See You in Another Life: Similarities Between Once Upon a Time and Lost

I recently got into fairy tale drama Once Upon a Time (came for the Sebastian Stan, stayed for the Snow White – who knew?)  I’d known going in that several actors from Lost appear on the show, but I was deep into season 1 before I saw it’s run by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, two Lost writers.  I was hardly surprised, though; even aside from the “supernatural-real world hybrid with huge international ensemble” structure, many Lost-ian touches and motifs litter the show.  Here are some good and not-so-good bits that feel eerily familiar (some spoilers.)

 

I’ve Seen That Face Before – Cast first.  Once Upon a Time’s ensemble includes Lana Parrilla (who briefly appeared on Lost as an Other) as Snow White’s evil queen and Emilie de Ravin (Claire) as Belle.  Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and Alan Dale (Widmore) respectively recur as a giant and a king, and Rebecca Mader (Charlotte) has a guest arc as the Wicked Witch of the West.

 

Have You Met My Troubled Past? – Well, what do you know – seasons-long arcs divided into character-centric episodes that weave present-day storylines with flashbacks, or “fairybacks” here.  (Most of the characters on Once Upon a Time are fairy tale characters living in the real world without their memories, thanks to a curse, and the flashbacks tell of their true lives back in their world.)  Like Lost, the flashbacks are doled out unequally, with a few characters getting far more episodes than others.  It’s a bit different, though, since these people lived in the same kingdom and their stories often intersect, so they frequently pop up in each other’s flashbacks.

 

Even the Best Sorceresses Have Mommy Issues – Seriously, you can’t go two feet without tripping over someone’s mommy or daddy issues (or step-mommy issues in Snow’s case.)  Throw in some convoluted family trees, and you get a whole lot of parental-trauma drama.

 

Out of the Closet and Out the Door – Both, maddeningly, reveal a single character to be queer and then have the character disappear from the show.  At least there’s hope Mulan could come back and get her happy ending, whereas Tom’s last appearance is a posthumous flashback.

 

Let’s Go on a Trek – Here, we find the same annoying tendency to spend whole episodes, not moving the plot forward, but having the character journey to a place where they’ll be able to move it forward.  It’s a stalling technique that fans have gotten wise to.  To be fair, though, Once Upon a Time is less likely to negate the reason for going by the time the characters arrive.

 

I Don’t Even Care That This Makes No Sense – Both shows can be hit-or-miss with their plot logic (I can’t tell if Once Upon a Time is better than Lost on this score, or if I don’t notice it as much because I haven’t spent six years on it,) but what they lack in sense, they make up in emotional resonance.  The connections between the characters are ridiculously compelling, when the writing is on it’s really on, and the acting sells the emotional moments in tremendous ways.

 

Rumpelstiltskin = Desmond? – Okay, this last one’s just for fun.  On the surface, a dark sorcerer imp who’s fond of making deals is nothing like an Everyman who spent three years living down a hatch on an island of mystery.  But just look at the evidence.  Shaggy-haired brunette Scotsman.  Can see the future.  Achilles heel is being called a coward.  Desperately trying to reunite with a loved one lost through his mistakes.  Rumpelstiltskin is totally Desmond!