Once Upon a Time Season 2 Episodes 9 & 10 Review

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Episode 9: Queen of Hearts

Barbara Hershey as Cora Once Upon a Time Season 2 Episode 9 The Queen of Hearts picture image

Barbara Hershey as Cora

Oh! I get it, clever. Very Clever. She’s the Queen of Hearts because she takes hearts.  Anyway back to three narratives. The first deals with how Cora met Hook. Regina wanted Hook to take Cora’s heart but Cora doesn’t wear her heart in her chest, like a peasant. Cora offers Hook a better deal, he gets her close to Regina so Cora can take her heart, geeze this family. However Regina says she killed her out of love being a weakness and Cora, who is playing dead, has a change of heart, pun so intended. Cora then protects a corner of the kingdom from the curse, hence why a part of Kingdom was fine and when Emma breaks the curse, Cora and Hook will go to Storybrooke for revenge and yet to be determined.

Next up in Storybrooke, Regina is trying to change, to be a better person but Rumpelstiltskin cautions her that they CAN’T let Cora get through the portal. So Rumpelstiltskin and Regina use all the fairy dust to set-up a death trap. People find out and Henry does this WHOLE thing about how good wins and have faith in his faith in Emma, yadda yadda yadda. So Regina stops the storm but who comes through?   

In the Enchanted Forest, oh boy. Cora traps the crew in the enchanted prison cell and she gets the compass. And to make things worse, Rumplestiltskin used up all the magic ink, writing Emma’s name over and over again. However Snow manages to use the ink to bust out. So yeah Rumpelstiltskin could have left at anytime. So everyone meets at the magical cure-all lake, which Cora  fixed  and used it to restore the wardrobe’s magic. Question why can she restore the lake but not the wardrobe? Anyway, there is a fight scene during which Mulan gets Aurora’s heart back and Cora tries to take Snow’s heart. Emma however jumps in the way BUT Cora can’t take Emma’s heart. In the end Emma and Snow go through the portal. However don’t feel too sorry for our villain pals. Hook got the petrified  magic bean from the giant and they use the cure-all lake to restore it.          

Also Mulan restores Aurora’s heart and they go off to save Philip’s soul as Cora said something about souls consumed by a wraith are in some other dimension. I think there is a pin on that plot till later.

I thought Snow and Emma’s adventure in the enchanted forest were going to last MUCH longer but sure move it along.  It was a sappy episode especially with Henry’s speech about faith  and love is strength part. But yeah it was a fine episode. Not boring. Though these people must use quick travel because they get to places FAST. Wikipedia says this was the winter finale so that is why this plot got solved. How neat and tidy, so an okay episode.             

 

Episode 10:  The Cricket Game

Lana Parrilla as Regina, Raphael Sbarge as Archie Hopper & Meghan Ory as Ruby, Once Upon a Time Season 2 Episode 10 The Cricket Game picture image

Lana Parrilla as Regina, Raphael Sbarge as Archie Hopper & Meghan Ory as Ruby

Heh,  a pun.  This episode was meh. It does open the story up as Cora and Hook are up to shenanigans.

Basically this episode core theme is a redemption of the Regina kind. And since she didn’t murder Han Solo she seems to be ok I swear Star Wars fans  are weird about that one. I digress. In Storybrooke Regina is persona non grata but since Henry believes Regina is changing Emma tries to believe in Regina. Regina asks Emma if she can still be in Henry’s life, apparently the whole adoption is null and void since curse broke? What? Cora then frames Regina for the murder of Dr.Hopper whom Regina got into an argument with on the pier which Ruby saw. Emma’s super lie detection kick in when questioning Regina, however Snow and Charming think she totally did it since all the convenient evidence points  to Regina. However since the dog saw the whole thing, Emma and Rumpelstiltskin use magic to see Pongo’s memory and confirm it was Regina that did the deed. Actually it was Cora as Regina and some corpse deguise as Archie, Archies is fine. Kidnapped by Cora and tied on Hook’s ship but fine otherwise.

