My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S02E14 “Manhattan”

This post contains spoilers for the fourteenth episode of the second season of Once Upon a Time, Manhattan. If you haven’t watched this episode yet, then you might not want to read this.

Hey, the plot actually progressed in this episode.

I am really tired of the stupid kid.

Anyway, here are some things we discovered in this episode.

  • Rumpelstiltskin busted his own leg
  • Baelfire is Neal Cassidy
  • Henry can’t stay in another room for more than 2 minutes
  • Emma is a “no fate but what we make” type of guy

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time Episode S02E10 “The Cricket Game” & Episode S02E11 “The Outsider”

OI! If you haven’t seen episodes 10 and 11 of season 2 of Once Upon a Time, then you might not want to read this.

I don’t really have much to say about these episodes, other than that they seemed to be mostly about time-wasting and stalling the storyline.

The Cricket Game stalls the “Regina’s Redemption” storyline, by making it look like she murdered Archie/Jiminy, but she really didn’t and everyone finds out that she didn’t really commit murder in the very next episode thereby making this episode completely pointless. But, I guess we have to see Regina suffer a bit more because DRAMA.

The Outsider stalls the “Rumpelstiltskin and Baelfire Reunion” storyline, by first taking Rumpel’s magical macguffin that lets him leave town and keep his memory and then having Captain Hook shoot Belle across the town border and having her lose her memory. So, now Rumpelstilskin has to stay in Storybrooke and look after Belle for a couple of episodes, instead of looking for Baelfire, I’m betting.

Some Problems:

  • Hook has never seen a modern gun before. How was he so sure that the bullet would only make Belle stumble over the townline and not, in fact, kill her?
  • How come nobody seems to care anymore that Sneezy the dwarf has lost his memory? They seemed really keen to fix that earlier and now nobody seems to remember it even happening.
  • Why do the characters on this show always leave their enemies alive? They mow through various underlings, henchmen and mooks without a care in the world, but when it comes to taking the big boss down, they always develop morals, all of a sudden. Hey, henchmen have families too, you know?

Anyway, next episode looks like it’s going to be a Victor Frankenstein episode. I hope that they bring back Sexy Igor!

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S02E06 “Tallahassee”

SPOILER ALERT! If you have seen episode 6 season 2 of Once Upon a Time, then you might not want to read this!

I don’t know, for an episode that was supposed to be some big revelation, I found this episode to be kind of “blah”.

So, anyway…

a wanted poster for Neal Cassid (play by Michael Raymond-James)
Yeehaw! It’s 1870!

Michael Raymond-James’ character, who we met way back in episode 1 of season 2, is a guy named “Neal Cassidy”. He was Emma’s boyfriend and he is probably Henry’s dad. Then again, we never saw a paternity test, so whoever fathered Henry is still up for grabs. My bet is on Henry having been conceived by THE FORCE and something something midi-chlorians.

A more important question, I think, is why does August Booth have Marsellus Wallace’s soul?

Neal Cassidy (played by Michael Raymond-James) and August Booth (played by Eion Bailey) looking into august's box
WHAT’S IN THE BOX!?

There was also some jazz in this episode about stealing a magical golden compass from the last big friendly giant in the world. Hey, a golden compass? Who owns the movie rights to the His Dark Materials movie series, now that New Line Cinema has gone belly up? If I recall correctly, there was travel between universes in His Dark Materials, just like in Once Upon a Time. They could totally do a crossover! I doubt ABC would want to anger the Catholic church though…

And, apparently, Captain Hook is in love with Emma, or something. LOVE TRIANGLE! DRAMA BOMB!

Also, Neal gave August a bunch of money to give to Emma, but August spent it all on hookers.

I think they need to make Mulan a little less angry all the time.

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S02E01 “Broken”

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t seen Broken, the first episode of  the second season of Once Upon a Time, then you probably shouldn’t read this. I’m too lazy to provide the requisite expository text,  for a person that hasn’t seen this episode, to understand this article, anyway.

I don’t really feel like running through the whole episode, so I’ll just go through my thoughts on a few things about it.

a screencap of a mysterious man
MYSTERIOUS MAN

At the start of the episode, we meet a new character and never learn who he is. Who he is ins’t really important, though, because he doesn’t actually do anything in the episode. Most people are going to say that he is Baelfire, but I think that would be too easy.

