Chapter 7: In Which We All Mourn a Childhood Friend

Well, my dear readers...it's happened. In tonight's episode of ABC's "Once Upon a Time" (2x07: "Child of the Moon), I have finally cracked and cried.

Okay, technically, this is a lie, I've cried before because of this show. But I cried again during this one, and you should all know why.

Gus the Mouse...is dead. 

He was ambitious...

He was feisty...

But most of all, he was a friend to Cinderella when she needed him. Goodbye, "Gus-Gus." 

You will not be forgotten. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go cry more.

...

Okay, now that I'm back, let's get to that review/recap thing I do, despite the emotional turmoil it causes within my soul. 

What Happened:

Fairytale Land (the Past)

• Okay, remember that episode way back in Season 1 in which we learned Red Riding Hood is actually a werewolf and she totally ate her boyfriend and the town came after her? Well, now you know. This happens right after that. 
• Snow and Red are on the run, totally being badass fugitives. After quickly disposing of Some Queen's Soldier-Dude Who Had the Nerve to Think He Could Beat Up Snow White, the two girls decide they should split up, for Snow's safety, since Red is gonna turn into a werewolf any second now. (It's worth remembering that Snow is totally against this idea and is being an amazing friend, while Red is insisting she has to go for Snow's safety. I already have so many friendship feels it's not even funny.)
• Red wakes up in the morning (insert "OMG I hope none of those pix wound up on Twitter"-joke here) and finds that this guy named Quinn has stolen her magic red coat that is supposed to prevent her from becoming a werewolf. Quinn tells Red that she's not the only werewolf out there- he's one, too, and he has a bunch of werewolf friends, and they should totally all go hang out sometime, like right now.

If you immediately thought of her...you're not the only one.

• Within the werewolves' crib is Red's mother. Turns out she has one. Weird.
• Mama Red (I think she has a name, but to make her sound cooler and equally B.A. as Red, we shall call her Crimson) teaches Red to control her wolf side. There's some bonding, everyone is reminded of Twilight, yaddah-yaddah-yaddah. 
• Crimson and Red are suddenly confronted by Snow, who's still on the run and is totally forgiving of Red for ditching her, despite how I would've reacted.

"Gee, thanks for totally ditching me to go sit at the Cool Kids' Table, Red."

• Suddenly Regina's soldiers burst in and kill Quinn. Crimson is naturally mad, and wants to kill Snow. In an ensuing scuffle, Red protects her friend but accidentally kills Crimson. She's understandably saddened, but Snow is comforting. They bury Crimson and then we get an incredibly sweet and meaningful moment in which Red tells Snow that she's the first person who truly accepted her for who she is: Red's Granny wanted her to shun her wolf characteristics, while Crimson felt the same way about Red's human side. Snow is the first one to let her be both. 

These are happy tears, guys. That's all. 

Storybrooke

• The dwarves dig up some fairy dust and are quite happy, because it means they can make Jefferson's Hat work again, thus opening up a portal to Emma and Snow in the Fairytale Land. They go and celebrate at Granny's, and a good time is had by all.

I really wish all parties consisted solely of jumping on trampolines while attempting to eat cake.

• King George/Spencer suddenly crashes the party. They don't show it, but you just know everyone gave him a dirty look when he came in. I bet he asked Ruby for coffee with sugar and cream, and she only gave him coffee with sugar. I bet that made him feel bad. 

"No creamer for you, King George! Take THAT!"

• Okay, so long story short, Spencer/KG tells David he's got a plan to get back at him. David's all,

• Ruby gets asked out by Gus/Billy, who was a mouse in the Fairytale World that helped out and was friends with Cinderella. He's a tow-truck driver here with a crush on Ruby, who rejects his offer because it's the full moon.
• As the party's dying down, David goes and sees Ruby prepping up for a night in a storage center to prevent herself from harming anyone in wolf form. She hasn't changed into a wolf since the curse began, and she doesn't know if she'll be able to control it. Plus, she totally lost the cloak that prevented her from changing into wolf form. (You had ONE job, Ruby. ONE job.)
• In the morning, Ruby gets found by David and Granny lying in the woods with no memory of what happened: she escaped the freezer. Go figure. 
• Meanwhile, Henry awakes from a dream of the fiery Red Room from last week, with Regina there to comfort him. She finds that his hand has been burnt and takes him to Mr. Gold, who in turn explains that victims of Sleeping Curses like Henry gain access to a dream realm- the same dream realm where their souls went during their cursed times. He gives Henry a necklace that will allow him to "control his actions" in the dream realm. 
• Ruby, David and Granny find Gus' dead body. Ruby lets David lock her in the jail, convinced that she killed poor Gus. Meanwhile, Spencer/KG riles up the townfolk against her, and they all get torches (seriously? Torches? They're SO 18th-century, people.)
• For her own safety, Ruby goes into Belle's library while Granny and David go off to solve the mystery, convinced Ruby didn't do it. Belle declares her friendship for Ruby and tells her that she believes Ruby is a good person, and it's all really sweet...
• ...until Ruby locks Belle in the library so she will be safe. 
• David and Granny find Ruby's cloak in Spencer's car. They realize he killed Gus and framed Ruby. David goes and finds Wolf Ruby, whom he talks down and puts the cloak on to save her. 

"We did it!!!!!! Hooraaaaaay!!!!"

• Unfortunately, Spencer used this as an opportunity to destroy Jefferson's tophat. 

The Audience:

"You did not just."

(Yes, I'm well aware I've used this gif before. But it is perfection incarnate, and fit the situation.)

The Fairytale Land (Now)

• Aurora has a dream of the Red Room in which she meets Henry, who explains who he is after putting out the fires. Aurora relays this information to an ecstatic Snow and Emma. 

What I Thought:

   Well, they did it again. Another awesome episode has been delivered to us, so be grateful, my children. This episode addressed a much-needed plot point (how does Red's werewolf status work in our world?) while giving us some really interesting metaphors and sweet life moments. 

    Friendship was a big theme in this episode. I cannot say how much I loved seeing David's devotion to helping Ruby (and Snow's, as well, but we're discussing his actions first.) For a show that has "True Love" as one of its main themes, we've certainly gotten to see a lot of truly touching friendships (the first season featured a lot of Mary Margaret and Emma being friends, but whereas David seems to be embracing both of his identities, for whatever reason Snow seems to have cast off her Storybrooke persona and wrapped herself in her motherly love for Emma.) Friend relationships are very similar to romantic relationships in some ways; they involve two people who deeply care for one another, and will help each other at a cost to themselves simply because of that platonic affection. 

    We got to see that with David and Ruby this week. He knew, he must've known, that helping Ruby could put his leadership position on shaky ground. Ruby, by her very biology, is not going to be a very popular person in Storybrooke now that the curse is broken. People know who she is, what she can do, and what she has done (eating her boyfriend, Peter). They are afraid of her, and they're not necessarily wrong. But that doesn't matter to David. He cares about his friend, a companion he had back in the Fairytale Land. He was willing to go out on a limb and protect her, despite everything, and that's beautiful. That is so very, very beautiful to me: one person risking how they're viewed, how they are treated by society, for a friend. 

