Previously:
A HEAL flashback shows Rumple killing his wife after she runs off with Hook. Rumple cuts Hook’s hand off and lets him go. Hook uses a magic bean to travel to Neverland.
Snow and Emma are still in present-day HEAL and have teamed up with Mulan and Aurora. Captain Hook has teamed up with the evil witch Cora and they appear to have nefarious plans regarding Storybrooke.
Belle kinda/sorta leaves Gold to become the Storybrooke librarian.
This week’s episode looks to focus on the mysterious Dr. Whale.
…ehhh… kind of a bad episode. I tend to get bored of Regina heavy episodes. The only way they could have saved it was by having a crazy reveal as to who the monster/brother at the end ways.
Definitely one of the duller ones. The whole Daniel arc was a bust. Did like the Frankenstein twist and how Whale had to go to Rump to get magical help.
Also liked Emma getting all BA on Hook and getting him to talk. That was good. Don’t mess with Emma.
yeah - somehow I think that isn’t quite going to work out the way they think - I think that was the plan all along - Cora isn’t going to do any heavy lifting.
I’m loving the hell out of Sheriff Charming: “POW! Now that that’s out of the way, how can I help you?” He also seems to have found his old land leathers and fashioned himself a nice jacket for this side.
I agree. I was pretty disapointed with how they used the Frankenstein aspect of it. Other than the damage he did to Whale, monster-Daniel was pretty lame.
However, I do like the backstory episodes about Regina. It’s nice to know why she became evil, and how it has been largely due to the corrupting influence of Rumple.
Not a great episode, and it highlighted for me the problems with the Regina character. The backstories have tried way too hard to make her sympathetic-yet-evil, and IMO the character has swung too violently between the two to be believable. It doesn’t help that a similar bi-polar trajectory with Rumplestiltskin has been far more successful.
It’s about time Regina talked to someone about her internal conflict, so I welcome the ctherapy sessions with Jiminy Cricket. But I’m not too hopeful; she really needs a better confidant than him if the character is going to provide more dramatic possibilities. There may be some traction if the writers pursue the magic/addiction metaphor, but then again it’s hard to see how this family-friendly show can match how a similar metaphor was handled on Buffy the Vampire Slayer…
I dunno - looks like it was just an (partial) origin story bit like they did for Ruby. Plus there’s the unresolved thing about how he slept with Snow, so I suspect they might still keep him around in the background.
My wife really likes this show… me not as much.
There’s no fiction boundary they can’t cross; they’ve already done Grimm, Frankenstein, other fairy tales. While I like it, I also worry that could be its ultimate demise. One of the reasons I stopped enjoying Heroes was because it got to the point where I felt “Who doesn’t have super powers?” I think they should slow down on the new characters and focus on the ones they have. I also like the idea of Regina being a ‘bad’ person the first season, but being a ‘good’ person while her mom becomes the new ‘bad’ person.
On the other hand, something about the series feels very much reductive to me: one character is Rumplestiltskin, the beast, the crocodile from Peter Pan; he trained the Snow White’s evil queen and acted as the fairy godmother from Cinderalla. Belle was kidnapped and hidden away by said queen; Victor Frankenstein has dealings with the Mad Hatter; last season we had sexual tension between Snow White’s daughter and Pinocchio … everything begins to feel smushed together.
Anyway. As a matter of pedagogy, it seems to me that beginning someone’s equestrian training with “See this horse? It’s your responsibility now. Okay, I’m outta here” probably wouldn’t cut it. I admit, I don’t know much about horses, but I’d’ve half expected Charming to find Henry covered in manure or kicked in the head!
I think they planned this as the “halloween” episode - and maybe overreached - but I liked the “magic vs. science” - there was much to like and they did finally answer the question as to who Dr. Whale is/was - my bigger problem with that is that it means that the Mad Hatter had been to ‘our’ (presumed) non-magic world before.
I also like the current trend that not everyone is in every espisode - and I have a feeling that they could special cut the episodes and give us a pretty full HEAL set as well as a Storybrook set that would make reasonable sense.
This one may be the weakest of the episodes to date - but it was still good.
I admit, I don’t know much about horses, but I’d’ve half expected Charming to find Henry covered in manure or kicked in the head!