Once Upon a Time - S3 - part I of the two part Winter Finale

[shadowkat]

Okay, kudos to masqthephlsphr who figured out that Pan had a much bigger agenda.



[Anyone else getting tired of the hashtag ad at the end ..."@Pan*Never*Fails"? Just me, then. Actually the constant reference to twitter is beginning to annoy me. I find twitter really hard to follow or read. It has all these symbols and address smack in the middle.]

1. Anyhow...Pan's great plan appears to do the curse in Storybrook, so he can turn Storybrook into another Neverland and control it. In short, if he can't have Neverland, fine, he'll take over Henry's body and turn Henry's hometown into Neverland. Not a problem. Pan is a really a piece of work - although he does explain Rumplestilskin. Keep in mind Rumple created the curse in order to get to the land without magic to find his son. Now dear old dad plans on using it to regain his childhood ideal for eternity. Poor Rumple, he has everything he wants right now and his father is about to rip it away from him AGAIN.

2. Emma figured out that Henry wasn't Henry fairly quickly. Mainly because Pan was too busy working Regina to worry about Emma, he also pretty much figured out if he could manipulate Regina into getting him into the fault to get a hold of the curse, the rest would work itself out. He's right about that.

3. I wonder if the reason the Shadow killed the Blue Fairy is she posed some sort of threat to his plan or provided the possibility of aiding Tinkerbell?

4. Hook attempts to flirt with Tink, but Tink is having none of it. She knows he's just killing time until he can get to Emma.

5. Hook is right about one thing - there's no guarantee Emma will let Neal back into her heart. He did hurt her after all (*cough*Tamara*cough*) and is going to have to work on it. (I felt Neal was wandering around a lot with no clear idea of what to do with himself. Hook seemed to have more to do or more purpose. The writing there was a bit off. ) As he put it - I'm in it for the long-haul. You took off on her once before, after all. I can afford to be patient.

6. Speaking of Hook, I love Charming's response to Emma's query.

Emma: Are you sure this isn't just your way to keep me away from Hook?
Charming: How can you think I'm interested in Hook. I'm a married man, after all.
(LOL! The writers appear to be aware of the Captain Charming slash fans and decided to give them a bit of a shout-out. )

7. Rumple is a bit too well-adjusted. He has Belle, he has Baelfire, and he no longer needs his cane. Plus he's willing to do magic without asking for a favor in return. Something has to give.

8. The flashbacks were, I'm sorry, distracting. I'm not overly fond of the Charming flashbacks. (I liked the adventure, just found it to be rather stupid and jarring at times.) I do get why they did it - they emphasized the fact that you need to enjoy the moments and not constantly be living in dread of the next horrible thing. This is actually a nice parallel to Regina's flashback last week - where she takes a potion to let go of her dread and focus on Henry, here Snow and Charming choose to finally, ignore Regina, and focus on a family. Meanwhile in Storybrook they are attempting to convince Emma to more or less do the same thing - but Emma knows she doesn't get days off, she has to be always on.

9. Ah...Ariel got back together with Eric (enjoy it while it lasts...because Pan is about to tear you apart to get his way again. The dude is beyond evil and makes Cora seems rather nice in comparison.)

10. So...what happens to everyone when Pan does the curse, which we know he will? Is it a reset button? God, I hope not. We do not want to relive S1 except with no end in sight.
No, it should do something different. Send everyone back where they came from? But where does Emma go? OR Baelfire? And wouldn't Pan and the Lost Boys be sent somewhere else?
Or do they just lose their memories and get new ones?

I don't know about this latest plot thread...but it's obviously going to be the main story for the Spring. (which means the curse is going to happen, dang it, although they might kill Pan before it does). It could be good, but if it is just repeat of Season 1 except with a twist, I'm going to be annoyed. Just as I'm going to be annoyed if we go back to EVIL!Regina and devolve all the characters. (I can't see them doing that...because that would boring to write.) Also, I'm wondering if they plan on using it as a means of putting Emma and Hook together? OR putting Emma and Neal together? (Not sure where that love triangle is headed. Probably a good thing I like both options at the moment? Although they do need to write Neal and Hook better and please give them something to do other than vie for Emma's affections.
Because I currently like Emma, but if she's stuck in a love triangle for to long - she'll come across as wishy-washy and annoying like her father did in the second season.)

Comments

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

My suspicion at this point is they will not quite resolve the will-the-new-curse-happen-or-not-happen at the end of next week. We will be left dangling for two and a half months wondering if Emma&co succeeded in preventing it.

But I don't think they'll drag out the curse for more than one episode if they *do* do it. Something else twisty will happen, because the same day repeating is an episode they already did.

Beyond that, I am not doing much more speculating. astrogirl2 and I bitca-and-moaned last week about how the show was going to do a Pan-Henry body switch arc that would go on for episode after episode of Pan manipulating Regina, reigniting the feud between Regina and the Charmings, and that happened for about twenty minutes total (all to the refrain of Masq groaning, "yep, yep, this is so predictable!") before that bubble was popped this week.

