![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatRather loved this episode. Yes, it had its weak moments - note to whomever is directing this - putting everyone in a crowd and having them stand about, doesn't tend to elicit great acting performances. The actors looked rather bored or restrained. But other than that, I loved it.
1. Pan's diabolical plot: So, Peter Pan was going to kill all the people important to Rumplestilskin, and turn the rest into slaves with no memories of who they were - sort of similar to what Regina had done with the previous curse, which Rumple created, except that one had a loop hole. (Unlike Regina and Rumplestilskin, Pan has no redeemable qualities.) To enact this curse - Pan has to do the same things Regina did, including crush the heart of the one thing he loves the most. Felix. Except unlike Regina, Pan is a tad cold-hearted. He loves Felix because he's always been the most loyal, devoted to Pan. In case we hadn't already figured it out - Pan is narcissistic opportunist. I wish I could say I felt sorry for Felix, but honestly, the boy had it coming.
2. Stopping Pan's version of the curse. (Note Pan plans on re-enacting Regina's curse, by keeping everyone in Storybrook with no memories of who they are, just substitute ones, and enslaving them to Pan and he's already re-enacted it - so they can't stop him from doing that, it's already happened, all they can do is undo it). To "undo" the curse - they need to do two things: 1) Get hold of the scroll, which means switch Henry from Pan's body back into his own. (Gosh Darn-it, I liked the other actor better.) This is Rumple's job, to switch the bodies and to get rid of Pan. 2) Have Regina undo the curse (only Regina can undo it, since she enacted it and she must pay a price for doing so, or it won't work) - which would remove Storybrook from our world, where it never belonged and automatically send everyone back to where they'd originated from, with their memories intact. Except this leaves Henry alone in our world, because he was born in our world not the Enchanted Forest. Also Henry would have no memories of Storybrook. The way of remedying this problem is to have Emma, who as the savior, can escape the effects of the curse and actually take Henry out of Storybrook before it dissolves and be with him. Only one problem, neither Emma nor Henry will remember the last two years in Storybrook - they won't remember what happened or any of the people. It will be as if it never happened, and never existed. The people in Storybrook will go back to being nothing more than characters in a story, fairy tales. As Regina states: "To you, all of this, will just go back to being stories in a book, nothing more."
Actually rather like that metaphor...where the past becomes nothing but a story in a book. Or a fairy tale. Dissolved in purple smoke.
Both tasks are far from easy and require major league sacrifices from Regina and Rumplestilskin.
3. Capturing Pan's Shadow and Getting the Black Fairy's Wand - in order to get Henry and Pan back to their original bodies, they require the wand of the Black Fairy (who is most likely Maleficiant but since it is in the Blue Fairy's possession, we aren't told). The Blue Fairy was killed for a reason - to make this difficult. Hook and Tink work together to get the Shadow into the coconut and destroy it. (The healing properties of coconuts know no bounds - they can catch shadows). And we get a brief flashback to Hook and Tink in Neverland. When Hook was willing to sacrifice his life for revenge and nothing else. Here, Tink realizes he's doing it for Emma, not himself and not for revenge, but to help Emma. Hook convinces Tink she has the ability to enact the pixie dust, which she does, and she manages to light the candle and suck the shadow back into the coconut. Then wisely, destroys the coconut and the shadow. (Neal and Charming had nothing to do, but react to Hook and Tink, and look worried. The actor playing Neal/Baelfire must have been bored during this episode. All he gets to do is react and given a brief window of time, and little dialogue to do it with.)
Once the shadow is destroyed, the Blue Fairy is restored. (Okay does that mean Owen is alive and wandering about Neverland?) And she gives Tink back her wings (so to speak), a little speech about all you had to do is believe in yourself ( similar to what she did with Pinnochio), and admits that she was a bit too strict and rigid. (I rather like Tink, I just hate her outfit. I'd state the costume department dislikes women on this series, except I know from the commentary that they think they are dressing them well and in couture. I am admittedly not a fashion maven, but Tink's outfit is tacky. ) At any rate - is this supposed to be the redemption of Hook? The fact he lamely taunted the shadow for Emma? I don't think so.
