Once Upon a Time

Although Jack Wild didn't stay Jack Wild.

Ain't that the truth. I remember seeing a publicity shot of him years ago, and I was horrified at what time (and maybe other stuff) had done to the Artful Dodger.

Damn, I'm enjoying this season. The Wicked Witch is a great Big Bad.

On the one hand, at least she's actually bad. On the other hand, apparently has come to Storybrook looking for courage (check), heart (working) and, uh, what was that third thing? HAHHAHAHHAAAHAHHAHAAA! Don't bet the farm and little dog on that one, lady.

Meanwhile, is it a phase of the moon or is Jared Gilmore improving? Good for him, if so.

Corvus wrote:Meanwhile, is it a phase of the moon or is Jared Gilmore improving? Good for him, if so.

He's had so little to do, I'm starting to wonder if they're going to pull a Lost and ship him off the way they did Walt.  But they can't, because he is literally the one person who ties everybody together.  Henry is super important!  But also super annoying.  But not so bad this year since he doesn't know what he hell is going on and so just plays video games, asks Emma why she's bullshitting him, and hangs out on boats.

I watched the last two episodes last night, and I don't even know what was going on with Belle's outfit last week during her's and Neal's quest to bring back Rumpelstiltskin.  Hot pants and a pirate wench top?  Did wardrobe get confused and think they were dressing her horrible Lacey alter-ego?  Like, even those ditzy triplets from the Disney movie would be all, "Girl.  You live in a forest.  Rethink that."

I love this show, but everybody is SO DUMB.  How do they get dumber with each passing season?  There's an evil witch on the loose and nobody thinks it's weird that this total rando is super interested in Baby Charming?  Nobody???  Lawd.

Yeah, the whole "Hi, I'm a mysteriously appearing stranger and I want to make you tea and creepily touch your baby bump all the time! I sure hope you find that horrible witch that everyone's talking about" was a LITTLE much. Man, I really like this show though. I was thinking in the last episode that one of my favorite things is how they manage to tweak the stories to tie everything together. I thought it was very clever that Zelena's greenness was a physical manifestation of envy. It's a motive and an explanation all in one. (FWIW, I think the green makeup is TERRIBLE, but if they're going to go there, fine.) I also liked her storming into the wizard's chamber after she'd become a badass witch, and I liked the explanation about how the reason he wants people to bring him back stuff (e.g. the witch's broom in The Wizard of Oz) is that he collects magical artifacts. I mean, that's just a logical extension that I don't recall being in the book (or movie). And the wizard being turned into the monkey was also quite neatly done. You know, it's not rocket science, and there have certainly been some groaners, but really I just enjoy how they make everything work together.

Has Ginnifer Goodwin had that baby yet?

I was actually really moved by Regina's realizing that the praise-filled letter that she always thought was about her was about her sister. This show has its moments. And Lana Parilla's great.

By the way, I would be remiss if I did not mention that Zelena's house is Mulder and Scully's house from the second X-Files movie. Not that I uh, instantly recognized it or anything. Vancouver!

Some nice character development in this episode. Loved Regina and Robin Hood. Loved Belle reminding Regina of all the ways she'd wronged her. Didn't love that the ghost of Cora came back looking like her younger self, but I suppose Barbara Hershey had better things to do?

Great episode! I loved "I thought we were the good guys"; "Nothing is quite that simple." Amen.

Regina continues to kick all kinds of ass, and now she might be getting some lovin'. About damn time.

Rumple looked fiiiine in that suit.

I really, really need to stop caring about how Cora's and Zelena's backstory doesn't really work with what's already been established, because it's getting in the way of enjoying what really isn't a bad episode. I don't want to be all Comic Book Guy here, because this show is my TV happy place. (And boy do I need one of those, since I watch Hannibal)

Maybe I'm just cranky because Zelena isn't really working for me as a Big Bad, so I'm less inclined to forgive retcons explaining her existence.

Regina/Robin work for me, however. Aw. And Roland is the cutest.

Bets: the baby will be named Dorothy.

Or maybe Gail?

Aunty Emma! Aunty Emma! It's a twister!

"So now you're a hero?"
"I am today"
Nicely done.

Now THAT was a finale. Yowza.

Lots and lots of Captain Hook - thanks for that.

