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Once Turns 100: Once Upon a Time Season 2 Retrospective
For our Season 1 Retrospective, click here
“Magic is coming!” With the curse broken and magic introduced to Storybrooke, the show went through some pretty big changes. It was a pivotal moment for everybody to regain their memories, and for Snow and Charming to finally reunite with their long lost daughter. For the first time we got present day scenes in the Enchanted Forest, which included Emma accidentally making her homecoming to the very land she came from. We saw Regina attempt redemption for the sake of her son, but would of course slip back once reunited with Cora. Season 2 also saw the introduction of Neal, who of course turned out to be both Baelfire and Henry’s father, and Hook, who turned out to be Rumple’s arch-enemy and Emma’s future love interest. Notable guest stars included Aurora, Phillip, Mulan, and Anton the Giant (played by LOST’s Jorge Garcia). So let’s dive into our Season 2 retrospective!
Season 2 Promos:
Since this forum would not exist without this site’s podcast, feel free to give a listen to the podcast’s full discussions for each episode. Whether you want to re-listen to them, or just never got around to listening to them before! Click on each episode title for links!
201 – Broken
202 – We Are Both
203 – Lady of the Lake
204 – The Crocodile
205 – The Doctor
206 – Tallahassee
207 – Child of the Moon
208 – Into the Deep
209 – Queen of Hearts
210 – The Cricket Game
211 – The Outsider
212 – In the Name of the Brother
213 – Tiny
214 – Manhattan
215 – The Queen is Dead
216 – The Miller’s Daughter
217 – Welcome to Storybrooke
218 – Selfless, Brave and True
219 – Lacey
220 – The Evil Queen
221 – Second Star to the Right
222 – And Straight On ‘Til MorningDiscussion Points
– Favorite Episode of the Season
– Favorite Character Introduced
– Favorite Moment of the Season
– What was your reaction to the reveal that Baelfire turned out to be Henry’s father, which was of course a theory dating back to when Baelfire was first introduced?
– What was your initial impression of Hook? Yes I know he’s a very polarized character, but it would be interesting to explore our original opinions on the character.
– What was your reaction to the reveal that Dr. Whale was Victor Frankenstein, after an entire previous Season of countless speculation?
– From what we’ve heard, Season 2 was not originally going to lead into Neverland the way it did. According to Ethan Embry, Greg was originally going to be in less episodes and he got an extension, implying that perhaps the whole Home Office portion of his storyline wasn’t always the plan. Do you feel like they rushed getting the show to Neverland? Should Cora have remained the antagonist for the entire Season instead of switching over to Greg and Tamara?
– Regarding this Season, has your opinion changed at all looking back?[adrotate group="5"]– Favorite Episode of the Season
Off the top of my head, The outsider. Just because we got to see Belle actually doing something. She was central to that episode in both flashback and present day and it’s a shame that as the seasons have gone on, she’s been reduced to research answers so the “heroes” don’t have to do any legwork.
– Favorite Character Introduced
Felix- This is probably based more on his characterisation in season 3, but I liked the fact that he and Pan were genuine friends. It’s a shame we never got any backstory on him outside of Pan’s lackey.
– Favorite Moment of the Season
I’m not entirely sure. It’s been so long since I last watched it.
– What was your reaction to the reveal that Baelfire turned out to be Henry’s father, which was of course a theory dating back to when Baelfire was first introduced?
I think everyone had guessed that Baelfire was Henry’s dad before the episode aired so the episode focussed more on the emotionality of the reveal rather than the reveal itself.
– What was your initial impression of Hook? Yes I know he’s a very polarized character, but it would be interesting to explore our original opinions on the character.
Over season 3 I was very back and forth about Hook, but in Season 2 the only episode I kind of liked Hook in was Tallahassee. I disliked Hook for his actions in the Crocodile against Rumple because Hook was being a jerk for the sake of it, he slightly redeemed himself in Tallahassee atop the beanstalk but his actions towards Belle both in flashback and The Outsider made me hate him for the rest of the season.
– What was your reaction to the reveal that Dr. Whale was Victor Frankenstein, after an entire previous Season of countless speculation?
It made sense. It looked like he and Ruby were going to have an interesting arc and FrankenWolf was a popular ship but the writers decided to go in a different direction and it kind of showed.
