Once upon a Time 2.21
May. 6th, 2013 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which our scriptwriters really have read their James Barrie, and we're hurling towards the finale.
Ever since toying with the rising Baelfire = Peter Pan (in addition to being Neal) suspicion, I was aware of one obvious problem there, and it's not that Neverland is WITH, not without magic: the personality difference between teenage Bae and Peter "Oh, the cleverness of me!" Pan. Then again, Once Upon A Time altered personalities before, both of fairy tale and of created characters (for example: Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein did not have daddy issues or a brother of a similar age who was dad's favourite; he did have a younger brother who got killed by his creation later), so this was handwavable. Also I must admit to the suspicion that the scriptwriters might only have the Disney film in mind, and didn't bother with the original Barrie book & play.
Well, turns out they did change things, but in a really clever way that shows deep familiarity with the original. I must admit I squeed when Bae, immediately after being spit out of the portal after his father let go of him, ended up in Kensington Gardens. Where you can today find a statue of Peter Pan, because in the book, that's where the baby Peter who decides not to grow up ends up first, before ever making it to Neverland. From then onwards, I was immensely curious how they would adjust/twist the tale involving Bae.
So: original Lost Boy Bae, still sweet and earnest and also starving, ends up breaking into the Darlings' house for food, is found by Wendy, gets adopted; but because his life sucks that way, simultanously Wendy and her brothers had another visitor, a flying shadow who wants to take them, or at least one of them, to Neverland. Now if you recall the way Peter and Wendy meet first is by him coming into her room through the window looking for his shadow (who is detachable and got caught the last time he visited), and then Wendy comes up with a way to stitch Peter and his shadow back together. Once Upon A Time has a Shadow who is nothing but, Peter Pan's lure of the other children to Neverland and the cheerful amorality without the way Peter can feel pain (he feels the loss of Wendy, though in the end the forgetfulnes anything sad catches up with him again), and it has Bae as different entities. Bae substituting himself for one of Wendy's brothers, specifically Michael, to ensure magic doesn't destroy the Darlings was both very much the young Baelfire and another clever spin not just on Barrie's book and play but on the origin story of the whole Peter Pan saga, since Michael and Peter Llewellyn Davies were both models for Peter Pan (something the play Peter and Alice I watched last month reminded me of) .
Meanwhile, in the present, we find out more about Tamara's goals and presumably next season's antagonist,the Initiative an organization that wants to destroy magic because of the damage it causes in our world. Since Tamara specifically says Storybrook wasn't the first crossover, we get the Baelfire-in-Victorian-London flashbacks in this particular episode, Wendy is the character most prominent in them and the one who goes to Neverland, returns with a changed attitude towards magic and who sees Bae sacrificing himself for her family, and since in Owen/Greg we have already an example of a child traumatized by losing someone through magical people and developing a vendetta, I'm going to make an educated guess: while Bae crossing over also wasn't the first time by far (I'd say crossovers happened all through human history), we'll find out Wendy in reaction to what happened founded Torchwood The Initiative the organization Tamara and Owen are working for.
BTW: Tamara continues to be a resourceful villain (using one of the beans to ensure her escape); that she's convinced of the righteousness of her cause also means she's an interesting one.
As for our homegrown old villains. We get the first conversation between Neal and Rumpelstiskin since Rumple almost died, and it's searing and painful in the best way. Starting with the fact how it comes about, i.e. by Neal recognizing the sounds of his father intending to crush someone and beat them up, and rushing to the rescue. The fact that this someone isn't a random Storybrook inhabitant but Dr. Whale/Victor Frankenstein makes me more sure than ever in my speculation he and the whole magic versus science thing that started in his first flashback episode will have a big part to play in the finale, since presumably ABC didn't just pay David Anders for one brief cameo; at a guess, that scene was filmed together with whatever he'll do in the next episode. There are two callbacks there, to the Whale/Gold argument early in this season (and Gold humiliating the good Doctor before healing him at the end of that episode), and of course to that scene immediately after Rumplestilskin's transformation into the Dark One, when he freaked his son out by not only avenging himself on the recruiting thug but changing him into a snail and crushing him. This is the first time since their argument in New 'York that the emotional continuity from Bae to Neal really hit me. Then the scene ups the ante by not only letting father and son have the expected "you haven't changed" dialogue but also adding more to the theme (see also: last week's teaser of Rumple and Regina watching Neal play with Henry) of Gold being increasingly jealous and resentful of Henry and the way Neal picks his "Henry's father" identity over "Rumpelstilskin's son". Added to this is that Rumplestilskin now has an enabler with Lacey. (Incidentally: were I a Rumpestilskin/Belle s hipper, I would be crushed, since he's so completely willing to take when he can get, even if she is not at all in this body. I do hope if/when she regains her memories, she breaks up with him for good.)
