Once upon a Time 3.09 - 3.11 Rewatch
Sep. 11th, 2015 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakEnd of the Neverland arc.
Rewatching definitely has confirmed my impression that this would have been the perfect exit for Rumplestilskin. I mean, even at the time I was 99% sure it wouldn't be, because Robert Carlyle as Rumple is one of the biggest draws for the show, but I was okay with that, since I liked the character and most (read: anything not Belle post season 1 related) of what they'd done with him. NOW, however, I'm bewailing the fact they didn't let his fate here be final. (Though who knows, maybe rewatching the second half of the season will change my mind.) He's in an emotional good place with Belle and with his son, he's finally able to put others first, and he's dealing with his original backstory trauma while redeeming himself in one swoop. A few seasons back, I did a White versus Gold poll about Rumple and Walter White of Breaking Bad fame, in which they competed in several categories. Said poll was created before s3 and s4 were broadcast, otherwise you could have added "missed their perfect exit". (Though with Walt, it's "perfect exit from a Watsonian, not Doylist pov", because Walt continuing to wreck havoc for several seasons more resulted in excellent storytelling, it just ruined a lot of people's lives (more), including his own.) Walt told Jesse in s3 of Breaking Bad's episode The Fly that his perfect moment, when he should have died, was while listening to Skyler sing to Holly on the babycom, just before that trip to Jesse, the bar, Jesse again and Jane's death, and if you've watched BB, you know why Walt picked that point. I think Rumplestilskin would pick this one.
Speaking of people who should have stayed dead: the Blue Fairy, several times over. S3 let her come across at her most unsympathetic and smug in the Tinkerbell episode, and the mid season death/resurrection while containing a tiny "I may have been wrong" doesn't much help matters. The Blue Fairy as a secret supervillain would have been just about the only thing they could have done with her that made all those resurrections palpable, but no such luck.
Aaand Michael Raymond Jones as Neai reminds me again why I would have voted for him to be dropped from the cast as well if anyone ever asked, after 3.04 made me briefly doubt my judgment. That was a spectacularly bland and stoned non-performance in 3.11. during the big climax, to be sure. And it's not just that Emilie de Ravin is sobbing her heart out as Belle; there are other ways to express shock and grief, and Neal as the stoic type would make sense. But you have to be a good actor to get across that behind your tightly controlled face, you're a huge mess. And judging by his OuaT performance as Neall, Michael Raymond Jones just isn't. His father kills himself and Evil Granddad right in front of him, and next he hears he's going to lose Henry and Emma (for whose sake he supposedly wanted to live from now on), and the expression is all "oops, did something happen? Well, then. Bye!" Like I said, he looks stoned.
And it's not just this one sequence. I think what it comes down to: with young Baelfire, the teenage actor made me feel for the character apart of what he meant to other characters I cared about. I wanted to know what was going on with Bae for Bae's sake, not just because of whose kid he was. With Neal, I only ever cared about him due to what he signified for Rumple, Henry, Emma, Regina (by implication - i.e. another parent competing) and Hook. I never cared for Neal for Neal's sake. And given what I've seen other actors do with sometimes underwritten parts, I do blame the actor.
On to the good stuff, still in the acting category: as during the original broadcast, I think Jared Gilmore, who caught a lot of grief from fandom over the years for his performance as Henry (and see, this I never understood; he's not a child genius of an actor, no, but I certainly believed in his Henry, and he did make me care for him, not just because Emma and Regina did), got a showcase in 3.10 with the body switch episode but even more at the start of 3.11., when Pan-as-Henry finishes casting the curse by killing Felix. The way he says "be flattered" was utterly chilling and conveyed the same "this is not a child in that young body" sense that Robbie Kay exuded as Peter Pan.
(Making the body switch discovered within an episode was a wise choice, though; that kind of thing really loses if the audience is ahead of the characters for several episodes and impatiently waiting for them to catch on. )
Something marathoning brought home to me was that when Regina says in 3.09. she doesn't regret any of her crimes because in the end they gave her Henry, the show sets her mid season sacrifice up just as surely as it does Rumple's. What Regina has to overcome isn't so much a life long habit of self preservation at everyone else's expense or emotional cowardice, in her case it's the idea that love equals possession and justification. 3.09. is also where we get the flashbacks to Henry's adoption. At the end of the flashbacks, Regina is able to make a leap of faith for Henry; she mindwipes herself out of her discovery of his biological origins so she can raise him without constantly looking over her shoulder. But it's still Regina expecting Henry to make her happy and be the solution to all her emotional problems at that (past) point, the reward she always wanted. So of course her big challenge in 3.11. isn't just giving Henry up but to give up (as far as she kows) any chance of him even remembering her, of her meaning anything to him at all. This is worse than the state of being in mid s2, which together with Cora's arrival made her relapse and try the easy magic enforcement route again. And here, Regina really is able to put Henry first, not her own hope of maternal happiness but Henry himself. Regina destroying the curse in order to transport everyone except for Emma and Henry back to the Enchanted Forest as opposed to letting everyone live in a new Neverland really was a huuuge step to redemption.
