Recap: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland S01E04 “The Serpent”

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SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

In his episode, we learn about Jafar and how his daddy issues turned him evil.

a screencap of a young jafar (played by anthony keyvan)
Don’t worry, he’ll be evil soon.

You see, Jafar is the bastard child of the Sultan of Agrabah, who rejects him and forces him to live like and orphan on the streets of Agrabah. He should feel lucky that the Sultan merely cast him out, instead of having him killed. Royal types tend not to like leaving loose heirs lying around.

a screencap of amara (played by zuliekha robinson)
She’s pretty, but she’s evil.

One day, Jafar sees a chance to get revenge against the Sultan. He’ll get an evil sorceress, Amara, to teach him magic that he will use against the Sultan.

Too bad there’s no fairy tale land version of Maury to sort out this whole paternity mess.

a screencap of jafar (played by naveen andrews) kissing amara (played by zuliekha robinson)
Icky.

Amara’s training of Jafar goes a bit like Rumpelstiltskin’s training of Regina. Eventually Jafar must commit and evil deed, not giving an antidote to a poisoned man, to prove he’s willing to go all the way in this evil magic business. It’s pretty much exactly like how Regina had to tear out and crush a heart to prove herself to Rumpelstiltskin.

Once he’s proven himself, Amara reveals her final magical secret to Jafar: if they obtain the world’s three genies, then they can change the very laws of magic.

Capturing three genies, killing countless people and changing the laws of magic seems like overkill just to show your father how angry you are at him., but, whatever, Jafar is really, really angry at the guy. Just zapping the Sultan in the ace with a lightning bolt of something apparently wouldn’t be enough to get the point across.

Ooooor… Does Jafar really want to change the laws of magic, so that he can change the past and have a good childhood with a loving father?

I found the romantic relationship between Amara and Jafar to be a bit icky, because she had trained him since he was a kid. I bet that’s exactly how the writers wanted the audience to feel about it though.

a screencap of some genie containment units
Poor Sidney

So, who’s the third genie? We’ve already met Cyrus the genie and Sidney Glass the genie from Once Upon a Time. Will the third genie be a new character or someone we’ve met before?

This also messes up the timelines in Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It shows that Jafar was in possession of Sidney’s lamp before Sidney met Regina, but we first meet the Knave of Hearts in present-day Storybrooke where Sidney is now a magic mirror and not a genie. TIME PRETZEL.

a screencap of jafar's old prisoner (played by brian george)
Is this the Sultan of Agrabah?

I’m going to bet right now that the mystery prisoner in the dungeon with Cyrus is really the Sultan of Agrabah, but why is Jafar just keeping him prisoner, instead of killing him and getting his revenge?

a screencap of a tweedle in ziggy stardust makeup and the red queen (played by emma rigby)
Throwing shade like professionals!

Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. The Red Queen captures the Knave of Hearts and they have a bunch of angry feelings together over their shared past and betrayal, after which the Red Queen decides she’ll have the Knave beheaded.

One of the Ziggy Stardust Tweedles is really a double agent and sharing the Red Queen’s secrets with Jafar, but I’m not sure whether it’s Dee or Dum. I wonder if this will drive a wedge between the twin brothers?

a screencap of elizabeth the lizard (played by lauren mcknight)
This lizard needs to be greener.

Hey, we make a new friend! Meet Elizabeth, or Lizard as everyone calls her. The Knave of Hearts helped her out in the past and taught her how to be a thief. Lizard is totally in love with the Knave of hearts now, so she would be really sad if the Knave of Hearts lost his head.

Lizard and Alice disguise themselves as executioners to stop the Knaves execution, just like Socrates and Billy the Kid did for Bill and Ted in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

a screencap of the knave of hearts (played by cgi) turned to stone with a tweedle behind him
The Knave is so stoned right now.

It’s all in vain though, because Jafar and the Red Queen just show up right after the rescue to spoil everyone’s fun. Jafar is about to kill the Knave, until Alice uses one of her wishes to stop him. She wishes that she ill die if the Knave dies. For some reason, if you kill a genie’s master, you can’t get any wishes from the genie. Does this mean that if a genie’s master die accidentally, that the genie can never grant any wishes again, or does it only happen if the master is murdered? Anyway, Jafar can’t kill Alice or the Knave, if wants to get Cyrus transferred to him.