Poor Regina! She can't catch a break in the romance department.

Frozen? Really?

Well, I guess if they could make Peter Pan evil, why not Frozen? I'm assuming Elsa will be evil...it's possible she might not be.

I thought it was a great season finale. Admittedly, I was having a bad day yesterday and when I finally sat down to watch last night, I was loving the interaction between Emma and Hook and their wacky hijinks to help Snow and Charming get their introduction back on track. And I loved that Emma got to go to her first royal ball, even if it was as Princess Leia. I'm also glad she got her magic back and I hope she won't have to use it against Regina, who I'm sure will be on the warpath after having her romance with Robin cut short.

Any time Emma gets to dress up like the princess she is, I am ready to give an episode an A. It's funny, last season (and for a little bit of the beginning of this season) I was so opposed to a relationship between Hook & Emma, and now they're my number one favorite thing. Seriously, I felt like this finale was written to please me. It even had little idiocies upon which I could snark for fun and profit (or, okay, now that TWoP is dead, just for fun). Like for example, think back to the diner scene. After Hook mentions that Emma wants to move back to NY, Emma swans (sorry) off. When Hook is about to give chase, Henry takes the OUAT book out of his backpack and gives it to Hook, and suggests it might help Emma remember who she is.

Cut to Hook and Emma at the barn (where the time portal is flaring). Hook has the book in a custom made, perfectly sized, leather satchel. WHAT? Did he stop at the local tannery and have them whip up a bag? Did he already have a bag just the right size in his room at Granny's? If so, why? Oh, Show. Your magic knows no bounds.

Despite myself, I felt for Regina, even while understanding that Emma did the right (noble if not wise) thing. She behaved as her parents' daughter should. Furthermore, once she and Hook return to present-day Storybrooke, I love that she was far less concerned with him than with running off to see her parents. It was nice that her whole existence isn't, "Someday, my prince will come…"

I'm a little sick that Rumpelstiltskin married Belle on a web of lies, but that's a fannish response. When I look at it objectively, there's some good storytelling going on here, ditto Regina's anger at Marian's return, and Emma's part in it.

Edited to add…

And of course I loved the smoochies.

I was sort of expecting that the woman Emma brought back would be the new evil, in the no good deed goes unpunished way of things. Did they say why Marian was imprisoned?

I'm guessing Marian was imprisoned because of her association with Robin. If I remember my mythos correctly, she was considered as much of an outlaw as he.

If I recall correctly, when Emma and Marian were talking, Marian said she was imprisoned, because she tried to help Snow, in some way.

I finally watched the finale this weekend, and I have to post about it because I cannot with this Regina and Robin Hood thing. Like, am I supposed to feel sorry for her? Robin was only single/available for dating Regina because she had his wife EXECUTED??? Robin's wife/his kid's mom was dead because of Regina's Snow White vendetta of crazy, and now that she's not dead I'm supposed to be like, "Oh, poor Regina"? That's crazy. I was not invested in Robin/Regina because I thought that whole thing was really rushed and basic, but I was not opposed to them and I liked this nicer (but still snarky), more helpful Regina. But I'm definitely opposed to them now and am going to think Robin is a gigantic tool if he, after Marian either re-dies or breaks up with him, gets back with the woman who was partly, if not largely responsible for his wife's death.

Plus, I'll admit, I get all weird about my childhood Disney ships being messed with. Fox Robin Hood would never do this to Fox Maid Marian!

So many Kermit flails in this episode - Gold wearing Beast's blue suit, Gold finding Yensid's sorcerer's hat, Kristoff revealing that Anna's on her way to the Enchanted Forest (and also discovering that the Enchanted Forest actually has a proper name). Even Sidney (Yensid? Which is Disney backwards and is the show going to go *that* meta?) and his scream when he got put back in the mirror made me smile even as I felt horrible for him.

If there was one thing I didn't like, it's that the Frozen backstory appears to be the movie exactly as happened. Even the character designs for Elsa's Guardian and the trolls are right out of the movie, which is the only story that's true for - many of the others share key iconography and names but storywise have nothing in common with the Disney versions of the stories. Maybe if more time had elapsed between the movie and this story arc they might have changed more, but I think maybe they felt uncomfortable messing too much with something so new and still in its first round of popularity.