Would it have madea good show finale? Well, yes and no. "Were going back to being stories" for the Fairy Tale characters while Emma and Henry head off into a new life is poetic, but while the fake memories are the most benevolent mind alteration around (the alternative would have been to leave Emma stranded with two years of her life missing and Henry without any memories whatsover) and a gift from the heart from Regina, they wouldn't have satisfied me as a show finale. I would have been left wanting Emma and Henry to rememember and would have felt cheated that they didn't know anymore all they'd learned during the last seasons, didn't recall everyone else who loved them. Which is one big reason (but not the only one) why I prefer the s3 season finale as a show finale (so far, we'll see whether I still do after the rewatch is finished).
Other impressions: David getting cured happend awfully fast, but otoh, since the show wasn't going to kill him off, best not waste anymore time angsting. Also, cured David had one of my favourite father-daughter scenes with Emma when he gave her the "focus on the good moments between the bad ones" speech to help with her savior angst, and it ended in mutual teasing when she wanted to know whether he wasn't encouraging her to give it a shot with Neal in order to keep her away from Hook. Quoth Charming, dead-pan: "You think I'm interested in Hook? Emma! I'm a married man." Best David line in the first half of the season without a doubt.
Snow's confession of wanting a second child in the Echo cave makes me wonder whether Ginnifer Godwin's pregnancy was already either planned or known to exist, because it's a good set up for the second half of the season. I continue to love the emotional realism in this; it's not about loving Emma less, but about still wanting the experience of raising a child. Another good set up for the second half of the season as far as Snow is concerned is that when everyone arrives back at Storybrooke, she's the one who noticed Regina isolated in the general cheer and gives her public credit for the rescue mission in front of everyone; ditto when they find Regina unconscious on the floor in 3.10. Snow is the one who rushes to her. It's a bridge to their improving relations/alliance from the second half of s3.
Rewatching definitely has confirmed my impression that this would have been the perfect exit for Rumplestilskin. I mean, even at the time I was 99% sure it wouldn't be, because Robert Carlyle as Rumple is one of the biggest draws for the show, but I was okay with that, since I liked the character and most (read: anything not Belle post season 1 related) of what they'd done with him. NOW, however, I'm bewailing the fact they didn't let his fate here be final. (Though who knows, maybe rewatching the second half of the season will change my mind.) He's in an emotional good place with Belle and with his son, he's finally able to put others first, and he's dealing with his original backstory trauma while redeeming himself in one swoop. A few seasons back, I did a White versus Gold poll about Rumple and Walter White of Breaking Bad fame, in which they competed in several categories. Said poll was created before s3 and s4 were broadcast, otherwise you could have added "missed their perfect exit". (Though with Walt, it's "perfect exit from a Watsonian, not Doylist pov", because Walt continuing to wreck havoc for several seasons more resulted in excellent storytelling, it just ruined a lot of people's lives (more), including his own.) Walt told Jesse in s3 of Breaking Bad's episode The Fly that his perfect moment, when he should have died, was while listening to Skyler sing to Holly on the babycom, just before that trip to Jesse, the bar, Jesse again and Jane's death, and if you've watched BB, you know why Walt picked that point. I think Rumplestilskin would pick this one.
Speaking of people who should have stayed dead: the Blue Fairy, several times over. S3 let her come across at her most unsympathetic and smug in the Tinkerbell episode, and the mid season death/resurrection while containing a tiny "I may have been wrong" doesn't much help matters. The Blue Fairy as a secret supervillain would have been just about the only thing they could have done with her that made all those resurrections palpable, but no such luck.
Aaand Michael Raymond Jones as Neai reminds me again why I would have voted for him to be dropped from the cast as well if anyone ever asked, after 3.04 made me briefly doubt my judgment. That was a spectacularly bland and stoned non-performance in 3.11. during the big climax, to be sure. And it's not just that Emilie de Ravin is sobbing her heart out as Belle; there are other ways to express shock and grief, and Neal as the stoic type would make sense. But you have to be a good actor to get across that behind your tightly controlled face, you're a huge mess. And judging by his OuaT performance as Neall, Michael Raymond Jones just isn't. His father kills himself and Evil Granddad right in front of him, and next he hears he's going to lose Henry and Emma (for whose sake he supposedly wanted to live from now on), and the expression is all "oops, did something happen? Well, then. Bye!" Like I said, he looks stoned.
And it's not just this one sequence. I think what it comes down to: with young Baelfire, the teenage actor made me feel for the character apart of what he meant to other characters I cared about. I wanted to know what was going on with Bae for Bae's sake, not just because of whose kid he was. With Neal, I only ever cared about him due to what he signified for Rumple, Henry, Emma, Regina (by implication - i.e. another parent competing) and Hook. I never cared for Neal for Neal's sake. And given what I've seen other actors do with sometimes underwritten parts, I do blame the actor.
On to the good stuff, still in the acting category: as during the original broadcast, I think Jared Gilmore, who caught a lot of grief from fandom over the years for his performance as Henry (and see, this I never understood; he's not a child genius of an actor, no, but I certainly believed in his Henry, and he did make me care for him, not just because Emma and Regina did), got a showcase in 3.10 with the body switch episode but even more at the start of 3.11., when Pan-as-Henry finishes casting the curse by killing Felix. The way he says "be flattered" was utterly chilling and conveyed the same "this is not a child in that young body" sense that Robbie Kay exuded as Peter Pan.
