Episode  21: Mother

Lana Parrilla as Regina Once Upon a Time Season 04 Episode 21 Mother review picture image

Lana Parrilla as Regina

So Rumple needed Emma to go all dark side to charge the author’s ink but turns out Lily could do that because she had Emma’s potential for darkness. And instead of writing  a fix to Rumple’s heart problems, Isaac is going to rewrite the rules so that villains win. But since the author can literally write whatever he could just literally fix Rumple’s problem without this fate changing thing they are doing.  Also if Rumple issue’s was his heart going black from bad deeds why can’t he do good deeds? Also Rumple was FINE prior to the flashback. Sure there was time gap and he took some medicine but there was no indication of his heart dying.  This plot has too many outs and variables to be compelling.

The real theme of the episode is mothers, as you can tell by the title. Emma FINALLY forgives her mother and stops acting like a pouty child. Lily meets Maleficent. At first it didn’t go great as Lily expected a “Dragon Bitch”  and not a normal snappy dresser who can turn into a dragon, but they reach an accord.  

The past section was about Cora trying to get Regina some love in her life along with a baby. Regina thinks this a power grab on Cora’s part and takes the infertility potion to thwart her mother. This backstory also leads Regina to not erase Zelena from the book because of the pain Cora inflicted on both of them.

I dunno why but I love Zelena, I think it might be  the actress more than anything. She was also an episode of 30 rock, in Season 7 Episode 8 My Whole Life is Thunder, where she was virgin widow nymphomaniac. Kermit the Frog was also in that episode but in a different scene.  

You know what else is stupid about the author and Rumple’s plan? Aside from Cruella, who was a bad egg from the start, all the villains got their happy endings. So this changing fate is EVEN MORE DUMB. Just going to say it again, the author can write a cure for Rumple on a slip of paper even. Like Rumple can have his Dark one powers without the limits of being the dark one if Isaac wrote it down.

This show depiction of Maid Marian pisses me off. I have seen MANY versions of Marian even that BBC version that was weird but this Marian’s only value to the plot has been sick/dying and a manic pixie dream girl to Robin (sort of). She didn’t have much personality and even Disney Marian did and she barely in the movie.

This episode was mostly fine. It worked mostly but the plot of this arc has been too all over the place and seems to be leading to a dumb conclusion.

Episode  22: Operation Mongoose Part 1

Lana Parrilla as Regina Once Upon Time Season 04 Episode 22 Operation Mongoose Part 1 review picture image

Lana Parrilla as Regina

Isaac has vanity issue which makes him the worse of the “villains.” We also get a bit of a backstory on Isaac, it’s nothing super amazing or interesting. Just a writer wannabe who can’t sell TVs in the 60s.

This episode bring us to an alternative reality where the former villains are heroes and the heroes are villains. So Rumple is a kindly knight who saves people and Snow and Regina are literally swapped. Henry enters the book with Isaac to try and save the day    

Henry however enters at the final chapter which means there is a ticking clock. He has to change the ending so the book loses its power, I guess. I don’t know literally theory or principles, but why would there be an inciting incident in the final chapter?  The  inciting incident  is the event or decision that begins a story’s problem. So no. Wrong term writer with a job.  

The trouble is Villains can have happy ending UNLESS Ursula and Maleficent were never really Villains? Gasp, Disney needs to rebrand them.

While the episode is handle well it seems like a concept was childish. Snow White as the evil Queen is painted as just cruel and evil whereas Regina was shaped into a heartless bitch because of her mother killing her boyfriend.  Snow lost her love because of Regina but she was already cruel before that, so the only point of this is to see Ginnifer Goodwin acting “evil” which we saw in season 1 when she forgot about loving David. Also I think the styling of Regina as “Snow White Bandit” and Evil Queen Snow should  have expressed their own characters more than just costume switch.

Also poor Graham, he for written out of the story too.

This of course is a two part episode so we can’t fully look it till… Right now!

