I thought this was interesting…
I can’t help it, parallelism is my favorite thing, and I like pictures. Now that I’ve gotten a bit of distance on the episode, I’m excited about this plot. The first thing to get out of the way is that the echo of Zelena is window dressing; the parallel is “The Crocodile.” This time they’re taking more than one episode to draw it out, because Hook’s an established character and they can spend the time, but the pattern is exactly the same.
You have the initial encounter between Rumple and Killian, in which Killian is behaving dubiously at best.
Rumple folds.
Repeat encounter. Killian gets cocky.
Now! If they had any plan to redeem Rumple at this point and to chasten Killian, this would have been the place for the stories to diverge. Rumple would have actually put the dagger back, called Killian’s bluff, and said, “There, made you look stupid; how about we stop the bull*poop* games and content ourselves with mutual loathing.”
Instead we continue with the parallel. Rumple turns the tables.
Remember that in the top picture of that set, that is Killian’s sword Rumple is holding.
Right now, we are pretty much here:
Killian is wondering wtf happened to his life, which was going so well twelve hours ago, and Rumple thinks that he’s won.
Keep in mind, however, what ultimately happened last time.
Rumple wanted the bean so he could get to Baelfire. He lost out on that, and it was entirely due to him being a sadistic son of a *gun*. Right now he is ignoring his own advice to “finish the job when he had the chance.” He wants the hat, he wants to keep his power and his happy ending, but he also wants Killian to suffer.
At the end of this, he won’t have any of it.
That story had one other large plot repercussion: it created Captain Hook.
I’ve talked some before about Killian’s turning points. In the first iteration of this story, he didn’t have much choice. Some scaly *gluteus*hole murders your girlfriend, “track him down and murder him back” is an entirely legit response in most fantasy universes. What else was he supposed to do, sail off with a shrug and a “wow, that really sucked”?
This time around, because of all of the work that went into his character in S3, he’s got options. He’s got help available, and once he settles out of panic mode that will come into play. His Frozen counterpart is Anna of all people, the dictionary definition of optimism. There may be further unpleasantness first — he’s not much more used to this trust stuff than Emma is — but whatever happens at the end of this arc, it’s going to solidify Killian’s identity in a positive fashion, just the way the last time did it in a negative.one.http://thisisevenharderthannamingablog.tumblr.com/post/100580209597/i-cant-help-it-parallelism-is-my-favorite-thing
** contain edited words for small eyes purposes 🙂
