What I’m Watching: Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time: Season 1, Episode 18 “The Stable Boy” (C+)

It’s about time we learned just why the Evil Queen hates Snow White so much. As Regina is drooling expressing her delight at Mary Margaret’s fate, her own back story form the fairy tale world is revealed. It turns out, perhaps not surprisingly, that Regina had a monster mother of her own, played by Barbara Hershey, who had a similar role in 2010’s “Black Swan” as one of the most disapproving, horrific mother figures ever to grace the screen. Noah Bean was a sensible choice for the role of Regina’s doomed stable boy lover, after portraying other doomed nice guys on “Damages” and “Nikita.” Of course, it’s not really Snow’s fault that Daniel was taken away from Regina, especially since Snow was only trying to help her achieve happiness. Fortunately, it seems that August isn’t as untrustworthy as it initially appears, and the misfortune Emma encountered when she tried to catch Regina red-handed has now been turned around with the strange and inexplicable reappearance of Katherine. Mary Margaret can’t well be put on trial for killing Katherine if she’s very much alive, and I’m sure that Regina is going to be plenty furious about that. Though he has no fairy tale world counterpart, it didn’t surprise me much to see Alan Dale in yet another position of incredible power as the district attorney, continuing his trend of being the most important man on every show in which he appears. This show really does have some peculiar pull, managing to net some impressive actors and actresses as guest stars.