 Gwen Ihnat of "The A.V.Club" gave the episode a B+, noting that "As we slog through "Once Upon A Time" every week, occasionally we are rewarded with episodes like this one.What with "OUAT’s" frequent off-pacing, it seemed like enough events happened in “A Curious Thing” to fill a few episodes, but so many annoying questions this Oz half-season were cleared up.