Once Upon A Time 3.02 Lost Girl
Oct. 7th, 2013 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakBack when this show was pitched to me by various friendly lj folk, they said the showrunners once said it is very much about mothers and daughters. This still holds true in marvellous ways.
Okay, complaint first, because other than that, I really liked this episode: the Rumplestilkin subplot, consisting of little more than him wandering through the woods and talking to an imaginary Belle, was deadly dull. Not the first scene - him separating his shadow from himself, then telling that shadow to hide the dagger with Rumple's name on it was both a fantastic homage to the original Barrie story of Peter Pan and something clever he would do. But everything after. I mean, I had a flicker of hope this might turn into something interesting when the young woman that turned around looked for a heartbeat like a young Cora, but then it was Belle (or rather, an avatar of her), and we were in for another speech about Rumplestilskin's inner goodness instead of, say, the whole Lacy adventure or his having just comitted murder again. Yawn. I take it all that stuff about his father (first mentioned last season in one of the Milah eps) means the guy will show up sooner or later in flashback as well, but even though - dull subplot in an otherwise great episode. They really need to get him back to the group; his interaction with any of them would be far, far more interesting to me than with Imaginary!Belle. (Or actual Belle, at that point.)
On to the good stuff, though: Emma confronting her inner orphan. Last time Emma got vocal about her abandonment issues re: her parents was at the s2 season opener, but then Snow jumped after her into FTL, and was able to protect and mentor her there, which soothed it a bit. However, it makes perfect thematic sense that Neverland brings those issues back with a vengeance. Both on a Watsonian level - because Emma is looking for her son (whom once upon a time, she gave up as well) - and on a Doylist one: Neverland is where all the abandoned children end up, if Baelfire as a teen was the original Lost Boy of the OuaT verse, Emma was the original Lost Girl, and Neverland bringing out the lost child Emma was with a vengeance makes SO MUCH THEMATIC SENSE. Beautifully done, writers. Also that Snow gets it before David does, both because of her Mary Margaret friendship with Emma pre curse breaking that gave her knowledge of Emma, and because she herself was lost, though in another sense. I also thought Ginnifer Goodwin did a great job here playing the difference between young Snow in the flashbacks and older Snow in the present in a way that has nothing to do with different hair styles. And Snow is three for three (or is it four for four now?) in figuring out magical puzzles, especially those connected to her daughter.
Flashbacks: are set between Charming kissing Snow out of the magical sleep and the Snow-led rebellion against Regina we've seen in the mid s2 flashbacks. The idea that Snow needs a confidence booster to go from fleeing from Regina and living as an outlaw to l going on the offensive and leading a taking-the-kingdom-back battle against her isn't the most original of things, but I still found it charmingly, no pun intended, executed. Not least because it gave us another Rumple & Charming team up, complete with Rumplestilskin bringing up David's past as a shephard. I'm telling you, this is the bromance of FTL and Storybrooke. I also found the Dwarves versus Charming thing hysterical, with them taking him as, as David himself puts it wrily, "a socially climbing golddigger of a shepherd"; and given I recently watched Heart of Darkness, where under-a-love-removing-spell Snow said to him that she believes in actions, not words, it's completely consistent that the whole drawing of fake!Excalibur would be the confidence booster required.
Also of interest: damm, Emma/Hook is growing on me. I didn't care for it when he was being sleazy and oh so confident in his charm last season, but now that we've progressed to them sharing rum and weary truths, I think I could warm up to it, if the show decides to go that way. It reminds me of another Miss Swan(n) and another pirate, in truth.
Speculation: Pan saying that Henry feels abandoned by Emma may not just be a mindgame, or a lie. I mean, Henry didn't last time we've seen him, but he's always known she gave him up as a baby, and while he originally got around that emotionally by casting her as the saviour to Regina's villain, things are a bit more complicated now with both of his mothers , and Neverland brings repressed issues to the surface. I also wonder how much the show will use the Neverland effect that lets the Lost Boys forget about their parents unless the subject is directly addressed, and lets Peter himself forget almost anything tragic. ("I always forget them after I killed them", he says to adult Wendy when she asks him why he can't remember Hook.)
Emma eventually defeating Peter Pan: not in a duel, at a guess. But see, so far the clever thing (oh, the cleverness of me, as Peter would say) Once Upon A Time does is to use so much Barrie for this villanous version of Peter Pan in twisty ways. Now we don't know yet whether this Peter ever was human as Barrie!Peter was (Peter Pan in Barrie's book was a normally born baby but heard about his parents talking about their plans when he'd grow up and was so horrified by the prospect he used the magical ability all left in babies and toddlers and flew away, ending in Kensington Park (where Baelfire arrived when first leaving FTL) and living with the fairies for a while until they aged him up to his more usual boy shape and he discovered Neverland), or whether he came into being fully formed. But if he was a human child once, then villain!Peter probably has the same Achilles heel hero!Peter has (to an extent): the longing for a mother.