    Snow White also showed a beautiful hand of friendship to Red in their past, accepting her despite the physical danger to herself. Red's speech about Snow accepting both sides of her nearly made me cry, because that's beautiful, too. Friends should accept friends for who they are. Red didn't quite know who she was- somewhere between she-wolf and woman, but not exactly what that meant. Snow basically told her that she would be there to help her figure it all out.

    Who hasn't had a friend in a dark place, or a friend who didn't know who they are? Who hasn't experienced either of those situations themselves at one point or another? This episode spoke to everyone who has ever been in such a place, and everyone who's ever helped someone there. It reminded me a lot of teenagers, to be honest: many call it the most turbulent period of a person's life, when they're trying to figure out exactly who they are. Like Red, we all hope that somebody will be there for us; like Snow and David, we should all let anyone we know in this position that we're there for them. This episode was for anyone who's ever cried all night, and the friend who's stayed up texting them. It's for anyone who's stuck up for a friend being bullied or picked on or going through a rough patch. "Child of the Moon" was, plain and simple, for friends and friendship. 

My Score:

10/10

A beautiful message and answers to some larger questions in the overall narrative made for a fantastic episode. I loved it.

My Questions:

• Okay, so Henry and Aurora can communicate in the Red Room...but Aurora definitely said, "There was a little boy there this time." Does that mean that the "he" Aurora mentioned is a different person, and if so, who could he be?
• Is Peter in Storybrooke? I don't know if he's still alive or not, I remember Regina implied that she only brought two dead people with her...
• Did you cry about Gus? Because I did. Significantly.

Next Week:

Cora beats Dr. Whale at his own game. Can you say "Zombies?"

(As always, I used a lot of gifs, pictures, and cultural references. Most of the gifs and pictures are from Tumblr, and if not that then other websites. I don't own any of them, nor any of the other shows, movies, etc. that I make reference to. This blog is purely for entertainment purposes. I own nothing. If   you own/know who owns one of the gifs/pictures I put up, and would like me to remove it, just let me know in the comments and I will do so.)

Chapter Six: In Which August Feels Guilty or Something.

Well, it's November. The Holly Jolly season is upon us. Luckily, even in these chaotic holiday times, we still have ABC's "Once Upon a Time" to fall back on for an hour when everything seems too hectic.  So now you can squeeze an extra fifteen minutes out of your day to avoid doing something you desperately need to do and read my review of Episode 2x06, "Tallahassee."

What Happened:

 

The Fairytale Land

• Emma and the rest of the Disney Princess Brigade, along with the forcibly-inducted Hook, arrive at the beanstalk. Hook explains that he has magic bracelets which will allow him and one other to climb up to the Treehouse of Doom.
• After some arguing and weak reasoning on the DPB's part, Emma decides to go with Hook. I was QUITE excited at the thought of these two spending precious bonding time together.

 

• Hook and Emma pass the halfway point on the beanstalk, and he's bored, so he asks Emma if she's got any good awful-ex stories. She calms him down firmly, insisting she has never been in love. He knows this is ridiculous, because Regina texted him these pictures:

 

• The three founding members of the DPB chill at the bottom of the beanstalk. Turns out Emma instructed Mulan to chop down the beanstalk if she's not back in ten hours. When she finds out the depressed princess is having bad dreams and doesn't sleep as a result, Snow gives Aurora terrible advice.

 

"Having nightmares? Best way to get rid of those is to go to sleep again!"

 

and Mulan's all

 

while she just casually invents the sundial.

• Emma and Hook arrive at the top of the beanstalk. Emma finds out about Hook and Mila(Rumpelstiltskin's wife), and then reflects that perhaps she was in love..."once."
• Aurora wakes up, stressed out, and tells Snow she had a dream: "I was in a red room...with burning curtains. There were no doors or windows, and I was sitting in a corner...and HE was looking at me..."
• Emma and Hook then use a bag of magic powder (courtesy of the extremely-practical Mulan) to knock out the giant at the top of the beanstalk.(although Hook winds up under a pile of rocks which he quickly escapes) They then explore, looking for the compass.
• The pair finds the corpse of Jack the Giant-Slayer, who apparently fought the giants in several wars. Hook plays history buff and Emma is all "That's boring" before she spots a trapwire and grabs Hook to pull him out of the way.

  "And you assume I care about the giant wars...why?"

• They end up in a hug. Hook has the exact same action the audience has ("OMG Emma and Hook are TOTALLY meant to be together YOLO") before Emma is all denying ("OMG Hook, I was just saving your life GOD can't two people just have a near-death experience without romantic tension I mean REALLY")
• The giant wakes up and Hook gets buried by a pile of rocks...again.
• Emma manages to trap the poor giant and takes the compass. Because she spared his life, he allows her to leave, but not before she convinces him to keep Hook imprisoned for ten hours.
• Hook is noticeably and understandably distressed that Emma is doing this to him. She explains that she can't take the chance that Hook will turn on them, and needs the ten hours as a head start (and Hook looks so hurt and rejected and he's all "I helped you find the compass, we had a good thing going!!!" with sad watery puppy eyes :( )
• Meanwhile, there is TENSION amongst the Disney Princess Brigade. Mulan wants to start chopping down the beanstalk, and Snow is naturally upset. But luckily Emma arrives, leaping down from the beanstalk epically but landing not-so-epically. (Somebody needs to make a gif of her amazing jump/fall/trip thing...teehee.)
• The DPB, now testosterone-free once more, heads off to see where the compass leads them.

 

Our World (But Not Storybrooke...)

• Twelve years ago (to long-time fans of the show, this number will be significant- we know Henry was born ten years ago, in a prison...) Emma is working giant Eighties glasses even though it was only 2000. C'mon, Emma, it's the Twenty-First Century, you survived Y2K, you can play with fashion a bit now.
• Emma carjacks her famed yellow beetle (the car she's been driving since the show began), but it's already stolen by another thief named Neil.
• More than a year later, Emma and Neil are the Bonnie and Clyde of the Twenty-First Century, robbing convenience stores and loving every second of it. The two are very much in love, but Neil proposes that they settle down somewhere, and Emma randomly picks Tallahassee on a map.
• Unfortunately, an old robbery of Neil's comes back to haunt him, putting him back on the law's radar. Emma proposes they make new identities for themselves by selling stolen watches.
• After getting the watches from a locker in a train station, Emma and Neil split up, agreeing to meet the next day after selling the watches. Neil is then chased down by none other than...
• AUGUST! He hasn't been around much this season, so you newbies will be confused, but for everyone else, he's Pinocchio grown up, and he's the only other person who escaped the curse besides Emma.
• August is then a manipulative jerk:

"Um, yeah, you gotta stay away from Emma. She's kinda like my surrogate sister who I ditched and just now am feeling slightly guilty for and you need to go and dump her so that she can go and save the world in ten years."

