304 Press Release!

Perhaps after this incident, Rumple does something that keeps Pan on lockdown in NL, which is why now only his Shadow, (assuming it’s Pan’s shadow) can leave.

I think that Rumple is the one who rips Peter Pan’s shadow off of him, which might render PP unable to fly himself. Maybe?

So, why does PP’s shadow continue to amass more children (specifically boys) since PP now has what he wants (i.e. Henry)? Why did PP’s shadow go for Roland? I think the key lies in Roland’s words “I believe.” I think that NL depends on the belief of children to keep running. With Henry specifically though, PP struck the jackpot with the heart of the truest believer. Yet, why does the shadow continue to target just boys? Or does it? Can girls now get recruited too?

Good catch on the shadow Phee.

All very interesting questions which also brings up two other exceptions to the general rule of boys only: Wendy and Tink. Now, we saw that Neal was able to take the place of Roland so Wendy makes some sense regardless of who they were after (though it looks like they were definitely hoping for Bae – probably to keep him there long enough so that someday he could meet Emma and create the boy with the heart of the truest believer. Starting to think PP is one of the most important characters / orchestraters of everything which really, shouldn’t be a surprise since it’s H&K’s favorite story. They just had to gamble they’d get the rights is all. Glad it’s all sorted though!)

Now, Tink: How did she end up there? The shadow goes for boys and unless there’s something we don’t know about who she might have been spending time with, I don’t know who she might have taken the place of which leads to my theory on her. Since we know the words to call the shadow are similar to dealing with fairies (“I believe,” since saying that Blue no longer believed in Tink took her wings away), what if…Tink, in trying to get back her wings, made a desperate attempt to believe in HERSELF and get her wings back (probably just saying it in a wishful thinking sort of way and didn’t expect it to actually work) and then the shadow comes out of nowhere and carries her off?

Snow did say that she believed in Tink and it didn’t give her her wings back which adds a bunch of other questions like CAN she get her wings back? Does Blue have to be the one to say it as her superior? Do multiple people need to believe in Tink cause the group seemed pretty trusting of her and nothing happened? (I’m inclined to think it might be part of her redemption story after going to SB with them down the line if she doesn’t betray them and then making amends with Blue possibly. If this is the case, I’m curious to see how they get home as I figured Tink would have a hand in it, but possibly it’ll be pixie dust in general – I just want the ship to fly!)

It’s definitely interesting that the shadow is still out recruiting. It spent a long time trying to find Henry, and getting Bae was clearly on their agenda as well (he needed to not age for awhile) but they have Henry now, yet the shadow hasn’t been called off yet. I wonder if Peter (in his own mind) really feels like he’s doing something good there and it’s just recruiting as always and he just specifically needs Henry to make sure that NL (and magic everywhere else if he is to be believed) stays the way it is / in existence.

So many questions! Is it Sunday yet? Cause we need answers. Big time.

I also want more on the Ogres War…I feel like we had Morraine talking about how children in the trenches talked about BF.  Maybe the whole war was a “phantom menace” (to ignore the Jar Jar problems of the Star Wars 1-3 and focus on what was actually a cool plot), designed to make children believe in the BF, to need to believe in magic to save them? I don’t know if that’s where they are going with it, but I feel like they HAVE to open things up this season if they are redeeming all their main cast villains.  They need to have threats and challenges for the group, so it cannot be they all just kiss, make-up and hug and are one big happy family at the end of this season.

So they need to start planting seeds of what threat exists beyond PP.  I feel they might be setting up another adventure, with the way they talked about two separate halves to the season.   One thing the writers probably realized is how complete Season 1 felt, with a clear villain, a clear goal and end-point.  Emma, heroine, Regina, villain, goal: Break the curse.   Then Season 2 was all over the map (literally).   We had new heroes, new villains, and while for some that breathed new life, others felt it was too scattered.  This time we have a new goal #Save henry, a new clear big bad, PP, and we’re rooting for and spending the most time with in terms of character driven stories of our main cast.  Yet they still need to have a PLOT and move it along with action and adventure.

What if they can’t #Save Henry, we’re all assuming they do, but what if the ending is that he’s too far gone (solving the problem of a rapidly growing child actor, perhaps?).  I don’t know if I would like that.  Very depressing way to end the season, but revealing the BF as the puppet master NOW? I feel that’s something they could only do when they have no more need of her plot-devicey ways.  That has to be something they wouldn’t do until the very last season.  So they could get into the Ogres War, and the Duke, and revisit the Dark One mythology and introduce some new characters and threats.