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]

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.