Here are some things around his apartment that may be clues to his identity.

a screepcap of a cleaner & hatters sign in the mystery man's apartment
MYSTERIOUS SHOP SIGN

He has a sign for a hatter’s shop. Was it from Jefferson, the mad hatter’s shop? Is our mystery man from Wonderland?

a screencap of a skateboard deck with the letters "NSNO" visible. the rest is obscured
MYSTERIOUS SKATEBOARD DECK

He has a skateboard deck with the letters “NSNO” visible, or, since you can rotate these letters 180°, “ONSN”. So, it’s either a word ending with “NSNO”, or a word starting with “ONSN”. I couldn’t think of any. If you know anyway, please tell me in the comments.

a screencap of a monocle and a pocket watch hanging on the mystery man's wall
MYSTERIOUS MONOCLE & POCKET WATCH

He has a pocket watch and a monocle hanging on his wall. The white rabbit carries a pocket watch, re-enforcing my Wonderland theory. Multiple Disney characters have monocles. I’m not sure which monocle-wearing character would be most likely.

a screencap of ballet slippers in the mystery man's apartment
MYSTERIOUS BALLET SLIPPERS

There are some ballet slippers on his wall. Maybe, he’s one of the dancing hippos or gators from Fantasia.

a screencap of a dreamcatcher hanging on the mystery man's wall
MYSTERIOUS DREAMCATCHER

He also has a dreamcatcher. I don’t really know if he looks Native American, or not. It is possible that he is John Smith, or one of the other colonists.

a screencap of a postcard that reads "broken"
What is broken?

Lot’s of people are going to assume that the “Broken” on this postcard mean that the curse has been broken. Lots of things could be broken. Maybe, the word “broken” here doesn’t even mean “broken”. Maybe, it’s code. You don’t know.

a screencap of the front of a postcard that reads "greetings from storybrooke maine"
Storybrooke is broken?

Was this postcard actually sent from Storybrooke, or, was it sent from a different location with the Storybooke picture as a clue for our mystery gentleman?

a screepcap of princess aurora and prince phillip sharing true love's kiss
Current “True Love’s Kiss” Tally: 1

Here are our new royals: Princess Aurora II Electric Boogaloo and Prince Phillip Neckerchief Hipster. I say Aurora II because this Aurora mentions that her mother had to deal with Maleficent as well.

a screepcap of mulan
Mulan

We also have Mulan as a new character. She doesn’t really do much, except be a warrior and angry.

a screencap of a wraith
It’s a dementor! No… It’s a ringwraith!

So, we have wraiths attacking people, now. I’m willing to bet that the wraiths are connected to my “bigger bad” they, where Regina and Rumpelstiltskin will have to join forces against and even bigger evil. I’m guessing that these wraiths are the minions of the “bigger bad”.

a screencap of a wraith amulet
Spooky Amulet

The wraiths wear these amulets. If you touch one of these amulets, the wraiths will come after you and suck your soul out of your face à la Shang Tsung.

I tried to look up what this character was, but the closest I got was that it could be a stylized version of the Chinese character “wáng, which means “king”.

Heh. Stylized wang.

a screencap of the other side of the wraith amulet
The Other Side of the Spooky Amulet

The other side of the amulet has a different character on it. I couldn’t find any frames where it was clear, though.

a screencap of rumpelstiltskin/mr gold kissing belle
Why isn’t his curse being broken?

This bugged me. Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold kissed Belle, but his curse wasn’t broken. Are they not truly in love anymore?

a screencap of a palace in the fairy tale world
A Palace!

This is the beautiful palace that Aurora and Phillip were to live in, but that didn’t work out so well. We are never told where in the fairy tale world this palace is situated in.

a screencap of Agrabah from the disney movie, aladdin
Agrabah

The domes on the roof make it look a bit like the palace in Agrabah, though.

a screencap of emma swan and snow white laying unconscious after falling through to the fairy tale world
Why aren’t they dead?

So, Emma and Snow White fall through a magic portal to a fairy tale world and they bust a bunch of stuff up, but there’s not a scratch on them. It was a nice touch that they had Snow holding on to Emma’s jacket.

a screencap of belle looking drunk
Funny Freeze-Frame: Belle Looking Drunk