*Spoilers*

Last week brought us magic beans, a beanstalk, giant, showed Emma’s less than magical past, and a critical moment for Captain Hook, all to reunite both worlds. Now back in Storybrooke, when one of the townspeople is murdered and a wolf is suspected, will Charming be able to keep Ruby safe or will the wolf run wild all over the town? Henry’s mysterious and scary dream is fleshed out with a little help from Mr. Gold. And Charming’s control of the town is challenged by an old foe as “Child of the Moon” brings us closer to a reunion… for a time, anyways.

Good

“I’m not a killer”- Again, seeing more of Red’s past experiences as a wolf was an important moment for her character and also very cool that she’s been able to control herself in her wolf form. She used to be so gullible and childish, but as has been the case with others, Red needed to grow up and make a choice. Unfortunately for her that choice also involved killing her own mother (and accepting that without question was very odd, no DNA testing?), though to be fair she was about to kill Snow White. Her attempted self-sacrifice to appease the mob while admirable, was ultimately unnecessary, in addition to being foolish as her death accomplishes nothing. Thankfully, Charming was there to save her and find the true murderer. Hopefully the red hood isn't discarded for good as it’s an iconic piece of her character.

“This one’s on me”- Of course Mr. Gold has solutions to everything, except how to leave Storybrooke; yet, his remedy for Henry’s bad dream looks to be incredibly powerful. It’s not wise to take Gold lightly but it does seem unlikely that he suspects that Henry’s dream is going to play a part in Emma and Snow making it back to Storybrooke, it’s certainly possible though. Obviously his magic is effective against a lot so he’ll most likely play an important part and further fleshing out Henry’s potential opportunity within his dream. Also, it’s interesting that Mr. Gold’s Curse had some unintentional side effects, mainly Henry’s dream, plus Regina being able to choose who she wishes to bring with her to Storybrooke.

“I’m done reading about heroes, I want to be one”- Looks like in the coming weeks Red won’t be the only character who decides to grow up, Henry’s had enough to sitting on the sidelines and is ready to become involved and reunite his family. Dealing with those crazy fire-filled dreams couldn’t have been easy for someone so young, nor is seeing another in your dream that appears distressed. As mentioned earlier, Mr. Gold’s invaluable help allowed Henry to control the fire and the dream, to find out that Sleeping Beauty (not as worthless as once though, perhaps?) and he share a link between worlds. There’s no doubt he would do anything to reunite his family, but make no mistake nothing is ever easy and Cora won’t go down without a fight.

Bad

King George foiling the big plan!- Unable to stop Prince Charming in Fairy Tale land from taking over the kingdom, Decker (King George) works to undermine his authority and control in Storybrooke. As if King George’s past transgressions weren’t bad enough in Fairy Tale land, in Storybrooke he murders an innocent man (and potential love interest for poor Ruby), frames Ruby the murder due to her being a werewolf, and tries to convince the town to mutiny against Charming! This is pure evil! His biggest fault is underestimating Charming, though he did get back at the entire town by destroying the fairy dust (Massive mistake, Charming, massive). He appears to believe he has nothing to lose, but if his actions ever get back to Mr. Gold or Regina, he might figure out that there are a lot of things worse than death.

Mutinying against Charming- Is the pirate Hook in town? No? Not very believable, even if your life is at stake, to just abandon the one person who swore above all else to keep them save and protect them. Sure, Ruby turning into the wolf and being accused of murdering Billy is scary, but Charming hasn’t let the people of Storybrooke down before so those simply siding with Spencer seemed out of character for the lot of them. Not to mention Charming giving up hope and needing to be reassured by Ruby that he never gives up, that he’ll “always find you”. Perhaps one or two of Storybrooke’s residents witnessed the good Sheriff smashing car windows and breaking into trunks, not exactly the actions of a Prince…

“We’re her pack”- New characters are exciting! However, Ruby’s “pack” consisted of the very people she was fighting against becoming. After just accepting that Anita was her mother, Red intends to plant roots and leave underground with the rest of the wolves to learn self-control. The pack members are simply monsters, with either less or more self-control than others depending on the viewpoint. The reason for their actions, “This is what it means to be a wolf”, killing innocent people who have helped your daughter in the past (and future). Just another crazy cult leader who needed to be put down, and Anita’s ultimatum to Red to kill her friend Snow White proved to be her down fall, not unlike many other villains.

Overall

5/10. Finally Ruby gets more screen time doing something other than being an assistant to David, yet the episode was still underwhelming. There was a lot of hope with the fairy dust but it was too good to be true, and a major error by David to let something that valuable out of his sight. Still, two weeks from now OUaT returns and the previews for that episode look amazing, Henry being the link between worlds and capable of controlling his dream. There was no way that OUaT could keep up their pace of amazing episode after amazing episode, so it's understandable that "Child of the Moon" was a letdown, but hopefully this is one of the few.

Here's the link to the episode in case you missed it: http://abc.go.com/watch/once-upon-a-time/SH55126545/VD55246815/child-of-the-moon