Then the character’s past. Snow and crew capture Regina and believe she can’t change. Snow tries to convince them that they still good in her, that she felt it and she won’t turn Snow over the emperor, wait wrong thing.  Rumpelstiltskin sets up a deal with Snow with no price that is a test for Regina. Snow lets Regina go but she tries to murder Snow. Rumpelstiltskin enchanted Snow against her so Regina can’t do anymore physical harm to her in their world. Regina is then banished and the curse threads are planted, if Regina can’t hurt Snow in their world then she can hurt her in another.        
Yeah this episode is just ok. Not bad but definitely back to a slower pace. I guess that is because in a sense this a soft season opener.  But  that Emma lie detection. Emma knows both Ruby, who saw not-Regina enter Archie’s office and Regina telling the truth  and since she is cool with magic she can’t fathom another option besides Rumpelstiltskin?   

Once Upon a Time Season 1 Episodes 21 & 22 Review

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Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White & Lana Parrilla as Queen Regina ABC's Once Upon a Time, An Apple as Red as Blood picture image

Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White & Lana Parrilla as Queen Regina

 

Episode 21: An Apple as Red as Blood

Ok Let’s wrap with season up!

In that crazy wonderful magic world known as the Fairy Tale world or The Enchanted Forest, Regina saves James/Charming, I guess he should be called Charming as James was his brother. Charming is saved by Regina as bait for Snow White. Snow White and her band of scrappy pals launch a rescue mission. Snow White’s Prince however is in another castle. Queen Regina then arranges Snow to meet with her in a parley back at the stables where  Snow first saw the kiss between Regina and Daniel. Snow White willingly eats the apple to save Charming’s life putting her into a deathlike sleep.

In Storybrooke, Emma tries to leave but Henry begs her to not go as she has to break the curse. Emma returns but is chastised by Mary Margaret for leaving and not saying good-bye and not doing what is best for Henry. Emma also talks to Dr.Hopper who tells her not to fight against Regina for Henry’s sake. Emma’s solution is to talk to Regina about a deal where she leaves town and while Henry lives with Regina she can still be in Henry’s life.

Meanwhile Regina used Jefferson’s hat to get the poison apple back using that last bit of magic that was left. Wait, Jefferson is back? Where did he go after vanishing at the end of episode 17? Oh well.  Since part of the curse is that Emma can’t die or it will be broken,  Regina bakes the poison apple into a turnover and gives it to Emma during their parlay.  Before Emma can eat the turnover Henry visits her and finds out she is leaving. He notices the turnover and eats it causing him to be put into the sleeping curse.  

I have to ask why doesn’t Rumpelstiktskin’s dagger work but the apple does? They are both objects that came from the fairy world so why does one work and the other doesn’t? I guess the reason they give is magic is unpredictable but Regina’s ring she got from Daniel had magic but it didn’t in the Fairy Tale world. These rules are so arbitrary and yet they are so important. There is no logic.  I give up on Emma’s whole lie detecting thing too, again no logic, it just comes and goes when the plot needs it to work.

So what about the episode? It was okay. It moved this along to the finale while connecting the dots to the beginning of the season with Charming and Snow White. I  didn’t really love the whole rescue thing but that is a personal preference thing

 

Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan & ared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills, ABC's Once Upon a Time, Land without Magic picture image

Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan & Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills

Episode 22: A Land without Magic

I was pretty disappointed in this season finale. It felt pretty rushed  and yet some elements came out of left field that padded out the episode. It was underwhelming.  

First, in our Fairy Tale universe, Charming is escaping the castle and is he helped by the Huntsman, remember him?  Charming then gets lost in the forest and Rumpelstiktskin appears and offers him a deal. Rumpelstiktskin will give Charming back his mother’s ring that now has an enchantment on it to find Snow if Charming puts the True Love potion in the belly of the beast, which is Maleficent. He does this tasks, finds Snow, smooches her, she wakes up and proposes to her. This ends with them vowing to take back their kingdoms together. We know they do this but how they do it is the question for the next season. I also really loved Snow’s white flowerly cloak, it’s very pretty, I want it.

