Tuesday, March 26, 2013

OUAT 2.17 & 2.18

Hey there followers! My thanks to all of you for continuing to check in, despite my lack of posting recently. My string of migraines has made serious work of any kind difficult, although we now believe we have them under control. Also I was out of town this past weekend for a wedding, and didn't touch my computer once. Always nice to take a break from addicting things every once in awhile...

"Forget the personal stuff!" you say. "What about Once Upon a Time?!?"

Patience, guys. I'm getting there. Just have to tack on a spoiler warning...

SPOILERS BELOW

There we go. Now let's get started.

OUAT 2.17 - "Welcome to Storybrooke."

Am I the only person who felt like this episode belonged in season 1? I mean, yes, that was sort of the point... but it really didn't seem to have much to do with the rest of season 2. After 2.16 (The Miller's Daughter) we were all geared up for crazy stuff. And then...

Not that there wasn't anything good about this episode. It was interesting to see what Storybrooke was like before Emma arrived. And it was good to see Graham briefly, although he was so completely under Regina's control (and this is the first time we've seen him since that was revealed), that it was like watching a souless automaton. Very sad, imho at least.

Obviously Owen and his dad are important to know about, as Greg is clearly a big player now. But I do think they could have moved the episode earlier or written it otherwise to make the season flow a bit better.

Love to see the continuing bonding between Henry and Neal... and knowing that Neal is his father does explain a lot more about Henry's precociousness and impetuosity. "He's your son!" Emma says, reminding Neal that he shouldn't take Henry's actions at face value when there are lives at stake!

It was good to see Henry defending Regina to the others. She is his mom, even though he sees her evilness as clearly (or more so) than anyone else.

Most shocking moment? When Regina took Snow's heart. For a moment I seriously thought they were going to kill Snow off!

OUAT 2.18 - "Selfless, Brave and True."

Another episode that felt a bit disjointed with the rest of the season, at least flashbackwise, for the first half. However once Tamara was introduced into August's past, things started to make a lot more sense. It was great to see August again, even though half of his appearances were in his wooden form (which worked better than I expected, poor graphics nonwithstanding.) It was good to see more of his flawed side, even as in the present we saw him overcome that. And of course it was a vital journey for Snow to watch and glean hope from.

Interesting thing I noticed... Snow said that her slap to Geppetto's face was "not her." We've also never seen blackness in anyone else's heart before, even Cora's. What if the blackness isn't Snow's own corruption, but rather the curse/influence of someone with ulterior motive?

Despite our relief over August's rescue, I don't think there was a single fan who was very happy about the reappearance of young Pinnochio. Not that we have anything against the lad (will he and Henry be friends?) but seriously, we LOVED August. Now we're back to Neal as the sole surviving eligible young man. (No, I don't count Hook as 'eligible.' Sorry.) Although ROBIN HOOD is FINALLY appearing next week. Here's hoping they do him right...

Now let's talk about Tamara. I wrote a piece on Tumblr yesterday after watching the episode, and I think it's relevant enough to repost here:


I go into the OUAT time tag and...
…everyone is saying that Tamara is more evil than Cora.
Um… she’s helping her lover find his long lost father who was stolen from him by an evil magic woman. That’s why Tamara scoured the world looking for magic.

She’s ruthless, that’s for sure. But the only experience she and Greg have had with magical people is negative. Regina taking his father. August stealing her money. They have no reason to believe that there /are/ any good people in Storybrooke. All they know is that they’re up against overwhelming odds and they have to utilize all of their resources to have a hope of surviving.
No, I don’t like Tamara or Greg. BUT I can’t call them evil. What they’re doing, as far as we’ve seen, is NOT for selfish reasons. They’re trying to rescue a man. 
Now, will we see more in future episodes that changes this? Quite likely. But for now, I think it’s important to imagine how the situation looks from their eyes.

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