Angered, Jafar turns the Knave into stone, hoping that Alice will have to use one of her wishes to turn him back into flesh.

a screencap of jafar's staff
*HISS*

In the past, Jafar had also turned Amara into a magical staff. Jafar likes turning people into inanimate objects. At least she gets to be at the side of the man she love forever now.

a screencap of burp guard (played by christian bower)
*BRAP*

Meet Burp Guard. Burp Guard is my new hero. Burp Guard provides Cyrus with a wishbone that Cyrus can magically use to escape from his cage. Genies have magic over any object with the word “wish” in it, don’t you know?

So, yeah, this episode ends with Cyrus starting to escape from his cage, but I bet it will still be a few episode before he and Alice are reunited. Heck, at the start of next week’s episode, I bet Jafar shows up just before Cyrus is about to break free and stops him while cackling or something.

TV Show Rambling: Sleepy Hollow S01E03 “For the Triumph of Evil”

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WARNING! HEREIN LIES SPOILERS FOR THE THIRD EPISODE OF THE FIRST SEASON OF SLEEPY HOLLOW!

In this episode, the Sandman is a faceless nightmare monster called “Ro’kenhronteys”.

a screencap of the sandman or ro'henhronteys (played by marti matuli) with sand running from his eyes
Oh, Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.

Blah. Blah. Blah. I’m still catching up on this show. Blah. Blah. Blah.

  • Will someone please take Ichabod down to the JC Penny and by him some modern pants?
  • Are Ichabod and Abbie officially partners now? No one on the force finds that weird? Is it even legal?
  • Abbie lied about seeing the demon in the forest and that caused her sister, Jenny, to be committed.
  • A farmer also saw the demon and lied about it and he is killed by the Sandman.
  • The Sandman or Ro’kenhronteys is a Native American demon that kills people that have turned a blind eye to their fellow man’s plight and have a guilty conscience in their dreams.
  • Ichabod and Abbie visit a Mohawk shaman named “Seamus Duncan” who is also a sleazy car salesman. This is probably a problematic representation of a Native person.
  • Seamus uses a special tea on Ichabod and Abbie so that they can enter the dreamworld and fight Ro’kenhronteys Dream Warriors style.
  • All Abbie has to do is admit that she lied and the demon is defeated.
  • Captain Irving finds out that Ichabod and Abbie made a giant hole in the wall and are now using the old archive room as their base of operations and he doesn’t really care.
  • The Captain is awfully quick to accommodate Ichabod and Abbie’s needs. I find this suspicious for some reason. What does he know?
  • Jenny has escaped from the asylum. She knows the apocalypse is coming. Is she trying to help or hide?
a screencap of abbie mills (played by nicole beharie) and ichabod crane (played by tom mison) chained-up and shirtless
FANSERVICE!
  • Why did their shirts have to be off?
  • Now that they’ve already been shirtless, where else can this show go with the fanservice?

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S03E06 “Ariel”

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SPOILER ALERT! THIS EPISODE CONTAINS COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF CGI!

This week on Once Upon a Time, Snow White goes to the prom with a freaky fish lady.

a screencap of snow white (played by ginnifer goodwin) and the mermaid ariel (played by joanna garcia swisher) hanging out on some rocks
Surf & Turf

So, Snow White jumps into the sea to escape Regina’s men and then Ariel the mermaid saves her from drowning. They become fast friends.

It turns out that Ariel fell in love at first sight with the human Prince Eric, but she’s afraid that they can never be together on account of the whole being a mermaid that must live in water thing.

Why is it that every female character on this has to have a backstory that’s all about true love and trying to have a “happily ever after”? Are they not allowed to deviate from the Disney movie formula?

a screencap of ariel (played by joanna garcia swisher) and snow white (played by ginnifer goodwin)
Legs prominently featured

In this universe Ursula is a goddess, instead of a witch, and once a year at the highest possible tide, she grants mermaids the ability to transform their fins into legs. It just so happens that the highest tide coincides with Prince Eric’s Enchantment Under the Sea Dance, so Ariel takes this opportunity to go to the dance and meet with Eric.

a screecap of ariel (played by joanna garcia swisher) and prince eric (played by gill mckinney)
Is that Princess Jasmine on the right?

It turns out that Eric is madly in love with Ariel as well. Eric is leaving the next day to explore the world and he invites Ariel to join him, but, OH NO! Ariel’s legs with have reverted to fins by then.

