4 x 02 WHITE OUT — FAVORITE AND LEAST FAVORITE MOMENTS

First and foremost, Bo-Peep was ridiculous. And not in the fun way. She was over the top, wearing a horrible costume, and her entire motivation and plot just felt absurd. She brands people and they are her flock?

Boo Peep’s ridiculousness as big bad of the village was the point IMO. While I found that kind of ridiculousness mostly annoying last season with Zelena, I find it quite nice for a one episode villain. It didn’t work with Zelena, because making your big threat of the half season the joke of the moment for most of the time takes away the tension keeping the story interesting. But for this one episode villain it was okay. Particular because it was Bo Peep as villain. What was risky was to make the second episode of the season already some rather lightweight episode with a few serious moments embedded. The balance of tone was not quite working, but that was not just about Bo Peep. The whole episode was basically a comedy with some serious Emma-Elsa bonding moments in between, and the prevalence of the comical parts took away from the great moment Emma – Elsa stuff. And from David’s great emotional moment.

I mean, probably the fairyback was not meant to be that comical, though with bubbly Anna around things might always have a touch of comical, but be it Bo Peep, Anna training David in sword fighting (guess swords just lay around at every corner in the EF, farmer’s market snatch), even David’s dramatic dialogue about losing his father, it all had something funny. Add Snow’s moments and Hook (sorry, Hook is always good for a joke, and that is nice, but this was too much joky, let’s take the guy a bit more serious please, if you want to get me respect CaptainSwan at any time in the near future). I mean, yeah for getting campy, and not taking things all serious, but there is a right and a wrong time for that.

Jane Espenson has written some great stuff (and some not so great), but usually she knows to do dialogue (better than plot!plot!plot!), but this episode’s dialogue was at times clunky and the comical tone sometimes misplaced. At least I think Emma meeting someone she probably has a lot to connect over with, over important things to work out her emotion and magic power issues, would have deserved more seriousness. I get it, high tension, much comical relief, but sometimes it’s better to keep more the tension.

Perhaps though it was just all the styrofoam ice wall set that took me out of the seriousness of the moments, Georgina Haig and Jennifer Morrison really did a good job trying to sell the freezing and tension to us, can’t blame them, without their skills it would have been a joke as well.

Faves:

– Emma and Elsa moments. Can we keep Elsa around? Going to ship their friendship (would’t be surprised if some will ship more than friendship, wouldn’t mind, but look more for the friendship on the show in this case)

– Loved Robin Weigert as Bo Peep. The costume, lovely, finally a villain in color, dusky pink, not gloomy dark. And later seeing her as butcher in Storybrooke was just hilarious. Great her balance between dead serious character but comical sense, a fine line to walk, and Robin Weigert has played characters in ways I found them seriously intimidating, something not many people do.

– Pretty much no Regina and Rumple.

– The introduction of Elizabeth Mitchell’s character. We all like ice cream, don’t we, the creeper’ss cliche of a child trap: The ice cream truck. In a place like Storybrooke an ice cream shop might be as good. Heard a voice in my head humming: “Wanna have some ice cream? Wanna know what I have in my freezer?”Just great.

least fave:

– Hook. I normally don’t mind him or CaptainSwan, and I never before had a problem with him being a bit of a joke at times, but even I find it had not that much charm in this episode. What’s wrong with him, losing it because with his ship he lost kinda his footing? He starts to get on my nerves (and maybe Emma’s too if he goes on like that). Not a good sign that I am not sure if that is intentional, I hope for the best, that the pirate is brooding, still in this episode it annoyed me.

– The styrofoam ice wall – and I love some shows with “bad” CGI and special effects and probs, Xena was at times hilarious, Dr. Who is a league on it’s own, Star Trek The Originals and Lost in Space are just fun, and I am a big fan of Raumpatrouille Orion. But this ice wall…

Despite that I think there was in imbalance of comical elements and drama, and clunky dialogue, I nevertheless enjoyed most of the episode. Even found Henry’s moments bearable. And there where a few lines in it telling me, the writers do notice some things have been missing.

