Jennifer Morrison defends excess of curses on 'Once Upon a Time'

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If you’re one of the many fans up in arms over yet another curse plaguing Storybrooke on Once Upon a Time, you’re not alone.

At the close of Sunday’s episode, the Snow Queen’s (Elizabeth Mitchell) spell of Shattered Sight finally hit town, which will cause the residents of Storybrooke to turn on one another as they see the worst in themselves and those around them. Of course, this is far from the first curse to infect the Charming family and their people. First, there was the original Dark Curse; we’ve also seen a Sleeping Curse and that curse that took away everyone’s memories for a year.

Though it seems like curses have become Once’s go-to foil for our favorite heroes, star Jennifer Morrison is quick to defend the ABC series, pointing out that the show itself is a fairy tale. “Fairy tales are not literal,” she tells EW on the set of Once while filming next Sunday’s spell-centric episode. “They are very metaphorical, and they are very representative of other things.

“In order to be real with Emma, I have to look at it representationally,” she continues. “I see the curses and spells and all the crises that come our way—the snow monsters and witches and all those things—as representative of the things that come our way that are hard in life: illness, death, exams, fights with loved ones, breakups. All those things are, in real life, what would be a curse or spell in Storybrooke. Yes, we have to bond together to fight these major things, but it’s just like a family has to bond together to fight cancer, or deal with a death in the family, or a parent losing a job, or not getting into the school you want to.”

Still, Morrison recognizes that the excess of curses might make it seem like these characters are crazy for not leaving Storybrooke. “But that’s like saying we’re crazy in real life,” she says. “In real life, stuff comes your way and you have to find a way to survive and deal with it.

“The underlying message of the show is that you have to fight for the people that you love, because those are the people that are going to stand by you in those battles,” she continues. “That’s part of the appeal of the show. It is worth it every day to fight through those hard things, just like it’s worth it to fight through the curse or whatever in Storybrooke. Whether it’s a good battle or a bad battle, you’re going to fight together, and that’s what we all have to hang onto. That’s the only way I can see it. Otherwise, if you take it too literally, you’re like, ‘Well, this is kind of crazy.'”

Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.