 

Episode 23:  Operation Mongoose Part 2

Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan Once Upon a Time Season 4 Episode 23 Operation Mongoose Part 2 review picture image

Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan

Full Disclosure, I been watching Once on Netflix and the image between episodes is Dark Swan so the twist of Emma taking in the darkness and being the new dark one wasn’t too much of a twist for me BUT I can imagine this when it aired because it’s a neat twist. The show does do twists well. Should mention Emma took on the darkness to protect Regina’s happy ending and it finally gave Emma the push to tell Hook she more than liked-liked him but loved him.  It also tied into the Emma asking her parents to remove the darkness from her again. So the all plotpoint did converge fairly well even though the it seemed all over the place for most of the season.  

As for the second part of this episode, things got wrapped up neatly from the alternative reality. Regina self-sacrifice saved the day and Henry became the new author. I did hate that Rumple was called the “Light One.”  I get that it’s the direct opposite of the “Dark One but it doesn’t sound as good. Light One literally sounds like the first idea the writer came up with. “Lighter Bringer” would have been better, “Pure One,”  “Luminous One,” “Bright One”  I get the magic is called Light magic but “Light One,” Super Meh.

I  did love the Star Wars reference,  Kashsyk is the wookiee  homeworld and Henry is a wookie. So in a way George Lucas true hero of this arc.

We also learned a few new things about the Dark One. Apparently The Sorcerer, or Merlin, tethered darkness to a soul to contain it. Not sure what is special about this particular darkness. Or is it all darkness?

This was an enjoyable episode. Sure, it was more amnesia but it was handle moderately well.  Glad to know the show hasn’t forgotten Black Beard and he also got a happy ending, he got the Jolly Roger.

Esmeralda and Quasimodo Disney Hunchback of Notre dame picture image

No, Esmeralda is not Quasimodo’s mother. Pending on what version is question Esmeralda is four years younger than Quasimodo in the book. In the Disney version while she may be maternal towards Quasimodo we know she is not because we see Quasimodo’s mother die.

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo’s Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

But who is Quasimodo’s mother? In the Disney we see a young women who just wanted to get her child in Paris for a perhaps a better life. But what were her hopes, fears, ambitions, desires? What was her favorite color, foods, pastimes? The real tragedy is we never got to know her as a character.

Illustration of Frollo with baby Quasimodo picture

Illustration of Frollo with baby Quasimodo

In book we only know that Quasimodo’s mother was an unfeeling vile women who abandoned him as baby. But Maybe she died in childbirth and some other relative abandoned him. Maybe she was lied to and  she was told her baby died at birth and then he was abandoned.

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo’s Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

We’ll never know the truth regarding Quasimodo’s mother but one thing we do know is that she was not Esmeralda. Unless that was her actual given name and then I guess the answer is yes but what are the odds of that?

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923 picture image

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923

In my Gringoire review, I said that the 1923 version of Hunchback adhere too much to the book that is it is detrimental to the film  and while it’s true with Gringoire, it’s even more true with the addition of Sister Gudule. Her being in this movie makes not sense to anything and it doesn’t add anything to the story.

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) with young Esmeralda Hunchback Notre Dame 1923 picture image

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) with young Esmeralda Hunchback Notre Dame 1923

 

Ok, if you have read the book you would know who Gudule is. She is Esmeralda’s biological mother and is a french women from Rheims. She is in very few versions of Hunchback since she takes some of Esmeralda’s mystery away. However, in the story Gudule is part of the whole dark/tragic destiny theme. In the 1923 version she adds nothing.

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) showing the necklace to Esmeralda Hunchback Notre Dame 1923 picture image

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) showing the necklace to Esmeralda Hunchback Notre Dame 1923

So what does Sister Gudule do in this movie apart from nothing?  Like in the book she is a recluse who lives in a basement. She hates Esmeralda and yells at her through a window. Shortly after she is introduced we’re are given her backstory about how her beloved little daughter was stolen by gypsies and how she prays for her child’s return while her child’s little shoe to comfort her. Unlike in the book, Gudule was a noble and gave Esmeralda a necklace which Esmeralda still wears. So Esmeralda is really a noble this whole time.