Meanwhile, Emma takes Henry to the ER and she realizes that the curse and the fairy tale people are real. Apparently that is all that it took, belief. So Emma believes and her Regina go to Mr Gold to help Henry. Dudes, just kiss him! But instead of that, which Regina and Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiktskin freaking know,  Rumpelstiktskin gives them the quest to get the true love potion from the dragon’s belly, ok sure, whatever.   Emma fights a Dragon a la Sleeping Beauty because we need a climax and this dragon has totally been setup for this moment, no, not really, no, the love potion was but a scary Dragon, nope. Heck, the building was set-up more than the dragon as you see a broaded-up building on the main road all the time.  I do give them credit Emma’s special savior status was explain. You see, Rumpelstiktskin dropped the love potion on the paper that curse was written on and since she was the product of the true love that is the reason for her having special saving powers. However it was all a ruse by Rumpelstiktskin to get the love potion. And while that is going on Jefferson frees Belle and sends her to Mr.Gold in some attempt to thwart Regina for going back on her promise to him to get his daughter back, BUT wait there is more. Emma and Regina return to the hospital to find Henry is dead. Emma kissed him and voila-ed Henry is cured and the curse is broken. Everyone now remembers who they are and everyone’s roles. But for some reason they don’t get transported back to the fairy tale world. Rumpelstiktskin then pours the true love potion into that magic well and releases a new magic on the story.

While this episode was weird paced and the reason why the curse was broken isn’t explain I’m still pumped for Season 2. Bring it ON!  

Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White & Josh Dallas as Prince Charming ABC's Once Upon a Time, Land without Magic picture image

Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White & Josh Dallas as Prince Charming

Once Upon a Time Season 1 Episodes 17 & 18 Review

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Episode 17: Hat Trick

Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan & Sebastian Stan as Jefferson ABC's Once Upon a Time, Hat Trick picture image

Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan & Sebastian Stan as Jefferson

Emma and Mr Gold find that Mary Margaret has escaped and Emma needs to find by 8 A.M or they are screwed. While Emma is looking for Mary Margaret, she meets a guy named Jefferson,  who is apparently hurt. Emma takes him back to his house where he gives her some delicious tea but it turns out to be deadly poison.  Actually it’s just a roofie. Emma escapes from her restrainments and finds Mary Margaret in the house and tied up. As Emma and Mary Margaret try to escape Jefferson threaten them  with a gun and makes Emma tie Mary Margaret back up and then demands Emma makes a hat that works. Turns out Jefferson knows about the dual worlds and that he is a fairy tale character and he wants Emma to make a hat because she has magic and the hat will enable him to go home. Emma does make a hat but she knocks him out as she just thinks he is crazy. Mary Margaret, freed by Emma, helps defeat Jefferson who along with his hat is knock-out the window but he vanishes. Also Mary Margaret gets back in time but that wasn’t part of the plan cooked up by Regina and Mr. Gold, who surprise, are working together. Oh Mr.Gold playing both sides.    

In the fairy Tale world Jefferson lives with his daughter, Grace. Grace is also in Storybrooke but is called Paige and has a different family and doesn’t know Jefferson. Jefferson wants to live a peaceful humble  life but that darn Evil Queen wants him to take her to Wonderland via his magic hat. Jefferson at first says no but wants a better life for his daughter so he agrees. Before they enter Wonderland Jefferson tells the Queen that the same number of people who enter must leave together, rule of the hat. They enter Wonderland so the Evil Queen can take something that the Queen of Hearts stole. They get it back and it turns out it’s her father, Henry. Since it’s now three people the Queen makes it so Jefferson can’t leave. Jefferson gets captured by the Queen of Hearts and she takes his head, it’s what she does. He is fine  though and is told that he will have to make another hat to get out of wonderland which drives him mad. Mad Hatter, it’s not subtle.

  

Again, what happened to Emma’s lie detection? Jefferson was faking his injury which is a lie. Can she only spot when people say lies and not fakers? It’s just irritating. Also I love that his name is Jefferson, nice little reference to Jefferson Airplanes. I had a good laugh at that one. I do like that Jefferson is half mad for knowing the truth. I did like this episode. The Storybrooke parts were better than the fairytale plot.

