Once Upon A Time - Season 4 Premiere - Recap: Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?

However, this is all changing with "A Tale of Two Sisters," a season premiere that introduces us to our first exclusively Disney-based property (I guess you could argue Frozen is based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, but the characters of Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and the rest are mostly original creations). This essentially changes how Once Upon A Time works: so much of its appeal is steeped in the draw of seeing Disney movies repurposed for the small screen, and all the nostalgia such an approach entails. Yet it's hard to have nostalgia for a movie that's not even a year old. This was actually one of my bigger concerns going into the season, that Once Upon A Time would couch so much of its narrative in the expectation that audiences have seen Frozen, since "Well, EVERYBODY'S seen Frozen, right?" Thankfully, you don't need to have seen Frozen at all to understand the story. Sure, there might be some weird moments here and there (such as why Anna would think visiting a troll would help her unravel the mystery behind her parents' death, or what the deal is with all of Elsa's ice powers, anyway, although the movie doesn't exactly go into a whole lot of detail about that either). But, for the most part, the show doesn't need you to have seen Frozen to understand why Elsa (Georgina Haig) and Anna (Elizabeth Lail) are so close, or why Elsa's otherness makes her feel so isolated and vulnerable. This was a premiere that's as good as any the show has delivered.

Credit: ABC

The episode picks up almost immediately after last season's finale, as Emma (Jennifer Morrison) is feeling guilty about bringing back Marian (Christie Laing) and ruining Regina's (Lana Parrilla) relationship with Robin Hood (Sean Maguire), who tells the formerly Evil Queen that he must honor his vows to Marian and remain true to her. Emma's guilt compels much of her actions in this episode, from her decision to avoid Hook (Colin O'Donoghue), to her vow to help Regina find her happy ending, since this is her job as The Savior. However, Regina isn't about to sit around and wait for Emma to find her happy ending for her, so she decides to put together a plan to take down Marian, using the help of Sidney Glass/The Magic Mirror (Giancarlo Esposito). Of course, no sooner are these plans hatched than Elsa arrives in Storybrooke, confused and scared, and conjuring up a massive snowman out of preservation instinct. She's searching for Anna, and is desperate to find her, even if that means some people risk getting hurt. Through flashbacks, we see why Elsa has such a chip on her shoulder...

Credit: ABC

In the Kingdom of Arendelle, Anna is a day away from walking down the aisle with Kristoff (Scott Michael Foster), and Elsa is celebrating by gifting her sister their late mother's wedding gown. However, in going through their parents' things, Elsa discovers documents revealing just how afraid they were of what their daughter had become, as Elsa's ice powers proved dangerous and uncontrollable. Turns out that their parents, the King and Queen of Arendelle, died not on the way to a diplomatic meeting in a faraway country, but en route to Mist Haven, a mysterious land. Elsa can't be sure why, but she feels it has something to do with curing her, and the flashback of her parents' death bears this theory out, as the Queen writes a note in a bottle that the King chucks into the sea, hoping that the girls will discover the message and learn "the truth" since "it's the only way to protect them." Anna sees how the guilt is ravaging her sister, and so she decides to take a trip to Mist Haven without her sister's knowledge. Elsa is already scared for Anna due to the perilous nature of the journey itself, but it takes on a whole other layer of danger when we learn that Mist Haven is another term for the Enchanted Forest, meaning it's only a matter of time until Anna crosses paths with all manner of familiar faces. And who knows? Maybe one of them will be responsible for drawing her parents away from Arendelle in search of a cure to whatever is plaguing Elsa.

Credit: ABC

Of course, Elsa has bigger issues on her icy hands now that she's in Storybrooke. Feeling threatened by Emma and Hook, who are chasing after her after Grumpy (Lee Arenberg) reports having his van frozen by a mysterious woman who wields ice magic, Elsa hides and conjures up a giant snowman to protect her. The snowman rampages across town and heads into the forest, giving Elsa enough time to escape and find Mr. Gold's shop through an ad in the newspaper. Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) is away on a honeymoon with Belle (Emilie De Ravin), and so his shop is open to being infiltrated, which is exactly what Belle does, finding a pendant that she'd once given to Anna.

Credit: ABC

Could it be that Anna, after arriving in the Enchanted Forest, got herself swept up in the Curse that brought everyone to Storybrooke? If Anna is here, does she even know who she is? What would she think of her sister conjuring up a massive snowman? It's not exactly heroic behavior, particularly since the snowman comes within an eyelash of killing Marian. However, Regina uses fire magic to save her rival, proving herself to be more of a hero than a villain, although it's hard to know for certain if this isn't just one element of a larger plot she's hatched to eliminate Marian. Perhaps gaining her trust is step one? Regardless, Regina has hatched her most ambitious plan yet: with the help of Sidney, Regina is going to find the author of the magical storybook that tells the fates of each of the characters in the Enchanted Forest and beyond. Her rationale is that villains are written to never have happy endings; thus, if she could just find the author, she could strong-arm he/she into writing her the ending to which she feels entitled. It's kind of a crazy plan, but I love when this show indulges the absurdity of its fairy tale setting and reaches for something truly "outside the box."

Credit: ABC

"A Tale of Two Sisters" is an exhilarating start to the Frozen arc, and it has interesting implications as the season moves forward. Will Regina clash with Elsa in Queen vs. Queen faceoff? Who wrote the storybook, and can the author rewrite the endings for the characters? And what happened to Anna? These are all questions that should be answered soon enough, but until then, I'm simply happy to have Once Upon A Time back. Yes, it can be a bit trite and on-the-nose, but the show also provides moments that are unexpectedly poignant while still being self-referential, such as Rumpelstiltskin and Belle recreating the iconic ballroom dance scene from Beauty and the Beast. These are the moments that stick out in the show, and I'm excited to see what other directions the series might take, whether it'll lean more heavily on the Disney imagery or shy away in the coming weeks. I'm guess with Elsa, Anna, and co. around, this isn't going to be any less of a Disney show than it's been for the past three seasons. And I'm 100% okay with that. Haig and Lail are perfect representatives for Frozen, nailing the Elsa and Anna characters right out the gate (Lail, in particular, has the excitable, doe-eyed whimsy of Anna down-pat). I'm excited to see where this storyline goes, if only for the challenge of how the show will adapt and integrate something so deeply embedded in the public consciousness from recent pop culture history.