• 
To convince Neil he's telling the truth, August shows him something in a box that, eleven years later, will contain a typewriter. Whatever's in the box now, though, is enough to make Neil instantly believe stories of magic and listen to August's explanation of the curse that Emma was prophesied to save Storybrooke at age twenty-eight.

• Emma is arrested at her meeting spot: August convinced Neil to call in a tip on Emma before fleeing to Canada. Leave it to Pinocchio to encourage using lies to solve problems...
• Two months later, Emma is in prison, serving out an eleven-month term. Henry has just been born, and she receives the key to her yellow car from an anonymous sender...
• ...which turns out to be Neil. Neil and August are in Vancouver, where Neil expresses his undying love for Emma, along with his guilt over Emma's incarceration for a crime he committed. August assures him that her prison term will help her clean up her act, and promises to send Neil a post-card when Emma has completed her destiny. (Remember at the start of the season, we saw a man in a business suiting getting a Storybrooke post-card?)

 

 



"Ooooooooooh...I get it."

 



Storybrooke (now)

• Henry wakes up. David rushes in, thinking, "Oh, God, it better not be bed bugs, Sydney Glass told me all about those."
• Turns out Henry just had the exact same dream as Aurora, Red Room, Burning Curtains, Creepy Stare and all.

 

 

What I Thought:

 

     There are certain differences between the Fairytale Land (and by extension, Storybrooke) and the world that us viewers inhabit and call "real." Some are blatant (I don't know about you, but I don't know anyone who can stick their hand in somebody else's chest cavity and magically extract their heart while keeping them alive) while others are subtle. Whether or not you think the difference that this episode focuses on to be great or small is a matter of opinion.

      One of my friends and fellow OUAT-fanatic told me that Lana Parilla- the actress who plays Regina- said in an interview that the inhabitants of the Fairytale Land only have one true love. Now, granted, she's not one of the show's writers, but given her big role, her opinion on the matter still has a lot of weight.

      By contrast, on our Earth, people have many loves. They can start as early as elementary school with playground blushes and handholding, which in turn grows into the drama and hormone-filled high school experience that every teenager across the world knows to well. The romance continues to grow throughout the rest of our lives, but the one constant is that love has many forms and even more incarnations. People have unrequited affections, they have mutual crushes that go unacted on for one reason or another; if they're lucky (or not- again, depends on your view) they enter into a relationship, which more often than not eventually ends to give way to a new one. Half of all marriages end in divorce (which means half don't ;) ). The point is, love in our world is far more complicated than in the Fairytale Land, where Lana Parilla's words have thus far stood true: every character has only had one love story involving one other person.

      This episode intrigued me because Emma- the child of two worlds, born in one but raised in another- is quite possibly the perfect person to break this pattern. She had difficulty admitting it, but we the audience could clearly tell Emma was in love with Neil (and he with her.) The pain she felt after he left her (and the guilt he felt for doing it) proved to us that they cared about each other immensely. At the same time, Emma appeared to be not entirely unreceptive to Hook's flirting, and looked rather distressed when she thought he had been crushed by a pile of rocks (how he wasn't is beyond me.) Regardless of my personal desire that Emma and Hook get together, there were sparks on both sides.

     Emma might just fall in love again. She showed signs of it with Graham, but that got cut short. Emma might fall in love with a man who himself is a rulebreaker in more than one way: Hook is a pirate who has already lost his "one true love," but seems very interested in Emma. With the potential of Neil returning, a love triangle may be in bloom. And that is a very un-"Fairytale Land" concept that I am excited to see Emma bring about.

 

My Score:

 

9/10

An intriguing concept coupled with an exciting adventure and a romantic flashback makes Emma's backstory incredibly interesting, giving us an all-around fantastic episode. 

 

My Questions:

-How mad is Hook at Emma???

-What is this freaky Red Room thing? Could there be a villain besides Cora?

-Will Mulan put a patent on her sundial?

 

 

Next Week:

Red Riding Hood has to deal with the consequences of eating her boyfriend, both social and digestive!

 

 (As always, I use a lot of gifs and pictures. Most of them I get from Tumblr or other various websites. If they are yours or belong to someone you know, and you don't think I should be/have the right to be using them, let me know in the comments and I will take them down. I own nothing!)

Chapter 5: In Which Regina Dresses Like a Jedi Padawan.

Tonight we were treated to a special Halloween episode of ABC's "Once Upon a Time:" 2x05, "The Doctor." While it's certainly no "Scream" or "Nightmare on Elm Street," this episode had its share of creepy, as well as good ol' fashioned Storybrooke...science? Read on for my "muahaha"-filled recap and review!

What Happened:

Fairytale Land (Past)

• Regina begins her Sith Lord training with Rumpelstiltskin in the same outfit Hayden Christensen wore in "Revenge of the Sith," only with a lighter color-scheme. I guess she was a fangirl. 

Overlarge leather vests and billowy sleeves are what's hot this fall.

• Anyway, enough fashion talk. Rumpelstiltskin tells Regina to freeze a unicorn, which she does. He then insists she take its heart, which she is uncomfortable with, so Rumpel does it for her before telling her to kill it by squeezing the heart. Regina cannot bring herself to do it, leading Rumpel to ask her what is holding her back from killing.
• Later, Regina tells Rumpelstiltskin that she wants to learn magic so that she can bring back Daniel, her dead boyfriend that her mom killed via Heart-Grabbing. Suddenly Jefferson, aka The Mad Hatter, shows up, and the audience is like,

• This is Jefferson in his fabulous days before his band tanked, when he wore all the eye shadow he wanted and all his fangirls wore top hats to see him play the drums. 
• FabJeff gives Rumpelstiltskin a glass ball, which is from another world or something. Rumpelstiltskin has this amazing moment where Jefferson is all, "You want the magic ball or not?" and Rumpy's all, "Mmmmmmokay" and snatches it. SOLID GOLD. (see what I did there? ;) )
• FabJeff reminds Regina that she is in fact married to a king which does in fact make her a queen and can therefore make queenly deals of queenly power. The deal essentially boils down to "You let me drive a carriage w/o a license and jailbreak my iPod, I get you a freaky witch-doctor thang to bring back your Stable-Man." 
• Later FabJeff introduces Regina to Doctor Whale's Fairytale-Land Counterpart, Victor, who's rocking the buttons and he doesn't care because he's almost as fabulous as Jefferson and that's saying something, I mean really, the two of them could do commercials together. 
• Dr. Vic tells Regina that he needs a heart to bring back Daniel, and just in the middle of the dramatic scene an ad for Wreckit Ralph comes on screen. I was not pleased.

"What the heck Pixar I mean normally I love you but Regina is making a character-shaping ethical decision here, come back when Henry's onscreen or something!"