Episode 18: The Stable Boy

Lana Parrilla as Regina & Noah Bean as Daniel ABC's Once Upon a Time, The Stable Boy picture image

Lana Parrilla as Regina & Noah Bean as Daniel

Mary Margaret asking Regina what she ever did to make her hate her so much is like what Esmeralda said to Frollo when she was in jail for murder. I’m sure it was unintentional but it made me chuckle.  So this episode reveals why Regina hates Snow White a.k.a Mary Margaret. Regina in the Fairy Tale world was in love with a stable boy named Daniel, but her Mother, Cora, wants Regina to aim higher in status. One day Regina saves a little girl from a runaway horse. The girl is Snow White and her father asks Regina to marry him which her mother says agrees. Regina asks Daniel to  marry her and Snow sees them kissing. Regina begs Snow not to say anything as her mother wouldn’t understand. Snow does tell Cora since she wants Regina to be happy and have a relationship with her mother. Cora then takes Daniel’s heart and crushes into dust. Regina finds out Snow told her mother and that her mother was behind the whole thing of Snow’s Horse going wild so Regina could get the attention of the King.

Apparently this whole murder/missing person plot was all Mr. Gold’s doing really just to get Mary Margaret out of Storybrooke since the curse can’t left them leave so she will die I guess. Emma talks to August about approaching the case differently which causes Emma to return to the place where the heart was found. They find a shard from the shovel the was used to bury the heart. Emma breaks into Regina’s garage and indeed the shard matches her shovel. However Sidney planted a bug in Emma’s office so Regina is able to switch out the shovel before Emma can lawfully confirm the match. Also Regina confesses to Mary Margaret that she knows she didn’t kill Kathryn. The episode ends with it being revealed to Emma, August and Ruby that Kathryn is alive.   

First off, I’m not shocked. This why I have been trying to watch and episode and then write the posts instead of binging watching a bunch then writing. I will admit between episodes  7-13 I was binge watching it, which is more fun since this show is REALLY watchable but I did ask back in episode 16 if Kathryn was really dead. Full disclosure I did watch/wrote my assessment of  episode 16  Heart of Darkness the day before I watched/wrote this one, so it was fresh in my head.

I did really enjoy this episode, Barbara Hershey is like the perfect casting for Regina ambitious mother. Bailee Madison, young Snow, matched Ginnifer Goodwin’s inflections perfectly, easily one of the better child actor in the show.  I don’t know how I feel about the reason for Regina’s evilness  and her bitterness towards Snow. I mean tragic love is it? That is only reason really for her cruelty? She isn’t mad at her mother?  Snow was well intentioned and a child. I did like the episode but does seem too simplistic even for a fairy tale.   

Bailee Madison as Young Snow White, ABC's Once Upon a Time, The Stable Boy picture image

Bailee Madison as Young Snow White

Once Upon a Time Season 1 Episodes 11 & 12 Review

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Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills & Giancarlo Esposito as Sidney Glass, ABC's Once Upon a Time, Fruit of the Poisonous Tree picture image

Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills & Giancarlo Esposito as Sidney Glass

Episode 11: Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

Former Regina minion Sidney Glass, of the daily mirror, wants to team up with Emma to expose Regina’s corruption. After a series events that really do nothing to expose Regina’s crooked ways, Emma does find trust in Sidney. Though it was all a ruse as Sidney is still Regina’s minion and it’s a trap for Emma. Also in addition to that main Storybrooke plot, Henry is trying to get the fairy tale book back as it went missing when Regina tore down the playhouse that he and Emma met to discuss their plans. The Stranger is the one who currently has the book.

The parallel story of the Fairy Tale world is about our favorite Evil Queen meeting the Genie of the Lamp. The Genie was freed by the King and the King gave the Genie his third wish which the Genie never wants to use because magic sucks. The King decides to bring the Genie to the castle and when the Genie sees the Queen he falls head over lamp for her. The Queen seems to reciprocates the Genie’s feeling but she is married and not in love with her husband. The Queen’s father begs the Genie for help to give her a box of poisonous snakes which are from his homeland. However the Genie, convinced that Queen loves him, uses the snakes to kill the King. However it dawns on the Genie that the Queen tricked him and isn’t in love with him at all. He decides to use his wish so that may be with her forever and always gaze on her face and since magic sucks in this world, he is turned into her magic mirror. Sucks for him but this pleases the Queen.