(BTW I did notice that Lacey now wears her hair similarly to Rose McGowan as young Cora, which isn't the first time the physical similarity struck me. However, Lacey so far isn't, alas, very interesting, since she's a purely reactive character, whereas Cora from the get go had goals and was an active one. However, this might change, since I notice she's really interested in immortality. You know what would be blackly hilarious, though otoh I wouldn't wish it on Belle? Lacey finding out quite how that whole Dark One gig works, getting the dagger and becoming the new Dark One. Quite how that would tie in Henry - or mor specifically, "a young boy" - being involved in Rumple's "undoing", I don't know, but possibly one could construct a scenario where Emma & Co. could save him from getting knifed but don't due to Rumple having just tried to go after Henry.)
Snow White, having gone through the brooding stage of I-did-something-evil, seems to have reached the "trying to atone by positive actions" stage, which, you know, is more than either Gold or Regina ever managed. (Err: yes, both of them tried to restrain themselves at different times and tried to win over their loved ones - Henry, Bae, Belle - by passionate declarations and dinner invitations. But what Snow's doing is trying to help the person she wronged, without even trying the "but she wronged me first and a hundredfold" argument. Which would be like Regina trying to do something nice not for Henry, but for, say, Snow. (Or any Storybrookian.) Or Gold for - um, Hook?
Anyway: I expect we'll find out quite how Rumple got one of Regina's tears sooner or later, because this show works that way, but while the symbolism of the tearmingling spell of Regina's and Snow's tears was obvious, I still liked it. And I appreciated that feeling sorry for a just tortured Regina doesn't mean either Snow or Charming have their brains switched off. They grasp the implication of that trigger and what it means in terms of what Regina was planning immediately. Meanwhile, Regina delivers another classic in Loki/Morgana/Regina style logic: "You were going to abandon me" as the equivalent of her planning to kill off the entire town, minus Henry. Oh, Regina. Otoh: she was remarkably stoic under that electro torture, without coming off as unrealistically so (meaning: she screamed, it was evidently painful, but she also knew once she told the truth Owen had no reason to keep her alive, so she held out for a quite a while, and after waking up she did deliver the important information which no one but her knew immediately without wasting any time.
Emma and Neal: was expected, but I have no feelings one way or the other about them as a pairing. The thematic echo of Neal deliberately letting go and falling into the portal were obvious. I'm assuming he ends up not in FTL but in Neverland, so that next episode both flasbhacks and present day action will take place there (and in Storybrooke). Teenage Baelfire's eventual way of dealing with the Shadow will presumably be to attach himself to it and thus becoming Peter Pan, but I have absolutely no idea how his relationship with Hook is going to develop, considering that this Hook got his name and loss of hand courtesy of dear old dad already. Considering teenage Bae tells Wendy and her parents his mother is dead, I'm wondering whether we're prepared for a scene in which Hook tells young Bae how Milah really died. And/or that she ran away with him earlier; in fact, I'd bet on the later revelation coming up for sure, because that could contribute to Bae's transformation into Neal the conman via Peter Pan.
Favourite Storybrook era detail in this episode: Charming comforting Emma. Not that I'm complaining about all the Snow and Emma scenes we got this season, but I do appreciate when we also get to see David acting fatherly around her.
Ever since toying with the rising Baelfire = Peter Pan (in addition to being Neal) suspicion, I was aware of one obvious problem there, and it's not that Neverland is WITH, not without magic: the personality difference between teenage Bae and Peter "Oh, the cleverness of me!" Pan. Then again, Once Upon A Time altered personalities before, both of fairy tale and of created characters (for example: Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein did not have daddy issues or a brother of a similar age who was dad's favourite; he did have a younger brother who got killed by his creation later), so this was handwavable. Also I must admit to the suspicion that the scriptwriters might only have the Disney film in mind, and didn't bother with the original Barrie book & play.
Well, turns out they did change things, but in a really clever way that shows deep familiarity with the original. I must admit I squeed when Bae, immediately after being spit out of the portal after his father let go of him, ended up in Kensington Gardens. Where you can today find a statue of Peter Pan, because in the book, that's where the baby Peter who decides not to grow up ends up first, before ever making it to Neverland. From then onwards, I was immensely curious how they would adjust/twist the tale involving Bae.
So: original Lost Boy Bae, still sweet and earnest and also starving, ends up breaking into the Darlings' house for food, is found by Wendy, gets adopted; but because his life sucks that way, simultanously Wendy and her brothers had another visitor, a flying shadow who wants to take them, or at least one of them, to Neverland. Now if you recall the way Peter and Wendy meet first is by him coming into her room through the window looking for his shadow (who is detachable and got caught the last time he visited), and then Wendy comes up with a way to stitch Peter and his shadow back together. Once Upon A Time has a Shadow who is nothing but, Peter Pan's lure of the other children to Neverland and the cheerful amorality without the way Peter can feel pain (he feels the loss of Wendy, though in the end the forgetfulnes anything sad catches up with him again), and it has Bae as different entities. Bae substituting himself for one of Wendy's brothers, specifically Michael, to ensure magic doesn't destroy the Darlings was both very much the young Baelfire and another clever spin not just on Barrie's book and play but on the origin story of the whole Peter Pan saga, since Michael and Peter Llewellyn Davies were both models for Peter Pan (something the play Peter and Alice I watched last month reminded me of) .