4. The Redemption of Rumplestilskin. We get a brief flashback into Rumplestilskin - about how he would do anything to find his son. He's son not dead, merely lost. When he's reunited with his father - his father is somewhat cruel and tragically says the same things to Rumplestilskin that Stephen Sondheim's mother had said to him. (So this is unfortunately realistic, there are some people who really should be neutered.) He tells Rumple that he resented his existence from the moment he was born - that Rumple prevented him from having the life he coveted and the opportunities he craved. (Heavy theme regarding caring about someone other than oneself. Apparently Pan never quite got that. Note Pan has no other name but Papa and Pan. Pan never quite managed to care about anyone else. Although...in the previous flashback, he seemed to care enough about his son to have him come with him to Neverland initially, and he stuck with him in the Enchanted Forest - he didn't just abandon him with the Spinsters.)
Anyhow...what happens next is rather karmic. Rumple thinks he can trap Pan using the wrist cuff that Owen used on Regina, except unfortunately Pan designed it. And well, as Rumple stated in previous flashbacks, never create a cage you can't get out of. (Note Rumple always has a loop hole in his spells.) Pan, however, underestimates his son. He believes he hasn't changed - but he has. Rumple does have to make a choice - cut off his hand so he can use magic (ie. hobble himself again) and as we know, he's more than capable of doing that. (Actually I thought about it as they were fighting. Pan, dude, this is Rumple - the guy who deliberately crippled himself, you don't think he could do it again?) OR, kill Pan and himself at the same time. (Which I also thought of as Pan declared there was nothing Rumple could do without magic to stop him.) He wisely selects the latter. Summons his shadow back from the great beyond, bringing with the dagger. By killing his father with his dagger, he undoes his own existence, undoes the existence of the dark one, and removes them both from the field. Leaving behind the scroll. (Note - this was clever on Rumple's part - he doesn't pass the power of the dark one to someone else, instead what he does is undoes the power.)
Rumple's undoing is ultimately his own choice. He choose to undo himself. And by doing so, saves those he loves most.
I liked his lines:
To Baelfire: "I created the curse in order to be reunited with you, to tell you how much I loved you and cared for you. And wanted you to have a happy ending. And you will, just not with me."
To his father:
Pan: Take the dagger out of my back, we can start over, son, we can still have our happy ending. (Rumple would have to be a complete idiot to buy that.)
Rumple: I'm a villain, I don't get a happy ending.
Wraps it back into the idea of stories. And the conversation Regina and Hook had at the beginning of the season - when Owen told her villains don't get happy endings. She'd asked Hook what that meant. Karma is a bit like a boomerang - what you throw out, boomerangs back again. Rumple allowed his father abandonment and actions to define his existence, instead of the spinsters who raised him, and as a result, his father became his undoing - he had to undo himself to undo his father. (I was admittedly surprised they killed off Rumple. Then again he may not be completely gone? He could return in flashbacks?)
I can't say I felt much sympathy for Belle. They've written their relationship poorly. Personally, I think she's better off without him. Maybe she'll get a bit more back-bone and they'll do a better job of writing her? Well, one could hope. Neal/Baelfire, however, was stoic about the whole thing. He did bow his head and look upset. I didn't expect much more. I do feel sorry for him - he's losing everything, his father, Emma, and his son - all in one day no less, plus he's getting flung back to the Enchanted Forest again. Like a bloody boomerang. Poor guy can't catch a break - but then again he does have a lot to answer for. So he probably deserves a little of it?