• Regina takes Dr. Victor and FabJeff to her old house and shows them her mom Cora's secret vault of hearts. Dr. Vic picks one and they go on their merry way to do the experiment to bring back Daniel, whom Regina has kept in peak (albeit dead) condition via a spell. Unfortunately the experiment doesn't work 
• Now that she has nothing to lose, Regina goes to Rumpelstiltskin, kills some poor chick he was teaching, and tells him she's ready to learn all magic, including the dark kinds. Little did she know that Rumpelstiltskin paid Dr. Victor off to make the experiment a dud, ensuring his apprentice was in the right mental state to be EEEEEEEEEVIL. Dr. Victor heads back to his own world where technicolor hasn't been invented yet, but resurrections have...that's right, folks, Dr. Victor/Dr. Whale is a modernized Dr. Frankenstein, and he manages to bring back his dead brother using the heart he took from Cora's vault (of course we all know how THAT turned out.)

Storybrooke

• Sheriff David clocks Dr. Whale because he and Snow White slept together that one time when they were all cursed and she was technically single so Whale really wasn't doing anything wrong...Our Hero, everybody. 
• David informs Whale about his quest to find a portal to the Fairytale Land. Whale then bursts in on a psych session, in which a weepy Regina was telling Archie/Jiminy Cricket about how she's quitting magic cold-turkey in order to win back Henry. Whale demands that Regina send him back to be with his brother, to which Regina replies she only brought the living to Storybrooke. 
• As soon as Whale shuts the door and leaves, Archie asks her if that's true- that all the dead Fairytale citizens stayed in their homeland. Regina then gets a priceless moment where she looks right at Archie and tells him she brought who SHE wanted (her dead dad and Daniel.) It was her curse, after all. 

• David brings Henry to the stable to meet his horse, then makes up this half-baked story about how shoveling a horse's excrement around bonds horse and rider. The audience doesn't care, but the plot tells us, "This is important later, just stick around, okay???"
• Regina discovers Daniel's grave is empty, so she goes to her secret prison underneath the hospital, where she finds Dr. Whale, weak and short one arm. He informs her Daniel has indeed been resurrected, but is now a monster. 
• Regina tells David what happened, and the two of them somehow figure out where Daniel's going: the stables. 
• In the stables, Henry is being lazy, big surprise, and is working on his horse's hairstyle instead of cleaning up like David told him. Suddenly Daniel shows up, all zombie-esque, and advances towards Henry.
• Luckily Regina and David save Henry. Regina manages to awaken Daniel's humanity, but he is in so much pain that he begs her to kill him. Regina turns him to dust, finally deciding to let go of her lost love. 
• While Regina goes to see Archie again, the injured Whale goes to see Rumpelstiltskin, who (after making Whale admit that science cannot do what magic can) heals his arm. 

Fairytale Land (Present)

• The Disney Princess Brigade (Aurora, Mulan, Emma and Snow) arrive at The Sanctuary town, only to find out the town has been massacred by Cora, again with that gross Indiana Jones 2-Heart-Grabby-Thing. The only survivor is Kilian, who has apparently been disguising himself as the town blacksmith to spy for Cora (his ex-girlfriend that doesn't quite get they're through.) 
• The next five minutes of the show are as follows:

Kilian:

"They'll NEVER suspect who I REALLY am!"

Emma:

• The DPB learn he is Captain Hook/Kilian Jones, a spy for Cora. They wanna leave him to get eaten by ogres, but he tells them he can help find The MacGuffin of Season 2, a magic compass to lead them back to Storybrooke. (What is a MacGuffin, you might ask? Think...the One Ring, The Sorcerer's Stone, etc. Something that is important to the characters simply because it will get them where the plot needs them to go.)
• The group comes across a beanstalk, the top of which is home to a giant who, according to Kilian, has the compass.

What I Thought:

          Let's start with what I liked: the Regina backstory. It was really awesome to see Regina and Rumpelstiltskin back in their glory days, learning and teaching respectively. (Can I just say that Rumpel's actor, Robert Carlyle, knocked it out of the PARK tonight? Like, seriously, he was fantastic, even with his small role in this episode.) Regina had an intriguing storyline about doing something bad with good intentions; she knew her mother had taken those hearts from living people, and that she was using dark, evil magic, the likes of which her mother used to control and her teacher used to kill. Regina clearly believed this was all permissible if it meant she could resurrect someone who she loved. It's an interesting and debate-causing topic, and I liked seeing that play out on screen. Ultimately the show seemed to say that since Regina was corrupted in the end, it's not possible to use dark methods for something good, but it's by no means definitive, given that Regina might very well NOT have become morally comfortable with killing if the experiment had worked and restored Daniel to her. 

Moral conundrums are tricky...

          The other character I loved in this episode was Jefferson. The earliest in his life we had seen him was right around the time he lost his daughter, when his days making deals with Regina were long gone. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed seeing him in his hey-day, making one-liners, being a rambunctious and fun-loving wildchild. That makes sense, given this is probably before he had a daughter, and having children is supposed to make most people more mature, or so I hear. 

          Now I suppose we have to talk about what I didn't appreciate, and that was Regina in Storybrooke. I know I've said before on this blog that I really like her being on the side of the angels now, but I still wanted her to retain her bad attitude and tough streak. Regina didn't feel that way tonight. I know the episode was about her finally giving up her first love, but that really didn't serve as an excuse to me to see her constantly on the verge of tears, talking like she was her young self again, unable to do what she had to do until the last minute. Remember when Regina killed her father, someone she loved, to get something she cared about (revenge)? I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't instantly lash out at Daniel, despite her love for him, with magic when she saw him threatening the person she cares about more than anything else in the world: Henry. Just because she was dealing with the loss of someone she loved is no reason why Regina shouldn't be tough! She's a strong person; just like Emma fought a dragon when Henry was on death's door, and Mulan protected Aurora when Philip was about to receive the Dementor's kiss, I believe Regina could  and should have functioned better despite her feelings for Daniel. 

My Score:

6/10.

The Fairytale Land Regina shined, but Storybrooke Regina disappointed me.

My Questions:

- Okay, Daniel's well and truly gone, Graham's dead, and Philip is cursed...is it possible we might start to see characters break the tradition of "One True Love" and have new romances? People like Emma, Regina, and Mulan deserve to move on- after all, people don't just love the first person they kiss forever!

-Does Kilian have little utensils he can attach to his hand? ( I think the cartoon Hook might have...)

-When are Aurora and Mulan going to discuss Philip again???

Next Week:

Emma's criminal past is revealed, and present-Emma fights a giant!!!

(As always, I just use gifs and pictures I find on Tumblr and other websites. If anyone made/owns one of the gifs/knows who does and feels that I should not have used them, let me know and I will take it down. This blog is made for entertainment purposes only; I own nothing.)

Chapter Four: In Which Ruby Gets a Superpower

Aargh, maties! This week we be reviewin' the fourth episode the second season of ABC's "Once Upon a Time," called "The Crocodile!" Set sail for snarky recaps and reviews as deep as Davy Jones' Locker! (Or at least, TRY to be.) Avast...or something. (I really hope pirates didn't actually talk like this, because it's really a bit exhausting.)