Meanwhile, in the present, we find out more about Tamara's goals and presumably next season's antagonist,
BTW: Tamara continues to be a resourceful villain (using one of the beans to ensure her escape); that she's convinced of the righteousness of her cause also means she's an interesting one.
As for our homegrown old villains. We get the first conversation between Neal and Rumpelstiskin since Rumple almost died, and it's searing and painful in the best way. Starting with the fact how it comes about, i.e. by Neal recognizing the sounds of his father intending to crush someone and beat them up, and rushing to the rescue. The fact that this someone isn't a random Storybrook inhabitant but Dr. Whale/Victor Frankenstein makes me more sure than ever in my speculation he and the whole magic versus science thing that started in his first flashback episode will have a big part to play in the finale, since presumably ABC didn't just pay David Anders for one brief cameo; at a guess, that scene was filmed together with whatever he'll do in the next episode. There are two callbacks there, to the Whale/Gold argument early in this season (and Gold humiliating the good Doctor before healing him at the end of that episode), and of course to that scene immediately after Rumplestilskin's transformation into the Dark One, when he freaked his son out by not only avenging himself on the recruiting thug but changing him into a snail and crushing him. This is the first time since their argument in New 'York that the emotional continuity from Bae to Neal really hit me. Then the scene ups the ante by not only letting father and son have the expected "you haven't changed" dialogue but also adding more to the theme (see also: last week's teaser of Rumple and Regina watching Neal play with Henry) of Gold being increasingly jealous and resentful of Henry and the way Neal picks his "Henry's father" identity over "Rumpelstilskin's son". Added to this is that Rumplestilskin now has an enabler with Lacey. (Incidentally: were I a Rumpestilskin/Belle s hipper, I would be crushed, since he's so completely willing to take when he can get, even if she is not at all in this body. I do hope if/when she regains her memories, she breaks up with him for good.)
(BTW I did notice that Lacey now wears her hair similarly to Rose McGowan as young Cora, which isn't the first time the physical similarity struck me. However, Lacey so far isn't, alas, very interesting, since she's a purely reactive character, whereas Cora from the get go had goals and was an active one. However, this might change, since I notice she's really interested in immortality. You know what would be blackly hilarious, though otoh I wouldn't wish it on Belle? Lacey finding out quite how that whole Dark One gig works, getting the dagger and becoming the new Dark One. Quite how that would tie in Henry - or mor specifically, "a young boy" - being involved in Rumple's "undoing", I don't know, but possibly one could construct a scenario where Emma & Co. could save him from getting knifed but don't due to Rumple having just tried to go after Henry.)
Snow White, having gone through the brooding stage of I-did-something-evil, seems to have reached the "trying to atone by positive actions" stage, which, you know, is more than either Gold or Regina ever managed. (Err: yes, both of them tried to restrain themselves at different times and tried to win over their loved ones - Henry, Bae, Belle - by passionate declarations and dinner invitations. But what Snow's doing is trying to help the person she wronged, without even trying the "but she wronged me first and a hundredfold" argument. Which would be like Regina trying to do something nice not for Henry, but for, say, Snow. (Or any Storybrookian.) Or Gold for - um, Hook?
Anyway: I expect we'll find out quite how Rumple got one of Regina's tears sooner or later, because this show works that way, but while the symbolism of the tearmingling spell of Regina's and Snow's tears was obvious, I still liked it. And I appreciated that feeling sorry for a just tortured Regina doesn't mean either Snow or Charming have their brains switched off. They grasp the implication of that trigger and what it means in terms of what Regina was planning immediately. Meanwhile, Regina delivers another classic in Loki/Morgana/Regina style logic: "You were going to abandon me" as the equivalent of her planning to kill off the entire town, minus Henry. Oh, Regina. Otoh: she was remarkably stoic under that electro torture, without coming off as unrealistically so (meaning: she screamed, it was evidently painful, but she also knew once she told the truth Owen had no reason to keep her alive, so she held out for a quite a while, and after waking up she did deliver the important information which no one but her knew immediately without wasting any time.
Emma and Neal: was expected, but I have no feelings one way or the other about them as a pairing. The thematic echo of Neal deliberately letting go and falling into the portal were obvious. I'm assuming he ends up not in FTL but in Neverland, so that next episode both flasbhacks and present day action will take place there (and in Storybrooke). Teenage Baelfire's eventual way of dealing with the Shadow will presumably be to attach himself to it and thus becoming Peter Pan, but I have absolutely no idea how his relationship with Hook is going to develop, considering that this Hook got his name and loss of hand courtesy of dear old dad already. Considering teenage Bae tells Wendy and her parents his mother is dead, I'm wondering whether we're prepared for a scene in which Hook tells young Bae how Milah really died. And/or that she ran away with him earlier; in fact, I'd bet on the later revelation coming up for sure, because that could contribute to Bae's transformation into Neal the conman via Peter Pan.
Favourite Storybrook era detail in this episode: Charming comforting Emma. Not that I'm complaining about all the Snow and Emma scenes we got this season, but I do appreciate when we also get to see David acting fatherly around her.
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Date: 2013-09-10 01:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-10 02:39 pm (UTC)