I enjoyed half this episode. I typically like the Storybrooke story more but this time I was bored by most of it but I liked the Fairy Tale world plot. It’s interesting the combination of the Genie of the Lamp turning into Magic Mirror. So often in Snow White versions there is no explanation for the Magic Mirror, the audience is just suppose to accept it, which is fine in a fairy tale. It’s just a nice touch on the show’s end to offer a story behind the mirror. I will just say I did like the twist at the end of the Storybrooke storyline where Sidney is still in league with Regina, it wasn’t mind blowing but it so in keeping with Regina’s character.  

Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin & Emilie de Ravin as Belle, ABC's Once Upon a Time, Skin Deep picture image

Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin & Emilie de Ravin as Belle

Episode 12: Skin Deep

Oh dear god the amount of cultural references in this episode is just funny. First off and not as referential  was at the start of the Fairy Tale Storyline where they mention a place called Avonlea that had fallen. Avonlea is where Anne of Green Gables took place and not to mention the Canadian show Road to Avonlea, which i used to love when I was a kid. It was just so random. The second of a Flower shop in Storybrooke called Game of Thorns, I think everyone can get that. David is reading Anna Karenina, which a novel mostly about adultery which he is currently engaged in with Mary Margaret. And then there is a Nurse Rachet which is from One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

So on to actual episode, this week we have Beauty and the Beast. The Beast is actually our old pal Rumpelstiktskin. Rumpelstiktskin helped Belle’s Kingdom out of being conquered from Ogres in exchange for her to be his housekeeper. Gradually they fall in love, however Rumpelstiktskin lets her go in the guise of her running an errand. While Belle in the forest she runs into that pesky Evil Queen. The Queen tells her that true love’s kiss can break any curse, it’s like a super panacea. Belle then tries it on Rumpelstiktskin which starts to work but he gets mad at her and tells her to leave. Belle, who is hurt, tells him that he will be alone forever with an empty heart and the  teacup that she chipped, which a Disney’s Chip reference. That pesky Evil Queen shows up at Rumpelstiktskin’s place and she tells him that Belle  was shunned  by her village, tortured by her father and killed herself.  Rumpelstiktskin is devastated.

Meanwhile in the real fake world of Storybrooke, Mr Gold gets something stolen him and he enlists Emma to find it. When Emma can’t find said specific item, Mr Gold kidnaps the guy who stole it and start assaulting him saying that “She is gone.” Emma arrests Mr. Gold because hitting people is wrong apparently. Regina shows up and tells Emma to hang out with Henry so she can be alone with Mr.Gold. Regina asks Mr.Gold his real name. This reveals that they both know about the Fairy Tale past. Also Belle’s counterpart is in a mental ward revealing that she didn’t die in the past.

I’m a bit mixed on this episode. On the one hand I like Rumpelstiktskin as the “beast” but he seems like a swiss-army character. He’s Beast, the Fairy Godmother, the downtrodden cursed one etc. He is everything except Rumpelstiktskin. The only thing  “Rumpelstiktskin” does is he spins straw into gold, though in truth he could have been doing anything else like turning lead in gold or making a zero calorie fudge brownie. Also just a side note, the reason why Rumpelstiktskin spins straw into gold in the fairy tale is that a miller says his daughter can spin straw into gold so the prince or king tests her and if she can’t he will kill her, so Rumpelstiktskin does it for her in exchange for stuff. It’s not like a hobby of his so I don’t why  Show Rumpelstiktskin do this. Was it mention in his backstory because I don’t recall it or explained in a later episode? The other Rumpelstiktskin thing he does is he wants babies for some reason. I’m going to bet this gets explained and  hopefully he doesn’t want to eat them.