It’s interesting to not that Eric says that one of the places he is going to visit is Agrabah and at that exact moment there is a woman in blue with her midriff showing, just like Princess Jasmine. I also wonder if they are just namedropping Agrabah, or is this is going to connect to Jafar and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland eventually?

a screencap of rumpelstiltskin (played by robert carlyle) talking to an imposter belled (played by emilie de ravin)
Stop talking to your hallucinations!

Back in the present-day Neverland, Rumpelstiltskin is still just kind of hanging around and being a nutbar by himself, that is, until Peter Pan shows up again to try and demoralize him. Peter Pan tells Rumpelstiltskin that he should give up on trying to save Henry, because Rumpelstiltskin will die in the process and that he should go home to Belle and start a new family with her, because she “looks fertile”. Ick. Ick. Ick. No, Lost Boys should never comment on a woman’s fetility. It grosses me out. How does Peter Pan know anything about Belle or Rumpelstiltskin’s life in Storybrooke, anyway?

And then the hallucination Belle shows up and is all like, “Yeah, Rumple, you should listen to Pan. I’m hella fertile. Your current family sucks anyway.”

a screencap of peter pan's shadow (played by CGI)
I hate this thing.

Regina interrupts and reveals that the hallucination Belle was really Peter Pan’s shadow the whole time. That’s a bit gross. Didn’t Rumpelstiltskin and hallucination Belle kiss at some point? This means that Pan’s shadows has probably been relaying everything that Rumpelstilskin has been saying, you know, via charades or something, and that ain’t good.

I also wonder what Rumpelstiltskin’s shadow has been up to. We haven’t seen it since he cut it off. Can Rumpelstiltskin’s shadow shapeshift like Peter Pans? What happened to the shadow that we saw Pan tear out of Greg Mendell?

Anyway, Regina convinces Rumpelstiltskin that they should join forces, because wandering around in circles in the jungle with the Charmings has gotten really, really annoying. They need to rescue Henry and go do something more interesting.

a screencap of regina (played by lana parrilla) transformed into ursula the sea goddess
Girl, you are looking fabulous!

Back to the fishy mermaid story of lovey dovey. Regina has been spying on Snow White and Ariel and she devises yet another plan to kill Snow White that will of course not work. We already know that Snow White survives to the present, so there is never any tension in these stories about her and Regina’s past.

Anyway, Regina disguises herself as Ursula so that she can trick Ariel into joining her in her evil plan, also because it’s just too fun to look that fabulous and ham it up.

a screencap of ariel (played by joanna garcia swisher), regina (played by lana parrilla) and snow white (played by ginnifer goodwin) transformed into a mermaid
A Poor Unfortunate Soul

Regina gives Ariel a magical bracelet to put on Snow White that gives Ariel legs and changes Snow White’s legs into fins, unfortunately, since Snow White has no idea how use fins, this leaves her helpless. Snow White is completely at Regina’s mercy now, but instead of killing Snow White right away, which would be the smart thing to do, Regina drags it out and gives Ariel enough time to grab a fork to stab her with.

Ariel takes the bracelet off Snow White, which means that she loses her legs and won’t be able to go on the journey with Eric. Snow White convinces Ariel to tell Eric about her fishiness, because, who knows? Maybe Eric is into that kind of thing. Regina steals Ariel’s voice at the last second though, so she will never be able to tell Eric the truth.

Fast forward to present day, Regina returns Ariel’s voice to her and says that will give Ariel legs and reunite her with Eric, if she does a favour for her. You see mermaids can travel between realms (the Hell?) and they need a magical doohickey from Mr. Gold’s store in Storybrooke. Yay! We’re going back to Storybrooke!

So, mermaids can just spontaneously open portals between worlds or something? That’s really dang useful. You’d figure that Regina or Rumpelstiltskin would have captured one and be keeping it in a tank in their basement for emergencies.

a screencap of neal (played by michael raymond-james) hugging emma (played by jennifer morrison)
And then the “Captain Swan” fans grabbed their torches and pitchforks.

So, what have the Charmings and Captain Hook been doing this whole time?

Well, it turns out that Captain Hook really is a good guy and he tells them right away that Neal is alive and in Neverland, even though this means that he’ll have to stop macking on Emma. Emma says that the only reason she kissed Hook was because she was bored or something and she likes messing with people’s emotions.

