My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S03E07 “Dark Hollow”

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SPOILER ALERT! IRONIC EYEWEAR CONTAINED HEREIN!

In tonight’s episode, Belle protects Storybrooke from two misguided hipsters.

a screencap of the words "five days ago"
Five days ago

Really? Everyone has only been on Neverland for five days? It seems like they’ve been wandering around in the wilderness for an eternity…

a screencap of belle (played by emilie de ravin) talking to dr hopper (played by raphael sbarge), mother superior (played by keegan connor tracy), leroy (played by lee arenberg)
Hey, remember these guys?

So, we’re back to Storybrooke and a bunch of the side characters – the ones whose actors that haven’t yet moved on to other shows-  show up to remind us that they still exist and to help Belle cast the cloaking spell that Rumpelstiltskin left her around Storybrooke.

a screencap of john darling (played by matt kane) and michael darling (played by james immekus)
They only buy albums on vinyl.

However, they don’t cast the cloaking spell in time and a pair of nefarious hipsters affiliated with Peter Pan manage to sneak in. What are they up to with their thick-rimmed glasses and their scarves?

a screencap of rumpelstiltskin (played by robert carlyle) in a magic message to belle
Help me, Belle Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.

Ariel shows up with Rumpelstiltskin’s message to Belle. He tells Belle that she can find a special magical object in his store with the power of their love.

That should be easy. All Belle ever talks about is Rumpelstiltskin and their wonderful love and how magical it is. She really doesn’t seem to have a life outside of her relationship with Rumpelstiltskin at all.

a screencap of ariel (played by joanna garcia swisher) entranced by a thingamabob or corkscrew
A thingamabob! Ariel just needs 19 more and her collection will be complete!

Ariel continues to be fascinated by the world of Man, so she’s too busy being entranced by random object in Rumpelstiltskin’s shop to help Belle find the magical trinket. At least she seems to have gotten over her kleptomania.

a screencap of belle (played by emilie de ravin) holding up chip
Poor chip has been separated from his mom for so long…

It turns out that Rumpelstiltskin and Belle’s love is represented by the cup that Belle chipped oh so many years ago.

I’m still waiting for this stupid cup to come to life and blame Belle for maiming him.

a screencap of belle (played by emilie de ravin) hold pandora's box
WHAT’S IN THE BOX!?

It turns out that the hidden magical object is Pandora’s Box. Belle says that in contains great evil inside, but, if I recall correctly, Pandora already let all the evil out of the box and the only thing left inside was Hope.

I always wonder why Pandora left Hope inside the box. You’d figure that it should be let out in order to combat all the evil.

Hey, this, along with Pegasus, is the second reference this season to an ancient Greek legend. Does this mean that Hercules is going to show up soon? I bet someone calls him “Jerkules”.

a screencap of john darling (played by matt kane) and michael darling (played by james immekus) pointing guns
My worst nightmare: hipsters with guns

Oh no! The hipsters arrive just as Belle finds Pandora’s Box and they point their guns at Belle and Ariel all ironic-like.

The hipsters aren’t really bad guys, though. They’re really John and Michael Darling. Peter Pan has kidnapped their sister, Wendy, and has holding her hostage for a hundred years. They have to get Pandora’s Box or Pan will kill her.

Eventually, Belle explains to the Darling brothers that giving Pandora’s Box to Rumpelstiltskin will allow Rumps to stop Pan, so they let Ariel have the box back and everybody is friends now.

a screencap of ariel (played by joanna garcia swisher) untying herself and belle (played by emilie de ravin)
The scene that launched a thousand Rule 34 drawings

A pair of beautiful gals in short skirts and tied up? The internet is going to have a field day with this.

a screencap of david (played by josh dallas) trying to explain himself to an angry snow white (played by ginnifer goodwin)
She’s had enough of your crap, Charming.

Meanwhile, in Neverland, Snow White is seriously peeved-off with Charming or lying to her. As it turns out, Snow would gladly stay on Neverland with Charming because he’s all she really needs.

What about Emma? Shouldn’t Snow be upset that staying on Neverland probably means being separated from her daughter? Is she really just giving up on Emma and starting over with a new baby, like Emma never happened in the first place? That won’t be good for Emma’s feelings of abandonment.

a screencap of wendy darling (played by freya tingley) in a cage
100 years old and she hasn’t aged a bit!

Wendy and her brothers tried to rescue Baelfire from Neverland many years ago, but they failed and Wendy was thrown into a cage for 100 years.

