Once upon a Time 4.01
Sep. 30th, 2014 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakOh cracky fairy tale show of my heart, you're back!
Since I'm in the minority which wasn't swept away by Frozen last year, I had mixed feelings about last season's tag scene. (For starters, using Frozen means the show is never going to do a variation of Andersen's Snow Queen. And I happen to be fond of that fairy tale. Gerda! The Robber Girl! The Snow Queen who is Galadriel who took the Ring!) However, so far, so likeable as far as the use of the Frozen people is concerned. They went for straightforward sequel there, except for the prologue with the parents, which, btw, with the Queen sending a message in a bottle to her daughters before she and her husband are about to be drowned. I was reminded of the reviews, likeabigail_ns, which complained that by killing the parents off early in the movie Frozen robbed Elsa of her chance to turn against them/rebel/be properly angry/disown them. (Note to parents guilty of Larkin's charge: don't die before your offspring can go through the proper rage phase against you and disown you. It is really inconsiderate.) Leave it to Once upon a Time to go for the parent angle and rehabilitate them in absentia, since it seems obvious to me that it will turn out they really went across the sea to discover a method for Elsa to control her powers and enjoy her life.
Meanwhile, considering Elsa ended up in Rumpelstilskin's castle in an imprisoned state, and she evidently recognized his photo even sans Rumpelstilskin skin, not to mention the fact he has her gift to Anna, I bet he somehow managed to screw her over along the line. Because that's what Rumpelstilskin does with magically gifted women (unless they're Cora, in which case they do it to him). After all, the show needs some conflict once the misunderstanding re: Elsa and the townsfolk is cleared up. Alternatively: maybe the one he screwed over was Anna, not Elsa? Speaking of Anna, she was endearing, and leaving her boyfriend to keep her sister company while she's questing reminded me of the fact this show is actually good with the male-female friendships (such as David and Red/Ruby in s2, for example).
Ensemble-wise, the show had to pick up right where it left of in season 3 which is a serious problem with Henry because Jared Gilmore has grown even more between seasons (with no time passing in the show), and his voice is SO different. What do you want to bet there'll be another time jump sooner or later? Anyway, magically grown Henry is presumably why the episode had Emma, not him, be the one in pursuit of Regina throughout and left Henry at mentioning he's tried in vain to reach her via the phone. Because logically, it should be Henry! Not that I mind the Regina-Emma scenes, of course. The last one, with Emma saying that if her mission was to bring back the happy endings to Storybrooke, then she won't rest until she's managed one for Regina as well, was especially good.
Mind you, Regina's solution - to go after the writer of Henry's storybook - could also be a very interesting set up. Otherwise, Regina is, as Astro put it, on a seasaw between villain and not; I was reasonably sure she'd end up NOT killing Marian and saving her instead, as was the case, but the fact she'd plainly forgotten Sydney (until the broken mirror reminded her) and still has no qualms about turning him into even more of a captive than he already was and using him is definitely dark side-ish. (I wondered for a while why no one else had bothered to release Sydney before, but you can fanwank that easily; after all, he HAD confessed to kidnapping Abigail/Kathryn and holding her prisoner.) Meanwhile, Robin actually manages the balancing act of being fair to both women in an impossible situation. Let's hope this continues! (Amnesiac David Nolan should never be a role model.)
Regina's former teacher and fellow evil-a-holic tries to make up for lying to his new wife by good resolutions at his son's grave, switching the fake dagger with the real one so she should actually have it, and recreating the ball scene from the Disney Beauty and the Beast for her...and then in the middle of night goes back for his dagger again to do... something. Something magical. What, they won't show us yet. My current guess is he might want to try to de-Dark-Onefy himself (is there a way without getting killled by someone else?), which will of course level the playing field if Elsa has indeed cause to blame him for whatever happened to either her or her sister or both.
The episode left me in a mellow mood and looking forward to the rest of the season. Next time, however: more Snow, please! She's not pregnant anymore and thus should get more than one line.