What Happened:

Storybrooke

• Belle is having a sweet romantic with Rumpelstiltskin. He's all, "Hey, I got you some nice jewelery!" and she's all "Why?" prompting him to go "Cuz I LURV you." The moment of sweetness is ruined when Grumpy bursts in, demanding his axe. Though Rumpel denies having it, Grumpy says he has it within the shop, along with numerous other possessions that don't belong to him...including Belle. Belle is horrified to see Rumpel slam Grumpy against the wall violently, when all of a sudden...
• She wakes up. It was all a dream. Naturally, she feels like doing anything but sleeping, so she creeps to her window in Rumpel's house and sees that he is spinning gold out of thread in the basement- he is using magic!

• The next day, Rumpel wants to make Belle breakfast now that they're living together (which is sudden and forward except not really I guess considering they lived together for like months in Fairytale Land except that wasn't really "living together" in the sense that they didn't like have a conversation about it and what it meant as a step in their relationship and y'know I'm just gonna go ahead and shut up now), but she totally calls him out on using magic again and demands to know why he needed magic to be in Storybrooke. When he plays coy, she accuses him of being afraid to be open with her and storms off. 
• Rumpel later finds that Belle has snuck off (through a window, which seems impractical and difficult). Meanwhile in the mines,  a wife-beater-clad David (I only take note of his clothing because it's the first time in the show's history that he isn't wearing A) excessive amounts of leather or B) excessive amounts of plaid- we're proud of his expanding wardrobe)  is helping the dwarves to dig for fairy dust while Henry is totally unhelpful and snacks on a muffin. Turns out David is now acting sheriff in Storybrooke, so naturally Rumpel asks David to help him find Belle (only after asking her father Mo if he knows where she is.) 
• Nobody wants to help because Rumpel is a big jerk. He needs lessons in apologizing  from this person pictured below, who is one of Disney's best characters ever and should really appear in this show as like a love interest for Henry or something:

• Belle pulls an Ariel while she enjoys the wonders of the modern world, like ice tea and indoor plumbing, in Granny's Diner. Ruby is very nice and offers Belle a spot in the Storybrooke Chapter of the Disney Princess Brigade by telling her she's welcome to crash at Ruby's place , as well as telling Belle that she should go and be the town's librarian, seeing as she loves books and is looking for a job to keep herself busy.
• Belle is kidnapped by a mysterious, red-hatted man outside the old library. He takes her to her father, Mo. Mo is under the assumption that Belle was still a prisoner, but she tells her daddy it's okay, because she's breaking up with Rumpelstiltskin anyway. "So THERE, GO AWAY DADDY I'M TWENTY-ONE OR SOMEWHERE IN THAT RANGE AND I DON'T HAVE TO EXPLAIN MY LOVELIFE TO YOU."

• Mo then demonstrates poor parenting skills by having his henchman take Belle to the mines, handcuff her into a minecart, and push her towards the town boundary, knowing that as soon as her cart crosses, she will forget Rumpel and her love for him. 
• Ruby demonstrates her epic wolf tracking skills when she leads David and Rumpel to Mo's flower shop, where he confesses everything. The group heads on over to the mines, where Rumpel uses magic to rescue Belle. She's still pissed at both Rumpy for lying to her about bringing magic to Storybrooke, and her dad for, well, the obvious. 
• Later, after discovering trans fats, Belle heads on over to the library, pleasantly refurbished by ABC's Extreme Makeover: Library Edition at Rumpel's request. He explains that he wanted the magic to find Baelfire, his long-lost son, but now that the town boundary prevents anyone from leaving it lest they lose their memories, he has realized he can't go looking for Baelfire. This is enough to placate Belle, and they make up...
• ...except we learn Rumpel is a total liar and hasn't changed at all, because he's got the henchman tied up in his basement. He interrogates him about the man's "captain..."

The Fairytale Land (Past)

• Back when Rumpelstiltskin had no magic and was a sad awkward spinster, he goes into his house and finds Baelfire has been replaced by a different child actor due to the unfortunate fact that real people age. 
• Rumpel goes to the town bar and is super awkward because his wife Mila is chilling there with her BFFs including Kilian Jones, whose presence on screen will likely increase the BPM of 85% of the show's target audience. 
• Mila's all GTFO while Rumpel is all "We have a kid together" and she's like "Oh yeah awkward HEY THAT'S NOT MY KID." 
• After Rumpel has explained that child actors age out of roles, Mila confesses that she is not happy with the life the two are living and wishes that her husband hadn't deserted during the Ogre Wars, because now she's married to The Town Coward. 
• The next day, Rumpel's neighbor (and totally his best friend, we all know they probably hang out on weekends and complain about their spouses and party hard), who shall henceforth be known as Velma, tells Rumpel that he can't go to book club today because Mila has been kidnapped by Kilian Jones, who is a pirate captain. 
• Rumpel heeds Velma's words and heads to the docks. He trips onto the deck of Kilian's ship and feels awkward. 
• Kilian is a total jerk but that 85% of the audience so doesn't care as long as he stays onscreen. 

The 85%:

Kilian:

• Basically he challenges Rumpel to a duel to win Mila's freedom, but Rumpel is too scared to do so. It's very sad. 
• Years later, the mysterious henchman who kidnapped/will kidnap (in the future) Belle meets Rumpel in a bar, after he's The Dark One and has been granted magical powers. The henchman offers a magic bean that will transport Rumpelstiltskin to the world that Baelfire got sent to last season, in exchange for eternal youth. 
• Suddenly Kilian walks into the bar and Rumpel is like,

"You did NOT just come within two hundred feet of me."

• Later Rumpel shows up in the streets and challenges Kilian to a duel at dawn. The duel occurs at the scheduled time, and the magically-beefed-up Rumpel totally beats Kilian when all of a sudden, Mila shows up all garbed in clothes from J.C. Pirate. Mila confesses she is in love with Kilian, AND that she has the magic bean. 
• On Kilian's ship, Mila is about to trade the magic bean for the lives of herself and Kilian, when she does something really dumb and tells Rumpel she never loved him. He rips her heart from her chest Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom-style, then crushes it and kills her. Next he chops Kilian's hand off and poofs away.
• Little did Rumpel know that Kilian tricked him and has kept the bean! 
• Kilian reveals he had the henchman guy as a prisoner, which is where he got the magic bean. He allows the prisoner, whose name is Smee-

• -to join his crew. Kilian tosses the bean into the water, creating a magic whirlpool into which they sail, planning on going to Neverland and plotting revenge on Rumpel.

The Fairytale Land (Present)

• Kilian meets Cora on a beach, and they say hello in like the most amusing way possible. 

Cora: 

Kilian:

• Cora shows Kilian the magic wardrobe dust from last episode in  a shiny bottle. He scoffs at it, but Cora informs him of its true value, saying that they might be able to use it to go to Storybrooke so that she can find Regina and he can get his revenge on Rumpel.