It’s going to be one weird family reunion when the Darlings and Neal are together again. Everyone is the wrong age now. Then again, Neal was in a cage right next to Wendy’s for a little bit. I wonder if they’ve spoken to each other already? If Wendy came to Neverland so many years ago to save Neal, why did he leave without her? Did he not know she was there?

Anyway, Pan forces Wendy to use her mad acting skills to convince Henry that magic is leaving Neverland and that it’s causing the island and its inhabitants to die. Henry must use his “heart of the truest believer” to bring the magic back to Neverland.

Peter Pan is still being really vague about what his true intentions with Henry are. Pan says that what he really needs is for Henry to believe in him. We aren’t given the slightest hint at why Pan wants this or what it will do. I’m getting tired of all the vagueness. Not everything has to be some big mystery that spans several episodes. Sometimes is fun when people plainly state what their intentions are.

a screencap of captain hook (played by colin o'donoghue) and neal (played by michael raymond-james) and a coconut
Just give up on her, you two.

Neal had used Pan’s Shadow to escape Neverland the first time. It turns out that the coconut starmap doubles as a Shadow trap, because they didn’t feel like building another prop. Wait, if the coconut was the starmap and shadow trap that Neal used to escape Neverland, what was it still doing in Neverland? Wouldn’t it have had to have come with Neal to New York?

So, Neal, Captain Hook and Emma journey to the lair of the Shadows AKA Dark Hollow. It is a very dangerous place, but Neal and Hook waste time fighting eachother for the love of Emma, because apparently Neverland is just like high school and hormones always take precedent over the task at hand.

Emma refuses to choose between the two of them, because, really, they’re supposed to be saving Henry. I bet in the end she meets a third person to fall in love with and breaks both of these guy’s poor hearts.

Emma uses magic to trapped Peter Pan’s Shadow. I felt that Neal should have seemed more upset by that. Magic ruined his relationship with his father, after all.

Oh, and what happened to Rumpestiltskin’s Shadow, anyway? Couldn’t they have just used that Shadow?

a screencap of henry (played by jared s. gilmore) looking out on skull rock
Skull Island? I wish we were going to Candy Apple Island!

Next week, Henry has to travel to the mysterious Skull Rock and believe really hard for mysterious reasons. MYSTERIES!

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.

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S03E02 “Lost Girl”

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SPOILER DERP! SPOILER DERP!

I’m feeling a bit janky, so alls you’re getting this week is my weird, long and rambling notes on this episode.

a screencap of captain hook (played by Colin O'Donoghue), emma (played by Jennifer Morrison), regina (played by Lana Parrilla), mary margaret (played by Ginnifer Goodwin) and David (played by Josh Dallas) standing around looking all determined and junk
TEAMWORK!

Rumpelstiltskin removes his Shadow and gives it the Dark One’s dagger for safekeeping. The Shadows are separate, autonomous beings from their casters (people that cast shadows?) I wonder if a shadow could betray it’s caster? Greg’s shadow better not jump back inside of him and bring him back to life. Weird, up until this point, Shadows were removed from inside people, but Rumpelstiltskin casts his Shadow onto a wall and cuts it off from his feet. (Don’t tell the writers that more that one light source can cause a person to cast multiple shadows.)

Hook and Charming are having a pissing match. This is a productive use of their energy.

Neverland is evil. EVIL! Everything is cursed, poisonous or annoying. EVIL!

The magic mirror/genie is back.

A rehash, yet again, in a flashback, of the old feud between Regina and the Charmings. She gives them an ultimatum, yet again, and, yet again, they find a way to weasel out of it. This show has to remind us every few episodes that the EVIL QUEEN is evil, or else we might forget.

Peter Pan totally pulls a “I like a girl with spirit!” with Emma and it is really, really gross.

Emma needs to admit to herself that she’s fairy tale Jesus. Why has fairy tale God forsaken her?

Ugh. They’re bickering again. Didn’t that thing with the mermaids teach them about teamwork? Why have they forgotten already?

a screencap of Snow White (played by Ginnifer Goodwin) with a deer behind her in the background
DEER SIGHTING!

What’s up with that deer in the background? I bet that deer is an evil spy. I saw an evil look in that devilish deer’s eye. Or, it’s Bambi.

Don’t spinning wheels usually have a pedal? Why is Rumpelstiltskin always turning it with his hands? When are we going to get the flashback where Aurora pricks her finger on Rumpelstiltskin’s spindle? Rumpelstiltskin must be involved in everybody’s backstory.