5. The Redemption of Regina - or Undoing the Curse. Like Rumplestilskin, Regina has to undo what she did. Stilskin undoes his power and ultimately himself. And when Regina undoes the curse, she will never see the one person she loves the most ever again. She must give him up completely. Considering - that obtaining Henry was what had made enacting the curse worthwhile, this is truly painful and karmic. We also get a brief flashback depicting what her curse did to Emma's family - Snow and Charming debate sending Emma away from them, losing her forever - their child, the one thing they love most. But they hang on to the hope that they will see her again, that she will unravel the curse. Regina doesn't even get that, as a villain, she doesn't deserve a happy ending.
But, here's where Regina's true redemption comes into play - she can give Emma and Henry one.
She tells Emma that while Emma will not remember anything about Storybrook, nor will Henry.
She can ensure that Emma and Henry have each other and remember each other. While she can't prevent them from losing their memories of Storybrook, which never belonged there to begin with and was an abomination due to the curse, she can however replace the memories of their past, prior to Storybrook, with new false memories. She can make it so that they always had each other. That Emma remembers choosing to raise Henry, that she never gave him up. In short, Regina gives Emma the life she wished she had. The choice that she wishes she had taken. Which was to have chosen to raise Henry and not have given him up - resulting in him landing in Storybrook. It's a marvelous gift and an ironic one - because in getting what she always wanted, Emma loses her family again - they are once again torn from her along with everything she'd learned about them. Henry also loses them along with Regina, who he realizes did love him. (Another brief flashback, shows Henry upset about his mothers - the biological one who gave him up and clearly never cared about him, and the adoptive one who doesn't appear to love him. So Mary Margaret gives him a book of fairy tales that she states magically appeared one day from an unknown source (Pinnochio/August). She tells him that they are stories about hope. He declares they are nothing but fairy tales, stories. But isn't that what stories are? They provide hope, a means to survive the darkness...to hope for a happy ending. Stories are magical.
Now, in present day, Regina informs them that she must undo the curse - because Storybrook doesn't belong here, it never did. And to stop this new curse - she must undo it, erase it. And "to you, Emma, we will go back to being just stories in a book. Fairy Tales. Once the town dissolves, you won't remember any of it. It will won't have existed outside of stories you've read in a book."
The goodbyes are painfully brief. Neal/Baelfire who must go back again to the Enchanted Forest, tells them that this is not Goodbye forever. He will see them both again. (Keep in mind he's figured out how to get to their land twice now.) And Hook tells Emma he won't forget her, hoping perhaps that she'll remember him. (Neal actually had a better chance of that. Since she knew Neal prior to Storybrook. It's only the period in Storybrook she forgot, and well the years after she gave up Henry, which Regina replaced with new memories. Memories - Emma states aren't real. But Regina states, your future will be.) And she embraces her mother for the last time...[As an aside, while I was watching these tearful goodbyes, it occurred to me that there's two characters from the Enchanted Forest that could find their way back to Emma's world and pop in on her - Hook and Neal. Mainly because both have done it before - without all that much incentive. They know how to work portholes and more important how to find them.]
I rather liked how this series emphasizes the mother relationships over the father. These relationships seem to be stronger and healthier. Unlike so many other series I've seen, this one seems to focus on feminine power, not masculain, and mothers. Usually it's fathers reuniting and the heroes, with the sick mother holding them back.
After their goodbyes, Emma and Henry get in the little volkswagon bug and take off...driving across the county line, as Storybrook and their family and friends slowly dissolve behind them. The green smoke turning purple as Regina's power takes over and undoes it all.
Regina's choice to provide Henry with Emma, to let go of him, and to undo the curse and it wrought...is a major one. And redeems her. She had to pay the price of her actions by losing the one thing she loved most. Just as Rumplestilskin had to pay a price by losing his life.
Both had to give up their happy endings. Although Regina could still be reunited with Henry somewhere down the line and could still have a happy ending. Of the two, Rumplestilskin was by far the more devilish.
So two redemptions for the price of one, and actually I think they were handled fairly well.
Both track. And the price both paid were ironic. This show is actually well plotted and the character arcs are nicely done. My main quibbles with it have to do with direction, costume design, and dialogue - which admittedly is difficult with a huge cast.