What I Thought:

This episode can be boiled down into two sentences: It was a filler episode. And I still totally enjoyed it.

Last week was a filler episode, too, but this one did such a better job at being a filler episode than last week. Neither episode really moved the overarching plot a whole lot, but while "The Lady of the Lake" tried to seem important, even though our characters were basically at the same place at the end of the episode as at the beginning, this week knew it was filler and owned it. When you're watching a filler episode, you realize that something has been taken away from you (significant developments to the storyline) and therefore expect something in exchange to complete the deal: character development.

"All filler episodes come with a price!"

We got a ton of that this week. We learned about Rumpelstiltskin's view of himself, which is something we've never really known before. Rumpelstiltskin acknowledges that he is a coward, and that even with his powerful magic, cowardice remains his greatest flaw. A lot of people think acknowledgment of a problem is the first step to dealing with it, so this may be a sign that Rumpel's really going to start acting differently.

Of course, no one changes overnight, as we saw during Rumpelstiltskin's interrogation scene of Smee. His violent tendencies haven't just disappeared, and that's something he's going to have to continue to battle, probably for the rest of his life. 

Meanwhile, we got a chance to look at Belle as a person- as a woman not defined by a man, be it her father or Rumpelstiltskin. Belle is played by Emilie de Ravin, and was one of my favorite actresses on "Lost," so it's awesome for me to see her on this show. Her newest character was introduced as "Rumpelstiltskin's Love Interest," meant to further his storyline. Luckily, this episode gave her a chance to shine as a girl looking to start a new life for herself in a strange land. I think it's important to remember that while everyone in Storybrooke has lived in the modern, technologically-developed land of Earth for years, everything here is new to Belle. She has to adjust to a new world in addition to dual sets of memories, so it's understandable that she'd look for something familiar and comforting like books to hold on to. It was nice to see her make friends with Ruby as well as take on the librarian position; after all, whenever the writers remember a little detail like the abandoned library, I get all happy inside. 

"Good job, writers!!!"

This is how you do a filler episode well. In short...I am content and would like more episodes of this sort.

My Score:

9/10. 

The first episode this season that really felt like one of the amazing first season ones.

My Questions:

• Does Rumpelstiltskin still have the hand?
• Why wasn't Henry doing anything to help? Was the muffin that good?
• Who will be the first to call Kilian "Captain Hook?" My money's on Emma.
• Do you think Kilian and Emma would make an awesome couple? Because I do.

Next Week:

Special Halloween episode involving Regina and Jefferson messing with the occult to bring back her dead boyfriend, The Stableboy ( I really don't remember his name, please don't judge me, the tab for Wikipedia is oh-so-far-away and I'm tired.)

(As always, I just use gifs and pictures I find on Tumblr and other websites. If anyone made/owns one of the gifs and feels that I should not have used them, let me know and I will take it down. This blog is made for entertainment purposes only; I own nothing.)

Chapter 3: In Which The Lady of the Lake Never Actually Shows Up. Awkward.

While last week's episode centered on Charming and Henry in Storybrooke, Episode 2x03: "Lady of the Lake" largely took place in the Fairytale Land, showing us what Emma and Snow were up to. Read on for my recap and review of this week's episode of ABC's "Once Upon a Time!"

What Happened:

Fairytale Land (The Past)

• This takes place after Charming kissed Snow to wake her up, a flashback that we saw at the end of the last season. In case you don't remember, that episode ended with Snow and Charming vowing to "take back the kingdom" from Charming's jerk-of-a-kinda-sorta-adopted-father, King George (I love that there are people in this world named Rumpeltstiltskin and Baelfire, and then people named John and George.) 
• Red Riding Hood is sprinting through the forest. We learn she is not simply jogging in impractical clothing when she arrives in a war-tent of Snow and Charming, who are discussing their plans. Everybody is forced to flee when King George's men arrive. 
• Unfortunately, Snow is kidnapped by a knight named Lancelot and brought to King George. He's seemingly polite and offers her refreshments. While she's sipping some water, he's all, "So once upon a time my wife got offered refreshments, too. Then she couldn't have children because said refreshments were cursed." Snow's all, 

• ...because she clearly has just been cursed in a similar manner. 
• George lets Snow go, because what does he have to lose, am I right? In the woods, she encounters Lancelot, who explains he didn't know what the Queen had intended. They team up and run to Charming's secret cabin, where he has just fended off an attack of George's men. Unfortunately, his mom has been shot. 
• The group heads off to the lake from "What Happened to Frederick", seeking the water's magical healing properties. Unfortunately, the lake has dried up since Charming killed its resident she-demon last season.
• They find a single drop of water. Charming's mom, who has learned via her magic mom inquisitive powers about Snow's recent medical tragedy, works with Lancelot and tricks Snow into drinking the water instead. She dies after seeing Snow and Charming get married by Lancelot. I guess Knights are allowed to perform marriages in Fairytale Land. 

Fairytale Land (Present)

• Cora, Snow and Emma chat in The Pit (the surviving Fairytale residents' prison in the sanctuary.) Snow doesn't trust Cora, but Emma naturally doesn't know everything crazy about Regina's mother like Snow does. 
• As it turns out, Lancelot is the leader of the Fairytale survivors. He, Snow and Emma feast on chimaera. Emma has this fantastic look on her face as she sizes up her dinner, humungous hunks of God-knows-what-a-chimaera-is. Her face is something like:

• Meanwhile, Aurora sees that the people she views as responsible for Philip's "death" (he only lost his soul, I'm sure they'll get it back in the season finale) being chummy with Lance and is angry and angsty. Mulan has a bestie moment with her and convinced her not to do anything stupid. Apparently they've bonded by their tragic mutual crushes.
• Mulan, Emma and Snow then leave, deciding to look for the magic wardrobe that Emma was transported through as a baby; their theory is that they can use the wardrobe to get Emma and Snow back to our world.
• Aurora is extremely angry and attacks Snow (they chalk it up to grief over Philip, but the obviously real reason is that she was upset over not being included in the Disney Princess Brigade's newest mission). Snow easily judo flips her, but then Emma and Sleeping Beauty bond and it's all better, yay!!!
• After a scuffle with an ogre, the group arrives at Snow and Charming's old place. Emma feels awkward looking at what is essentially her mom's old apartment. 
• Lance shows up, but as it turns out...he's not Lance!!

• That's right, folks...turned out the real Lance was killed by Cora years ago, and she's been impersonating him ever since. 
• Cora wants to use the wardrobe to go and see Regina. But Emma knows that will endanger Henry, so she sets the furniture on fire. The Disney Princess Brigade teams up and fights off Cora, who flees in a cloud of smoke vowing vengeance. (She would've gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for those meddling princesses.)
• Emma and Snow have a very sweet mother/daughter moment, in which Emma tells Snow she is overwhelmed by Snow's love for her because "no one has ever put [her] first before."