Belle can astral project or something. Or, she’s an illusion. Rumpelstiltskin needs to see a therapist. Rumpelstiltskin has daddy issues. Quickly, everyone start pitching your wild theories as to who Rumpelstiltskin’s father could be! My bet is that Rumpelstiltskin’s father is Merlin, who had to leave because he was aging backwards. Eventually, when Merlin became boy-aged, he realized that only had a few more years left before he would die, so he travelled to Neverland, where he would stop aging (or youngening), and became PETER PAN!

Snow White’s wig looks like it’s been farted upon by hobos.

The Enchanted Forest is really small. You can get anywhere in less than a half day’s ride.

Captain Hook and Prince Charming are in love with each other now.

How did Felix get Rumpelstiltskin’s old doll anyhow?

Excalibur? REALLY? Heh. Remember that time that Lancelot died offscreen? Um. Snow White can wield Excalibur? She’s “The Once and Future King”? Her name isn’t Arthur! HARUMPH.

Peter Pan is wearing Henry’s clothing. Henry is naked somewhere.

There’s a fight, but none of the stupid kids die. HARUMPH.

Captain Hook alludes to having done something horrible to Rufio in the past. I’m going to bet that they deviate from the storyline of the movie Hook and actually have the bad thing be something other that killing Rufio. Rufio will probably return as yet another character looking for revenge.

Adoption is evil. EVIL!

Oh, good, it’s a fake Excalibur. She just needed to think it was Excalibur, so that she would believe in herself. Incidentally, “Mudd’s Women” is a cruddy episode of Star Trek.

Rumpelstiltskin takes Snow White’s Mother’s necklace. This will probably be an important plot point later.

It’s implied that a fairy, possibly Tinker Bell, is messing with Rumpelstiltskin. YAY! More characters!

Prince Charming is poisoned!

That deer is my new favourite character. (I hope it’s Bambi!)

My Thoughts On: Once Upon a Time S03E01 “The Heart of the Truest Believer”

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SPOILER ALERT! AREN’T THESE SPOILERS ALERTS GETTING ANNOYING!? SPOILER ALERT!

Well, kiddies, here we go again for a third season…

I’d say this episode was mostly exposition, if the word “exposition” meant explaining things in the vaguest way possible, presumably, so that they can stretch out the revelation of important plot points over as many episodes as possible. The ole soap opera style long con, is what we’ve got on our hands here.

a screencap of a doctor holding newborn henry mills
Now, be a good Spartan and leave him to die of exposure in the wilderness.

A the beginning of the show, we get a flashback to Emma giving birth to Henry and then giving him up. During the birth, her magic cause an electrical disturbance and makes the lights flash, and nobody notices or cares. Don’t ever send me to that hospital. They don’t care if a power surge knock the life-sustaining equipment out.

Emma finally calls attention to the fact that her mother, Mary Margaret,  is the same age as her and doesn’t really have that much wisdom to impart. Also, that her whole “Happily Ever After” shtick is useless and annoying.

a screencap of rumpelstiltskin (played by robert carlyle) wearing his old enchanted forest clothes
The clothes make the man.

Rumpelstiltskin changes into his old Enchanted Forest clothes. Where did Rumpelstiltskin get his old clothes from? Were they on the boat? Why did Captain Hook have Rumpelstiltskin’s clothing on his boat? I bet Captain Hook kept the Rumpelstiltskin’s clothes in his bunk and sniffed them during his alone time. Or… Rumpelstiltskin just magiced the clothing to the boat… Whatever.

Anyway, everybody on the boat is bickering and not working well together already and it’s a bit annoying how quickly the alliance of good and evil has started breaking down.

Soooo… Captain Hook was Baelfire surrogate father for awhile and now he’s crushing on Emma, Baelfire’s girlfriend. This is going to get awkward fast.

a screencap of greg mendell (played by ethan embry) starting a fire while tamara (played by sonequa martin-green) and henry (played by jared s. gilmore) look on
Marshmallows anyone?

Greg and Tamara take Henry on a sweet camping trip, the kind his mom and dad never had the time for.

It turns out that Greg and Tamara don’t know who they’re working for and they don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing what they’re doing. They just know that they needed to kidnap Henry and bring him to Neverland and then, like, magic, which they HATE, will… er… stop or something. They know this because of FAITH. WHY DOESN’T ANYBODY ELSE HAVE FAITH LIKE THEY DO?

