AntBee: I was going to bring up Child of the Moon but I fear the wrath of the Little Reds. Now, I love Ruby, I do, but I’m starting to wonder what else they can possibly do with her in flashbacks. We had the big reveal that she was the wolf in S1 and that was great. Child of the Moon was the obvious next story to tell, but there can’t be much more and I don’t want them to give me a filler just because they have to serve each cast member, even though I think Meghan Ory is great. And as much as I love Belle, her flashback episode in The Outsider didn’t do a whole lot for me. Her story is so wrapped up in Rumple that when they diverge from it, to tell her tale, I don’t lose interest necessarily, but I find myself longing for Rumple.
I agree with you about being in FTL too long. I know why they did it, get us to Xmas and have the final episode before holiday be the big return but it did drag on too much. And a lot of it felt like it was just moving from place to place. Looking back, the begging of S2 had some highlights (Broken, The Crocodile, Queen of Hearts), but overall it was weaker than I expected.
And I also think we’re never going to get back to the 11 million live viewers unless the do some magic of their own. I just hope ABC sees that each week (live and then over the week) they do bring in about 10 million viewers and at least a 2.8-3.0 ratings share. It’s got to count for something. And if you look at other similar shows, Once is doing better than say Grimm or Beauty and the Beast over on the CW.