When 'Once Upon a Time' first started it was highly addictive and made the most of a truly great and creative premise. Really loved the idea of turning familiar fairy tales on their heads and putting own interpretations on them and the show early on clearly had clearly had a ball. Watched it without fail every time it came on and it was often a highlight of the week. Which was why it was sad when it ran out of ideas and lost its magic in the later seasons.
"And Straight on Til Morning" follows on from the huge potential and events seen in the previous episode "Second Star to the Right". That episode was great but this was even better and one of Season 2's best episodes. Characters feel like they are progressing in development, especially Hook and Baelfire, and elements of the storytelling are very promisingly set up, making one truly excited for Season 3, and ones seen in previous episodes are built upon.
Some may feel that "And Straight On Til Morning" focuses more on smaller individual goals rather than one big one, personally actually really liked that with things starting to make sense whereas bigger goals had only just been introduced and need more time to develop.
Really liked how it put its own fresh twist on one of literature's most justifiably famous stories rather than making it a conventional telling, one that is twisty and at times dark.
The existing characters have enough to do too and there is a lot going on but handled very neatly and not in a way that feels convoluted or like "too many cooks spoil the broth". Both of which being fears of mine, seeing as 'Once Upon a Time' introducing and including new fairy tale and literary characters to expand the universe and have more than one story to focus on has had variable success in the past and since. The connections between fairy tale and reality and past and present continue to be neatly done and cohesive.
All the acting is uniformly fine, no problems there. Really do love how this element, along with the writing on the most part, has come on such a long way since 'Once Upon a Time' first started. Colin O'Donoghue stands out here, Hook is one of the most interesting characters introduced in Season 2 but this is his meatiest material at this point in the show and O'Donoghue performs like he knows that.
Furthermore, "And Straight On Til Morning" is a very handsomely mounted episode visually, the settings and costumes are both colourful and atmospheric, not too dark or garish and never cookie-cutter. It is photographed beautifully too. The music is haunting, ethereal and cleverly used with a memorable main theme. Writing has the right balance of humour, pathos, mystery and intrigue.
Overall, brilliant and makes one hope that Season 3 is as good. 10/10 Bethany Cox