Neal is in the middle of a magical pit that can only be crossed if everyone reveals a dark secret they’ve been hiding. That evil, evil Peter Pan, making everyone tell the truth. Who does he think he is?

So, everyone’s deep dark secret:

  • Hook kissed Emma and he’s was afraid to admit that this means he’s moved on from his dead love, Milah.
  • Mary Margaret is upset because she isn’t really getting that mother-daughter experience that she wanted with Emma and when they get home to Storybrooke, she want’s to start over again with a new baby.
  • We already know David’s secret. He can’t leave Neverland because he had his dreamshade poisoning cured by the magic spring, so he can’t have a baby with Margaret in Storybrooke.
  • And Emma’s secret is that she was hoping that Neal really was dead, because she was afraid of facing all the hurt that Neal caused her. Emma is just in general really bad at dealing with emotions

So, after Neal and Emma are back together, he tells her that he’ll never stop fighting for her, except he totally did already. Doesn’t he remember how he fell in love with Tamara and got engaged to her?

Hey, we never found out who was in that other cage from last week. Bleh. I hate waiting.

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S03E05 “Good Form”

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SPOILER ALERT! THIS POST IS IMAGE  HEAVY! RUN!

So, in this episode, we learn that child abuse is A-OK, well, as long as you believe that you have a good reason to be doing it, that is.

a screencap of henry (played by jared s. gilmore) swordfighting with lost boy devin (played by skyler gisondo)
KILL! KILL! KILL!

Peter Pan is trying to turn Henry into a little bastard and it seems to be working out pretty okay. He orders Henry to swordfight another child and Henry launches into it with enthusiastic vigor and such.

a screencap of devin (played by skyler gisondo) with a cut on his cheek
You’ve just made an enemy for life, kid.

And then he “accidentally” cuts the kid’s cheek and suddenly the swordfighting game isn’t fun anymore.

Well, you know how it is with these kids, once they’ve gotten a taste for blood, they’re no good anymore. I’m afraid that we’re going to have to put Henry down, for everyone’s safety.

a screencap of captain liam jones (played by bernard curry) and his brother lieutenant killian jones (played by colin o'donoghue)
Brohams

So, back in the past, Captain Hook, or Killian Jones, as he was known in those days, was a fine, upstanding citizen, a lieutenant in the King’s Nazy in fact. Which king, you ask? Errr… You know the king-guy with the crown and stuff, whose name and the country he runs aren’t important.

Also, his captain is his brother, Liam Jones. Don’t get too attached to him.

Anyway, nameless king-guy sends the Jones brothers on a mission to retrieve some dreamshade from Neverland. The king says that dreamshade is a panacea, but we already know that it is in fact the opposite, on account of that Charming dude being poisoned by it 5 years ago and taking his sweet time dying from it.

Poor little flying horsey...
Poor little flying horsey…

To make it possible for their ship to get to Neverland they murdered Hercules’ winged horse, Pegasus, and used the feathers from its wings to make a special sail. Hercules is going to be pissed when he finds out about that.

I hope Hercules shows up and he’s played by Kevin Sorbo. Also, he kills everyone and this show just becomes Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. I liked that show.

a screencap of a flying ship
Weeeeeeeee!

The Pegasus feather sail makes the ship fly through the air, but how does that make sense? The feathers made Pegasus fly because, well, they were attached to its freaking wings. I guess in the magic world you can just staple feathers to anything and it will start floating, because to Hell with the laws of aerodynamics. MAGIC!

a screencap of a magical golden sextant with an image of a pegasus on it
Pretty!

Mystery king-guy gave the Joneses a magical sextant to find Neverland. Now, sextants are used to navigate by looking through them at the constellations, you know, at night, the they use this one during broad daylight. I guess that’s it magical power, that you can see the stay through it, even during the day. Also, sextants are really just measuring tools. You measure between a known star and the horizon to get your location. You still need an actual map and coordinates when you’re using a sextant, but, hey, whatever, IT’S MAGIC.

No “second star to the right” is not a coordinate. To the right of what, I ask you? To the right of what!?

a screencap of captain liam jones (played by bernard curry) and lieutenant killain jones (played by colin o'donoghue) pointing their swords at peter pan (played by robbie kay)
Aaah! It’s a threatening child! Be on your guard!