Greg and Tamara are big fat dummies.

a screen cap of lost boy felix (played by paker croft)
This is Felix. I hate Felix.

Hey, it’s Felix and the Lost Boys, here to ruin everybody’s good time. They want Henry.

a screencap of greg mendell (played by ethan emby) having his shadow removed by the evil shadow peter pan
YOUR SOUL IS MINE!

Felix calls the scary Neverland shadow creature to pull Greg’s soul out of his body. Greg looks like he’s dead. I hope he is. He was annoying.

I’m not sure anymore whether or not the scary flying shadow is Peter Pan. It may be a completely separate character. Remember, in the original Peter Pan, Peter’s shadow kept running off, until Wendy sewed the shadow to Peter Pan. I think something like that may be happening here. Peter not being in control of his malevolent, soul-stealing shadow is a little scary.

a screencap of tamara (played by sonequa martin-green) getting hit in the back by an arrow
YAY!

And, Tamara get’s shot in the back with and arrow and there is much rejoicing. She doesn’t die though. Rumpelstiltskin comes by later and crushes her heart into dust, so that was good.

Free of Greg and Tamara, Henry runs into the woods to escape The Lost Boys.

a screencap of henry mills (played by jared s. gilmore) meeting a blond boy (played by robbie kay)
Just what we needed, another KID!

So, Jojen Reed finally meets Bran Stark in the forest and explains how their fathers were great allies during Robert’s Rebellion. Er… I mean… Some blond kid saves Henry from the mean upperclassmen that were chasing him.

a screencap of mulan (played by jamie chung), aurora (played by sarah bolger) and prince philip (played by julia morris) rushing to the side of baelfire (played by michael raymond-james)
Remember these guys?

Mulan, Aura and Prince Philip treat Neal’s wounds and, for some strange reason, put him on Aurora’s sleeping curse bed. Why would they do that? It’s just weird. Put the poor guy on a proper bed, jeez.

Hey, Prince Philip’s soul is back in his body! They never showed us how Prince Philip’s soul was returned to his body. I SMELL A FLASHBACK EPISODE COMING UP!

They keep asking Neal about Earth and technology and stuff, and being all like “Your world frightens and confuses me”. Weird that they didn’t really do that when they were hanging out with Emma.

Anyhoo, I predict many, many episodes of wandering around the forest and not really doing much for these brave adventurers.

a screencap of some evil mermaids
SPARKLY!

So, back to the boat, which is taking forever to reach the shores of Neverland, and evil mermaids start hitting the boat with their tails. Apparently, they’re really strong, because they actually start causing damage.

David straight-up starts firing a canon at the mermaids and it is ridiculous. He’s trying to murder sentient creatures without talking to them first. Maybe attacking the boat was all a big misunderstanding! We’ll never know, because attempting to explode them was his first choice of action.

a screencap of an evil mermaid (played by natasha wilson)
Grrrrrrrr…

They capture one of the mermaids for some reason and she is pissed. She uses a magic conch shell to conjure a  typhoon. I think Link from The Legend of Zelda had one of those.

Regina tells David to “Flay the bitch!”

FLAY THE BITCH? Holy Hell! I thought this was a family program!

Anyway, it turns out that the typhoon is fuelled by interpersonal discord and it just gets worse and worse as the people on the boat keep bickering and punching eachother in the face. Emma figures out that they need to start working together to stop the typhoon. She trows herself of the boat, so that they have to work together to save her. Emma is an idiot.

I think that the mermaid was really a magical angel, sent to our heroes to teach them the value of friendship and teamwork.

*SPOILERS* I already know from previews that Ariel is going to show up this season and this isn’t here. I wonder if this is actually Ursula? She can use a bit of magic like Ursula at least.

a screencap of robin hood (played by sean maguire)
THIS ROBIN HOOD IS AN IMPOSTER

Back to the Enchanted Forest. Remember all the junk last season about nothing being left of the Enchanted Forest after the curse but a void? Complete bunk! Even Rumpelstiltskin’s castle is still there! So, Neal goes to his father’s castle to try and find a magic trinket or dealy that would open up a portal to return to Emma.

Robin Hood, played by a new actor, is there, because he likes touching other people’s stuff. Maid Marion is nowhere to be found.