Rather liked the fact that Regina had to finally undo the curse. It was the ending I'd wanted last year and sort of expected. But the way they did it admittedly works a whole lot better this year. I have a feeling this was pre-planned, if it wasn't - it certainly looks like it. And it works on two levels - one as an ending. Two as a means of opening up new story possibilities, without repeating old ones, and rebooting the series in a brand new way.
In other words - you could end the entire series with that ending (because it's not necessarily a cliff-hanger) or you could continue. In short - great season ending, best I've seen to date.
6. But...wait, that's not the end. "One year later." Okay, this surprised me. I was expecting the episode to end with the car going across the line and the smoke dissolving the town. If this were a mini-series or movie, then it would have ended there. It's actually an excellent mid-season ending, in some respects far better than last year's mid-season ending.
(I rather like this approach of splitting the season into two parts. Season 3, part I - Fall, with its own ending. Then Season 3, part II - whole new story, with new villain, and its own ending. This makes the show easier to follow and less jarring. Also holds audience interest better.)
One year later - we get to see that Emma and Henry are happily ensconced in Boston. They live in a great apartment - damn I want that apartment, with a cool alarm clock (where do you get that clock - is it a timer?) Having a great breakfast. When all of a sudden someone knocks on their door, rather hard and insistently. Emma opens it and guess who? Hook. [He probably found a porthole and sailed his ship there or had Tink help him.] Of course he assumes that if he kisses her - she'll remember him. Nope. She kicks him, and deservedly so, in the balls. I mean come on - a guy shows up at your door in a pirate costume, complete with a hook for a hand, a devilish smile, and as if he popped out of a Disney movie...what would you do? And he tells her - that he's here on urgent business, her family's in trouble and in desperate need of her help, there's a horrible threat...Emma slams the door in his face. And tells Henry that someone must have left the downstairs door unlocked. Hook, your work is cut out for you. (Seriously, Neal would have been a better choice. Although Hook may turn out to be the more interesting one - because he has to convince her. And well, would you believe Hook?)
1. Pan's diabolical plot: So, Peter Pan was going to kill all the people important to Rumplestilskin, and turn the rest into slaves with no memories of who they were - sort of similar to what Regina had done with the previous curse, which Rumple created, except that one had a loop hole. (Unlike Regina and Rumplestilskin, Pan has no redeemable qualities.) To enact this curse - Pan has to do the same things Regina did, including crush the heart of the one thing he loves the most. Felix. Except unlike Regina, Pan is a tad cold-hearted. He loves Felix because he's always been the most loyal, devoted to Pan. In case we hadn't already figured it out - Pan is narcissistic opportunist. I wish I could say I felt sorry for Felix, but honestly, the boy had it coming.
2. Stopping Pan's version of the curse. (Note Pan plans on re-enacting Regina's curse, by keeping everyone in Storybrook with no memories of who they are, just substitute ones, and enslaving them to Pan and he's already re-enacted it - so they can't stop him from doing that, it's already happened, all they can do is undo it). To "undo" the curse - they need to do two things: 1) Get hold of the scroll, which means switch Henry from Pan's body back into his own. (Gosh Darn-it, I liked the other actor better.) This is Rumple's job, to switch the bodies and to get rid of Pan. 2) Have Regina undo the curse (only Regina can undo it, since she enacted it and she must pay a price for doing so, or it won't work) - which would remove Storybrook from our world, where it never belonged and automatically send everyone back to where they'd originated from, with their memories intact. Except this leaves Henry alone in our world, because he was born in our world not the Enchanted Forest. Also Henry would have no memories of Storybrook. The way of remedying this problem is to have Emma, who as the savior, can escape the effects of the curse and actually take Henry out of Storybrook before it dissolves and be with him. Only one problem, neither Emma nor Henry will remember the last two years in Storybrook - they won't remember what happened or any of the people. It will be as if it never happened, and never existed. The people in Storybrook will go back to being nothing more than characters in a story, fairy tales. As Regina states: "To you, all of this, will just go back to being stories in a book, nothing more."
