Once Upon a Time 2x22 Review
May. 22nd, 2013 02:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaAnd Straight On 'Til Morning
I really enjoyed this episode, minus one major issue, and I'm looking forward to next season.
Emma, Snow, Charming, Regina, Hook and Rumpelstiltskin heading off to Neverland together to save Henry has so much potential to go interesting places. All of them are Henry's family, even Hook in a way as the flashbacks showed, and it'll be interesting to see just how well they'll be able to get along.
Both Regina and Rumpelstiltskin took steps towards redemption - Regina acknowledge that everything was her own fault and was willing to sacrifice her life to save the town so Henry wouldn't be alone, Rumpelstiltskin agreed to help save Henry despite Henry being his undoing and Baelfire apparently being dead. We'll see if they backslide.
Also it'll just be nice to get out of Storybrooke for awhile. I really liked the Emma/Snow time in the Enchanted Forest so I have high hopes for this.
Liked
• I loved Emma using her magic to help Regina stop the self-destruct.
• Snow coming up with the idea to send the self-destruct through a portal and thus both saving the town and Regina. I loved Snow's whole speech about taking the harder path.
• "I just don't want him to be alone. I don't want him to grow up the way I did." - Emma Oh, Emma.
• The Hook/Baelfire backstory was great. I loved all of how that played out. Their interactions were excellent and I can't wait to see some Hook/Neal scenes + more flashbacks now.
- I liked that Milah abandoning Baelfire wasn't just glossed over. It makes sense to me that that is the part Baelfire got stuck on. He was used to his father disappointing him - murder, evil, abandoning him - so killing his mother is horrible and probably a shock but the revelation that his mother - who loved him, and was good especially in comparison to his father - left him works as the thing he couldn't. But I still really want a Neal/Rumpelstiltskin confrontation about Milah's death. (I hope that her death is actually the main reason Neal is so anti-Rumpel.)
• I loved the Regina/Henry moments. Her telling him she loved him but especially the fact that he straight out says "I love you too" and the way he's been calling her mom in the last few episodes. Also how when they all thought they were about to die he went and held onto her.
• Emma's "mom" and "dad" and the family hug that ensued.
• The dwarves in Rumpelstiltskin's shop was a great little scene. I loved Sneezy's alarmed confusion over possibly dying - that was amusing - and I really loved that Grumpy brought a second potion for Belle as payback for when she helped him. I wish we'd gotten more scenes like that this season.
• Aurora/Mulan/Philip, yay! I love the symmetry of them saving Neal.
Didn't Like
• I'm really disgruntled that Belle didn't get to join everyone on the ship. I mean I really don't want to spend next season watching Belle/Rumpelstiltskin but I do want Belle especially after the latter half of this season where she has been so passive. I want her to get to have adventures. I want her to have a storyline that isn't just her supporting Rumpelstiltskin.
• The Rumpelstiltskin/Belle scenes left me cold.
• I don't liked what the show has done with Belle. I really hated that upon getting her memories back her reaction was to comfort Rumpelstiltskin about Baelfire. I hate that there was no hint in either of her scenes that she was the least upset about the Lacey situation. I realise it was end-of-the-world and then Rumpelstiltskin was leaving possibly forever so the timing wasn't great but she was so 100% supportive and loving towards Rumpelstiltskin it was infuriating.
• Snow was sent to gather all the Storybook inhabitants - so where were they all? We had several of the main supporting characters but no mention was made of the thousands of others. The fact that we see random people running terrified in the street later in the episode doesn't speak to Snow doing a very good job!
• Why the hell wouldn't have Regina tried to use magic to stop Tamara and Greg at the docks? I could understanding it not working, her being drained from stopping the self-destruct, but she should have tried.
Other
• I was sure that Baelfire was going to turn out to be Peter Pan but now I'm thinking it's actually going to be Henry. Huh.
• I find myself wondering when exactly in Aurora and Mulan's timeline it is for them. At first glance you could assume that Aurora and Mulan were successful at their quest to save Philip (and be sad we didn't get to see it) except Mulan's back to being dressed how she was when we first met her which has me wondering if instead it's before the wraith took Philip from them?
• Would Henry have been alone if the self-destruct had gone off? While he was the only one born in this world Emma, Pinocchio and Hook didn't arrive to Storybrooke via the curse and I thought the self-destruct was about undoing the curse?
• You'd think that Snow (and Emma) would take even a moment to think about the possible consequences of sending the self-destruct through a portal considering the fact that they saw the effects of sending the wraith through a portal. It's entirely possible it would have no effect anywhere but Storybrooke but in that case there should have been a line saying so.
• How the hell did Tamara and Greg's bosses know not only what the crystal was (without even seeing it) but also exactly how to destroy it?
• The Henry thing came out of nowhere. I mean Tamara has known about him for days so why kidnap him now? And why take him to Neverland?
• I was surprised to learn that Neal learned the truth about his mother so long ago. I wonder why he didn't bring that up with his father during their confrontation in New York?