I hope we have a situation where it’s The Merry Men VS The Lost Boys. I hope there isn’t anything, like, through weird time travel shenanigans, that The Lost Boys become The Merry Men. That would be silly.

a screencap of henry (played by jared s. gilmore) and peter pan (played by robbie kay) flying through the air trailing pixie dust
THUNDERPANTS!

So, blondy has some magic fairy dust, but it only works if you truly believe it will work. Henry will believe anything that you tell hi, so of course Henry can use the dust to fly.

It turns out that the blond kid is Peter Pan and he was being all tricksy and stuff with Henry to test his belief. It turn out that Henry has “The Heart of the Truest Believer”. What does The Heart of the Truest Believer do? I bet that we’ll have to wait many, many episodes to find out. Also, how did Peter Pan find out about Henry and the he may have The Heart of the Truest Believer? There better not be a prophecy involved here. (There probably is.)

Also, it turns out that Peter Pan was the one giving Greg and Tamara their orders this whole time, in order to trick them into bringing Henry to him. But how? Neither he or his lost boys could contact them directly because they hate magic. Also, Peter Pan would have had to have a way to contact people on other worlds. If he could do that, why didn’t he just contact Henry directly, trick him into coming to Neverland and cut out the middleman? Greg and Tamara are so fanatical about their hate for magic, what if they just decided to deviate from Pan’s plan and kill all the magical creatures, Henry included? How did Peter Pan know that the citizen of Storybrooke were growing magic beans and that Greg and Tamara would be able to obtain one of the beans to get to Neverland? We see that he can send his shadow to Earth to steal child. Why didn’t he just have the shadow steal Henry? None of it makes any sense.

Bah. Whatever. See you next week.

Once Upon a Time Season 2 Catch Up

Categories: Recaps, Science Fiction and Fantasy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Comments: 0

SPOILER ALERT! Well, you really should know all of this by now, but I’m warning you anyway.

Well, it’s almost time for season 3 of Once Upon a Time. Now would be a really good time for you to catch up on any episodes you missed from season 2. Luckily I have made you with handy list with be plot points!

All episode titles link to posts that I wrote about that episode and character names link to the tag archive for that character.

Table of Contents:

  1. Broken
  2. We Are Both
  3. Lady of the Lake
  4. The Crocodile
  5. The Doctor
  6. Tallahassee
  7. Child of the Moon
  8. Into the Deep
  9. Queen of Hearts
  10. The Cricket Game
  11. The Outsider
  12. In the Name of the Brother
  13. Tiny
  14. Manhattan
  15. The Queen is Dead
  16. The Miller’s Daughter
  17. Welcome to Storybrooke
  18. Selfless, Brave and True
  19. Lacey
  20. The Evil Queen
  21. Second Star to the Right
  22. And Straight On ‘Til Morning

S02E01 Broken

S02E02 We Are Both

  • The people of Storybrooke, having newly regained the memories of their past lives, must come to grips with essentially being two people at once.
  • Grumpy pushes Sneezy across the townline which makes Sneezy lose his fairy tale memories, leaving him with just his memories of being Mr. Clark.
  • David searches for a way to open a portal to the Enchanted Forest to retrieve Emma and Snow White.
  • In the past, Regina uses a magic looking glass that Rumpelstiltskin gave her to trap her mother, Cora, in Wonderland.
  • It is revealed that Rumpelstiltskin is the one that originally taught Regina how to use magic, specifically, dark magic.
  • Regina rediscovers how to use magic in Storybrooke, but changes her mind on using it to make Henry love her, because it would not be a real love.
  • Meanwhile, in the present-day Enchanted Forest, Mulan and Aurora have taken Emma and Snow White prisoner.

S02E03 Lady of the Lake

  • Sir Lancelot is introduced.
  • In the past Enchanted Forest, Snow White is kidnapped by King George who poisons her so that she cannot have a child.
  • King George’s men also shoot Prince Charming’s mother with a poison arrow.
  • Snow White, Lancelot, Prince Charming and his mother all travel Lake Nostos for a cure, but there is only enough water left there to heal one person.
  • Prince Charming’s mother pretends to drink the healing water and Lancelot secretly puts the healing water in Snow White’s goblet.
  • Prince Charming’s mother sacrifices her life to cure Snow White and lives just long enough to see Snow White and Prince Charming get married, which was her dearest wish.
  • In the present-day Enchanted Forest, Snow White and Emma are trapped in a prison with Cora.
  • Lancelot, having recognized Snow White from their past dealing frees them from the prison and they go off in search of the wardrobe that brought Emma to our world.
  • They find the wardrobe, but it turns out that Lancelot was really Cora in disguise and they have to destroy the wardrobe to keep her from getting her hands on it.
  • In Storybrooke, Jefferson is reunited with his daughter and David has trouble dealing with his new job of taking care of Henry.