 

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923 picture image

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923

The next time we see her she is yelling at Esmeralda while Quasimodo is being whipped and we see Esmeralda is afraid of her. She tells Esmeralda that she should be whip instead of Quasimodo.

 

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923 picture image

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923

 

The last time we Gudule is when Esmeralda is being taken to be hanged. She runs up to the wagon and grabs her and manages to pull of Esmeralda’s necklace. She then realizes that it is the same necklace and instead of thinking that the gypsies stole off her daughter and gave it to another little girl she just happens to know that Esmeralda is her daughter. She tries to help by walking a few paces but then dies. And that’s it.

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923 picture image

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923

The mere fact that Esmeralda is never made aware of  her mother makes Gudule pointless to  the story. It’s all build up for a necklace and a scene where a woman dies. More than that Gudule scenes can be edited out so easily. If you look at the Gudule part during the pillory scene, Esmeralda walks in and Gudule yell at  her. Esmeralda walks off in a panic but in the very next shot Esmeralda is calm, like whole interaction never occurred. Maybe Gudule yelling made her empathic to Quasimodo but she was empathic already as evident by her saving Gringoire.

 

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923 picture image

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923

So she does nothing. She just pads out the movies. If the movie had a more tragic tone she might have worked but the movie isn’t tragic. To be fair maybe in 1923 this film was a considered a tragedy which would justify Gudule but it’s also considered a horror so  I guess this movie has some genre confusion. Either way Gudule was wasted.

 

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923 picture image

Sister Gudule (Gladys Brockwell) Hunchback Notre Dame 1923

Next Time; The Others

Fleur de Lys (Winifred Bryson) Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923 picture image

Fleur de Lys (Winifred Bryson) Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Another Minor/major Characters is Quasimodo’s nameless mother (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman). She’s not in the film long but she’s quite important.

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very little is know about her other than she’s a Gypsy, she wants to live in Paris, and she tries to keep Quasimodo away from Frollo. In trying to protect Quasimodo from Frollo she brought them together. Frollo then uses her as a way to manipulate Quasimodo in to remaining loyal to him. Frollo would tell Quasimodo that his “heartless” mother abandoned him as a baby. This keeps Quasimodo grateful and loyal to Frollo. It’s not till Frollo tries to kill Quasimodo that Frollo tells him the truth.

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quasimodo’s mother raises a lot of question . We know she’s a gypsy and she’s a mother, but Quasimodo looks (coloration wise) nothing like her. Was she his biological mother or she did adopt him? Or maybe (like in the sequel) boy-children look like their fathers and nothing like their mothers? And would that mean that the man with Quasimodo’s mother was not her husband/lover? My guess given her looks and her interaction with the Gypsy guy is that he was her husband and that they did adopt Quasimodo.

Frollo Hunchback of Notre Dame Kicking Quasimodo's mother Disney picture image

Frollo killing Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother's Death Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Murder of Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

The Murder of Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disney used the death of Quasimodo’s mother to reinforce the point that they read the book. Quasimodo’s mother dies the same way Esmeralda’s mother does in the novel. Spoiler’s— Esmeralda’s mother, Sister Gudule (Paquette Guybertaut a.k.a La Chantefleurie) dies trying to save Esmeralda from the gallows and is push to the pavement, hits her end and dies. In the book Sister Gudule prayed for 15 years to have her child returned to her if only for an instant, classic case of be careful what you wish for. She and Esmeralda were reunited for only a few hours.

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Quasimodo's Mother Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Quasimodo’s mother is a very important element to the story as she helps establishes Frollo and Quasimodo relationship and she reinforces it by Frollo being a lying and manipulate jerk (but he’s the best Disney villain so kudos to you Frollo on every terrible thing you do).

Next Time; Those guards, you know the ones

Esmeralda Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Esmeralda dealing with soldiers Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame