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Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time 1-22: A Land Without Magic

I’d read that the creators completely changed the game in the season finale of Once Upon a Time. It left me wondering what in the world they were going to do. I had a guess, and it turns out that guess was correct. And, as they predicted, it’s left me wondering where they are going next year.

The episode started in Fairy Tale this time as poor James was struggling to get out of his jail cell. Just as he loses the rock he’s using to bang on the lock, two guards show up to take him to his execution. Yep, Regina lied about releasing him if Snow ate the apple. Really surprised, aren’t you? But James manages to overpower them and make a break for it. Unfortunately, he’s immediately cornered by two more guards, but then one guard shots the other with an arrow. And that guard? The Huntsman. Even knowing he’d be back, it was a shock when we saw him. He gives James provisions for the journey and sends him out to find Snow.Read More »Once Upon a Time 1-22: A Land Without Magic

Once Upon a Time 1-21: An Apple Red as Blood

My brother and sister-in-law have stopped watching all previews for future episodes of shows they like because they feel these previews give too much away. And I completely agree with them. I just can’t help myself from watching them. This time, the preview gave away the ending of the episode. But that didn’t stop it from being gripping. And I can NOT wait until next week to see what happens next. (BTW, we need to be working on theories of the season ending cliffhanger because I will do much better waiting all summer if I can guess what’s coming.)

In the world of Fairy Tale, we got the next chapter in the Snow/James saga. When last we’d seen them, James had been captured by his “father” and Snow was promising to come for him. She’d better hurry because King George isn’t wasting any time in executing James. Then again, James pretty much dares him to, saying he would rather die for love than live with the riches he was offered to play the part of the prince. But as the guillotine is falling, the blade turns into water. Wait, what? That’s what everyone is thinking until Regina walks in. She is willing to pay George for James, what George would have gotten from the marriage. James is a trap for Snow White.Read More »Once Upon a Time 1-21: An Apple Red as Blood

Once Upon a Time 1-20: The Stranger

True confessions time – my brain is fried. As I mentioned in my Castle recap yesterday, I spent Monday and Tuesday this week at Disneyland. Then the last two days have been crazy busy at work. So my insights into Sunday’s Once Upon a Time won’t be quite up to par. But that just gives you an opening to point out all the cool connections I missed.

The Fairy Tale portion of the episode focused on Pinocchio and crossed over into our world. It started with the ending of what we know of the Pinocchio story. We watch him sacrifice his life for his father Geppetto. As a reward, the Blue Fairy turns him into a real boy with the warning that if he isn’t brave, noble, and truthful, he will turn back into a puppet.

But then the Blue Fairy comes back for another visit to ask Geppetto to build the wardrobe that was used to send the baby Emma to our world ahead of the curse. Again, we hear how Emma is the only one who will be able to break the curse. The wardrobe would have enough magic to keep two people safe, James and the pregnant Snow. However, Geppetto says he will only build it if one of those sent through to safety is Pinocchio. The Blue Fairy agrees to lie and say only one person can go through since Emma will still have her mother to raise her and teach her about her true destiny.Read More »Once Upon a Time 1-20: The Stranger

Once Upon a Time 1-19: The Return

There are lots of mysteries in Once Upon a Time, and one of the burning ones is who is August W. Booth. Last night did not answer that question, but it did shoot one theory out of the water. And we learn the fate of Rumplestiltskin’s son – sort of. Oh yeah, and we get a clue about what happened to Kathryn. Yeah, there was a lot happening as always. I feel like they are building up to a season finale or something.

Our story in Fairy Tale focused on Rumplestiltskin. We open with a shot of a boy chasing a ball. He’s not paying attention and winds up almost getting trampled by a horse and cart. The owner is yelling at the boy until he realizes who the boy is. Immediately, he starts apologizing. The boy almost leaves when his dad, Rumplestiltskin, shows up. He’s willing to let the merchant off with a warning, but then he realizes that his son skinned his knee. Enraged, Rumplestiltskin turns the man into a slug and then steps on him.

His son is quite upset by the change in his father as evident by the scene we just saw. He begs him to give up his magic, but Rumplestiltskin explains that the only way to do that is to be stabbed by the dagger with his name on it, which would kill him and give the powers to the attacker. His son makes him promise that if he can find another way, then Rumplestiltskin will follow it.Read More »Once Upon a Time 1-19: The Return

Once Upon a Time 1-18: The Stable Boy

The big question of the season for me has been, what did Snow White do to Regina to make Regina hate her so much. That was finally answered last night. (And I really did think they’d hold that until season two.) It fits with the universe they’ve created, and I can understand much of what has come since. However, it was predictable. Which is probably why they focused more on Storybrooke.

What the story lacked in, well, story, it more than made up for in makeup and casting. They did a great job of giving us a younger version of Regina. And the actress they hired to play the young Snow White was amazing in how she captured the looks and mannerisms of Ginnifer Goodwin. If I didn’t know better, I would have said they used the regular actress, but the budget wouldn’t have covered the special effects needed to create her as a child.

And let’s start in Fairy Tale.

When we first see Regina, she is riding a horse and jumping over obstacles. Her father praises her, but then her mother appears and starts to berate her for not acting like a proper young lady. When Regina starts to argue, her mother starts using magic against her, first raising her off the ground and then squeezing her until she backs down.Read More »Once Upon a Time 1-18: The Stable Boy

Once Upon a Time 1-17: Hat Trick

I’ll admit, when I learned that Once Upon a Time was going to introduce The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland into the mix, I was both worried and curious. This definitely stretches the definition of a fairy tale character. A series of books I enjoy with a similar idea has included characters from that story in its fairy tale characters. And at the same time, it could be interesting. Fortunately, it turned out to be both entertaining and fit into the framework they’ve created for the show so far.

I was going to break with tradition and start with Storybrooke, but there are a couple of things we learned in Fairy Tale that came up later in Storybrooke, so we’ll keep with convention.

Our first shot of Jefferson (aka the Mad Hatter) in Fairy Tale is of him running through the forest. He’s trying to get away from…his daughter Grace. But she finds him right away. Unfortunately, Hide and Seek time is over and they need to get to the work at hand – finding mushrooms to sell in town the next day.

When they get home, they find Regina waiting for them. Jefferson sends Grace into the woods to hide before finding out what the Queen wants. She wants Jefferson’s help in retrieving something from “there.” He refuses, stating he won’t leave his daughter. “You just don’t leave family.” He’s not even tempted by her offer of making sure Grace never wants again. These two definitely have some kind of history as Regina makes some references to his past, but we have no idea what it is.Read More »Once Upon a Time 1-17: Hat Trick

Once Upon a Time 1-16: Heart of Darkness

After last week’s dark episode and the title of this one, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It thought it might be very dark. And while it wasn’t happy go lucky and was more in keeping with the darker tone of this half of the season, I definitely enjoyed it.

Plus we finally got back to amnesia Snow White. That really helped me enjoy the episode because I am so invested in Snow/James because of all the complications they’ve put in their way that we aren’t expecting.

In fact, let’s start there. Our first look at Fairy Tale was of Snow White working around the dwarfs’ cottage and whistling “With a Smile and a Song” from the Disney movie. There’s a blue bird in the room, and Snow reaches out her hand. The bird flies over to her finger. And then Snow tries to crush it with her broom. And the bird flies around the room, she keeps whacking at it. It’s chirping is too cheerful for her. Grumpy comes in and leads her to an intervention with the other dwarfs and Jiminy Cricket. Turns out that without her memories of James, Snow has become a very different person – a bitter, angry, vindictive person. As the dwarfs try to convince her she has changed (she’s even making Happy sad by breaking his mug), she decides that the way to regain her happiness and the life in a palace she deserves as a princess is to kill the Queen.Read More »Once Upon a Time 1-16: Heart of Darkness

Once Upon a Time 1-15: Red-Handed

I never in a million years would have guessed where they were going with last night’s episode of Once Upon a Time. Well, okay, maybe I figured some of it out early on, but they still managed to throw some twists I wasn’t expecting. I think this was the darkest trip to Fairy Tale we’ve had yet.

I find it easiest to break the episode into the two settings, so I’m going to keep doing that, starting with Fairy Tale. We meet up with Red as she is flirting with Peter, her long time friend turned boyfriend through the window on Granny’s cottage. But it doesn’t last long because Granny insists that the cabin be locked up tight. A group of hunters even comes to the door talking about tracking and killing the wolf that terrorizes the village, but Granny says the best approach is to stay inside and wait out his time, two more days. Granny also insists that Red wear her famous red cloak because it repels wolves.Read More »Once Upon a Time 1-15: Red-Handed