I really enjoyed this episode, minus one major issue, and I'm looking forward to next season.
Emma, Snow, Charming, Regina, Hook and Rumpelstiltskin heading off to Neverland together to save Henry has so much potential to go interesting places. All of them are Henry's family, even Hook in a way as the flashbacks showed, and it'll be interesting to see just how well they'll be able to get along.
Both Regina and Rumpelstiltskin took steps towards redemption - Regina acknowledge that everything was her own fault and was willing to sacrifice her life to save the town so Henry wouldn't be alone, Rumpelstiltskin agreed to help save Henry despite Henry being his undoing and Baelfire apparently being dead. We'll see if they backslide.
Also it'll just be nice to get out of Storybrooke for awhile. I really liked the Emma/Snow time in the Enchanted Forest so I have high hopes for this.
Liked
• I loved Emma using her magic to help Regina stop the self-destruct.
• Snow coming up with the idea to send the self-destruct through a portal and thus both saving the town and Regina. I loved Snow's whole speech about taking the harder path.
• "I just don't want him to be alone. I don't want him to grow up the way I did." - Emma Oh, Emma.
• The Hook/Baelfire backstory was great. I loved all of how that played out. Their interactions were excellent and I can't wait to see some Hook/Neal scenes + more flashbacks now.
- I liked that Milah abandoning Baelfire wasn't just glossed over. It makes sense to me that that is the part Baelfire got stuck on. He was used to his father disappointing him - murder, evil, abandoning him - so killing his mother is horrible and probably a shock but the revelation that his mother - who loved him, and was good especially in comparison to his father - left him works as the thing he couldn't. But I still really want a Neal/Rumpelstiltskin confrontation about Milah's death. (I hope that her death is actually the main reason Neal is so anti-Rumpel.)
• I loved the Regina/Henry moments. Her telling him she loved him but especially the fact that he straight out says "I love you too" and the way he's been calling her mom in the last few episodes. Also how when they all thought they were about to die he went and held onto her.
• Emma's "mom" and "dad" and the family hug that ensued.
• The dwarves in Rumpelstiltskin's shop was a great little scene. I loved Sneezy's alarmed confusion over possibly dying - that was amusing - and I really loved that Grumpy brought a second potion for Belle as payback for when she helped him. I wish we'd gotten more scenes like that this season.
• Aurora/Mulan/Philip, yay! I love the symmetry of them saving Neal.
Didn't Like
• I'm really disgruntled that Belle didn't get to join everyone on the ship. I mean I really don't want to spend next season watching Belle/Rumpelstiltskin but I do want Belle especially after the latter half of this season where she has been so passive. I want her to get to have adventures. I want her to have a storyline that isn't just her supporting Rumpelstiltskin.
• The Rumpelstiltskin/Belle scenes left me cold.
• I don't liked what the show has done with Belle. I really hated that upon getting her memories back her reaction was to comfort Rumpelstiltskin about Baelfire. I hate that there was no hint in either of her scenes that she was the least upset about the Lacey situation. I realise it was end-of-the-world and then Rumpelstiltskin was leaving possibly forever so the timing wasn't great but she was so 100% supportive and loving towards Rumpelstiltskin it was infuriating.
• Snow was sent to gather all the Storybook inhabitants - so where were they all? We had several of the main supporting characters but no mention was made of the thousands of others. The fact that we see random people running terrified in the street later in the episode doesn't speak to Snow doing a very good job!
• Why the hell wouldn't have Regina tried to use magic to stop Tamara and Greg at the docks? I could understanding it not working, her being drained from stopping the self-destruct, but she should have tried.
Other
• I was sure that Baelfire was going to turn out to be Peter Pan but now I'm thinking it's actually going to be Henry. Huh.
• I find myself wondering when exactly in Aurora and Mulan's timeline it is for them. At first glance you could assume that Aurora and Mulan were successful at their quest to save Philip (and be sad we didn't get to see it) except Mulan's back to being dressed how she was when we first met her which has me wondering if instead it's before the wraith took Philip from them?
• Would Henry have been alone if the self-destruct had gone off? While he was the only one born in this world Emma, Pinocchio and Hook didn't arrive to Storybrooke via the curse and I thought the self-destruct was about undoing the curse?
• You'd think that Snow (and Emma) would take even a moment to think about the possible consequences of sending the self-destruct through a portal considering the fact that they saw the effects of sending the wraith through a portal. It's entirely possible it would have no effect anywhere but Storybrooke but in that case there should have been a line saying so.
• How the hell did Tamara and Greg's bosses know not only what the crystal was (without even seeing it) but also exactly how to destroy it?
• The Henry thing came out of nowhere. I mean Tamara has known about him for days so why kidnap him now? And why take him to Neverland?
• I was surprised to learn that Neal learned the truth about his mother so long ago. I wonder why he didn't bring that up with his father during their confrontation in New York?