Another thing that makes me scratch my head is Belle herself. Aside from dressing like Disney Belle, Belle doesn’t have any of Belle’s personality. I know she is different from Disney Belle but since the episode so far just rehashed Beauty and Beast the comparison between the two is more direct than Snow White and Cinderella. It’s not a big issue but feels more puzzled that Belle, who is one of the more beloved Disney Princesses, feels like an afterthought.  I do like that she is in the mental ward, that is a nice call back to the Disney movie.

The main hightlight of the Storybrooke episode was the reveal that Mr.Gold and Regina know.

Once Upon a Time Season 1 Episodes 9 & 10 Review

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Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen, Karley Scott Collins as Gretel & Quinn Lord as Hansel ABC's Once Upon a Time, True North picture image

Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen, Karley Scott Collins as Gretel & Quinn Lord as Hansel

 

Episode 9: True North

The Evil Queen’s costumes are really starting to grow on me or they are just better than at the start of the show. This episode is about Hansel and Gretel  whose Storybrooke counterparts are orphan children. All this episode really does to move the plot is Mary Margaret sees Emma’s baby blanket and the Evil Queen gets her poison apple as the Blind Witch in the Gingerbread house had it and the Evil Queen sent Hansel and Gretel  to retrieve it for her.   Oh and the Stranger comes to town. I do wonder if no one ever leaves or goes to Storybrooke how do the get shipments of essentials? I think I’m overthinking.  

This was a weak episode, not much more you can say.

Episode 10: 7:15 A.M.

Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White, ABC's Once Upon a Time, 7:15 A.M. picture image

Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White

Okay, we’re back to an episode focused on Mary Margaret/Snow White and David/James/Shepherd. In the Fairy Tale world a.k.a Enchanted Forest, James is about to marry princess Abigail but instead sends a letter to Snow White asking her to come to him so they can be together. Snow White, in turn, was trying to forget him and had Rumpy make her a forget-me-now potion. However Snow goes to castle but is thrown in prison. While in the joint she meets Grumpy. One of the other dwarves springs them but gets killed in the escaped attempt, Snow White saves Grumpy and breaks things off with James claiming she doesn’t love him. After which she moves in with the Dwarves and takes the potion to forget her love even though James called off the wedding with Abigail.

Meanwhile in Storybrooke,  a storm is a brewing!  Mary Margaret however is engaging in some light stalker as she makes sure she is at the coffee place every morning at 7:15 a.m. to see David getting his coffee. Though it turns out that David is only there at that time to  see Mary Margaret so they are stalking each other, it’s like a fairy tale. However it turns out that David’s wife Catherine MIGHT be pregnant, so Mary Margaret tries to back off and instead focuses her attention on getting a Dove back to its flock  before a super heavy rainstorm. David of course follows her, saves her from death by cliff, they confess their feelings and decide they cannot stay apart. Adultery, how romantic?           

All in all, I did like this episode. I do like seeing James and Snow White romance unfold. I also like that she meets Grumpy in a dungeon cell, nice touch.  

Once Upon a Time Season 1 Episodes 7 & 8 Review

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Episode 7:  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Jamie Dornan as Graham with the Wolf, ABC's Once Upon a Time, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter picture image

Jamie Dornan as Graham with the Wolf,

Finally costumes I don’t hate, dare I say I kind of like. This episode follows Graham a.k.a the huntsman. Apparently kissing Emma helps the the fairy tale people regain some memories because Graham starts remembering his time a Huntsman with his wolf companion.  The episode also goes into why he is engaging in sexy times with Regina. Regina as the wicked Queen took his heart and made him her sex slave because he didn’t kill Snow.  Graham is desperate to regain his heart but can’t find it but he does cut off his loveless affair with Regina. Regina then in the real Storybrooke world gets Graham’s heart and crushes it thus killing him. Which kind of makes his whole arc kind of pointless, at least for the moment but at least it’s the first time the audience knows that Regina knows about the curse and the fairy tale thing.       

I did enjoy this episode it was nice to see one character question things. It did finally dawn on me in this episode that the woods look nothing like Maine but it doesn’t really matter.   I really do want to make House Stark joking given the wolf but we’ll just put a pin in that.   

