Shortly after watching this episode I pictured the writers sitting for hours, days in a room, twisting their brains how to make all the different story lines work in this one episode, chewing the script over again and again. Imagined after long hours they accepted their fate: make it work but don’t expect it to be good. The episode left me with a sour taste.
Belle would have deserved a well developed story line letting her shine as smart and brave heroine, but not this one. It explored her sometimes incomprehensible will to stick to Rumple and fight for the good in him, but I never felt like that really needed that much more exploration. But it was nice to see, how in Fairy Tale Lands as well as in the present time in Storybrooke a bit of geekiness helps to save the day, and not muscle and sword. Okay, in Storybrooke in the end the day was not saved, not for everybody. But still: never underestimate a bookworm.
One thing that made Belle’s flashback story line worth it was how they intertwined it with how Phillip and Mulan met, adding a tidbit of information about Maleficent’s quest against Aurora and her family. Another epic battle of evil against good, and I certainly would like to see more about it (not the least to see Kristin Bauer van Straten again). Guess for now have to live with the tease.
Okay, for a greater impact of the last minutes of this episode they had to flesh Belle’s story out here, make clear, a) she’s all determind to fight what she believes in, and that is that there is good in Rumple, b)show how much influence she has on Rumple, at the moment she is the only one who really can get through to him. Makes the loss of her memory, of her identity at the end the more dramatic. A new obstacle for Rumple. Setback on his way to redemption, who is going to hold him back now when it comes to Hook?
It’s an episode which IMO needs some fanwanking ( = finding the best explanations fans can come up with out of good will, after long sleepless nights and days, too much coffee infused into the body and tons of sweets and junk food)
Well, reading books doesn’t equal experience, but even dumber bookworms hardly would have had the utterly stupid idea to go for a monster kill with just a tiny knife, it would have been at least a monster sword. That was over the top, and think out of character for Belle. It’s not just the small knife, it’s going for a kill first and ask questions later attitude for a brief moment. Really?! Belle’s not a pacifist, but she’s not a hothead either. Well, of course, maybe she only wanted to poke the hybernating beast for a while until it would surrender exhausted by laughter. Or only wanted to trap the beast and the small knife was for not seriously meant self-protection. Or she wasn’t thinking at all overwhelmed by childish excitement to be in an adventure. Whatever.
What did Archie do after Belle freed him and he went to Rumple do get him to the ship? Did he stay there at the pier? Did he go for a walk to sort out his thoughts? Take a shower? I know, time is a b****, so possible some things in Storybrooke we saw happened nearly at the same time. I seriously expected Archie to follow Pongo storming into the apartment, but turned out it was just Emma bringing Pongo for Henry. But doing it in that scene would have been in the middle of the episode, and it would have taken attention away from the Belle-Hook-Rumple storyline, so the writers had to postbone Archie’s return. They could have done it at the diner, ending David’s and Snow’s little banter, although this would have distracted from the banter. Somehow think that doing it in the first 10 minutes of next episode could even have worked better, depending on the next episode. But instead we got this awkward moment with Henry and Emma. Get it, they had to build up to the knock at the door with something, so they threw this piece of painfull filling-a-moment at us. And because they had so no time left and to hurry for the big showdown final of the episode, they left us with only a very unsatisfying tease. Oh, of course, they will have to tell Regina, hoping to stop her before she explodes into a rage against them. Good luck with that. I hope that this is not it, this short moment, it should rattle Emma a lot more (should have trusted her first instincts). But, uhm, no big surprise and than panic, that obviously somehow Cora and Hook made it to Storybrooke after all? Would have been at least my second thought, if not the first.
It didn’t bother me at all, that they freed Archie so soon. The story fulfilled its purpose. Letting Belle find him while looking for the shawl was plausible and a simple, quick way to get Archie out of there.
Oh, the White-Charming-Swan family. Why were they in this episode? Ah, okay, had to work through aftermath of losing Archie. And do some build up for next episode(s) maybe. The dwarfs are homesick and so is Prince Charming. Stay or go back home, that is a good question. Not to mention the world full of strangers unused to magic out there beyond the border of Storybrooke, how to deal with that. Build up for the final of this episode and likely for coming episodes.
Hook-Rumple storyline: It did make sense to do a first clash now, Hook is not the type to wait long and plan and pull strings out of hiding like Cora does. Expect it not to be the last one though. There were some interesting little moments of insight into Hook’s character (maybe more about that in character analyses later). But that moment on his ship with Rumple, Rumple telling Hook to sail until he falls off the edge of the world (nice one) – uhm, aaalllright, Belle was there, Rumple forgot his hundred of years of experience with people like Hook for the sake of his love, and decided to kinda trust the pirat to do what he was told. For the sake of the showdown at the end of the episode.
The potion to overcome identity-loss leaving Storybrooke: couldn’t be a simple thing, had to be more complicate. But did everybody get the snag? I wonder. The potion only works with the object one helds most dear (besides that Rumple wasn’t able to brew more than some milliliters). Smee’s cap was worthless for anybody but Smee, the potion soaked shawl can only protect Rumple. It’s just a guess, but looks like you always have to keep the object close to your body once you left. As dear as the chipped cup is to Rumple, there is something more important to him (as Bae is more important than Belle). And it’s more pleasant to carry a shawl around all day and night then a chipped cup. The potion thing has weaknesses, but I do thank in this case the writers, because the thought already bothered me, that they would break this curse keeping people still in Storybrooke too soon. To me it makes a lot more sense to last longer. They found a way to get Rumple out of town chasing after his son without breaking this curse for everybody.
All in all it had the feeling of a transitional episode, taking us from one bigger event to the next, upcoming one. Such episodes are tough to write, so it’s easy to fail.
And sorry for the length. Was on a roll.
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