The weakest aspect of the show is Henry’s relationship to Regina. He needs to be at least slightly conflicted over his feelings for her. There needs to be a relatable aspect to the relationship from her side as well. She apparently desperately wants his love but we rarely see her actually TRYING with him. Rebuilding the playground? That’s the only gesture that I recall, and nothing else that seemed “real.”
Possibly because the actor who plays him is the weakest of the ensemble…I swear, even when he was dead he had that annoying smirk on his face!
New characters promised for season 2. (Caution–mutable talking ad on this page.)
If you don’t want to click the link, they plan to introduce Ariel, Rapunzel, Peter Pan, and Mulan. Sounds interesting, and already I can hardly wait for the season premiere!
I think August had it right, Emma was starting to believe but she did not want to believe. I think Emma started to believe in the episode about the Mad Hatter, when she asked Henry for the book after seeing Grace/Paige at Henry’s school.
It wasn’t the book so much, as Emma being a parent willing to believe anything that would stop their child’s illness. Once Emma grasped at that straw, then she attacked Regina and got the truth from her.
I agree with Misnomer, Henry’s weak-linkedness is partly because of having to use a child actor. But as presented, Henry doesn’t seem to have any guilt over choosing Emma over Regina, which I think I normal child would have.
But in fairness, I don’t think Regina has ever done anything motivated by her love for Henry. Even the playground reconstruction was a dominance gesture, Regina destroying the place where Henry tried to hide the book. I can’t recall ever seeing Regina hug Henry, or display any affection towards him. Even when she’s shown up a school, it’s been to torment Mary Margret. Even allowing Henry to continue therapy has been with the intent of controlling Henry’s knowledge of the curse.
Henry’s relationship with Regina isn’t driven entirely by her actions towards him. His complaint all along has been that despite how she appears in public she’s evil. In fact the very definition of the Evil Queen. Regardless of the limits of the actor’s range I wouldn’t expect confliction now, perhaps if we had seen him trying to make the decision to go and find Emma but that’s all preshow activity.
Henry believes that Regina is the embodiment of evil and that Emma is the embodiment of good. Although we’re seeing some tones of grey he’s pretty much right 
Ehhh … I dunno. Until Henry left to find Emma, Regina was the only mother he’d ever known. Although clearly aware of her darker qualities it’s odd that he can so thoroughly ignore, emotionally, that this was the woman who cared for him when he was sick; brought him through all the developmental milestones; celebrated holidays with him; ensured his health and safety. She may be manipulative and not terribly affectionate, but (believe me) that’s not an inviolable barrier to the bonds between parent and child. When she assured Henry that no matter what happens she still loved him, I would’ve expected something more than silence and a smirk — his reaction renders negligible the impact of Regina’s conflict (IMO).
But it’s not a big deal, really; I just think he’s not a very skilled actor. Chosen for elfin cuteness rather than ability.
I hope I can be permitted a spit-take. Mulan?! What’s next, Stitch? Emperor Kuzco?
Captain Jack Sparrow.
yeah Mulan really doesn’t fit. One of these things is not like the others…
I wonder if the fairy-tale folk are going to have a revelation that they are really all creations of Disney; maybe they’ll turn on the tv someday and see commercials for Disneyland and freak out. Maybe they can get Stephen King to help with the script-building. 
Four and a half months until the next one? That’s approximately twice as fast as most shows these days, which seem to delight in running 16 weeks once a year now, ugh.
And you can all back away from Mr. Gold, he is mine!!! <3
Hey, in fairyland anything’s possible, right?
I also was quite surprised that Gold didn’t use the magic potion to get his son back; guess we need to keep a little darkside going on, otherwise we’d end up with no conflict and just everyone living happily ever after. In fact, if his son HAD come back, they would have ended up with a wonderful, great one-season show; all done, tada! Everyone lives happily ever after. <sigh> Oh well, as long as we get to see more Gold.
taomist - it would have been a great ending to a one-season show - except we wouldn’t have seen the townspeople’s revenge on Regina. or Gold, once they knew he was involved. Hmm. perhaps he is summoning magic to protect himself as well as help find his son? Will the magic extend beyond Storybrooke? Will it keep everyone locked there, or will it take them back to fairy tale land?
Lots of interesting directions to go. As long as Robert Carlyle is along, and he gets to be with Belle. (Oh all right the rest of the cast is good too, and so was the writing - except for the Henry part.)
I imagine Gold and Belle are going to have a large number of ups and downs; I just knew Belle was going to appear on-cue as soon as Gold had the elixer; what I didn’t expect was for him NOT to use it on HER. Then I thought “Ok, it’s for his son; I can see that”, and then THAT didn’t happen. I really doubt he and Belle are going to get their happily-ever-after anytime soon, if at all.
But it’ll be fun watching to see what happens in the meantime.
Maybe Gold was becoming, at least slightly, a decent person but that stopped when August pretended to be his son. Maybe that gave him trust issues, which is why he decided to regain magic instead of asking for his son back.
And when he was talking to August while thinking he was his son, Gold said after he left he spent all his time searching and trying to make it right, or something to that effect. That doesn’t jibe with his actions, which is to go around making deals that usually turn out screwing the other person over.
Loved the episode. Hopefully the writers have learnt their mistakes in making LOST (which I also loved) and are keeping the viewers happy by moving the plot along at a more reasonable (okay, breakneck) speed. Keeping it unpredictible but not ridiculous also helps: I thought for sure that Gold was bringing Bael back through the well…and of course, I was wrong.
Fanwank: Anyone else notice the Apollo candy bars in Henry’s backpack?
It looked to me like the details of the curse-breaking were part of the show bible in advance of the show’s premiere; it’s a handy escape value should the show have tanked early on. Once the ratings showed they had a hit, they added more “filler” episodes (Hansel and Gretel springs to mind–not saying it’s bad but it really had no bearing on the “main” storyline), but as these played out the implausibility of having the curse continue on became obvious. Essentially, the curse was based on having nothing really change in Storybrooke; Emma would always go up against Regina and lose, Regina would always try to keep Snow and Charming apart yet fail…and that way boredom lies.
So the writers played the already-worked-out escape valve in the final episode, then tacked on a dramatic game changer once renewal was assured. With that ending the series could go in any direction next year, and in a sense season 1 is a closed book.
Nailed it! 
Yup, you sure did! Do you want to speculate on whether or not August is still wood or recovered when the curse reversed? I’m also wondering how much/if any magic the Blue Fairy/Mother Superior will have after magic comes to Storeybrook. Also, how did Jefferson know Belle was locked in the basement of the hospital, and the code to get through the door?
Jefferson has probably been planning his revenge against Regina for the whole 28 years. He probably had a back-up as well.
I was wondering this myself. I’m thinking August will be alive but still wood.
Well she DID have a dragon guardian. Wouldn’t it be fun if Eddie Murphy were to appear as Mushu’s human counterpart in Storybrooke?