Once upon a Time 3.12
Mar. 10th, 2014 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which my fairy tale show is back, and much missed it was, too.
First of all, by a marvellous coincidence, yesterdaytrobadora pointed me towards Coalitiongirl's OuaT fanfiction, and in one of the stories she singled out for particular reccommendation, one of the things that happens is that Regina removes her heart as a way to deal with the pain of having lost Henry, Snow watches, and makes sure it gets back in. So you can imagine that I had an odd sense of deja vu (in the best way!) when that happened in the episode proper, albeit slightly differently than in the story. Seriously though, that was my favourite scene, because at last we got what I was waiting for the entire first half of the season - Snow and Regina having an actual conversation about important stuff. (Including the fact they've now both lost their children, for the second time in Snow's case.) And of course it involved a heart. I liked the earlier scene with Snow all "you're coming with us!" to Regina, too (which, btw, aside of all emotion between these two makes practical sense - you do NOT leave a brooding and hurt Regina to herself), and the later scene of Snow teasing Regina about Robin Hood, but this was the best. Complete with Snow saving Regina from being abducted by flying monkey and Regina going all "I don't run from monsters, they run from me!" at the end.
It's clear that the flashbacks we will now get will cover the year in FTL and what happened there culminating in another curse and general amnesia, and we're off to a good start, because I really liked the FTL scenes in this episode and look forward to more Regina-and-Snow teamups. (One small caveat: Belle is awfully chirppy for someone who was sobbing her heart out, in show time, only short while before. Mind you, I do prefer active, doing something Belle, but it still weirds me out in terms of emotional continuity.) Current guess about why everyone is now back in Storybrooke (minus a year of memories) and who alerted Hook to the situation: Obviously, Aurora and Philipp have some kind of deal/blackmailed arrangement with the Wicked Witch going on, and obviously, they feel bad about it. So after whatever whatever events take place culminating in re-cursing, they're the ones who contacted Hook and set him on the Emma retrieving mission. (Aurora knows about Hook's feelings for Emma, after all.) Speaking of Hook, I'm a bit dissapointed he and David won't continue their bromance in flashbacks but leaving at this point, looking for his ship, does make more sense for the character, and they did get a goodbye scene.
Now, as to the present day plot: someone liked Frozen a lot, using the same "alternate suitor who wants to get hastily married is really bad guy in disguise" plot, but it sort of works for me because it gives Emma additional stakes against the new antagonist (since Walsh was really a flying monkey in disguise, I'm assuming the Witch sent him to distract Emma from the whole Hook/Memories/Storybrooke business). Also because Emma already made her decision before finding out the truth (and I wish they hadn't brought up her supposed power to tell if someone's lying again in the scene with Hook when the very same episode shows she was bamboozled for eight months by a flying monkey; this power is just a bad plot idea, writers, give it up!). There were a lot of deliberate call backs to the pilot (Emma arriving at the dinner, as she does in the pilot, only she's there for a real dinner, having already made the arrest, except the man she's dining with is in fact deceiving her). But most interesting was the "what if?" alternate life we saw her having with Henry, based on Regina's spell-produced memories. Henry - btw, Jared has grown so much that time jump was really necessary! - has a similar but not identical relationship to the one he originally formed with Emma; he loves her but never saw her as the saviour and knows about the circumstances of his father leaving and framing her, and comes across as less awed than Henry originally was of Emma and more teasing. BTW, both Hook and the show were clever to pick up the loose end of Neal's flat in New York and the fact Emma and Henry were there as a weapon to use against Emma's scepticism of Hook's insane sounding story.
That the memory retrieving potion was enough for Emma but not for Henry was an obvious plot device to prevent Henry from reganing his memories, but you know, I think that was the right call. Regina giving up Henry (and Henry's memories of her) was a big, big, BIG thing for her to do, and if Henry retrieved his memories in the very next episode it would make the gesture meaningless. I think he will eventually remember, but not for a good long while, which is how it should be, because "will Regina not resort to villainy without Henry acting as conscience" was one of the big questions the preceding episode asked.
New half seasonal Big Bad: no opinion on this incarnation of her yet, since she only shows up in the very last scene. I still think she's also identical with the Black Fairy the show name dropped all of a sudden last episode. But I look forward to finding out more.