– From what we’ve heard, Season 2 was not originally going to lead into Neverland the way it did. According to Ethan Embry, Greg was originally going to be in less episodes and he got an extension, implying that perhaps the whole Home Office portion of his storyline wasn’t always the plan. Do you feel like they rushed getting the show to Neverland? Should Cora have remained the antagonist for the entire Season instead of switching over to Greg and Tamara?
I don’t think Cora should’ve necessarily lasted longer than she did, but they needed a better villain to follow her into the lead up to Neverland rather than GOAT and their magic taser.
– Regarding this Season, has your opinion changed at all looking back?
Season 2 was weaker than season 1 in some respects but was infinitely better than 4A and 5A.
All magic comes with a price!
Keeper of FelixSEASON 2
Favorite Episode: Manhattan 2×14
Geez…this is too hard! But I’ve got to say Manhattan…this episode was just the best out of the entire season. From Regina and Cora working as the mother daughter duo to Emma, Rumple, and Henry finding Neal leading up to that huge confrontation scene! Manhattan was just full of fun, heartbreak, surprises, and magical delight…..not to mention that creepy seer who warned Rumple of his future.
Favorite Introduced Character: Neal
From the moment we got a glimpse of him in Broken, something about him was just so intriguing, it just made me keep wondering about him. And then when we finally met him in Tallahassee, he was such a charming dork I couldn’t help but love him and his actor was simply hilarious off set. Then I started shipping SwanFire and we saw how great he was with Henry when he met him, and I was just sold from then on out.
Favorite Moment of the Season: Too many to count
OOooohhhh…there were so many, I can’t just pick one. Two of my favorites was that scene between Regina and Henry where she lets him go to give him his best chance in 2×02, and that confrontation scene between Regina and Snow White in 2×17 where she basically reads Snow White for what she really was….but my ultimate, number one favorite scene has to be in 2×22 when we see Regina preparing to sacrifice her life to save the very people she cursed, and Henry is just there telling his mother how much he loves her because he finally realizes that although his mother was a villain, she loved him more than anything else….one of the most touching scenes in all of OUAT.
Bonus Question: How About Most Heart Wrenching Moment?
To put it simply I have two….the moment when Regina had to kill Daniel herself….THAT WAS TOO MUCH FOR MY HEART TO TAKE! They teased us of the prospect of her getting her one true love back, and then had her kill him to set him free…I knew then to not trust Adam and Eddy completely because they were truly capable of anything. And then when Cora finally got her heart back, and looked at Regina with the love she craved since birth, only for her to die in her daughter’s arms telling her that she would’ve been enough.
Season Regards:
– My initial reaction was that this is one of the best scenes written on OUAT, I can’t remember who wrote the episode Manhattan, but I do remember being wildly impressed with how it was handled. From Rumple reuniting with Baelfire, to Baelfire standing up for Emma, to Baelfire discovering Henry was his son all at one time….just wow!
– The original impression I had of Hook was someone who if written right, I could grow to like. However, everyone on the forums know my feelings on Hook, so no need in delving off too far into this. I was actually hoping to like Hook in the beginning, he was a character that had quite the potential for the arc we were getting, unfortunately it did not fall through.
– Dr. Whale being Frankenstein was not the least bit surprising to me…more than likely because we had already pieced that together. LOL! Yeah…I really Don’t care for Whale that much…again you guys probably already know why. But his backstory was interesting, I’ll give him that.
– Surprisingly, I didn’t mind the sudden flow 2B had, it did pretty good. But I do think Home Office was supposed to have been something else besides Neverland, I don’t know why, but I just can’t imagine Peter Pan calling his operation Home Office. There must have been a switch of plot at the last second, I vaguely recall Adam and Eddy discussing how they suddenly got permission to do Neverland, and something else along those lines.
– Favorite promo for Season 2 has to be either The Witch Is Back or 2×20 where ABC dedicated the promo to the Evil Regals…those two were just brilliant.
Overall Regards:
Season 2 was a wild fun ride for both OUAT and us….we discovered quite a lot about Emma, Regina, Snow, Charming, and Rumplestilskin. I certainly remember getting teary eyed about this season more than any other season of OUAT, mostly because there were a lot of blows dealt to Regina, who took them like a champ. Overall, Season 2 was a pretty great season.
"If you go as far as you can see...you will then see enough to go even further." - Finn Balor
Favorite Episode of the Season
Manhattan. Manhattan. Manhattan. It was the culmination of the entire series: Rumple finds Bae, Henry meets his father, Emma and Neal are reunited. It was pretty much perfect from start to finish (could have done without some of the SB stuff, though, which is why it gets my second spot on the overall list).
