Wake Up Call (''Once Upon a Time'')

Opening sequence

A Tower is featured in the background.

In the Characters' Past

As Henry and Cinderella take off into the forest, the two are met by thieves who want the motorcycle, but suddenly Regina appears and ready to help, only to have Henry telling her that he and Cinderella can take care of this. Later on, Regina takes a stroll in the woods when she sees a hooded figure attacked by vines and she saved her, only to discover that the hooded figure is Drizella, who is on a mission to steal magic, and Regina agreed to help her. Regina starts training Drizella but after series of failures, Drizella’s talents finally come through when she rescued Regina from a falling tower.

The training also captured the attention of Rumpelstiltskin, who showed up to remind Regina that, just as the Evil Queen was virtually omniscient, so too must be Lady Tremaine. Heeding those words, Regina eavesdrop on Tremaine and discovers that she plans to take Drizella’s heart and place it in Anastasia after failing to get Henry’s heart, leading Regina to suspect that Drizella plans to kill her mother. Drizella wants Regina to help her but Regina refused. Drizella isn’t giving up that easily. When Prince Gregor shows up ready to kill Tremaine, Regina appears and attempts to intervene. It turns out that it was a double-cross set up by Drizella, to lure Gregor into a trap. Drizella uses magic to impale Gregor with black vines, and as a result her heart turns dark, successfully making her heart unsuitable for Tremaine's plan.

Later on, Regina and Henry spend time together to bond and patch over differences, with Regina saying to him that being his mother will always be her primary role.

In Seattle

At Roni’s, the photo of Henry and Regina became the subject of speculation for Roni and Henry, but Roni claims that she tried to adopt a child a while back but didn’t go through with the process. Lucy is seeing this photo and convince her that this was in the book and comes up with an idea to prove it, which leads to Roni contacting Weaver to get information about the adoption in return for a favor. Weaver comes through and gives Roni papers containing information, and Roni, by writing on a bar napkin, discovers that the handwritten signature at the bottom matches her own handwriting.

However, Ivy and the witch already have been planning to use Roni by way of the photo, utilizing the lavender flowers from the garden to create a potion (earlier on, Victoria is learning that the flower is giving her headaches). Ivy later visits Roni to have a talk about the photo and the adoption, but as they are about to have a drink, Ivy slips the potion made by the witch into Roni’s drink, and as Roni drinks, she "wakes up" and her memories of being Regina are returned. Drizella informs Regina that it was her tutelage that gave her the ability to cast the new curse, and therefore it will be difficult to break because if Henry and Jacinda experience true love’s kiss everyone will be in jeopardy, reminding her of a special contingency that was put into the curse that would hurt Henry if she didn't comply. Regina agreed not to tell Henry and ends up lying to him about the adoption, comparing Henry’s life to that of his birth mother Emma about having to go through life in the foster family system.

In between the events, Jacinda is upset with Henry about Instagram photos from Halloween night that were schemingly posted by Ivy. But after being encouraged by Roni to pursue Jacinda, Henry does just that. At the food truck, Henry shows up with a large radio and convince Jacinda to forgive him, and to ask her out on a date, and offered to help her start the engine on the vehicle.

Meanwhile, the mystery surrounding Eloise Gardner continued to add more questions than answers. As Weaver checks out of the hospital, Rogers suspects Tilly and Weaver are holding something back after he talked to Tilly, who then told Rogers about Eloise, explaining in riddles that the information from the sketch book is somehow closer than he thought. However, someone else has already beaten Rogers to the punch; the suspect with the tattooed hand is found murdered.

Reviews

The episode received positive reviews from critics. Praise went to Sharat Raju's directing, the performances of Lana Parrilla and Adelaide Kane, and the plot with many reviewers saying that it was a worthwhile story.

Paul Dailly of TV Fanatic gave it a 4.5 out of 5 stars: “Wake Up Call" was an excellent episode of this ABC drama series. The storyline is not moving along at a brisk pace, and it's becoming clear that the reboot was worth it”^[1]

Entertainment Weekly's Justin Kirkland gave it a B-^[2]