First of all, by a marvellous coincidence, yesterday
trobadora pointed me towards Coalitiongirl's OuaT fanfiction, and in one of the stories she singled out for particular reccommendation, one of the things that happens is that Regina removes her heart as a way to deal with the pain of having lost Henry, Snow watches, and makes sure it gets back in. So you can imagine that I had an odd sense of deja vu (in the best way!) when that happened in the episode proper, albeit slightly differently than in the story. Seriously though, that was my favourite scene, because at last we got what I was waiting for the entire first half of the season - Snow and Regina having an actual conversation about important stuff. (Including the fact they've now both lost their children, for the second time in Snow's case.) And of course it involved a heart. I liked the earlier scene with Snow all "you're coming with us!" to Regina, too (which, btw, aside of all emotion between these two makes practical sense - you do NOT leave a brooding and hurt Regina to herself), and the later scene of Snow teasing Regina about Robin Hood, but this was the best. Complete with Snow saving Regina from being abducted by flying monkey and Regina going all "I don't run from monsters, they run from me!" at the end. It's clear that the flashbacks we will now get will cover the year in FTL and what happened there culminating in another curse and general amnesia, and we're off to a good start, because I really liked the FTL scenes in this episode and look forward to more Regina-and-Snow teamups. (One small caveat: Belle is awfully chirppy for someone who was sobbing her heart out, in show time, only short while before. Mind you, I do prefer active, doing something Belle, but it still weirds me out in terms of emotional continuity.) Current guess about why everyone is now back in Storybrooke (minus a year of memories) and who alerted Hook to the situation: Obviously, Aurora and Philipp have some kind of deal/blackmailed arrangement with the Wicked Witch going on, and obviously, they feel bad about it. So after whatever whatever events take place culminating in re-cursing, they're the ones who contacted Hook and set him on the Emma retrieving mission. (Aurora knows about Hook's feelings for Emma, after all.) Speaking of Hook, I'm a bit dissapointed he and David won't continue their bromance in flashbacks but leaving at this point, looking for his ship, does make more sense for the character, and they did get a goodbye scene.
Now, as to the present day plot: someone liked Frozen a lot, using the same "alternate suitor who wants to get hastily married is really bad guy in disguise" plot, but it sort of works for me because it gives Emma additional stakes against the new antagonist (since Walsh was really a flying monkey in disguise, I'm assuming the Witch sent him to distract Emma from the whole Hook/Memories/Storybrooke business). Also because Emma already made her decision before finding out the truth (and I wish they hadn't brought up her supposed power to tell if someone's lying again in the scene with Hook when the very same episode shows she was bamboozled for eight months by a flying monkey; this power is just a bad plot idea, writers, give it up!). There were a lot of deliberate call backs to the pilot (Emma arriving at the dinner, as she does in the pilot, only she's there for a real dinner, having already made the arrest, except the man she's dining with is in fact deceiving her). But most interesting was the "what if?" alternate life we saw her having with Henry, based on Regina's spell-produced memories. Henry - btw, Jared has grown so much that time jump was really necessary! - has a similar but not identical relationship to the one he originally formed with Emma; he loves her but never saw her as the saviour and knows about the circumstances of his father leaving and framing her, and comes across as less awed than Henry originally was of Emma and more teasing. BTW, both Hook and the show were clever to pick up the loose end of Neal's flat in New York and the fact Emma and Henry were there as a weapon to use against Emma's scepticism of Hook's insane sounding story.
That the memory retrieving potion was enough for Emma but not for Henry was an obvious plot device to prevent Henry from reganing his memories, but you know, I think that was the right call. Regina giving up Henry (and Henry's memories of her) was a big, big, BIG thing for her to do, and if Henry retrieved his memories in the very next episode it would make the gesture meaningless. I think he will eventually remember, but not for a good long while, which is how it should be, because "will Regina not resort to villainy without Henry acting as conscience" was one of the big questions the preceding episode asked.
New half seasonal Big Bad: no opinion on this incarnation of her yet, since she only shows up in the very last scene. I still think she's also identical with the Black Fairy the show name dropped all of a sudden last episode. But I look forward to finding out more.
