Episode 207
A Ruby-centered episode! I think her “origin” episode in season 1 is one of the best in the series so far. Hopefully this one is as good.
Ok, I enjoyed this one a lot–much more than last week. I’ve liked Annabeth Gish since Mystic Pizza, so it was good to see her. But, oh boy, Ruby’s back-story gets even more tragic! 
My only complaint is that it all seemed very rushed. Ruby finding her mother and joining the other wolves only to have to turn against them to defend Snow, while also dealing with her issues in present-day Storybrooke and being framed for murder–I wouldn’t have minded a two-parter for all that.
Random thoughts:
There are an awful lot of angry mobs in Storybrooke this season.
King George is really an asshole.
Ruby should have asked David to lock her up in the jail in the first place, instead of a closet at Granny’s.
Poor mouse! Which actually makes me wonder… if you were a mouse in HEAL, mightn’t you consider life as a human in Storybrooke to be a blessing instead of a curse?
When asked by Belle why she’s not interested in going out with the mouse-guy, Ruby responds “It’s complicated.” Can we count that as another LOST reference? 
But seriously, could you date and be intimate with someone, knowing that they’re really a mouse?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Use the line to exile troublemakers. Boom, problem solved.
Plus, the guy killed a man. You’re still in Maine, after all. Put him on trial first and then send him across the line. Or just kill him. Would anyone really care?
Yes, letting that guy get away with actual murder is almost a shark-jumper (and I give tons of leeway to a fantasy show). Poor writing. Exile the guy out of Storybrooke or something.
I was amused that the villagers looking for the werewolf in present-day Stonybrooke were shown carrying actual flaming torches. Would anyone do that? Would anyone even know how to make a flaming torch?
It’s also a pretty weird angle to take to destabilize Charming’s position in Storybrooke. Surely there are more direct ways to do it.
Step 1. Kill a guy
Step 2. Frame Red for the killing
Step 3. ???
Step 4. Have Charming removed as sheriff.
If it wasn’t just the interesting figures who got transported over when the curse took, it should only stand to reason that some of the town populace are villagers from HEAL who would have been running around with torches and forming mobs against stuff.
Well, to be fair - we don’t know how Sherrif Charming deals with him after the scene ends -he could be in the same prison that Mr. Glass is and we never see/hear from him.
I’m more impressed that the mob let him escape - and how he managed to find the hat.
yeah - this doesn’t bother me - it works because they are ‘the villagers’ and they are doing what they would always do -
I was, however, kinda hoping that we found other pack members alive and well in Storybrooke.
“Maine election results are still awaiting the returns from Storybrooke. Hmm, I’m not sure where that is. Or why it is taking so long, or why no candidate has ever visited there, or why they don’t have a representative in the State House, or it gets its milk, or how the roads actually got paved…”
It’s complicated.
It wasn’t a closet: it was the restaurant’s walk-in freezer.
I was amused by that, too, but just in a “stereotypical monster-hunting mob” way. Two of the people in the front even had pitchforks. Pitchforks! 
I’ve looked through older threads to see if this had been posted before and didn’t see it, but I think I now know who Emma’s HEAL persona is. In the Season 1 thread, I speculated this, but now, I believe that was wrong.
I’m hijacking this to say that I think Emma is:
Elizabeth Swann. It was foreshadowed in episode 21 of season one when Regina requested a parlay with Snow. Now Emma is in HEAL, with a pirate, seeking a magical compass. She even shackled Hook in the monster’s lair, just as Elizabeth did to Jack with the Kraken. And there is the extreme similarity of the names, as well.
Any thoughts?
Emma was never in HEAL - she was whisked away at birth to our land - so she has no HEAL counterpart.
Great episode.
I liked the subplot with Henry and Aurora’s post-curse dreams, and Gold/Rumple’s explanations. Presumably this will be used to establish a message system so that Charming, Emma, and Snow can keep in touch across the worlds. The ball seems to still be with HEAL in terms of getting them back home. All Charming can let them know so far is ‘We’ll have fairy dust for you on this side if that helps.’
And I can bet there will be a lot of people with petitions for what else the fairy dust could be used for, since there’s no handy gate between worlds.
Just rewatching this episode, and a couple of times Ruby references what we saw in the flashback part of her season 1 episode–that she killed her boyfriend, Peter.
:smack:
It had totally gone over my head that her boyfriend’s name was Peter.