S02E04 The Crocodile

  • This is the first appearance of Captain Hook, Smee and Rumpelstiltskin’s wife, Milah.
  • In the past Enchanted Forest, Milah ran off with the pirate, Killian Jones, and Rumpelstiltskin crushed Milah’s heart and cut off Killian’s hand in retaliation, making Killian into Captain Hook and Rumpelstiltskin into the crocodile (metaphorically?).
  • In Storybrooke, Moe attempts to get his daughter, Belle, over the townline to erase her memories of her love for Rumpelstiltskin, but Rumpelstiltskin saves her at the last second.
  • In the present-day Enchanted Forest, Cora shows a bottle of the ashes from the wardrobe to Captain Hook and they start hatching a plan to get to Storybrooke.

S02E05 The Doctor

S02E06 Tallahassee

  • This is the first appearance of Anton the giant.
  • In the past, Emma is a thief and she falls in love with a fellow thief named “Neal Cassidy“.
  • August Booth meets alone with Neal and convinces him that Emma, in order to fulfill her special destiny, must be rehabilitated from her life of crime and he convinces Neal to rat Emma out for a crime that she didn’t commit so that she will be thrown in jail, because jail will straighten her out or something.
  • Emma finds out that she is pregnant in jail.
  • In the present-day Enchanted Forest, Emma climbs the the beanstalk, retrieves the magic compass, decides to spare the giant’s life and leaves Captain Hook chained up in the giant’s castle.
  • Aurora has been having nightmares ever since she was woken from the sleeping curse.
  • Henry is also having nightmares after coming out of his sleeping curse

S02E07 Child of the Moon

  • In the past Enchanted Forest, while on the run from the Evil Queen, Red gets split up from Snow White and runs into her mother who Granny said was dead.
  • Red’s mother and her wolf pack teach Red how to control her wolf form.
  • Snow White finds Red, but accidentally leads some of the Evil Queen’s men to the wolves’ lair and they kill one of the pack.
  • Red’s mother believes the death is Snow White’s fault and wants Red to kill her. Red and her mother fight instead and the mother is accidentally killed in the process.
  • In Storybrooke, the dwarves have found fairy dust and they think that it can be used to fix Jefferson’s hat.
  • Albert Spencer frames Ruby for the murder of Billy and uses the the resultant distraction to steal Jefferson’s hat and destroy it.
  • Aurora and Henry meet in their nightmares.

S02E08 Into the Deep

  • In the present-day Enchanted Forest, Cora raises an undead army of the people that she stole hearts from.
  • Henry meets with Aurora in the nightmare zone.
  • David ends up trapped in the sleeping curse.

S02E09 Queen of Hearts

S02E10 The Cricket Game

S02E11 The Outsider

S02E12 In the Name of the Brother

S02E13 Tiny

S02E14 Manhattan

S02E15 The Queen is Dead

S02E16 The Miller’s Daughter

S02E17 Welcome to Storybrooke

S02E18 Selfless, Brave and True

S02E19 Lacey

S02E20 The Evil Queen

  • In the past Enchanted Forest, Regina disguises herself as a peasant so that she can find out what people really think about her.
  • In the present Storybrooke, Regina ventures into the catacombs with Hook to retrieve a trigger that will annihilate Storybrooke. Regina plans to escape the annihilation with Henry by using a magic bean she stole.
  • Hook betrays Regina and gives her to Greg and Tamara.
  • Greg and Tamara kidnap Regina, because Greg wants to know what Regina did with his father, Kurt Flynn.

S02E21 Second Star to the Right

  • After falling through the portal that his father, Rumpelstilskin, refused to travel through, Baelfire is transported to 19th century England, where he is taken in by Wendy Darling and her family.
  • The Darling children are visited every night by a malevolent shadow creature. Baelfire allows himself to be taken by this creature to Neverland so that the Darling children would be spared by it.
  • Neal finds out that Tamara is evil and plotting Storybrooke’s destruction.
  • Tamara shoots Neal  and he falls into a portal she created with magic bean.
  • Regina had killed Greg’s Father, Kurt.

S02E22 And Straight On ‘Til Morning