Tonight's OUAT - Breaking Glass Episode 4.5

[shadowkat]

I don't remember the episode name.

(ETA: Eh, I gooogled it. It's "Breaking Glass" and refers to the Snow Queen's magic mirror in the original Hans Christian Anderson tale. Although in that tale the mirror reflected only the darkness in the world - despair, misery, bitterness, jealousy, envy - the dark part of the human soul - the night. In Anderson's tale, the Snow Queen was basically another take on Queen Mab - the Queen of Winter or of Cold and Night. The mirror breaks in Anderson's tale, and a splinter of it falls into Kai's eye...causing him to see the negative side of all things. He becomes filled with bitterness and hate and cannot feel love - much like the Snow Queen, who claims him as her own. It falls to his childhood friend, Gerda, to journey into the realm of ice to save him from the Snow Queen. CS Lewis sort of borrowed a bit from the story in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. )

Overall a decent episode, except that I spent 98% of it wanting to smack Regina upside the head for her insane troll logic. And she'd been doing so well this season...granted there was that minor set-back with Sydney...



In the season opener, Regina, I'd thought, had come to her senses and stopped blaming Emma for bringing Maid Marian to Storybrook. Realizing that Maid Marian's appearance was, ahem, Regina's fault not Emmas, and *cough*karma*cough*, hence the need to find the writer of the book and find a way to redeem herself. Granted her decision to re-imprison Sydney in her mirror with dark magic, was a step back towards narcissistic evil queen...but you know, progress?

Tonight, however, she backslides a bit to insane troll logic. Regina, sweetheart, please listen to yourself? Seriously, how does Emma saving Maid Marian from your evil former self and bringing her forward in time equate to any of the horrible things you've done past or present, including imprisoning and threatening to execute Marian for keeping Snow White's whereabouts a secret? You'd think someone who looked in the mirror as much you do, would be a little more self-aware. Although I think the mirror is actually a metaphor for pronounced narcissism in the series and in the fairy tales - considering both the Evil Queen and the Snow Queen use mirrors, and the mirrors only reflect what they wish to see. Everything that has happened to Marian since her imprisonment is on your head. It's basic logic, 101, you imprisoned Marian, you threatened to execute her, you imprisoned Emma and threatened to execute her, they escaped together and came forward in time. You had an opportunity long before you decided to go on a vengeful killing rampage to get Snow White, to hook up with Robin Hood - but you chose to be miserable and seek vengeance, ruining millions of people's lives including Emma's. You passed it up. Deal with the consequences. Grow up. Take a little responsibility for your actions. Ironically, the person who should be doing the forgiving here is Emma. If it weren't for you, she'd have had a happy childhood in the Enchanted Forest with her loving parents.

See? This is why Regina can't find happiness. She keeps sliding back into old habits.
Like the dark magic - resulting in the imprisonment of Sydney, who of course betrays her and hooks up with the Snow Queen, who wisely frees him - wanting only the mirror in order to fix her broken one. (Nice twist on the Snow Queen fairy tale.) If she'd freed Sydney or kept him free - instead of using him, things would have turned out differently. Same deal with Emma - if she'd listened to Emma and sought to figure out why Emma was in a picture with the Snow Queen, she might have leverage against the Snow Queen. But no, she stubbornly clings to her insane troll logic. Rumplestilskin is written smarter, which is blatantly sexist and unfair.

Oh well, at least the Snow Queen appears to be rather clever. And at one point, she was a foster parent to Emma...which is odd. Did she adopt Emma? Although I sort of guessed that she knew Emma from the real world, outside Storybrook. Because she clearly is from outside Storybrook - or the outside world, and didn't come via curse.
Since she has her memories and seems unaffected by some of the rules.

The Regina/Emma story is about Emma realizing she has to fight for a friendship and not just walk away. But it doesn't quite work - Regina's the sort of person you probably should walk away from - because, hello, insane troll logic and she's imprisoned a guy in a magic mirror, which she did to get him to help her kill Maid Marian. (I can sort of see why she wasn't forthcoming on that information to Emma, even Regina realized at this point that it was behavior bordering on sociopathic.) The parallel story, about Lily and Emma, and how they got together then broke up isn't all that similar. Lily, Emma's friend in the real world, was not insane nor sociopathic, just troubled...while she did legitimately trick Emma and do her injury ...at least she showed remorse for it. Here, Emma equates what Lily did to what happened with her and Regina, except Emma didn't betray Regina or trick her. Emma merely attempted to save someone from Regina's ax (literal), not to mention herself. Not quite the same thing. The people who need to do the forgiving here are Emma, Snow White, Robin Hood, Robin Hood's kid, and Maid Marian. And since they aren't narcissistic sociopaths with insane troll logic - they seem to do it quickly - far quicker than Regina. Granted Regina's behavior does sort of make sense, if you keep in mind that she was formerly the EVIL QUEEN and spent one too many hours chuckling gleefully in front of a magic mirror. And her idea of a happy ending in past seasons was everyone being miserable, tortured, or in pain except her. So, it will take some time for her to fully reform. To be fair, she's made about as much progress as Rumple, to date. Both characters seem to shoot themselves in the proverbial foot.
Rumple - is written better, mainly because he's clever and seems to be a little more self-aware and less prone to insane troll logic.

The other storyline was Elsa and the Snow Queen and what the Snow Queen wants - and managed to acquire at one point, only to lose it - a family that loves her. Back to the family theme. Regina and Snow Queen basically want the same things. As does Elsa.
Except Elsa is more like Emma, she lacks control over her powers and feels like a fish out of water, and isn't an insane sociopath. Elsa, also like a true friend, suggests Emma not give up on Regina. (Okay not so sure that's what a true friend would do, but to give Elsa credit, she doesn't know Regina. Don't get me wrong, I like the Regina/Emma friendship - except when Regina laspses into insane troll logic and feeling sorry for herself.) So Emma goes back and tries again with Regina - this time she manages to get Regina to admit that she no longer wants to kill her. (If I was Emma, would relieve me greatly because Regina much like Rumplestilskin has a tendency to act on her nasty desires.) See? Progress. Note - if you want to befriend someone, make sure they aren't out to kill you, first.

Then there's the Charmings ...who hunt down Will Scarlett, only to let him go. Scarlett is hunting something - but it's not clear what or why.
Overall not a bad episode - seemed to be more of a bridge episode than anything else.
Speaking of...not a bad ice bridge, but I was far more impressed by the snowman that the Snow Queen created. So far, Emma and Regina are the only women in Storybrook who don't have to shop at the Disney clothing stores.



In other tv news? I'm enjoying The 100. That show is getting better with each episode. A lot of tv series seem to get worse with time, the 100 is getting better.
It keeps surprising me. Much faster paced than I thought.
For one thing they found Finn and Bellamy rather fast, and
reunited them with Kane and Abby very quickly. Also Clark and the others got released from Quarantine faster than expected. Normally in these types of series - that takes about five episodes.

Comments

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Although I think the mirror is actually a metaphor for pronounced narcissism in the series and in the fairy tales - considering both the Evil Queen and the Snow Queen use mirrors, and the mirrors only reflect what they wish to see.

I think that's likely true, which gives me hope that Regina's mirror was taken from her.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Yes, this might help Regina..., her mirror was a bit of a crutch, and too strongly identified with the Evil Queen persona.

Also, she is consistently making the choice not to kill people to get what she wants. So progress.