However, I will love Kitsis and Horowitz forever if they fold in the whole Little Mermaid/Tangled/Frozen fan-theory.

I also really loved Emma and Hook in this episode. I thought her "Be patient" moment was perfect - as well as Hook's reply: "Oh, I have all the time in the world. Unless a monster kills me in the meantime."

Can we talk for a minute about how Robin Hood gives less than zero fucks about his new girlfriend killing his wife?  No emotional conflict there at all?  I mean, yeah, he had the normal emotional conflict you'd expect from any guy whose dead wife came back right after he found a new girlfriend/happiness, but shouldn't one of them killing the other kind of take this to a new level?  I want to say Regina does not deserve this guy because people who kill other people's wives don't deserve to end up with the dead wives' widowers, but he is so terrible and the writing for this part of the show is so terrible and Regina needs a different/better story and Robin Hood needs to just be gone now.  Try again later with someone else, show.

Okay, that's off my chest, so now I can be positive.  I didn't hate Frozen!  I still think this move is desperate as hell, and I wish Jonathan Groff was playing Kristoff, but overall I liked it more than I thought it would.  I am now willing to give it a chance.

I wish there had been more with the Charmings.  They are super cute and they crack me up.  I always enjoy any screen time the dwarves get, so yay for that.

Agreed on the Dwarves getting more screentime, but Grumpy's a moron - who makes a narcoleptic the designated driver?

Can't really argue your point in re Robin and Marian and Regina, except that my rewatch a few weeks ago has reinforced my belief that Regina's in impossible character to write well if you aren't going to commit to her being evil. I know the popular consensus with critics is that a well-formed villain is a better villain, but you can't do the things Regina did and ever *really* have redemption. I have, for the most part, just come to accept the fact that the show is bound and determined to not have her just be *evil*, so it's one of those things where I'll accept the way the other characters react to her even if it makes no sense because I like so much else about it. Like... I like Emma and Regina kind of sort of almost connecting. And I like that Henry isn't totally "I hate her and she's evil" because she's been his mom for 14 years. But for the most part, I think the initial reaction from the Charmings and the Dwarves were the most honest - she's had her chance and she chose to make thousands of people suffer because a 9-year-old girl behaved like a 9-year-old girl.

Speaking of having Jonathan Groff play Kristoff, I swear, when I wasn't watching the screen, the actress playing Anna sounded so much like Kristen Bell I thought they might as well have cast *her*. Hell, even with the obvious age gap between Kristen and Idina Menzel I still would have bought them as the live-action versions of their characters.

Gillian wrote:Can we talk for a minute about how Robin Hood gives less than zero fucks about his new girlfriend killing his wife?  No emotional conflict there at all?  I mean, yeah, he had the normal emotional conflict you'd expect from any guy whose dead wife came back right after he found a new girlfriend/happiness, but shouldn't one of them killing the other kind of take this to a new level?  I want to say Regina does not deserve this guy because people who kill other people's wives don't deserve to end up with the dead wives' widowers, but he is so terrible and the writing for this part of the show is so terrible and Regina needs a different/better story and Robin Hood needs to just be gone now.  Try again later with someone else, show.

Okay, that's off my chest, so now I can be positive.  I didn't hate Frozen!  I still think this move is desperate as hell, and I wish Jonathan Groff was playing Kristoff, but overall I liked it more than I thought it would.  I am now willing to give it a chance.

I wish there had been more with the Charmings.  They are super cute and they crack me up.  I always enjoy any screen time the dwarves get, so yay for that.

I don't really watch this show and most of my knowledge comes from internet osmosis, but when I saw they were including Frozen characters to me it just screams, "no, we actually don't plan any of the writing for this in advance." That said the ploy almost worked because I was curious to see the live action people, but then I forgot to watch, heh.

However, I will love Kitsis and Horowitz forever if they fold in the whole Little Mermaid/Tangled/Frozen fan-theory.

I have seen many fan theories about Tangled and Frozen, but how does the Little Mermaid play into it?

According to the theory, the shipwreck Ariel is exploring at the beginning of The Little Mermaid is the King and Queen of Arendelle's boat that sinks at the beginning of Frozen while en route to the Kingdom of the Sun (or whatever the fan name for the unnamed kingdom in Tangled is).