When they get to Neverland, Peter Pan shows up and is all like, “Hey, stupids, dreamshade is really a poison.”, but Liam is all like, “Nuh-uh, king-guy wouldn’t lie to us. I hate you, you stupid kid. Stop bad-mouthing king-guy.”

Liam then tries to prove that dreamshade isn’t really a poison by stabbing himself with its thorns, because, apparently, he was too lazy and stupid to find a squirrel or some other critter to test it on and he promptly dies.

Peter Pan shows up again and leads Killian to a magical spring that can heal anything, but fails to tell Killian that one must stay on Neverland or the effects of the springs will wear off and the person will die, so, after Killian resurrects Liam and they head home to wherever, Liam just ends up dying again. And that is why Captain Hook hates Peter Pan, apparently, because Peter Pan tried to warn them about the dreamshade and then gave Killian a few extra moments with his brother, when he could have just rubbed his nose in it for not listening to him about the dreamshade.

Everyone keeps saying that Peter Pan is a monster, but the only people we’ve seen him kill were very annoying and other than that, he just seems to want to teach people important life lessons.

a screencap of the dreamshade poison spreading on the chest of david (played by josh dallas)
That ain’t good…

Back in present day, Prince Charming is still dying very slowly from the dreamshade poisoning and he still won’t tell his family about it, because he is a gigantic, crazy dummy.

Captain Hook lies to Charming that the magical sextant, which could be used to find their way home, is still on the island, when he really just chucked it into the sea. He’s really leading Charming to the magical healing spring, not the sextant. Anyway, Charming is healed now, but he can’t leave the island without dying.

Charming tells his family that Hook saved his life, but he lies about the circumstances. He says that Hook save him from Lost Boys. He doesn’t tell them that he can’t leave the island now. It’s alright when Charming lies, because he’s one of the good guys and good guy tell good lies.

a screencap of regina (played by lana parrilla) offering a chocolate bar to devin (played by skyler gisondo)
Always take candy from strangers.

Speaking of Lost Boys, Regina and Emma capture the Lost Boy who Henry had injured earlier. Regina offers him candy, if he leads them to Henry, but the lost boy isn’t having any of that, so Emma wraps her hands around the child’s throat and threatens him. It’s a really awful and uncomfortable scene.

I think it was a really bad idea for the writers to make the Lost Boys evil. Having the Lost Boys fight and defeat adult pirates is fun because it’s a subversion of the power imbalance between children and adults that we have in the real world. Having adults fight children and win isn’t fun at all, because that’s how things always work out in the real world. Really, what are we going to be saying to ourselves at the end of all of this? “Yay! Our heroes defeated the small, orphaned and lost children! Huzzah!”

a screencap of regina (played by lana parrilla) controlling a child's heart
Should have taken the candy, kid.

When Emma’s threatening and menacing of the 4-foot-tall child don’t work, Regina rips out the child’s heart and uses it to control the kid. They send the Lost Boy back to Pan’s camp with a magic mirror so they can tell Henry, “Hey, son-guy, we’re here to save you and junk, so don’t despair.”

a screencap of emma (played by jennifer morrison) kissing captain hook (played by colin o'donoghue)
And the fangirls went wild!

And then Emma kisses Hook, because he saved her father’s life or something. She didn’t really seam to be that into it, which was weird.

Peter Pan, of course, has to show up and ruin Captain Hook’s fun. He tells Hook  and only Hook, that Neal is still alive and is in Neverland at that very moment. Will Hook keep this information to himself so he can keep macking on Emma with impunity? Neal was his surrogate son for a while, you’d think Hook would rush right to save Neal. I bet he’s going to keep it a secret. Hook likes making out more than he likes Neal.

a screencap of two cages,one of which holds neal and the other holds a mystery person
WHAT’S IN THE BOX!?

The Lost Boys shoved Neal into a box next to another box with a mystery person in it. Who it this mystery person? Is is someone we have already met? I bet it’s Rumpestiltskin’s father.

So, kids, how are they going to get Charming off of Neverland without him dying? I bet it’s something like, because Peter Pan created Neverland with his mind, he basically is Neverland and then Charming will become his father figure and since Peter will always be in his heart, Charming will take a piece of Neverland with him wherever he goes, or something cheesy like that.