(Making the body switch discovered within an episode was a wise choice, though; that kind of thing really loses if the audience is ahead of the characters for several episodes and impatiently waiting for them to catch on. )
Something marathoning brought home to me was that when Regina says in 3.09. she doesn't regret any of her crimes because in the end they gave her Henry, the show sets her mid season sacrifice up just as surely as it does Rumple's. What Regina has to overcome isn't so much a life long habit of self preservation at everyone else's expense or emotional cowardice, in her case it's the idea that love equals possession and justification. 3.09. is also where we get the flashbacks to Henry's adoption. At the end of the flashbacks, Regina is able to make a leap of faith for Henry; she mindwipes herself out of her discovery of his biological origins so she can raise him without constantly looking over her shoulder. But it's still Regina expecting Henry to make her happy and be the solution to all her emotional problems at that (past) point, the reward she always wanted. So of course her big challenge in 3.11. isn't just giving Henry up but to give up (as far as she kows) any chance of him even remembering her, of her meaning anything to him at all. This is worse than the state of being in mid s2, which together with Cora's arrival made her relapse and try the easy magic enforcement route again. And here, Regina really is able to put Henry first, not her own hope of maternal happiness but Henry himself. Regina destroying the curse in order to transport everyone except for Emma and Henry back to the Enchanted Forest as opposed to letting everyone live in a new Neverland really was a huuuge step to redemption.
Would it have madea good show finale? Well, yes and no. "Were going back to being stories" for the Fairy Tale characters while Emma and Henry head off into a new life is poetic, but while the fake memories are the most benevolent mind alteration around (the alternative would have been to leave Emma stranded with two years of her life missing and Henry without any memories whatsover) and a gift from the heart from Regina, they wouldn't have satisfied me as a show finale. I would have been left wanting Emma and Henry to rememember and would have felt cheated that they didn't know anymore all they'd learned during the last seasons, didn't recall everyone else who loved them. Which is one big reason (but not the only one) why I prefer the s3 season finale as a show finale (so far, we'll see whether I still do after the rewatch is finished).
Other impressions: David getting cured happend awfully fast, but otoh, since the show wasn't going to kill him off, best not waste anymore time angsting. Also, cured David had one of my favourite father-daughter scenes with Emma when he gave her the "focus on the good moments between the bad ones" speech to help with her savior angst, and it ended in mutual teasing when she wanted to know whether he wasn't encouraging her to give it a shot with Neal in order to keep her away from Hook. Quoth Charming, dead-pan: "You think I'm interested in Hook? Emma! I'm a married man." Best David line in the first half of the season without a doubt.
Snow's confession of wanting a second child in the Echo cave makes me wonder whether Ginnifer Godwin's pregnancy was already either planned or known to exist, because it's a good set up for the second half of the season. I continue to love the emotional realism in this; it's not about loving Emma less, but about still wanting the experience of raising a child. Another good set up for the second half of the season as far as Snow is concerned is that when everyone arrives back at Storybrooke, she's the one who noticed Regina isolated in the general cheer and gives her public credit for the rescue mission in front of everyone; ditto when they find Regina unconscious on the floor in 3.10. Snow is the one who rushes to her. It's a bridge to their improving relations/alliance from the second half of s3.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-11 04:16 pm (UTC)The casting for adult Neal was lacking to say the least. He was unable to make me interested in Neal, and like you I was very interested in Bae. He also didn't have the kind of chemistry with Emma that justified the One True Love story that they were trying to sell about Henry's parents. Perhaps if Colin had been cast as Neal vs Hook it could have been carried off? I admit, I'm one who thinks if Emma truly sparks with anyone it's her co-parent Regina. They seem more bound to each other because of Henry and they just seem to make a more interesting pairing even if only in a platonic sense than anyone they have tried to pair Emma with, except maybe the poor Sheriff back in season one. Snow and Charming I buy. I even see the chemistry between Rumple and Belle although I have deep reservations about that relationship. But Emma/Neal Emma/Hook never caught me. And I personally don't really see Regina/Robin although I kind of petered out on the series in season three, so maybe that worked better as it went along.
I may give OUAT a go to see how the whole Black Swan story plays out and what happens with Rumple now that the curse is "lifted" although I'm betting that villain Rumple is too much a part of the DNA of the series to actually disappear.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-12 05:46 am (UTC)Bringing him back forced them to make him backslide since I don't think they wanted TWO redeemed characters in Storybrook and Regina is fully on the road to redemption.
That, and I think there's the power problem. If Rumplestilskin AND Regina both are on the "good" sides, it's hard to come up with credible threats that can overcome both of them, with the level of magical power established especially for Rumple. They just about got away with it in s3 because of special Neverland circumstances in the first half and Zelena having Rumple's dagger, plus his brokenness due to Neal, in the second. So it was either depowering one or both or letting one backslide. Or letting go of one of the characters.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-12 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-13 10:33 am (UTC)