Lastly: extra bonus points if the writers at any point of the season can work in the Barrie line "to die would be an awfully great adventure".
Okay, complaint first, because other than that, I really liked this episode: the Rumplestilkin subplot, consisting of little more than him wandering through the woods and talking to an imaginary Belle, was deadly dull. Not the first scene - him separating his shadow from himself, then telling that shadow to hide the dagger with Rumple's name on it was both a fantastic homage to the original Barrie story of Peter Pan and something clever he would do. But everything after. I mean, I had a flicker of hope this might turn into something interesting when the young woman that turned around looked for a heartbeat like a young Cora, but then it was Belle (or rather, an avatar of her), and we were in for another speech about Rumplestilskin's inner goodness instead of, say, the whole Lacy adventure or his having just comitted murder again. Yawn. I take it all that stuff about his father (first mentioned last season in one of the Milah eps) means the guy will show up sooner or later in flashback as well, but even though - dull subplot in an otherwise great episode. They really need to get him back to the group; his interaction with any of them would be far, far more interesting to me than with Imaginary!Belle. (Or actual Belle, at that point.)
On to the good stuff, though: Emma confronting her inner orphan. Last time Emma got vocal about her abandonment issues re: her parents was at the s2 season opener, but then Snow jumped after her into FTL, and was able to protect and mentor her there, which soothed it a bit. However, it makes perfect thematic sense that Neverland brings those issues back with a vengeance. Both on a Watsonian level - because Emma is looking for her son (whom once upon a time, she gave up as well) - and on a Doylist one: Neverland is where all the abandoned children end up, if Baelfire as a teen was the original Lost Boy of the OuaT verse, Emma was the original Lost Girl, and Neverland bringing out the lost child Emma was with a vengeance makes SO MUCH THEMATIC SENSE. Beautifully done, writers. Also that Snow gets it before David does, both because of her Mary Margaret friendship with Emma pre curse breaking that gave her knowledge of Emma, and because she herself was lost, though in another sense. I also thought Ginnifer Goodwin did a great job here playing the difference between young Snow in the flashbacks and older Snow in the present in a way that has nothing to do with different hair styles. And Snow is three for three (or is it four for four now?) in figuring out magical puzzles, especially those connected to her daughter.
Flashbacks: are set between Charming kissing Snow out of the magical sleep and the Snow-led rebellion against Regina we've seen in the mid s2 flashbacks. The idea that Snow needs a confidence booster to go from fleeing from Regina and living as an outlaw to l going on the offensive and leading a taking-the-kingdom-back battle against her isn't the most original of things, but I still found it charmingly, no pun intended, executed. Not least because it gave us another Rumple & Charming team up, complete with Rumplestilskin bringing up David's past as a shephard. I'm telling you, this is the bromance of FTL and Storybrooke. I also found the Dwarves versus Charming thing hysterical, with them taking him as, as David himself puts it wrily, "a socially climbing golddigger of a shepherd"; and given I recently watched Heart of Darkness, where under-a-love-removing-spell Snow said to him that she believes in actions, not words, it's completely consistent that the whole drawing of fake!Excalibur would be the confidence booster required.
Also of interest: damm, Emma/Hook is growing on me. I didn't care for it when he was being sleazy and oh so confident in his charm last season, but now that we've progressed to them sharing rum and weary truths, I think I could warm up to it, if the show decides to go that way. It reminds me of another Miss Swan(n) and another pirate, in truth.
Speculation: Pan saying that Henry feels abandoned by Emma may not just be a mindgame, or a lie. I mean, Henry didn't last time we've seen him, but he's always known she gave him up as a baby, and while he originally got around that emotionally by casting her as the saviour to Regina's villain, things are a bit more complicated now with both of his mothers , and Neverland brings repressed issues to the surface. I also wonder how much the show will use the Neverland effect that lets the Lost Boys forget about their parents unless the subject is directly addressed, and lets Peter himself forget almost anything tragic. ("I always forget them after I killed them", he says to adult Wendy when she asks him why he can't remember Hook.)
Emma eventually defeating Peter Pan: not in a duel, at a guess. But see, so far the clever thing (oh, the cleverness of me, as Peter would say) Once Upon A Time does is to use so much Barrie for this villanous version of Peter Pan in twisty ways. Now we don't know yet whether this Peter ever was human as Barrie!Peter was (Peter Pan in Barrie's book was a normally born baby but heard about his parents talking about their plans when he'd grow up and was so horrified by the prospect he used the magical ability all left in babies and toddlers and flew away, ending in Kensington Park (where Baelfire arrived when first leaving FTL) and living with the fairies for a while until they aged him up to his more usual boy shape and he discovered Neverland), or whether he came into being fully formed. But if he was a human child once, then villain!Peter probably has the same Achilles heel hero!Peter has (to an extent): the longing for a mother.
Lastly: extra bonus points if the writers at any point of the season can work in the Barrie line "to die would be an awfully great adventure".