Storybrooke

• Henry is forced to go to school by David. (Which begs the question, what the heck is school like now that all the children know they are fairytale characters? Is Ariel some snarky straight-A student who can now protest any unlikeable grade with the line "Ever heard of my dad? He's a king. With a trident"? Do they have coping counselors on hand to help everyone deal with dual identities? How can a teacher possibly justify teaching Driver's Ed to a bunch of kids from a place where horse-riding is the local brand of transportation? I NEED ANSWERS, PEOPLE!)
• We then learn that Henry's chronic truancy has yet to be cured as he goes to visit Jefferson, whom he acts really fanboy-ish around ("I've read your story!"). While Jefferson looks at Henry wishing he would just go away, Henry tries to convince him to go find his daughter, whose Storybrooke counterpart lived/lives with an adopted family.
• Since Jefferson is reluctant, Henry decides it's time to take drastic measures. It's here that he does something that I, and I'm sure other Regina fans (at least one of you who reads this blog is), hate: he calls Regina and asks her to meet him for lunch. She looks so tearfully ecstatic at the idea of her estranged son wanting to spend time with her,it broke my heart when as soon as she left, Henry the Horrible sped into her office to steal her secret keys. You'll all be hearing about this in the review section.

Me:

• Using his ill-gotten keys, Henry the Horrible goes grave-robbing (by that I mean he sneaks into Regina's secret lair underneath her father's grave). He is looking for Jefferson's heart, which is apparently under Regina's control, but before he can find it he opens up a box of snakes which almost attack him...
• ...until David shows up and saves him. Henry successfully reunites Jefferson and his daughter, and then is rewarded for skipping school with new toys/wooden swords from David. Nice parenting, there, David.

What I Thought

 

   This episode had three main plotlines this week: Past-Snow fearing a future without children, Present-Snow learning to live with and for a child, and Henry attempting to reunite a parent with his child while neglecting his own mother. Clearly, parenting (and the relationship between parent and child) was something of a theme- and a much-needed one: at the end of the season premiere, Snow jumped through a portal into the unknown to be with Emma. It's time we saw some pay-off, and this episode delivered it. Emma got her first real taste of what parently-love should be: the utter giving of one person to another, unconditionally, with no regards to their own safety and well-being, all because they want the best life possible for the other person, whom they feel responsible.

   The past-storyline featuring Charming's mother felt a bit redundant and boring, considering we knew all along that Snow would somehow have Emma, given the latter's present existence on the show. Since that's the case, the story must be about something else, and therefore it must be to show us how even before Snow met Emma, she loved the idea of her- having a child was a dream, both of Snow and Charming. Showing us all that Snow went through helps put her sudden love and (as Emma sees it) overt affection for Emma into context.

    Let's talk about Henry's mini-adventure. It's no secret to some of you that I don't like him, due to his behavior towards Regina. His careless deception must've caused her pain (did you see her face when she got a call from him? Did you??? ) but David explained that instead of flying into a rage, she rationally called David and asked him to go and find Henry, knowing her son wouldn't come with her. She could have forced him, but she chose not to, doing what was best for her child and sending someone he cared about instead. Regina recognizes she's done terrible things to Henry, and she's trying to make amends. Regina put Henry's emotional well-being above her own pain, and that's what a mother does.

   I'm not going to discuss Jefferson, because his story didn't really get all that much focus. Jefferson and his daughter were basically plot-devices meant to provide Henry with an adventure. This week was a story of three mothers who love their children and showed it.

  On a side-note, I very much enjoyed having Cora disappear into the nether and get established as a recurring villain, and the Disney Princess Brigade working together. "Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Snow White, and Snow White's daughter fighting evil" is kind of an epic pitch.



My Questions:
 
• What will Regina do now that she's not the mayor anymore?
• Will Henry ever realize that Regina is an actual person capable of mistakes, but also redemption?
• Are Emma and Snow going to be trapped in Fairytale Land all season? I think it'd be great to have our characters spread out like that.
• Where was Henry's cellphone?

 

Next Week:

 

Captain Hook gets the biggest makeover in all of fiction!

 

Before...

 

After!

 



My score for this week's episode:

7/10.

The main storyline in present-day Fairytale Land was good, but dragged down by Henry's adventure and the fate of Charming's mother.

 

 

(Note: I used a lot of gifs and images this week. If any of them are yours, belong to someone you know, etc., let me know and I'll take them down. I honestly just searched for stuff to fit my reactions and writing; this blog is for entertainment purposes only and is not for profit. I own none of the characters, storylines, or images that I use, nor the TV show I am discussing or other pop culture/entertainment entities/shows/movies/etc. I make references to.)

Chapter 2: In Which Regina At Last Proves to Everyone How She's Awesome and Why She Should Be Idolized and Adored

It's that most-awesome night of the week once again, and this Sunday night I'll be reviewing/recapping the latest episode of ABC 's "Once Upon a Time": 2x02, "We Are Both." Sit back and enjoy!

What Happened:

Storybrooke/Our World

• The dwarves try to figure out if they can cross the Storybrooke boundary. Unfortunately they learn that they cannot without losing their memories from the Fairytale Land and reverting to their Storybrooke selves, as Sneezy learns all too well.
• While August awakens in his puppet form in his room in Granny's inn, the town is in chaos; all of its residents are confused, asking various questions ranging from "Ermahgerd, help me I'm having a crisis of identity" to "Teehee I'm Doctor Whale and I'm a total creep."
• Charming/David goes to see Regina and asks her about Jefferson's hat.  In the ensuing conversation, Charming implies Regina needs magic to keep control over Henry.
• The dwarves show up and announce to the town that Sneezy has been re-cursed, increasing the panic that David has to deal with. Henry tells everyone "he can help them," which bugs me because honestly, Henry? You have no idea what these people are going through, b/c you're not a fairytale character- you haven't just discovered you have two dual identities...He is SUCH an insensitive little child.
• Ruby asks David what he plans to do; David replies that he's not sure yet. Ruby has a look in her eyes that says, "Of course you don't. Because nobody in this town has a lick of sense except for me."
• Meanwhile, Regina is sitting  in her house attempting to use magic ("Light, damn you!" C'mon, Regina, it's Levi-ooooo-sa, not Levi-oh-SAH.) Suddenly Jiminy/Archie Hopper shows up and offers his help to her as a counselor/moral guide, but she turns him down. Which is sad, because I feel like these two could totally be BFFLs for life. Regina then goes to see Rumpelstiltskin in his shop, asking him for her mother Cora's spellbook. He initially denies it to her, but she then blackmails him with the knowledge that the Fairytale Land still exists (contrary to what Regina told the Royal Family last episode.)
• While Regina absorbs the magic from the book like she's smelling Pillsbury cookies. I guess magic travels through the nose.
• Henry gives David a pep talk. David has pronoun issues and tries to figure out if he's David or Charming, and what parts of himself come from which personality.
• David/Charming then goes to talk to Rumpelstiltskin, who whines about how nobody knocks on his door before coming in (I have the same problem, Rumpel. Don't worry, it gets better.)  David asks for a way to find Jefferson via his hat, and Rumpy gives it to him, though David is coy about who he's trying to find. In exchange, Rumpy asks that he and David agree to stay out of each other's ways for the foreseeable future. David also mentions that nobody can leave time without losing their identity, which angers Rumpelstiltskin, presumably because it means he can't seek out Baelfire.
• David follows the hat that Rumpy enchanted, resulting in him finding Jefferson stuck under a car. The two talk, and Jefferson basically tells him that while the Fairytale Land still exists, it's impossible to get back. He's not very helpful, honestly. Just like he wasn't helpful in establishing a new ship for Emma. (If you don't know what shipping is, go to Tumblr. Now.)
• Regina storms a town hall meeting, showing off her newly-returned magic powers. Henry is actually rather brave here and offers to leave with Regina if she leaves everyone alone, and she gladly takes him up on the offer. (Ruby is actually pretty epic here; she stands up to Regina as a leader when all the other authority figures are gone.)
• Ruby tells David that Regina took Henry, and he chooses to help his grandson instead of pursuing Emma and Snow. He goes to Regina's house, where Henry has just tried to escape (via a blanket ladder that's QUITE elaborate- how long had the kid been planning to climb out his window?) and had a severe talking-to by Regina in which she reveals just how similar to her mother she really is, offering Henry power through magic. Henry also pointed out how disturbed he had been by Regina making him feel like a liar and/or a crazy person back in Season 1, when she made him see a psychiatrist.
• Regina realizes how much like her mother she is being, and decides she wants to seek redemption. To start herself on that path, she lets Henry leave with David, telling him she wants him to love her because he wants to, not because he's afraid of her or is forced to.
• The panicked crowds try to leave Storybrooke, but David stands on the back of a truck and discusses how he feels that he is both Charming and David, just as the other citizens of Storybrooke are both their original fairy tale selves and their new Storybrooke counterparts. The citizens are rather quickly pacified and all go back to their daily routines.
• Regina hides away the spellbook; Gold stares at the town boundary; Henry tells Gepetto where to find August, but August is no longer in the inn; Henry and David have a bonding moment.

The Fairytale Land

• A young Regina is running away through the woods when her mom Cora catches her with vines and tree branches (NOTE: This episode takes place shortly after "The Stable Boy", the episode last season in which a young Regina lost the love of her life at her mother's hands.) Regina and Snow White have a bit of bonding time, in which Snow demonstrates she has no boundaries and is totally content with trying on the jewelery of others. Age is no excuse, the concept of a personal bubble is not a difficult one. Regina is then disturbed when she has a vision of herself using magic to choke the young Snow in revenge.
• Regina tells her dad that she is being corrupted by her mother and her magicks. It's really sweet to see their relationship in its early stages like this, how even then he was her confidant. Regina learns from her father that Cora got her powers from a spellbook, given to her by Rumpelstiltskin.
• The young Regina meets Rumpelstiltskin (she really can't pronounce his name, it's quite amusing), and he greets her naive cluelessness with an offer of magic, giving her the same spellbook we saw earlier. Regina is hesitant to use the book, lest it be Fifty Shades of Grey disguised so that Rumpy can get more people to read it. (He just wants somebody to discuss it with, it's not his fault, really!)
• Rumpelstiltskin continues to talk to Regina, explaining that he and her family are connected. He senses Regina's power, and there's a TOTAL Harry Potter moment when Rumpelstiltskin says something along the lines of "You have great power, great potential, if you choose to use it" and Regina's all "Never! I wanna be in Gryffindor!" and Rumpy's all "Mmmm. That's what EVERYONE says, at first..."
• Rumpel gives Regina a mirror to push Cora through, saying it will transport her to another dimension- I thought it was our world at first, but that can't be right, as we'll see later.
• Cora is kind of a jerk to Regina on her wedding day, telling her how to live her life and that one day soon the king will be dead and Regina will be an all-powerful genie. Or something.
• Regina uses magic to shove Cora into the mirror, and is horrified because she's being EXACTLY like her mom, who she just declared she would never be like. It's very tragic and Shakespearean.
• Regina sets out to leave the kingdom, but Rumpelstiltskin interrupts her on the way. He makes her admit that she enjoyed using magic and is scared by it, then convinces her to be his apprentice. She asks him why he wants to teach her, and he says she might be of use to him...
• In the present times of the Fairytale Land, Aurora and Mulan have taken Emma and Snow prisoner. They take them to their safe haven, where after a brief scuffle (in which Snow smacks around Aurora and Mulan smacks around Snow, thus giving us our Character-Development-of-the-Week for the Disney Princess Brigade) Emma and Snow are thrown into a prison called The Pit, in which Cora is also held. There are no snakes within.

My Thoughts:

I didn't really care that much about the Fairytale Land segments this week- I always just assumed Regina picked up magic on her own, and so seeing her learn it in this episode didn't intrigue me all that much. The main thing we learned from those segments was that Regina and Rumpelstiltskin were once Master and Apprentice, Sith-style, which is a new twist on their relationship that I enjoyed learning about. Hopefully we can see more of that this season.

What I loved most this week was Regina's beginning on her path to redemption. She put away her spellbook, gave up her son to the husband of her archenemy, and outright stated she wanted to redeem herself. I think we can safely say Regina's beginning to seek a place on the side of the angels, and I for one will welcome her there. All the Regina nay-sayers out there MUST see this episode. It proves once and for all that Regina loves Henry, and that's awesome. (I for one think that The Great Curse would have still been broken if Regina had kissed Henry's forehead instead of Emma, but I could write a whole post about that. ) I hope to see Regina working with David and the rest of the RF in the future.

On a related topic, Regina's actress, Lana Parilla, was EXCELLENT this week. She's an excellent actress who can successfully portray Regina at her different ages, along with her different stages of character development. There were subtle differences in her behavior in this episode alone that I simply loved.

My Questions:

-Why did Rumpelstiltskin offer to train Regina? What does he hope to get out of it? It can't be Baelfire-related, because there's really nothing Regina can do that Rumpy can't...is there?
-What would happen if Regina or Gold left the town? They never had Storybrooke identities, since they always carried their true memories...
-Why did Henry have a cell phone? He's ten. Like, seriously.
-Did Emma and Snow even TRY telling Aurora and Mulan who they were, to avoid the whole prisoner treatment?
-Why does David hold his sword like Sora, from Kingdom Hearts?



Next Week:  Henry gets more quality time with David, Snow meets Lancelot (who looks epic) and there is sexual tension (possibly, maybe, not really, whatever), Ogres pop up (which will be interesting to see on a TV-show budget, but I have faith in this show), and Snow freaks out extremely loudly (it sounds like somebody grabbed her in a haunted house, which makes sense because she'd so be that person that whacks the poor actor kid working as a skeleton when he goes "boo!" This is odd, because one would think that if one was hiding from ogres, one would want to be as quiet as possible, but whatevs.)

My Score:

8/10