Actually rather like that metaphor...where the past becomes nothing but a story in a book. Or a fairy tale. Dissolved in purple smoke.
Both tasks are far from easy and require major league sacrifices from Regina and Rumplestilskin.
3. Capturing Pan's Shadow and Getting the Black Fairy's Wand - in order to get Henry and Pan back to their original bodies, they require the wand of the Black Fairy (who is most likely Maleficiant but since it is in the Blue Fairy's possession, we aren't told). The Blue Fairy was killed for a reason - to make this difficult. Hook and Tink work together to get the Shadow into the coconut and destroy it. (The healing properties of coconuts know no bounds - they can catch shadows). And we get a brief flashback to Hook and Tink in Neverland. When Hook was willing to sacrifice his life for revenge and nothing else. Here, Tink realizes he's doing it for Emma, not himself and not for revenge, but to help Emma. Hook convinces Tink she has the ability to enact the pixie dust, which she does, and she manages to light the candle and suck the shadow back into the coconut. Then wisely, destroys the coconut and the shadow. (Neal and Charming had nothing to do, but react to Hook and Tink, and look worried. The actor playing Neal/Baelfire must have been bored during this episode. All he gets to do is react and given a brief window of time, and little dialogue to do it with.)
Once the shadow is destroyed, the Blue Fairy is restored. (Okay does that mean Owen is alive and wandering about Neverland?) And she gives Tink back her wings (so to speak), a little speech about all you had to do is believe in yourself ( similar to what she did with Pinnochio), and admits that she was a bit too strict and rigid. (I rather like Tink, I just hate her outfit. I'd state the costume department dislikes women on this series, except I know from the commentary that they think they are dressing them well and in couture. I am admittedly not a fashion maven, but Tink's outfit is tacky. ) At any rate - is this supposed to be the redemption of Hook? The fact he lamely taunted the shadow for Emma? I don't think so.
4. The Redemption of Rumplestilskin. We get a brief flashback into Rumplestilskin - about how he would do anything to find his son. He's son not dead, merely lost. When he's reunited with his father - his father is somewhat cruel and tragically says the same things to Rumplestilskin that Stephen Sondheim's mother had said to him. (So this is unfortunately realistic, there are some people who really should be neutered.) He tells Rumple that he resented his existence from the moment he was born - that Rumple prevented him from having the life he coveted and the opportunities he craved. (Heavy theme regarding caring about someone other than oneself. Apparently Pan never quite got that. Note Pan has no other name but Papa and Pan. Pan never quite managed to care about anyone else. Although...in the previous flashback, he seemed to care enough about his son to have him come with him to Neverland initially, and he stuck with him in the Enchanted Forest - he didn't just abandon him with the Spinsters.)
Anyhow...what happens next is rather karmic. Rumple thinks he can trap Pan using the wrist cuff that Owen used on Regina, except unfortunately Pan designed it. And well, as Rumple stated in previous flashbacks, never create a cage you can't get out of. (Note Rumple always has a loop hole in his spells.) Pan, however, underestimates his son. He believes he hasn't changed - but he has. Rumple does have to make a choice - cut off his hand so he can use magic (ie. hobble himself again) and as we know, he's more than capable of doing that. (Actually I thought about it as they were fighting. Pan, dude, this is Rumple - the guy who deliberately crippled himself, you don't think he could do it again?) OR, kill Pan and himself at the same time. (Which I also thought of as Pan declared there was nothing Rumple could do without magic to stop him.) He wisely selects the latter. Summons his shadow back from the great beyond, bringing with the dagger. By killing his father with his dagger, he undoes his own existence, undoes the existence of the dark one, and removes them both from the field. Leaving behind the scroll. (Note - this was clever on Rumple's part - he doesn't pass the power of the dark one to someone else, instead what he does is undoes the power.)
Rumple's undoing is ultimately his own choice. He choose to undo himself. And by doing so, saves those he loves most.