That said, I think this is Rumplestiltskin's season, and he will be both target victim and key to resolving the issue in the weeks months to come.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Oh, also meant to comment on the obviousness of Ginnifer Goodwin's pregnancy. I have heard that supposedly they might hide it in capes, but she already is looking a bit rounder in her wedding dress and white heroine-suit.

Snow and Charming talking about getting pregnant, though, you'd think the writers would just let Snow get pregnant as well to explain the character's baby bump/weight gain.

Either way, one wonders if her child will come out resembling the actress who plays Emma.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes...I was surprised that she didn't just tell Charming she was already pregnant in the flashbacks and that was the reason she wanted to find a way to stop Regina.

I think they are planning to write it in - although now I wonder, since it looks like they are going to re-enact a curse. I hope it doesn't separate the Charmings AGAIN...because that will annoy me.

Good thing about babies on tv shows though...you can't tell who they resemble.
But they are also very difficult to work with.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Which is why I think there will be more flashbacks to Snow's pregnancy with Emma at the very least (but having laid the groundwork for a pregnancy in the present, I'm betting it gets worked into the plot as well. Wouldn't want to work that sort of thing into the story until the second trimester because it would really suck for the actress to play out a pregnancy plot if she miscarried early on).

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

Oh so that's why they had Snow in those hideous flashback outfits? I assumed it was just part of the OUaT's costume dept's continuing vendetta against the show's actresses - though judging from Tink's costume, Ariel's shoes, and every fairytale outfit ever I'm still thinking vengeance of some kind.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think we'll see the curse enacted...the cliff-hanger is going to be:

1. Can Regina protect the town from the curse with her magic or find a way of stopping it?

2. Can Rumple find a way of breaking it?

3. If they can't what does it do exactly and what are the results?

These writers sort of like doing the worst case scenario then seeing if they can write their way out of it, and all within the space of one or two or three episodes.

I admittedly was surprised that they figured out that Henry and Peter Pan flipped places as quickly as they did. And kudos to Emma for figuring out that releasing Pan from the box was the best way of getting to the bottom of what was going on. And finding a way of convincing everyone else to go along with her.

I agree with you, that this is Rumplestilskin's season - just like last season was Regina's. The villain this season is after all his father - who has, much like Regina's mother did, defined his life and his actions. Everything he's done - including the decision to fight in the Ogre War, was to avoid becoming like his father or acknowledging his father. His father is the one person that Rumple has not come to terms with. Also, I think this season is more Charming's season than Snow's - or about Charming's relationship with Emma. Just as last season focused more on Snow's relationship with her daughter. I think there's going to be a heavier focus on father/child relationships this season, with the mother/child relationship shown in a lesser degree, but still vitally important.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I get irritated at television's emphasis on father stories, especially father/son stories (which male writers would of course know intimately), but less so on this show, that has given mother/daughter and mother/son relationships their due.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

This show is unique in how it has spent more time on the mother/son and mother/daughter relationships than the father/son. It even sort of goes against the trope - usually we'd have the bounty hunter/sheriff be a Dad who is brought into town by his kid. But her it's a Mom. Really goes against established tropes from the get-go.

Also...the father's are interesting.

Rumplestilskin and Baelfire are abandoned by the mother, prior to their father leaving them.

Charming was abandoned by his father and raised by his mother (while his evil brother James was raised by an evil father).

Lots of deadbeat dads in this series.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

[Anyone else getting tired of the hashtag ad at the end ..."@Pan*Never*Fails"? Just me, then. Actually the constant reference to twitter is beginning to annoy me. I find twitter really hard to follow or read. It has all these symbols and address smack in the middle.]

Most OTT example of this I remember was on Nashville where they began promoting #WillandLayla, as though that were an actual ship that people shipped. Problem being...well, not only are Will and Layla fictional, this "ship" is fictional in the show as it was all music industry construct. And then there's...

Oh yeah, Will is gay and Layla is a bitch and a show newbie... so why would anyone watching give a shit about the "pairing" again?


Henry's hometown into Neverland. Not a problem. Pan is a really a piece of work

Oh yeah, Pan is a narcissistic asshole... which I suppose makes "Peter Pan Syndrome" make a lot of sense. ;)

3. I wonder if the reason the Shadow killed the Blue Fairy is she posed some sort of threat to his plan or provided the possibility of aiding Tinkerbell?
So is Tink taking the place of the Blue Fairy on the show? (Doesn't bother me if so. Tink is more interesting anyway.)

Emma: Are you sure this isn't just your way to keep me away from Hook?
Charming: How can you think I'm interested in Hook. I'm a married man, after all.

Hee!