Episode 8: Desperate Souls

Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiktskin ABC's Once Upon a Time, Desperate Souls picture image

Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiktskin

Finally  part of Rumpelstiktskin’s backstory is revealed. Basically this episode reveals how Rumpy got his crazy powers. Apparently in the land where he lives at  the age of 13 children are drafted into the army, or maybe they are just cannon fodder. In an effort  to save his son, Rumpy  is told to get a dagger to control the Dark One (A Wheel of Time reference) and to kill the Dark One to get his power. Which Rumpy does but is  tricked because the Dark One wanted him to do and was the man who told about the Dark One because being the Dark One sucks.  Also Rumpy is a coward whose wife may have lied about him being the father their child.

Back in good-olde corruptly run Storybrooke, since Graham is dead by heart-broken-ness, like literally, the job for Sheriff is up for election. Regina wants her main minion Sydney Glass to get the job and Emma wants it too. Mr Gold offers to help but Emma wants to get the job fairly because Henry is going through a “Good Guys can’t win” phase. However Emma gets elected Sheriff but only through shady manipulations on Mr Gold’s end even though Emma thought she was being noble. Silly good noble people, they are so predictable.            

I feel like this episode is all over the place with Sheriff plot and Rumpy’s backstory. It just feel the two counterpart stories didn’t coalesce as well as other episodes aside from Mr Gold’s meddling which he has already done so it’s not a big surprise.

 

Bonus picture time!

Lana Parrilla as the Evil Queen ABC's Once Upon a Time, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter picture image

Lana Parrilla as the Evil Queen

Once Upon a Time Season 1 Episode 2; The Thing you Love the Most Review

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Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills & Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan Once Upon a Time Season 1 Episode 2; The Thing you Love the Most picture image

Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills & Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan in ABC’s Stone Once Upon a Time

This episode mentions Honey Crisp Apples which are super delicious and the apples I have been eat all week  and unless Honey Crisp have a massive variation of size and color the apples in this episode are not Honey Crisps. They look more like Red Delicious. But I know nothing about apple varieties and this a classic case of tangental nitpicking, so on to the actual episode.

First thing be ye first thing, I really enjoy the pacing of the show.  The fairly seamless back and forth between the Fairy Tale backstory and Real Life curse breaking detectives is fun. I liked the not so subtle choice of cinnamon to infer the characters of the possible connection between them, Snow White/Mary Margaret, Emma, and Henry all like cinnamon on their hot chocolate. That sounds good, am I related them? I kid.

The bitch game of one-up-mannanship was a little tiring, one frames the other and the other hacks the one’s non Honey Crisp Tree, what a cliche! Anyway the fairy tale plot centers around how the Evil Queen’s curse. Apparently in this world of Fairy Tales, Curses can be traded. Ok, that’s weird. Also I didn’t care for the styling of Maleficent. Why does she look all soft? I know it’s a re-imagining but I don’t get the choice of it. In fact the Snow White’s Evil Queen looks more Maleficent. Also I also don’t know why but the Evil Queen’s Leather pants and lace widows peak gives me an odd combo of amused and cringing. I get the stye is going for a Shabby Chic style, kinda like that movie The Secret of Moonarce.  Why are Fairy Tales Shabby Chic?

Anyway, so Evil Queen knows that this curse means amnesia and not being in the fairy tale world. And she activates the curse so she can be happy and all she has to do is make a deal with Rumplestiltskin, who the one who gave her the curse before she traded with Maleficent and she has to kill her father because she has to kill the thing she loves the most. Her father is also named Henry, Dun, Dun, Dunnnn. I actually liked that plot point. Rumpy a.k.a Mr Gold also seems to knows about the curse or he know something. Rumplestiltskin seems to be more OP in this version. Wait why was he in jail in this first place? And if he knows that Emma could break the curse and brought Henry to Regina so that Emma would come someday,  why would he want the curse broken? He has a pretty good thing going on with the curse. Like what is his motivation for wanting to return to the fairy tale world? Or is like an impulse where he know there a curse and wants to break it but doesn’t know what it means or the details but then again he remembers the details of the deal he made with the Evil Queen?  I’m just going to stop and let the show answer the questions because I have more and I’m sure they will get answered.

 

Anyway it was a fun episode, still don’t care for the boy though.