‘Once Upon A Time’ And ‘The Walking Dead’ Collided In ‘The Snow Queen’ [Spoilers]

Fans of Once Upon a Time and The Walking Dead might have recognized a familiar face in “The Snow Queen.”

According to Wetpaint, actress Brighton Sharbino played a young version of Ingrid (Elizabeth Mitchell’s Snow Queen) in the latest episode of Once Upon a Time.

The Walking Dead viewers will remember Brighton as creepy Lizzie Samuels, the walker-obsessed tween who was an excellent shot and a sadistic killer. She murdered her own sister to turn her into a zombie because she loved the undead that much more than human beings. Lizzie also dissected animals and almost killed baby Judith.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time a star from The Walking Dead has appeared on Once Upon a Time — somehow Sasha actress Sonequa Martin-Green has survived longer on the AMC series than she did on the ABC series. Neal actor Michael Raymond-James also starred in two episodes of season two of The Walking Dead.

Sharbino’s character on Once Upon a Time was also one twisted sister, but she didn’t go full-on psycho until she got older. In fact, she actually saved her two younger sisters from an evil princess-napper in “The Snow Queen.”

Things started to take a dark turn when Elizabeth Mitchell took over playing Ingrid — she accidentally turned her sister Helga into ice cubes while fighting off the Duke of Weasel-ton’s advances, and her other sister Gerda (the mother of Frozen characters Elsa and Anna), trapped the future Snow Queen inside that magical urn to prevent her from doing any more damage. Gerda later asked Pabbie the Rock Troll to make everyone in Arendelle forget that Helga and Ingrid ever existed. Of course, magic always comes with price, and Gerda’s price was apparently being “cursed” with her magical daughter Elsa.

While in the urn, Ingrid presumably went crazy and devised her kooky plan to replace her deceased non-magical sisters with Emma Swan and her niece Elsa. Apparently, she wants the three blondes to have Storybrooke all to themselves so they can spend all day having fun magic snowball fights.

The Snow Queen’s freaky family plan didn’t freak out Rumplestiltskin at all — he seems to believe that Belle will be perfectly okay with letting the Snow Queen do whatever she wants to their family and friends, like turning them into bricks for an ice palace or something. Mr. Gold has started going full-on Dark One during this season of Once Upon a Time, and everyone but the Snow Queen (and maybe Hook) is oblivious to it.

“The Snow Queen” also gave Once Upon a Time in Wonderland fans a little more Will Scarlet. Will reminded Robin Hood of something Maid Marian said about love long ago — and Robin responded to his romantic speech by making out with Regina. Poor Marian is most likely doomed unless someone asks her son Roland to kiss her on the forehead (Once showed viewers that familial love works to break a curse in the season one finale).

“The Snow Queen” ended with the Ingrid telling Rumple that he needs to take one more step to break free from the Dark One’s dagger, but of course, she whispered it in his ear. The only hint Rumple gave viewers was that it’s something he’ll really enjoy doing. Maybe he has to kill the person he hates the most or something (obviously that person would be Hook).

According to CarterMatt, next week’s episode of Once Upon a Time will be two hours long (’tis the season for November sweeps). Giancarlo Esposito will return to play the Magic Mirror in “Smash the Mirror,” and he better hope that he doesn’t run into Regina. There will be a flashback sequence that shows the Snow Queen trying to pit Anna and Elsa against each other, and Emma will continue to struggle with her out-of-control powers in modern day Storybrooke. She’ll beg Rumple to help her get rid of her powers, and Hook will try to stop Gold from stripping Swan’s magic away. From the sounds of the rest of the plot description, everyone is going to be very busy next week.

“Regina struggles with her plan to find the author of the storybook until her quest takes an unexpected turn. Robin Hood recruits Will Scarlet to assist him on a mission and Mary Margaret and David search for Emma.”

That’s a lot of story to pack into one episode.

As you can see in the Once Upon a Time promo below, Emma gets an even greater incentive to get rid of her powers when she accidentally hurts Henry.

There’s so much going on now, and fans still have the arrival of Maleficent and Cruella de Vil to look forward to this season.

What did you think of the latest episode of Once Upon a Time?