Since I'm in the minority which wasn't swept away by Frozen last year, I had mixed feelings about last season's tag scene. (For starters, using Frozen means the show is never going to do a variation of Andersen's Snow Queen. And I happen to be fond of that fairy tale. Gerda! The Robber Girl! The Snow Queen who is Galadriel who took the Ring!) However, so far, so likeable as far as the use of the Frozen people is concerned. They went for straightforward sequel there, except for the prologue with the parents, which, btw, with the Queen sending a message in a bottle to her daughters before she and her husband are about to be drowned. I was reminded of the reviews, like
abigail_ns, which complained that by killing the parents off early in the movie Frozen robbed Elsa of her chance to turn against them/rebel/be properly angry/disown them. (Note to parents guilty of Larkin's charge: don't die before your offspring can go through the proper rage phase against you and disown you. It is really inconsiderate.) Leave it to Once upon a Time to go for the parent angle and rehabilitate them in absentia, since it seems obvious to me that it will turn out they really went across the sea to discover a method for Elsa to control her powers and enjoy her life. Meanwhile, considering Elsa ended up in Rumpelstilskin's castle in an imprisoned state, and she evidently recognized his photo even sans Rumpelstilskin skin, not to mention the fact he has her gift to Anna, I bet he somehow managed to screw her over along the line. Because that's what Rumpelstilskin does with magically gifted women (unless they're Cora, in which case they do it to him). After all, the show needs some conflict once the misunderstanding re: Elsa and the townsfolk is cleared up. Alternatively: maybe the one he screwed over was Anna, not Elsa? Speaking of Anna, she was endearing, and leaving her boyfriend to keep her sister company while she's questing reminded me of the fact this show is actually good with the male-female friendships (such as David and Red/Ruby in s2, for example).
Ensemble-wise, the show had to pick up right where it left of in season 3 which is a serious problem with Henry because Jared Gilmore has grown even more between seasons (with no time passing in the show), and his voice is SO different. What do you want to bet there'll be another time jump sooner or later? Anyway, magically grown Henry is presumably why the episode had Emma, not him, be the one in pursuit of Regina throughout and left Henry at mentioning he's tried in vain to reach her via the phone. Because logically, it should be Henry! Not that I mind the Regina-Emma scenes, of course. The last one, with Emma saying that if her mission was to bring back the happy endings to Storybrooke, then she won't rest until she's managed one for Regina as well, was especially good.
Mind you, Regina's solution - to go after the writer of Henry's storybook - could also be a very interesting set up. Otherwise, Regina is, as Astro put it, on a seasaw between villain and not; I was reasonably sure she'd end up NOT killing Marian and saving her instead, as was the case, but the fact she'd plainly forgotten Sydney (until the broken mirror reminded her) and still has no qualms about turning him into even more of a captive than he already was and using him is definitely dark side-ish. (I wondered for a while why no one else had bothered to release Sydney before, but you can fanwank that easily; after all, he HAD confessed to kidnapping Abigail/Kathryn and holding her prisoner.) Meanwhile, Robin actually manages the balancing act of being fair to both women in an impossible situation. Let's hope this continues! (Amnesiac David Nolan should never be a role model.)
Regina's former teacher and fellow evil-a-holic tries to make up for lying to his new wife by good resolutions at his son's grave, switching the fake dagger with the real one so she should actually have it, and recreating the ball scene from the Disney Beauty and the Beast for her...and then in the middle of night goes back for his dagger again to do... something. Something magical. What, they won't show us yet. My current guess is he might want to try to de-Dark-Onefy himself (is there a way without getting killled by someone else?), which will of course level the playing field if Elsa has indeed cause to blame him for whatever happened to either her or her sister or both.
The episode left me in a mellow mood and looking forward to the rest of the season. Next time, however: more Snow, please! She's not pregnant anymore and thus should get more than one line.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-01 12:53 pm (UTC)Yes, this! At least Robin hasn't started lying yet, which was where Amnesiac David Nolan started going wrong :-)
recreating the ball scene from the Disney Beauty and the Beast for her
This part was so adorable, and I was so hopeful for Rumple and Belle...until he went for the dagger again on his midnight stroll. I'm very intrigued about what that hat was and what it means for who the house belonged to.
The episode left me in a mellow mood and looking forward to the rest of the season. Next time, however: more Snow, please! She's not pregnant anymore and thus should get more than one line.
Excellent summary of my feelings about this episode :-)