I liked his lines:
To Baelfire: "I created the curse in order to be reunited with you, to tell you how much I loved you and cared for you. And wanted you to have a happy ending. And you will, just not with me."
To his father:
Pan: Take the dagger out of my back, we can start over, son, we can still have our happy ending. (Rumple would have to be a complete idiot to buy that.)
Rumple: I'm a villain, I don't get a happy ending.
Wraps it back into the idea of stories. And the conversation Regina and Hook had at the beginning of the season - when Owen told her villains don't get happy endings. She'd asked Hook what that meant. Karma is a bit like a boomerang - what you throw out, boomerangs back again. Rumple allowed his father abandonment and actions to define his existence, instead of the spinsters who raised him, and as a result, his father became his undoing - he had to undo himself to undo his father. (I was admittedly surprised they killed off Rumple. Then again he may not be completely gone? He could return in flashbacks?)
I can't say I felt much sympathy for Belle. They've written their relationship poorly. Personally, I think she's better off without him. Maybe she'll get a bit more back-bone and they'll do a better job of writing her? Well, one could hope. Neal/Baelfire, however, was stoic about the whole thing. He did bow his head and look upset. I didn't expect much more. I do feel sorry for him - he's losing everything, his father, Emma, and his son - all in one day no less, plus he's getting flung back to the Enchanted Forest again. Like a bloody boomerang. Poor guy can't catch a break - but then again he does have a lot to answer for. So he probably deserves a little of it?
5. The Redemption of Regina - or Undoing the Curse. Like Rumplestilskin, Regina has to undo what she did. Stilskin undoes his power and ultimately himself. And when Regina undoes the curse, she will never see the one person she loves the most ever again. She must give him up completely. Considering - that obtaining Henry was what had made enacting the curse worthwhile, this is truly painful and karmic. We also get a brief flashback depicting what her curse did to Emma's family - Snow and Charming debate sending Emma away from them, losing her forever - their child, the one thing they love most. But they hang on to the hope that they will see her again, that she will unravel the curse. Regina doesn't even get that, as a villain, she doesn't deserve a happy ending.
But, here's where Regina's true redemption comes into play - she can give Emma and Henry one.
She tells Emma that while Emma will not remember anything about Storybrook, nor will Henry.
She can ensure that Emma and Henry have each other and remember each other. While she can't prevent them from losing their memories of Storybrook, which never belonged there to begin with and was an abomination due to the curse, she can however replace the memories of their past, prior to Storybrook, with new false memories. She can make it so that they always had each other. That Emma remembers choosing to raise Henry, that she never gave him up. In short, Regina gives Emma the life she wished she had. The choice that she wishes she had taken. Which was to have chosen to raise Henry and not have given him up - resulting in him landing in Storybrook. It's a marvelous gift and an ironic one - because in getting what she always wanted, Emma loses her family again - they are once again torn from her along with everything she'd learned about them. Henry also loses them along with Regina, who he realizes did love him. (Another brief flashback, shows Henry upset about his mothers - the biological one who gave him up and clearly never cared about him, and the adoptive one who doesn't appear to love him. So Mary Margaret gives him a book of fairy tales that she states magically appeared one day from an unknown source (Pinnochio/August). She tells him that they are stories about hope. He declares they are nothing but fairy tales, stories. But isn't that what stories are? They provide hope, a means to survive the darkness...to hope for a happy ending. Stories are magical.
Now, in present day, Regina informs them that she must undo the curse - because Storybrook doesn't belong here, it never did. And to stop this new curse - she must undo it, erase it. And "to you, Emma, we will go back to being just stories in a book. Fairy Tales. Once the town dissolves, you won't remember any of it. It will won't have existed outside of stories you've read in a book."
