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Okay so here are my thoughts:
Although the adoption was shady and the adoption agent didn’t look much into Regina and her town I accepted the story line for what it was. We know that no one could go to Storybrooke to see Regina’s life in action. If they could somehow even manage to find the town, they would immediately notice that each day repeats over and over again and all bets for Regina getting Henry would be off. It would have been nice to see a glimpse of a court scene or something that confirmed there was a bit more to the adoption. But i assumed there was more than what we saw.
I guess my take on it was “okay its only an hour show and so we cant so much waist time on the process of getting Henry as much as on her first few days with him.” I think the important things to take from it were that she was destined to get Henry.
If it was built into the curse like some were saying earlier in the thread than it makes sense that the agent was so easy going. There was a magical element that told him this was the right mother and the right fit. There was a magical element that steered him from the regular procedures. I would accept this – that Rumple made sure that was the child she would get and so when the time arose complications that would have prevented that (ie. coming from a non-existent town) were overseen by the agent.
From what I understood from the episode there was the parents who originally adopted Henry but pulled out when he got to Boston, Regina, and then the DB when Regina was ready to give him up.
[adrotate group="5"]I had always assumed that Rumple procured Henry on the black market in some way and this episode seems to me to confirm that. I agree with the comments that it would have been more obvious if the agent had been depicted as a shady character meeting Regina in a dark alley, but the fact that he seemed conscientious doesn’t mean the adoption was legal. I’m assuming the agent saw all the papers he needed to see to convince him that everything was legit (home visits, tax returns, references, etc…) but I’m guessing a lot of those papers were generated by Mr. Gold greasing the palms of many people. For the right amount of money, lots of reports and court documents could be forged and misfiled. I also agree that it’s not really important that we didn’t see all of that. After all, the episode was about the growth in Regina’s character and the development of her relationship with Henry – not a Mission Impossible plot about the intricate machinations required to pull off an illegal adoption. It’s like the analogy made earlier to Emma’s stuff arriving from Boston – there are many ways she could have gotten it (call the landlord or a neighbor, hire some movers, etc…) but we don’t need to see the details because they aren’t important to the story. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there might not be more to tell about Henry’s adoption than we have seen, just that we can’t be sure that there must be more.
Incidentally, the adoption couldn’t have been legal even if Regina somehow complied with all of the requirements previously discussed in this topic, because I’m pretty sure she lied about a number of things on her application, such as:
age: 55 or so (including 18 years in Storybrooke)
previous residence: Enchanted Forest
previous job: Evil Queen
criminal record: “I was once sentenced to death for multiple murders and other crimes, but it was commuted to exile”
I’m assuming the agent saw all the papers he needed to see to convince him that everything was legit (home visits, tax returns, references, etc…) but I’m guessing a lot of those papers were generated by Mr. Gold greasing the palms of many people. For the right amount of money, lots of reports and court documents could be forged and misfiled. I also agree that it’s not really important that we didn’t see all of that. After all, the episode was about the growth in Regina’s character and the development of her relationship with Henry – not a Mission Impossible plot about the intricate machinations required to pull off an illegal adoption.
Fair point that all the necessary documents were probably forged and sighted by the agent, but I do wish they’d clarified things. Just give Mr Gold an extra line, “All the necessary documents have been falsified and forwarded to the authorities, and your application has been approved. All that remains to be done is for you to go to Boston to collect the child from the unsuspecting agency,” as he handed that envelope over to Regina in his shop.
The way they’ve actually shown it, we’ve got Mr Gold engaging in underhanded tactics, and the agent acting like it’s business as usual, and it feels all disjointed and clear as mud IMO.
After Mr Gold saying, “This morning, I, uh, spoke with an agency,” I was expecting Regina to have been dealing with the person at the agency who he’d been in contact with to set everything up, but this guy doesn’t seem like that person, (if he was, then they should have clarified it with a concerned expression or two, like it was a situation he’d been coerced into). He seems to be someone who is assuming that her application to get on the waiting list was approved two years ago, and she just so happened to be next on the waiting list when the previous family dropped out, (having been paid off by Mr Gold, I assume). I guess they wanted to portray the adoption as having been as legal as possible, so they didn’t want to show or specifically address any of the illegal parts of the process actually happening.
