We had a great episode of Once tonight, filled with intrigue, thoughts of murder and the usual obfuscation of clues and such. Let's get started on the commentary, shall we?
Belle & Rumple
Belle fell over the Storybrook town line when Hook shot her last week, and now she doesn't remember Rumple, or why she ever loved him. Now he has to earn her love all over again. Can he do it? I hope not.
I'm not really enamored of this little romance, so I'm cheering for Belle not to remember. I know she is supposed to be in love with the Beast, but as we saw her captivity with Rumple in the flashbacks it seemed more like Stockholm Syndrome to me than anything else. The Beast in the Disney classic doesn't kill people or do one fifty-millionth of the bad things Rumple does. At least we didn't see him do it. Anyway, Rumple seems more evil than a beast to me. I've been advocating for Belle to get some therapy and free herself of trying to save Rumple. Maybe this will help her do it.
Hook, Wonderful Hook
Hook is in the hospital, and although he is in pain, he still has time to flirt pretty heavily with Emma. All Emma cares about is the whereabouts of Cora. Or maybe she does care about something else, but is just really, really good at hiding it. I know who my favorite pirate is (come back to Mystery Playground this Friday for a special post on pirates. We just love pirates -- as long as they are good-looking & fictional and/or dead.)
Dr. Frankenstein, I presume?
The black and white scenes showing Victor Frankenstein turning his beloved brother into a monster in a bizarre yet oddly heroic attempt to earn his father's love were beautifully done. Although, Victor wasn't so broken up about his father's death was he? (Shades of Sark from Alias). I loved how Rumple was in color but Victor's world was in black and white, perhaps to underscore the point of his world being without magic. Once Henry learned that Whale was Dr. Frankenstein, his reaction was much like mine when we learned Whale's identity (The Whale connection with Frankenstein is tenuous -- James Whale was the name of the Director of the 1931 movie Frankenstein) - he's not in the fairy tale book, so anyone in Storybrook could be anyone. Henry's right. All bets are off.
The scenes between our two beloved monsters - Whale and Ruby were also quite touching. I think Ruby really got rooked when they all remembered their past - she did, after all, eat her boyfriend. It was good to hear her acknowledge her evil, and to let us know she is struggling to come to terms with it.
The Stranger
Stranger Greg takes pictures of himself on vacation, tweets photos of his food and has the theme to Star Wars on his cell phone (a little homage to the Disney purchase of the Star Wars franchise, perhaps? Personally, I think this was a brilliant deal.)
When they first started this whole 'OMG, real people may find out about magic' story line, I had flashbacks to practically every magical movie and TV show since the dawn of time. I was so relieved when Grumpy acknowledged that with his Splash, ET reference. Still, I do hope this isn't a big story line, the real people seeing the magic. I am a wee bit apprehensive about the cliche of it all.
Emma seems to think that her asking The Stranger what he saw at the scene of the accident and then letting him off the "Hook" (little pirate pun there) for the whole running Hook down while texting thing means he is telling the truth. Nice sheriff-ing work there, Emma. But really, what stranger is going to go popping off about magic from a hospital bed after he ran someone down????
Emma should know The Stranger wouldn't tell her if he saw Rumple's magic. But we know he knows because he called his "honey," who we only know as "Her" from his cell phone and told her. BTW - Who identifies their girlfriend or wife as "Her"? (besides Rumpole of the Bailey...he actually called his wife, 'She Who Must Be Obeyed. Good man).
I'm going to go out on a limb here. I don't think The Stranger is Baelfire. And I don't think he is a random human from human land. I think he's someone we know from fairy tale land or another tale - a big mouth of sorts, and that once we know the identity of "Her," all will become clear. It's just a nascent theory right now and it's all I've got. Feel free to weigh in below and tell me I'm wrong.
Super Creepy Cora
Cora is super creepy this week...from insisting Rumple kiss her ("Let's seal the deal like we used to) to the smelling of Regina's clothes before she finds Henry's plaster hand print. How would you feel if your mother did this? Even creepier is when she magically makes herself look like Henry to get close to Regina, tells her as Henry that he knows she's innocent. Exactly what Regina wants to hear. But when Regina asks Henry how he knew she was innocent, having dreamed the answer of how much he loved her, Cora reveals herself and admits she "did it." Yikes. All sorts of issues.
Rumple, Rumple, Rumple
Wasn't it pure genius on the writer's part when the key to finding Baelfire is Cora bringing him a magic globe/spindle? Seriously, don't answer that. Just agree with me.
Rumple pricks his finger on the spindle on top of the globe and the drops of blood show us where his darling Baelfire is. My only problem is there are kinda of two dots - the white one, looks like it's somewhere in Pennsylvania (which brings us back to the stranger and the license plate from last week -2KFL138, still don't know what that means ) and the red area which looks like DC to me. (But perhaps the red there was just lawmakers arguing over the debt ceiling last week, it's really hard to tell.) If you have a better map interpretation, I'm all ears. Here's the map... (I took the photo from the TV screen, so please excuse the quality.)
And now he wants Emma to go trekking with him in the outside world to find Baelfire. What if Baelfire is Henry's dad? Who will keep Cora in check? If Emma leaves who will Hook flirt with? Hmmm. Lots of possibilities.
And what about the postcard that went to the white rabbit in the first episode of season 2? Are we ever going to know about that?
Three week hiatus - boo
Looks like we have a three week break from the show and when it returns, so does as the Giant from Jack and the Bean Stalk (Jorge Garcia from LOST, gotta love it). I don't think he will be in a good mood because apparently Cora kidnaps him. Cora needs to get some hobbies besides the kidnapping, and the framing, and the involuntary heart removal, etc. Perhaps she would like Bikram yoga. It's very relaxing.Other than that, I have to say the preview for ABC's Zero Hour looked interesting and we start our in-depth coverage of Mardi Gras with a contest to win a book bag signed by Charlaine Harris, creator of Sookie Stackhouse, on February 1st. Come on back and enter.
As usual, this post is more commentary than recap. There's a great OUAT recap, here.
I'm off to watch Downton. Love to hear your thoughts...
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