I do get why they did it - they emphasized the fact that you need to enjoy the moments and not constantly be living in dread
And most probably to ramp up the subplot of another Snow/Charming child, which is no doubt becoming essential on the show's part what with the couple (also a couple in real life) announcing that she's pregnant. So probably more flashbacks to the Emma pregnancy and a Snow/Charming pregnancy in the near future. (Which might be interesting if they go into reset mode. Because would a pregnancy stand still for the curse? I can't remember, did Cinderella's? Not that the show has to adhere to what happened last time)

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

No fans seem to be mourning the Blue Fairy's passing, but it was so sudden and presented in a scary fashion that it makes me wonder if (1) they will find a way to resurrect her (I am not privy to casting spoilers), if only to give Tink more of a mother-daughter style conflict storyline, which is what I expected to see for her, or (2) next week ought to start off with a funeral in which the characters get all hot under the collar from this, because in not-well-sold canon, they all like the Blue Fairy and consider her a friend.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

They clearly did it for a reason - also why her? Why not one of the many other characters? That's what I've been trying to figure out. Why did Pan send the Shadow after her specifically? I get why he released the Shadow, in order to get Regina to take him to the vault. But why did he choose the Blue Fairy?
Or was it meant to be random?

Probably over-thinking it. Never a good thing with tv shows.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

I don't think it was random at all. I'm pretty sure fairy dust, or something else the Blue Fairy could have done, will be the key to foiling Pan.

The only other explanation is a Meta one, that the actress was leaving the show never to return, so the writers decided to kill off her character for dramatic value. But the writers don't really do very many drama-no-plot-reason deaths (Graham is the only one I can think of), and they very rarely do anything that doesn't have a *specific* plot reason. The show is too tightly plotted for that.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I think you are most likely right and that there's something about the fairy dust that is key to foiling Pan. Also, in the flashback, the reason Rumple's father (PAN) is climbing the tree and stumbles across the Shadow - is that he is attempting to get "pixie dust" in order to be able to fly.

Actually that flashback in the episode where Henry gives his heart to Pan, is packed with information.

* the importance of pixie dust to Pan (required for flying)
* Pan apparently will do anything to get magic
* Rumple was too afraid to climb the try, so Pan did instead (what would have happened if Rumple had climbed it?)
* Pan makes a deal with the Shadow, otherwise he probably would have fallen to his death.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Problem being...well, not only are Will and Layla fictional, this "ship" is fictional in the show as it was all music industry construct. And then there's...

Oh yeah, Will is gay and Layla is a bitch and a show newbie... so why would anyone watching give a shit about the "pairing" again?

I'd forgotten that. But yes, weird. A hash-tag that would make more sense is either Juliet/Avery or Zoe/Gunner. But Will/Layla???? LOL!

Silly marketing people aren't watching the show. (They actually pay people to do nothing but play on twitter or facebook all day long believe it or not.)

Oh yeah, Pan is a narcissistic asshole... which I suppose makes "Peter Pan Syndrome" make a lot of sense. ;)

Hee. True.

But.

Was hoping for a few layers though or at the very least a back story/flashback explanation, which we did eventually get with Cora. Actually considering we got it 75% through the season and right before Cora was killed, it could still happen with Pan. Probably be right before they kill him off.

Right now, Cora seems more complex than Pan does. Although I'll give Pan points for being more diabolical and clever. He's the dark trickster taken to the extreme, sort of makes Rumplestilskin seem rather nice in comparison.

So is Tink taking the place of the Blue Fairy on the show? (Doesn't bother me if so. Tink is more interesting anyway.)

Wondered much the same thing. Although killing the Blue Fairy seemed rather deliberate and Pan doesn't do anything randomly. The man is an obsessive planner and plotter. I still think it has something to do with magic.

Which means, he may not know Tink was able to reanimate the pixie dust. Or can get her powers back without the blue fairy's help. So Tink may well be taking her place.

I admittedly didn't care what happened to the Blue Fairy, the character grated on my nerves. Was more or less happy they killed her off.

Which might be interesting if they go into reset mode. Because would a pregnancy stand still for the curse? I can't remember, did Cinderella's? Not that the show has to adhere to what happened last time)

Yup it stood still for Cinderella. She was pregnant for 28 years. LOL! (I remember because I thought it was hilarious at the time and only a male writer would come up with such an evil ploy.) She doesn't go into labor until Emma interacts with her. Emma basically jump-started everyone she came into contact with.

God, I hope they don't do it again. I'm leery of this curse being re-enacted, because I did not find cursed Storybrook interesting. The second season was a lot better than the first season.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Hah, no Twitter hash tags in internet streaming. No commercials or previews as well, although if I were so inclined, I could see the previews on YouTube.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

The previews do provide certain key information. For example - that the body-switch was going to be revealed in the next episode. I have to keep reminding myself that most of the people online aren't privy to the previews so they count as spoilers.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

As mentioned, I could watch previews if I wanted on YouTube, but I avoid them purposely as spoilers.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Figured as much, I edited this post and responses with that in mind.