Once upon a time 2.18
Mar. 25th, 2013 08:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the plot, as they say, thickens.
By far my favourite parts of the episode were the Snow White scenes, followed by the Regina and Owen scenes, but more about those later. First, my mixed feelings re: the main plot. See, the thing is, as opposed to almost every other character on this show, I was never sure whether where August/Pinnoccio was concerned, what the scriptwriters thought was also what came across or whether we were supposed to see him as far more sympathetic than his actions warranted. I'm still not clear on whether there was awareness quite how skeevy his Emma treatment was, but: that he was selfish and anything but truthful - which actually is in tune for original Pinnoccio, only it's one thing for a child and another thing entirely for an adult man to behave this way - was obviously intended. The eventual resolution I'm going back and to on. I'm not a fan of magical redemption after one heroic act - and one thing I appreciate about this show is that despite its deceptively simple premise, it actually is really good about showing that redemption doesn't happen overnight or for one reason, that it's hard and takes work - but otoh, keeping Pinnoccio dead would have resulted in the characters going through angst and grief on his behalf which yours truly and possibly other parts of the watching audience can't share. Giving him the option Nael/Bae has rejected for himself - turning him into a child again who has forgotten everything about his adult life - means both he's effectively out of the story and that there won't be any unsharable August angst, which I'm fine with.
The part of the episode I liked least because it reminded me of one of my least favourite Alias twists wasLauren Reed Tamara revealed as Evil McEvil. It's not completely unexpected - there was the "Her" on Greg/Owen's phone, and it was unlikely the show would introduce yet another new character this late in the season - but I was still hoping they wouldn't go there, because, again, bad Lauren memories. If there is a future scene where Emma talks to Archie about how Neal is her soulmate and then one where Emma and Neal kiss over Tamara's dead body, I'm going to hurl. (Err, perhaps I should explain for nonAlias watchers: in the third season of Alias, our heroine Sydney's beloved Michael Vaughn is married to another woman, Lauren Reed. Then we get the mid season revelation that Lauren is actually evil, killing people and two timing Vaughn with another villain. The third season finale kills her off and then we get said kiss. Amazingly, though, season 4 manages to salvage something of this disaster because it manages to make dead Lauren and her relationships with both Vaughn and her lover more dimensional than live Lauren was. Anyway. Back to OuaT.) My inner optimist, however, tells me this show specializes in making people doing awful things be more dimensional, that now that Cora is dead we were almost due a new villainous female character good at manipulation, and that Tamara might be more than just a one dimensional temporary obstacle to pairing Emma up with her ex. My inner Alias viewer still isn't convinced.
On to the good stuff, building up from good to best. Regina's two scenes with the adult Owen/Greg were great. Her wanting to thank the unknown Greg for having alerted her to the Henry in the woods situation last week was a rare example (actually, I can't think of another right now) of Regina in the Storybrooke era doing something normal like that without second thoughts or needing that person for future purposes, just because. Her then actually remembering him was even better, because Regina has been tricked by both Rumpel and her mother often enough that it's good to have a reminder that she, too, can be smart. This led to their second scene, and again a new one for Regina, where she was confronted by someone she had wronged but whom she didn't hate. Her reaching out and Owen/Greg flinching from letting her touch him was perfect. Regina being Regina, she then falls back on a) trying to lie, and b) a not too subtle threat, as opposed to, you know, trying for the truth and actually saying what happened to Curt Floyd (which btw I'm really curious about now), but neither are delivered with venom (for comparison, remember those scenes at the start of the show when she was trying to get Emma to leave Storybrooke). I'm really looking forward to more, because Regina having to deal with an adult she has injured, who has excellent reason to hate her but whom she doesn't hate herself or can dismiss the way she does the other Fairy Tale characters is, as I said, new.
But best were the Snow scenes. I mentioned the infuriating Snow bashing in previous posts; if she wasn't accused of not caring at all about what she'd done, she was accused of caring about the wrong thing, i.e. about having killed someone as opposed to having tricked Regina into killing her mother. Cue many a complaint about hypocrisy (since Snow White, having fought in FTL, has killed before) and do gooder priggishness and what not. Here, we get it spelled out in the first Snow and Charming conversation that what burdens Snow isn't dead Cora per se - which was necessary given the circumstances - but precisely this, the how of Cora's death, the manipulating Regina into doing it. And you know, that's how it should be, and that's one reason why I love Snow - her honesty with herself.
(BTW I also love Emma voting for the tough love approach rather than for breakfast in bed and cuddling. She knows her mother well, because we see immediately after that Snow is done with the getting breakfast and cuddles, too.)
Snow's approach to brooding taking the form of target practice by bow and arrow in the woods to the tune of Joan Jett on her iPod is both funny, touching and just about perfect. Then we get this subplot colliding with August's , which makes for the August/Pinnoccio scenes I like best in this episode. Not that it's exactly subtle to give Snow another brooder to show her that the way to deal with having done a bad thing isn't to brood on it endlessly but get back on the horse, so to speak, and try to act better in the future, but it worked really well, especially for Snow White who consistently has been shown to prefer actions over words as far as questions of good and evil are concerned, and one of whose best traits always was not to stand idly by when she saw a situation she could remedy. Hence the going to Marco/Gepetto immediately. And then we got the long delayed pay off for the fact Gepetto cheated and put his own need to save his child first. Again, one thing I like about this show is that the love a parent has for a child is presented as a great and powerful motivation, but not always a motivation for good (see also Rumpel ruining countless lives to reunite with his son). Snow's conflicted reaction - both the immediate slap and then the forgiveness - was exactly what I'd have wished for.