The way they’ve actually shown it, we’ve got Mr Gold engaging in underhanded tactics, and the agent acting like it’s business as usual, and it feels all disjointed and clear as mud IMO.
Agreed. And how did Gold even talk to anyone? Can they talk to people out in the real world? And the first time Regina came to him, he was waiting, with papers, impatiently. And what did Gold get in return? If he really *was* Gold with no Rumple memories at all then he didn’t do this just because he needed the child to come to SB to bring Emma someday. So Gold would have wanted something.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Fair point that all the necessary documents were probably forged and sighted by the agent, but I do wish they’d clarified things. Just give Mr Gold an extra line, “All the necessary documents have been falsified and forwarded to the authorities, and your application has been approved. All that remains to be done is for you to go to Boston to collect the child from the unsuspecting agency,” as he handed that envelope over to Regina in his shop.
Excellent point. A line like that would have made the whole thing much more clear.
Phee wrote: Fair point that all the necessary documents were probably forged and sighted by the agent, but I do wish they’d clarified things. Just give Mr Gold an extra line, “All the necessary documents have been falsified and forwarded to the authorities, and your application has been approved. All that remains to be done is for you to go to Boston to collect the child from the unsuspecting agency,” as he handed that envelope over to Regina in his shop.
Excellent point. A line like that would have made the whole thing much more clear.
It was as if they wanted to drive home the legality of the adoption but in doing so they made it really suspicious and confusing.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I think that you are all massively overthinking this issue.
- It is a fictional TV show which is centred on fairytale characters, not family law procedure. This is Once Upon A Time, not Felicity or Judging Amy.
- Adoption, like many other family law issues, can be dealt with by a judge in chambers on the papers, without requiring parties to appear in court. Yes, I am pulling the “I am a lawyer” card. This is how this stuff works in the real world. No need to have a courtroom scene.
- would you rather have time spent watching Regina fill in paperwork, forging it, Rumple bending the system to make it look like she was approved for adoption 2 + years ago, dialogue including assumptions about previous checks by child services on the part of the agency etc etc etc…. or would you rather have stuff that actually advances the plot and character arcs? I know what I’d rather be watching
- It is not necessary for us to know all the minute details of the adoption in order to follow the plot. All that we need to know is what we saw:
a) Regina wants a child.
b) Regina turns to Gold to speed up the real world processes because she’s impatient.
c) Gold does something to do this. She gets a child.
d) Regina struggles with being a mother because babies don’t have on/off switches and can’t be lectured at.
e) Regina’s character develops as she mellows and lets her Little Prince take some of her Evil Queen edges off, becoming a good mother (in her own way) and moving past some of her issues.
You’re right of course Swanning, but this one point: “It’s Once Upon a Time,” got me thinking. Yes this is ONCE, meaning that when we finally got the reveal of one of the most important questions in the mythos of the show, it felt like it needed to be MORE. Like…that was it? All the theories we had about The Darling Bros or August or the Blue Fairy or Jefferson…and it was incredibly mundane? This is the show that made PP Rumple’s father! So maybe our biggest issues is that it was a total let down after we’ve come to expect something twisty and mind turning.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"So maybe our biggest issues is that it was a total let down after we’ve come to expect something twisty and mind turning.
DING DING DING we have a winner.
This is the issue that people are having with this. I don’t mind people saying “OK, that was a bit of a letdown as I was expecting more” but then endlessly overanalysing it in order to find that something more drives me bonkers. It is what it is!
RumplesGirl wrote: So maybe our biggest issues is that it was a total let down after we’ve come to expect something twisty and mind turning.
DING DING DING we have a winner. This is the issue that people are having with this. I don’t mind people saying “OK, that was a bit of a letdown as I was expecting more” but then endlessly overanalysing it in order to find that something more drives me bonkers. It is what it is!
Alright.
*stands up*
After 2.5 years of waiting and intense theorizing I have to say that I am overwhelmingly disappointed in the reveal of how Henry got to Storybrooke as a baby.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
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