Question: How did David and Kristoff meet? I mean, I like that they were friends, but was Kristoff doing some world trip as journeyman to become ice master? Did Pabbie sent him on such a trip to learn some things? (Some fan fiction idea for Frozen fans 😉 )

I’ve just finished watching Game of Thrones season one, and there seemed to be a bunch of references in this episode: * Messenger corvids. * The evil witch of the lamb people. * Long-haired hero guy (a bit generic, but why give him long hair now?). * Big. Ice. Wall. * “Who wants some milk from Mama Mayor?”

Given that their whole promo for S4 was “winter comes early…” yeah..they’re trying to spin ASOIAF/ GOT. It annoys me to no end.

This Episode was much better than last weeks! I loved the scenes between Emma and Elsa! JMo really looked like she was about to freeze 🙂 . They were great! And it was fun to see Charming and Hook working together to save Emma. And I liked Anna and Charmings backstory, even though Bo Peep was really ridiculous. Anna was much better than in the last episode. Now I’m curious about how David and Kristoff met.

I agree that the story about Davids father wasn’t what I hoped for. I liked the Camelot theories. And I don’t want the next character with parent issues. Do we know any charakter with perfect parents? Okay maybe Baby Neal, but exept for him? And Snow wasn’t convincing either. Which mayor would try to solve electricity problem on its own? everybody would just call an expert and let him do the job. And in her last scene she comes in, her daughter is sitting nearly frozen in a chair with Hooks arms around her and she doesn’t even notice! she could have been at least a bit worried about Emma. I understand that Regina might have wanted to be alone, but she would have never send her son a message that she doesn’t want to see him. And more important not via a bird! They’re in storybrook she could text him. Rumple and Belle could have had some more sentences…

Regina’s message *didn’t* actually say “I don’t want to see you.”  That’s just how Henry interpreted it, remember? Emma corrected him.  I think she said something more along the lines of “You’re better off staying away right now.”

Glad to see others here who loved the episode!  Sometimes I enjoy when the show gets a little campy- I like the lighter episodes. 🙂 Snow’s electricity stint was meant to be comic relief- if she just called an expert and let them do it, we’d have a rather boring scene.

I also almost enjoyed CS here.  They still aren’t my favorite, but it’s amazing how much more likable Hook has become since S2.

I found this to be an underwhelming episode though it had some good moments.

Favourite:

Emma- I think JMo’s acting was brilliant this episode. She really sold the idea that Emma was freezing to death though why didn’t Charming and Hook take Emma to hospital since she was clearly suffering from hypothermia?

The CS moments- I thought they were really sweet and kind of wish that the CS relationship so far had been presented as purely platonic so that when an episode like this came along, you’d see that there was a hint that Emma and Hook see each other as more than just friends and that it was just a question of them admitting their feelings towards each other.

Charming family moments- We don’t really get to see the normal family moments so it was nice to see that this episode with Charming and Emma joking on what baby Neal dreams about.

Henry going to see Regina- It was nice to see Henry actually showing care and concern for Regina when she is in a vulnerable place. Henry is a better character now that he is more mature.

No OQ scenes- I am so happy the OQ triangle didn’t play a part in this episode. Let Regina mope and get over the breakup.

The ice cream shop scene- I liked how Grumpy had a crush on Elizabeth Mitchell’s character. It’ll be interesting if EM uses Grumpy’s crush on her as a way to spy on the heroes.

Least favourite:

Not enough RumBelle- RumBelle only got one scene which involved someone barging into the shop demanding Rumple’s help like always.

David’s hair- Just David’s hair. Also Ruth’s hair was looking very grey this episode, much greyer than it did in earlier episodes which, timelinewise, are set after this episode.

Charming’s story about his father- It just seemed at odds with how his father was presented in The shepherd.

Anna- I found Anna to be extremely annoying this episode. She came across as very Mary-Sueish in that Charming was nothing until he met her, Charming was crap at sword fighting until she taught him, Charming couldn’t stand up for himself until Anna gave him the courage etc etc. It just seemed like Anna was the sole reason for Charming’s current personality. I don’t like how the writers are presenting Anna as practically perfect in every way and how every charter loves her because of her goodness and how she gives hope etc etc.

Bo Peep- I couldn’t take Bo Peep seriously. She was meant to be a warlord but was less warlordy and more cockney woman in a frilly dress. The fact she still has her crook with her in Storybrooke begs the question has she been keeping an eye on Charming all this time since he was branded? Why did Rumple not relieve her of her magic? What has Bo Peep been doing in Storybrooke all this time?