The goodbyes are painfully brief. Neal/Baelfire who must go back again to the Enchanted Forest, tells them that this is not Goodbye forever. He will see them both again. (Keep in mind he's figured out how to get to their land twice now.) And Hook tells Emma he won't forget her, hoping perhaps that she'll remember him. (Neal actually had a better chance of that. Since she knew Neal prior to Storybrook. It's only the period in Storybrook she forgot, and well the years after she gave up Henry, which Regina replaced with new memories. Memories - Emma states aren't real. But Regina states, your future will be.) And she embraces her mother for the last time...[As an aside, while I was watching these tearful goodbyes, it occurred to me that there's two characters from the Enchanted Forest that could find their way back to Emma's world and pop in on her - Hook and Neal. Mainly because both have done it before - without all that much incentive. They know how to work portholes and more important how to find them.]
I rather liked how this series emphasizes the mother relationships over the father. These relationships seem to be stronger and healthier. Unlike so many other series I've seen, this one seems to focus on feminine power, not masculain, and mothers. Usually it's fathers reuniting and the heroes, with the sick mother holding them back.
After their goodbyes, Emma and Henry get in the little volkswagon bug and take off...driving across the county line, as Storybrook and their family and friends slowly dissolve behind them. The green smoke turning purple as Regina's power takes over and undoes it all.
Regina's choice to provide Henry with Emma, to let go of him, and to undo the curse and it wrought...is a major one. And redeems her. She had to pay the price of her actions by losing the one thing she loved most. Just as Rumplestilskin had to pay a price by losing his life.
Both had to give up their happy endings. Although Regina could still be reunited with Henry somewhere down the line and could still have a happy ending. Of the two, Rumplestilskin was by far the more devilish.
So two redemptions for the price of one, and actually I think they were handled fairly well.
Both track. And the price both paid were ironic. This show is actually well plotted and the character arcs are nicely done. My main quibbles with it have to do with direction, costume design, and dialogue - which admittedly is difficult with a huge cast.
Rather liked the fact that Regina had to finally undo the curse. It was the ending I'd wanted last year and sort of expected. But the way they did it admittedly works a whole lot better this year. I have a feeling this was pre-planned, if it wasn't - it certainly looks like it. And it works on two levels - one as an ending. Two as a means of opening up new story possibilities, without repeating old ones, and rebooting the series in a brand new way.
In other words - you could end the entire series with that ending (because it's not necessarily a cliff-hanger) or you could continue. In short - great season ending, best I've seen to date.
6. But...wait, that's not the end. "One year later." Okay, this surprised me. I was expecting the episode to end with the car going across the line and the smoke dissolving the town. If this were a mini-series or movie, then it would have ended there. It's actually an excellent mid-season ending, in some respects far better than last year's mid-season ending.
(I rather like this approach of splitting the season into two parts. Season 3, part I - Fall, with its own ending. Then Season 3, part II - whole new story, with new villain, and its own ending. This makes the show easier to follow and less jarring. Also holds audience interest better.)
One year later - we get to see that Emma and Henry are happily ensconced in Boston. They live in a great apartment - damn I want that apartment, with a cool alarm clock (where do you get that clock - is it a timer?) Having a great breakfast. When all of a sudden someone knocks on their door, rather hard and insistently. Emma opens it and guess who? Hook. [He probably found a porthole and sailed his ship there or had Tink help him.] Of course he assumes that if he kisses her - she'll remember him. Nope. She kicks him, and deservedly so, in the balls. I mean come on - a guy shows up at your door in a pirate costume, complete with a hook for a hand, a devilish smile, and as if he popped out of a Disney movie...what would you do? And he tells her - that he's here on urgent business, her family's in trouble and in desperate need of her help, there's a horrible threat...Emma slams the door in his face. And tells Henry that someone must have left the downstairs door unlocked. Hook, your work is cut out for you. (Seriously, Neal would have been a better choice. Although Hook may turn out to be the more interesting one - because he has to convince her. And well, would you believe Hook?)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-12-17 05:36 am (UTC)Do you know if the actor who played Rumple wanted out of the show, or had another acting job pending? It did really surprise me that he was killed off. I was figuring he might have ended up in Pandora's box together with Pan.
