment. The part where Belle says she could forgive him if he was pure evil. 

If Belle can forgive him at all, then there\'s hope for them. The door isn\'t quite shut. I mean, it\'s looking pretty close to being closed forever with an "Out of Business" sign on it – but not yet. 

Regina: The Evil Queen and Gold\'s alliance, there may be more to it than business. Rumple and I - there was always a certain amount of chemistry.

Regina: I know, I know, nothing ever happened. But I think we can use this to our advantage.

Permalink: I know, I know, nothing ever happened. But I think we can use this to our advantage.

Speaking of Rumple and Regina, can we all agree that this story just gets more nauseating and uncomfortable every week? 

This scene alone seemed to sum up everything I\'ve been feeling about this awkward union between the two most evil people in Storybrooke hooking up. 

It\'s so unsettling. Wasn\'t there a fan theory years back that Rumple was Regina\'s real father? And now we\'re watching them suck face every week, and I want to vomit every time it happens. 

I\'d like nothing more than if the writers could just move that story along and lock it up in a dark place, where it will never be revisited ever again.

You say you always find her. Start looking, shepherd; let\'s see what happens when you do.

Permalink: You say you always find her. Start looking, shepherd -- let\'s see what happens when you do.

Putting Mary Margaret into yet another sleeping curse did make me rolls my eyes, unfortunately, and I hate that the episode had to cap off with such a cliche ending. 

If the Evil Queen REALLY wanted to make Snow suffer, why didn\'t she just kill David? Wouldn\'t that have made more sense than a two-way sleeping curse?

But that wouldn\'t have been very effective in taking the story right back to where it started – back to its True Love roots.

Luckily, as we were reminded repeatedly this hour, the Charmings always find their way back to one another. Now we can just sit back, and watch as they figure out how to make it happen this time. 

What did you think of "Heartless," TV Fanatics? Were you happy to see a Snow White and Charming-centric episode? Did Hook and Emma give you warm and fuzzy feelings inside? Are you just as grossed out from seeing the Evil Queen and Rumple making out as I am? Sound off below!

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Christine Laskodi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter and listen to her podcast devoted to all things \'ships at The Shipping Room.

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Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 7 Review: Heartless

Watch Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 7 Online

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