3X20 KANSAS – – FAVORITE and LEAST FAVORITE MOMENTS – – –

Favorite:

• Dorothy! I really like her.  She seems like a really plain, and ordinary teen girl, and I like that. She’s so lovable.
• Belle stands up for herself! Even if she gets knocked out, I love it.
• Rumpel drags Zelena across the ground. Can we get a full gif of that?
• Belle giving Rumpel the dagger back, and trusting him.
• Rumbelle proposal!!! I am so slap happy!…And simultaneously afraid and aggravated. (See least favorites below.)
• Mixed feelings about Zelena being spared by Regina. I like that Regina is doing this, I just think that in the long haul, it was going to prove itself to be a stupid decision.

Least Favorite: 

• Rumpel, you are SCREWING your redemption. I was just happy about the proposal and you botch it. Man, can the writers make you stop fishtailing? Killing Zelena? Okay, fine with that. I would do the same. Lying to Belle and then proposing to her almost as a distraction? Are you out of your cotton picking MIND!?

• Oz looks very Enchanted Forest-y.

• Regina telling Rumpel (in so many words) to just get over his son’s death. Had she worded it in a different way, that at least conveyed that she understood, I’d be fine, but the way she told him off was just…obnoxious.

• Gold is right. She can’t be serious.

• I completely agree with Emma. There was nothing warranting Hook to be required to go with her, other than to rehash the same conversation that we’ve heard fifty times now (Yes, Emma. We know that it bothers you that you left New York.) , and also because… Plot Device! Ugh…Especially considering the fact that Hook had momentarily lost everyone’s trust, there is even less reason that Charming would require Hook to go with Emma to check anything out. Furthermore, Emma is right. Hook is a completely normal, one handed man. Emma implied that Hook would only weigh her down…which turned out to be exactly what he did. What is the point of that? I dunno, so that Regina can be the only one left to preform shiny light powers?

• Regina is the only one who can preform shiny light powers. Okay, I’m all for Regina redemption. When done right, and cooked to perfection, mwah! Love it. However, light magic had been shown to be a big thing. And I don’t buy for a second that Regina, Queen of Fishtailing, just decided to be good so hard that she is able to perform pure light magic. If her dark magic came out, laced with light, I would believe it, but her just saying “I’m different” and BOOM! She’s pure? I’ve got serious issues. Even with RH holding her heart, it’s still a heart that’s black as coal. And their love is still completely newfound. I don’t buy completely pure light magic coming from that. I just hope that she’s not able to perform light magic regularly now. That would just be too much.

I loved how Hook called Emma out on her crap about thinking that she can still leave SB with Henry and go back to her “perfect” life in NY. Splitting herself and Henry away from their family & friends, especially taking Henry away from Regina.

Oof, there was a lot of food for thought in this episode.

Liked:

I really appreciate the direction they are taking Regina’s character. I think it’s very easy for characters to be stagnant, and exploring the new territory of goodness and redemption means we can make way for bigger baddies. I know we have true love to thank for this, and I don’t think it will be a perfectly straight path for the character, but I look forward to where it goes.

I loved the moment where Rumple gives Belle the dagger as a gesture of trust. This was sweet and meaningful, and while I groaned in agony when he showed up in Zelena’s cell, I can’t say it was out of character. If I was writing the big wedding episode, I’d say that Gold would go out of his way for a big lavish show, but Zelena would show up or it would somehow be made known that Gold had killed her and broken the bond of trust he had literally just formed with Belle- and Belle would have to leave him at the altar, because there’s no way you can have a marriage without trust. (She’d still love him, but I can see her refusing to marry him until that trust was rebuilt. Get yourself together, Rumple!)

Mixed feelings

So yeah, I guess I have mixed feelings on the dagger issue. On the one hand, it’s not OOC for Rumple, who is the grand daddy of trust issues. On the other, giving Belle a fake dagger while running around with the real one is basically a huge detriment to the way Gold’s view of Belle is portrayed. If he doesn’t think she needs to worry her pretty little head with the actual dagger, and thinks she won’t figure things out it really makes it seem like he thinks less of her. Ouch. Interesting for character development and drama, but a real shot in the arm for the shippers- myself included.

Didn’t Like

This isn’t new, but wow- can they please cut Hook a little slack? I’m glad that David remembered that Hook is a decent guy and stood up for him, I’ve been waiting for that for quite a while now. They got to know each other pretty well in Neverland so it drove me nuts when the entire Charming family was vilifying Hook for omitting facts out of a desire to keep them all safe. I know that Hook came on a bit strong to Emma in the beginning, but he’s never done anything but tried to be helpful while keeping his personal feelings on the back burner. Yeesh!

"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him."

Actually enjoyed this ep more than others recently…up until the end.

I did want Zelena dead, in no small part for the same reasons Rumple wanted her dead, but I did NOT want him achieving that by lying to Belle. Dude, you don’t freaking propose marriage in a fake way! He knew he was doing the wrong thing, you could see it in his face when he was hugging her, but he still did it. *SIGH*

In happier news, when seen in context, with all the build up to it, Regina being able to use light magic made far more sense and didn’t annoy me like the leaked peek did. It was nice seeing Henry encouraging and inspiring her. But then they had her smirk when she put the pendant away, which felt wrong, because if she has some nefarious plan up her sleeve, how was she able to use pure good light magic, because I wouldn’t think that would work if the person has ulterior motives?