We finally see Aladdin and Jasmine’s backstory on Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 5, but unfortunately, that boon couldn’t abate how slow this episode is.

After Princess Jasmine’s surreptitious introduction at the end of last week’s Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 4, “Street Rats” focuses on how the classic Disney couple met, in this version of events. The chemistry between Karen David and Deniz Akdeniz is strong, and I very much want to see more of these two.

Meanwhile, in the present, Emma and the gang attempt to help Jasmine track down Aladdin. For Emma, it’s a more personal quest – if Aladdin, a Savior, is still alive, that means hope for her to survive as well. But, of course, there’s a catch in how Aladdin manages to escape his apparently-doomed Savior fate.

Despite the slowness, there are a few bright spots throughout this installment. Here are the six best moments from this week’s “Street Rats”!

The Evil Queen Tricking Emma Into Revealing Her Vision

Obviously, it would have been ideal if Emma hadn’t had to be tricked into spilling her secret. But by posing as Archie, the Evil Queen inadvertently does Emma (and the audience!) a favor. I was very much not looking forward to Emma keeping the secret of her vision all season long.

Luckily, she spills the beans on Episode 5, leaving the rest of the season for Emma and her family to figure out a third option – she is not willing to cleave her Savior destiny from herself using the shears, but she is also not willing to die.

The best part about this moment is that, rather than wallowing, this sets Emma off on the path of fighting for her destiny. This is the Emma I like to see.

Snow Ironically Telling Emma That She Shouldn’t Keep Secrets From Hook

All in all, the Charming fam’s reaction to Emma’s secret goes just about how I expect it to. Everyone’s a little miffed that she didn’t clue them in earlier, but that’s quickly replaced by understanding and concern about her.

But by far the best moment in the “Emma reveals her secret” fallout is the unintentionally hilarious conversation between Emma and her mother.

Snow chastises Emma for keeping the secret from Hook, in particular. She explains that her family will unconditionally love her no matter what, but that secrets of this caliber in relationships are super unhealthy – which is totally true.

Of course, the irony here is that when Snow says “Your father and I don’t keep secrets from each other!” the exact opposite is true. Charming is, in fact, keeping the huge secret of his quest for vengeance in the death of his father.

Though who knows if that’s even happening, still? The vengeance quest was introduced a few episodes back but we haven’t seen anything come of it since then. Maybe Charming forgot.

Regina’s Reaction To Finding Out Emma Thinks She May Be Her Murderer

Reason number one million why I love Regina: An earlier version of the character would have flipped out and gotten angry at being accused, spiraling out of control. Instead, this Regina, who has grown so much and had so much character development, snaps into action to save Emma’s life.

In fact, Regina is the only one to do anything useful in the present-day portion of the storyline: She concocts the potion linking Emma and Aladdin’s Savior magic, leading them straight to the crypt where Aladdin is hiding.

Of course, this is clearly going to be a struggle between the two women all season long.

I don’t subscribe to the belief that it is Regina under the hood (it just fully doesn’t make sense that they would reveal that information so early on in the season), but the tension between the two over whether Regina might be headed down a dark path could be enough to create a rift. I hope not.

The Evil Queen and Zelena’s Day Out

This moment can be classed “best” in the sense of “absolutely ridiculous and hilarious.” The Evil Queen is such a great character, and they have her spend nearly the entire installment pampering Zelena out on the town in an attempt to “woo” Zelena to the dark side?

Zelena is the flakiest person ever. Not only is the EQ wasting her time with Zelena – who I’m positive will switch sides once again at the eleventh hour and be forgiven by Regina – but why would either of them think it’s a good idea to prance about town, showing off their alliance?

Wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep Zelena her secret sidekick or something? I feel like this is very out of character for the EQ, who is usually smarter than this when it comes to nefarious plans. Instead, she’s trotting Zelena around, showing off the fact that they’re working together. It doesn’t make any sense.

I do like the EQ’s manner of swaying Zelena – she’s playing up that she embraces Zelena’s powerful, “wicked” side, and encouraging her to reveal her true self to her daughter and hopefully raise Robin as wicked as she is. It’s a smart plan, to play into Zelena’s fear of abandonment like that. And, by all accounts, it’s totally working on her.

Henry’s Realization

I don’t usually care for anything Henry-related, but his realization that he “led” his mother onto this unexpectedly doomed Savior path is very poignant.

First, Henry bonds with Jasmine over the fact that they both feel responsible for their loved ones’ dark fates. Henry tracked Emma down and led her back to Storybrooke, effectively “activating” her Savior destiny, while Jasmine did pretty much the same thing when she brought Aladdin to the Cave of Wonders.

Henry and Emma clearing the air, after they find what they believe to be Aladdin’s corpse, is a great moment between the two.

How can you not be moved when Henry confesses his guilt and anxiety over having “caused” Emma’s premature death? And when Emma assures Henry that she wouldn’t have changed a thing because what Henry did gave her a family, made her a mother? Tears. So many tears.

Aladdin and Jasmine’s Reunion

I didn’t believe for a second that Aladdin was really dead, but it was still great to see him pop up in the crypt, totally alive.

The Aladdin/Jasmine scenes in general comprised the best parts of this installment. The two actors have wonderful chemistry, and I love the fact that the writers are taking the slow-burn route with this couple. They haven’t even kissed yet, though it’s really obvious that the love and attraction is there.

All of the references to the Disney classic Aladdin are great, too. Aladdin giving Jasmine the apple, Jafar trapping Jasmine in a terrible CGI hourglass, Aladdin’s magic carpet, his “I can show you the world” plea to Jasmine to come away with him… all of it is so good.

I also like that we have an actual plot for them in the present. They’re not just sticking around for the hell of it – as their reunion introduced, Aladdin and Jasmine will have to deal with the fact that he severed his Savior magic with the plot device shears. I can’t imagine Jasmine will be too thrilled about that.

“Your heart’s desire, Swan. I promise, that’s all I want you to have.”

It’s obviously not cool of Hook to lie to Emma, going against her wishes and keeping the Savior destiny-severing shears just in case she fails in her quest to find another option between de-Savior-ing herself and dying. Just putting that out there.

But when Emma finds out what Killian did – and I’m sure she will, soon enough – how can she seriously be angry at him? This is an almost direct parallel of what Emma did in turning Killian into the Dark One back in Season 5. She wasn’t willing to let him die, so she went against what she knew he’d want in order to keep him alive. This is transparently the same type of thing.

I also don’t particularly think that Hook will use the shears on Emma against her knowledge. That would be going too far. Instead, I think they’ll be reintroduced down the line, so that Emma can actually confront the idea of giving up on being the Savior. As of now, she kind of brushed the idea aside without even really considering it.

Other thoughts:

I guess that’s it for Raphael Sbarge, then? Zelena turns Archie back into a cricket to hang above little Robin’s bassinet, so I’m assuming we won’t be seeing him for another three seasons.

Please, no more close-ups of Emma’s hand tremors and Jennifer Morrison looking petrified and askance. WE GET IT. WE FULLY GET WHAT’S HAPPENING.

The Evil Queen kills the Oracle. RIP, Oracle, we hardly knew ye.

There are SO many parallels between the Aladdin/Jasmine flashbacks and Hook/Emma in their trek up the magic beanstalk back in Season 2. I love it.

An early theory: Maybe Aladdin will take back up the Savior mantle, thereby either relieving Emma of her Savior duties or somehow defusing the they-all-die fate by splitting the Savior magic between them? Just a guess, but this would nicely clean up all the dangling plot threads.

What did you think of this episode of Once Upon a Time? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Once Upon a Time airs Sunday at 8/7c on ABC.

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