So was Pan "the boy who will be his undoing", and not Henry? You may recall I wondered about that back when everyone was in Neverland.
Being a fan of the Regina character (perhaps she's to me like Spike was to some Buffy fans. But then, I was/am a Faith fan, too, so maybe it's just a thing I have) I was very pleased with the way she finally got to do some truly unselfish things not only for the good of Henry but for the others in Storybrooke.
However, I very much doubt that she'll never see Henry or Emma again-- clearly Hook showing up means that Emma (and likely Henry) are going back to the Enchanted Forest next year.
I had trouble following a lot of the details of the curse/it's undoing, like as to who remembers what and where and etc. etc. I was under the impression that Emma and Henry would remember Storybrooke, but in order to spare Henry from bad memories of his time there, Regina adjusted the magicks to give them false memories-- such as Emma never giving up Henry for adoption.
I can't see how this isn't going to be undone next year-- that is, Emma and Henry will remember their time in Storybrooke. If they don't have this history in mind, how are they going to go back to the Enchanted Forest and save Snow and Charming and everyone from whatever danger they're in currently?
Hook trying to give Emma "true love's kiss" seems to imply he thought that would bring those memories back. If true, I'm going to place a guess now that Snow will kiss Emma and restore her memories, and Regina will kiss Henry and restore his. (The latter would provide a nice callback to Emma kissing Henry and lifting the curse from Storybrooke.)
One more guess-- failing to convince Emma to come with him willingly-- and why would she, this guy who just showed up at her door one day is clearly a wacko, no matter how dangerously handsome he is-- he'll simply kidnap her and portal back to the Enchanted Forest.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-17 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-19 12:16 am (UTC)While he states it was admittedly a long shot...it's pretty clear that Emma and Henry aren't cursed. Their loss of their memories...had to do with the fact that from their perspective and well the perspective of the land without magic (ie our world) storybrook never actually existed. Regina gave Emma and Henry memories - replacing their old ones - but also not a curse.
I had trouble following a lot of the details of the curse/it's undoing, like as to who remembers what and where and etc. etc. I was under the impression that Emma and Henry would remember Storybrooke, but in order to spare Henry from bad memories of his time there, Regina adjusted the magicks to give them false memories-- such as Emma never giving up Henry for adoption.
It's hard to hear - I rewound several times and figured it out.
There's two things going on. One - Pan uses the curse and re-enacts it, except to instill the memories he wants in everyone, and erasing their own, with a caveat - he's killing everyone who was close to his father. Emma can't break this new curse or re-enactment because she's not tied to it like she was to the original version. In order to stop Pan from erasing everyone's memories/instilling his own and remaking Storybrook into Neverland...Rumplestilskin explains that Regina must use the scroll to completely undo her original curse, the foundation of Pan's, and only she can do it. When she undoes her original curse - it will cancel out Pan's curse completely - as if it never existed. Sort of similar to Rumplestilskin killing Pan with his dagger - he cancels himself out, because Rumplestilskin came from Pan, and he cancels out the dark one's magic - undoing all three.
Think of the curse in the same way - she undoes both, by undoing the original. IT works better if you don't overthink it.
When Regina undoes the curse - the result will be that everyone who did not originate in our world goes back to their own. Except for Emma - who can outrun the undoing of the curse - because she's the savior (or rather she was the loop-hole in the curse originally. This means Emma has a choice, she can either go with everyone else - abandoning Henry, or stay - and have no memory of the last two years.
Note only Henry and Emma forget the last two years - because everyone in the land without magic forgets anything to do with Storybrook. These memories fade into fairy stories once again, and worlds separate from each other.
The people who went back to the Enchanted Forest get to remember everything.
No one can give them their memories back - they are "undone" along with the curse. All Regina could do was provide new ones to replace the negative pre-existing memories. And because they have no memories of Storybrook - they won't miss anyone from Storybrook.
Make sense?