Lastly: I'm going to take Charming's point that Pinnoccio (i.e. redemption by heroic death followed by magical resurrection as a child with a clean slate) and Regina (getting more and more evil and ruining your own life along with many other people's) aren't the only two alternatives as far as Snow's future are concerned as a promise by the writers.
By far my favourite parts of the episode were the Snow White scenes, followed by the Regina and Owen scenes, but more about those later. First, my mixed feelings re: the main plot. See, the thing is, as opposed to almost every other character on this show, I was never sure whether where August/Pinnoccio was concerned, what the scriptwriters thought was also what came across or whether we were supposed to see him as far more sympathetic than his actions warranted. I'm still not clear on whether there was awareness quite how skeevy his Emma treatment was, but: that he was selfish and anything but truthful - which actually is in tune for original Pinnoccio, only it's one thing for a child and another thing entirely for an adult man to behave this way - was obviously intended. The eventual resolution I'm going back and to on. I'm not a fan of magical redemption after one heroic act - and one thing I appreciate about this show is that despite its deceptively simple premise, it actually is really good about showing that redemption doesn't happen overnight or for one reason, that it's hard and takes work - but otoh, keeping Pinnoccio dead would have resulted in the characters going through angst and grief on his behalf which yours truly and possibly other parts of the watching audience can't share. Giving him the option Nael/Bae has rejected for himself - turning him into a child again who has forgotten everything about his adult life - means both he's effectively out of the story and that there won't be any unsharable August angst, which I'm fine with.
The part of the episode I liked least because it reminded me of one of my least favourite Alias twists was
On to the good stuff, building up from good to best. Regina's two scenes with the adult Owen/Greg were great. Her wanting to thank the unknown Greg for having alerted her to the Henry in the woods situation last week was a rare example (actually, I can't think of another right now) of Regina in the Storybrooke era doing something normal like that without second thoughts or needing that person for future purposes, just because. Her then actually remembering him was even better, because Regina has been tricked by both Rumpel and her mother often enough that it's good to have a reminder that she, too, can be smart. This led to their second scene, and again a new one for Regina, where she was confronted by someone she had wronged but whom she didn't hate. Her reaching out and Owen/Greg flinching from letting her touch him was perfect. Regina being Regina, she then falls back on a) trying to lie, and b) a not too subtle threat, as opposed to, you know, trying for the truth and actually saying what happened to Curt Floyd (which btw I'm really curious about now), but neither are delivered with venom (for comparison, remember those scenes at the start of the show when she was trying to get Emma to leave Storybrooke). I'm really looking forward to more, because Regina having to deal with an adult she has injured, who has excellent reason to hate her but whom she doesn't hate herself or can dismiss the way she does the other Fairy Tale characters is, as I said, new.
But best were the Snow scenes. I mentioned the infuriating Snow bashing in previous posts; if she wasn't accused of not caring at all about what she'd done, she was accused of caring about the wrong thing, i.e. about having killed someone as opposed to having tricked Regina into killing her mother. Cue many a complaint about hypocrisy (since Snow White, having fought in FTL, has killed before) and do gooder priggishness and what not. Here, we get it spelled out in the first Snow and Charming conversation that what burdens Snow isn't dead Cora per se - which was necessary given the circumstances - but precisely this, the how of Cora's death, the manipulating Regina into doing it. And you know, that's how it should be, and that's one reason why I love Snow - her honesty with herself.
(BTW I also love Emma voting for the tough love approach rather than for breakfast in bed and cuddling. She knows her mother well, because we see immediately after that Snow is done with the getting breakfast and cuddles, too.)
Snow's approach to brooding taking the form of target practice by bow and arrow in the woods to the tune of Joan Jett on her iPod is both funny, touching and just about perfect. Then we get this subplot colliding with August's , which makes for the August/Pinnoccio scenes I like best in this episode. Not that it's exactly subtle to give Snow another brooder to show her that the way to deal with having done a bad thing isn't to brood on it endlessly but get back on the horse, so to speak, and try to act better in the future, but it worked really well, especially for Snow White who consistently has been shown to prefer actions over words as far as questions of good and evil are concerned, and one of whose best traits always was not to stand idly by when she saw a situation she could remedy. Hence the going to Marco/Gepetto immediately. And then we got the long delayed pay off for the fact Gepetto cheated and put his own need to save his child first. Again, one thing I like about this show is that the love a parent has for a child is presented as a great and powerful motivation, but not always a motivation for good (see also Rumpel ruining countless lives to reunite with his son). Snow's conflicted reaction - both the immediate slap and then the forgiveness - was exactly what I'd have wished for.
Lastly: I'm going to take Charming's point that Pinnoccio (i.e. redemption by heroic death followed by magical resurrection as a child with a clean slate) and Regina (getting more and more evil and ruining your own life along with many other people's) aren't the only two alternatives as far as Snow's future are concerned as a promise by the writers.
