Crimes against Will Scarlet (Once Upon a Time)

To be fair, I should have tempered my expectations in this case, since I know screentime and characterization for Once Upon a Time’s supporting players can be spotty.  However, the Knave was easily my favorite part of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, and I was delighted to hear he’d been snatched up by the main show.  His opening scene on the show, wherein he remarks that Emma doesn’t “seem the type to shoot a man in the back” and waits just long enough for her to make a “what are you talking about – you’re facing me” face before turning tail and running off, is terrific, and pure Knave.  Unfortunately, season 4 majorly squandered Will, almost exclusively giving him inconsistent scraps in other people’s plots.  Will-related spoilers for season 4, as well as relevant Once Upon a Time in Wonderland stuff.  (Note:  I’ll mostly call him “Will” instead of “the Knave of Hearts,” since that’s how the show has been referring to him.)

First, I know Once Upon a Time likes its shiny new character toys, and they had some enticing ones last season:  getting the Frozen gang in the fall was an enormous coup, and the back half of the season had so many villains, there wasn’t time for much else.  Still, what’s the point of bringing Will over from Wonderland if they weren’t going to do anything with him?  I could see keeping him an ice for a bit – like I said, tons going on, and I imagine Frozen was an unexpected acquisition – but a whole season?  That’s just irresponsible storytelling, and unfair to the actor.

Last season, Will had shockingly little to do.  The first half largely has him playing comic relief or acting as a sounding board for Robin Hood.  Even more bizarrely, the second half pairs him with Belle as a midgame roadblock for her and Rumpel.  This latest development is a giant waste of time, since he’s clearly just a footnote in Belle and Rumpel’s story.  Worse, the relationship is revealed as a twist, so we have no idea how or why it started.  I can’t figure out what led to Belle’s interest in Will, and plot-wise, I couldn’t begin to tell you what Will is doing with her.

This leads to to my next gripe:  there’s been nothing to explain why Will is in Storybrooke, how he got there, and where Ana is while he’s cozying up to Belle.  Did the Rabbit open a portal?  Was it something curse-related?  Was it an accident or a punishment, or did he mean to come here?  Does he have a plan?  Is he trying to get back to Wonderland?  Where’s Ana, and why is he seeing someone else?  The first half of the season dropped a few mysterious hints – digging up the beach to retrieve something he’d previously hidden, breaking into the library looking for something about the Red Queen – but there’s been nothing for over 15 episodes.

He might as well be a new character with some similar traits.  Not only does the show seem disinterested in answering these questions, it also wastes well-established facets of his character that relate to the current goings-on.  Twice in the season, a major character has their heart stolen, something Will knows an awful lot about – on and before the events of Wonderland, he spent a long time without his heart, and I’d say he has the best “heartless” characterization of anyone on either series.  However, he has no insight into either event.  I’ll give him a pass on Hook, since they’re not well acquainted and aren’t fans of each other, but what about new squeeze Belle?  This man knows exactly what it’s like to be without one’s heart, and he didn’t notice any change in the woman he’s dating?  No, he needs Rumpel to tell him, and while his reaction does indicate his familiarity with the experience, I’m putting that down to the actor.  God bless Michael Socha, who does what he can with the dregs he’s given, because the writing not helping him at all.