Henry's Adoption

[swanning-off]

have a cookie 🙂

[Phee]

I definitely admit that I was disappointed with the simplicity of it all after all the fun theories about it, but I’m also just bugged by how they didn’t even really make it clear how it played out. Like I said in my previous post, it would have just taken one extra line from Mr Gold in that scene in his shop. I’m not saying we needed to see the whole process play out, I’m just saying that a bit more info to clarify the situation would have been appreciated, because the first time I watched it, the story felt disjointed and I was sitting there all tilted head with a confused expression all “WUT was that?” It was sloppy execution of the story they wanted to tell IMO, and it made the ep as a whole weaker for me.

I’ve seen a fair amount of comment about this ep where people are along the lines of, “Seriously, the guy wasn’t concerned that SB doesn’t even exist and just approved her anyway without even a home visit, that is so completely unrealistic.” So if the writers had it in their heads that Regina was supposed to be coming off as having been pre-approved years ago, then that point flew way over a lot of people’s heads. And that’s poor story telling.

[once_dude]

maybe some of us would be less upset if a certain scene had gone differently picture if you will stretching our mental televisions back (come on we all have them) to season 1 episode 2. Rumples line was “Ah Henry, the boy I procured for you.” Rumples line should ahve been:
“Ah Henry, the boy I helped you adopt.”

See problem solved.

Magic always comes with a price, so I pay with visa.

[Phee]

Yeah, I think the use of “procure” got everyone’s hopes up for some really sneaky, sinister sequence of events.

[timespacer]

I actually liked the way they presented the adoption but I do agree with Phee’s comment that they should have inserted a line by Rumple to the effect of “I’ve generated all the required documents and there will be no delay” since it would only have taken a few seconds of dialogue. I think the main problem some folks have (correct me if I’m wrong, those of you who were bothered by it) is that without a clearer indication that Gold pulled some strings, it seems like an unbelievable behavior by the guy at the adoption agency and unbelievable behavior by a character always takes us out of the story. I didn’t have that problem because I assumed Rumple’s involvement took care of it, but they weren’t very explicit in stressing that involvement, so I can see how some people didn’t assume it was there.

This is a different criticism than saying we expected the adoption to be a very involved plot. I was actually one of those who thought it might be (based upon the line “…the boy I procured for you” as once-dude said) but I wasn’t at all disappointed that it turned out otherwise. While intricate plot twists can be fun, and this show has certainly had its share of them, this has always been a show in which the plot exists to service the characters, never the other way around. Learning that Pan was Rumple’s father was a surprising twist, but it was mainly valuable because it gave us a new layer of meaning for Rumple’s character, not for the intricate way in which it was woven into the pre-existing plot (although I admire that too). As Swanning-off said, a more involved depiction of the adoption process would have cost us time seeing Regina with Henry, or interactions among the other characters, and that’s what I really want to see. So, I’m happy with it, although I concede they should have tossed in that extra line in order to avoid requiring too much suspension of disbelief.

[RumplesGirl]

Yeah, I think the use of “procure” got everyone’s hopes up for some really sneaky, sinister sequence of events.

Yes exactly. And, honestly for me, the fact that the procuring turned out to be not a big deal at all, coupled with the random 5 second appearance by the Darling Brothers sorta leads me to believe that they really only came up with their answer to “how did Henry get to SB” very recently. So when they had Gold say that back in S1, they really didn’t now HOW Henry got to SB they were just teasing it (which is fine, 2nd episode of the series and all) but then they did it again in 219 (Lacey). So it feels like they said, “oh we need to tell this story now so let’s make sure we try to tie it to the present day stuff in someway” As if they more or less came up with it before they wrote the script, not something they’ve known for a long time.

Which makes me wonder what will happen when the other big mythos question is revealed: the book. We’ve had just as many theories about the book as we did the adoption.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Phee]

I think the main problem some folks have (correct me if I’m wrong, those of you who were bothered by it) is that without a clearer indication that Gold pulled some strings, it seems like an unbelievable behavior by the guy at the adoption agency and unbelievable behavior by a character always takes us out of the story.

Yep, that’s totally what happened with me.

Though even if that initial part of the story had been clarified, it was still really bizarre that the agent didn’t even raise an eyebrow when Regina kept changing her mind about wanting the baby. They were trying to pass it off as being a real world, official business, legit as it could be under the circumstances adoption, and his non-reaction in that scene was completely unrealistic, which also took me out of the story. Like, seriously, you’re in the business of child welfare and the lady who brought the kid into your office 30 seconds ago, saying how she didn’t want him any more, she suddenly changed her mind again…and you just let the obviously emotionally unstable woman walk outta there with a newborn in her care? Seriously?

If he wasn’t in contact with Gold and involved in the shadiness of the deal, then he should have been more concerned about letting the crazy lady take the baby. If he was in contact with Gold and involved in the shadiness of the deal, then he obviously wasn’t very committed to it, because he already had the DB ready and waiting to take the baby next. But nothing about him suggested he was a shady character who’d forge adoption applications for the right price. And he seemed to believe that the DB were genuine and would wanna go back on the waiting list.

GAH, that adoption agent was just written and acted so poorly IMO.

[PriceofMagic]

Having rewatched the episode, I’m actually okay with the adoption thing now. Gold handed Regina an A4 size brown envelope which could easily contain falsified reports and references etc. That could explain why the adoption agent didn’t question too much, if everything looked legit and official as he expected it to, why would he question it. He did describe Regina’s application as “too good to be true” and her references as “impeccable” so not having heard of Storybrooke before may not necessarily send red flags flying.

In a way Gold did “procure” Henry for Regina, because without his help, Regina would never have had Henry. The adoption seems legitimate but really it wasn’t because Regina didn’t go through the entire process. Nobody came to her house, or checked her suitability, plus if anybody did question it, once Regina had Henry in Storybrooke, it was too late.

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[RumplesGirl]

How did Gold even get the information about Baby Henry in the first place? Gold, the lawyer of SB, doesn’t actually exist outside of the self contained bubble. He doesn’t have actual contacts in our world who are willing to help out. He may have false memories that he has such things, but those contacts and memories and connections don’t actually exist. So part of my problem is that I can’t believe Gold was able to find out about Baby Henry, cut through all the red tape it takes to adopt a baby, because he isn’t an actual lawyer (in the same way Archie isn’t actually a therapist) and can’t affect actual events outside of SB.

EDIT

And that’s why our Darling Bros theory worked so well. They contacted HIM not the other way around.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Slurpeez]

The fact that the Darling brothers tried to “adopt” Henry makes me wonder if they were after Henry’s heart before he even came of age. I’d been working under the assumption that Peter Pan was behind the Dark Curse because he wanted Henry to be the only boy who grew up in a town where no one ages, which led him to believing in the curse and in Emma as the savior, thereby making him into the truest believer. But now it seems like Peter Pan wanted baby Henry, which suggests that being born of light and dark magic is what makes Henry the truest believer, not his environment, as I’d assumed. So, Henry was born with the heart of the truest believer, which in turn, allowed him to so easily believe the dark curse was real and that Emma was destined to save everybody.

"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy

[Author]

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