– Favorite Character Introduced
Okaaay, technically Bae was introduced in S1, but Neal Cassidy for everything.
Rumple might have drawn me in, but Neal spoke to me. I know what it’s like to be alone and afraid and feel like you aren’t good enough for anyone or anything. I know what it’s like to have to make really hard decisions that are for the greater good, but ultimately it devastates you and the those around you. And I know what it’s like to have people hate for making that decision. I understand his jaded outlook on life because I’m the same way. In so many ways, it felt like Neal was my Onciverse avatar.
I will never be okay with the writers killing him off. It was a terrifically bad decision that still has not played out in any sort of watchable plot. In a world where children grow up without positive male role models and fathers walk out or abandon their children, never looking back, why was it so taboo to keep a character who learned he had a son and instead of running, stepped up like a man and I said, “yes. I will be a father.” And then went on to be one of the shinning examples of fatherhood in a series where Prince Charming’s papa was a drunk driver, where Rumple chose magic over his own flesh and blood and where Malcolm chose youth over his son.
For a show that tries to sell itself as one that is about family and love, killing off a good father, a good son, and a good man flies in the face of that reality. Neal was more than just Rumple’s son or potential love interest for Emma. To me he was the embodiment of hope and second chances and killing him meant that the show I had dedicated so much of my time to didn’t really care about those two concepts.
What was your reaction to the reveal that Baelfire turned out to be Henry’s father, which was of course a theory dating back to when Baelfire was first introduced?
I was happy that something I had believed so strongly came to pass for real. I knew–just knew–that Bae was Henry’s father, all the way back in S1.
What was your initial impression of Hook? Yes I know he’s a very polarized character, but it would be interesting to explore our original opinions on the character.
Wait a sec. Did we discuss this question when we prepped for these retrospectives?! Juuuust kidding
I strongly disliked him right from the start. He alludes to a woman being gang raped and then tells a cripple that it’s the cripples fault for said gang rape because the cripple can’t fight. So, yeah, not a fan.
What was your reaction to the reveal that Dr. Whale was Victor Frankenstein, after an entire previous Season of countless speculation?
Relieved to finally get an answer, though the promo for that episode really spoiled it. Also, @TheGoldenkey and @Gypsy had laid it out so completely that we already knew, really. But man, I had some wild guesses back in the day. King Arthur, Monstro from Pinocchio.
Do you feel like they rushed getting the show to Neverland? Should Cora have remained the antagonist for the entire Season instead of switching over to Greg and Tamara?
In a word: yes. You can tell when it shifted gears because a lot of plot points go left in the dust, along with characters. Cora never felt truly threatening because he time in SB was spent either hiding or watching. Ruby was shipped off to Forgotten Character Island and suddenly there was something called the Home Office. The boys got a shiny new toy and they were eager to play.
Regarding this Season, has your opinion changed at all looking back?
A bit, yes. At the time I thought S2 was good–I wasn’t one of those who strongly disliked it–but looking back now it was clunky and the writers always seemed to be distracted by the prospect of playing with Neverland and the toys associated with that mythology. However, I’d take S2 any over some of the newer seasons any day.
Bonus Question: How About Most Heart Wrenching Moment?
Neal and Emma’s portal scene. Neal willingly letting go because Henry matters more than anything else, including his own life. Their ILY will always kill me.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Favorite Moment of the Season
I forgot to answer this one!
Easily the 3 min conversation between Rumple and Neal in Manhattan. That was superb. Excellent acting and emotion. I’ve watched that scene so many times.
“…try abandonment”
I mean, I already loved Neal Cassidy SO FREAKING MUCH from what I had seen before, but that line did me in. His pain and his jaded feelings…I got them. I got them more than I wished I did.
Runner up is Neal and Rumple holding hands as Rumple lay dying after Neal hears Rumple’s phone ball to Belle. Oh god. That moment. With Emma listening and all the SF feels. Full of love indeed. Full of love (also, the Belle/Rumple phone call itself was dynamically beautiful)
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Favorite Episode of the Season: After thinking long and hard about it, I would have to say “The Miller’s Daughter.” It was a great climax to the Cora arc, and included so many amazing character moments. We finally got to see the show’s take on the original Rumplestiltskin story for the first time ever, and it didn’t disappoint. The show also went darker by having Snow use the candle on Cora’s heart, and manipulating Regina to put it back into her chest. After years of losing friends and loved ones, Snow’s innocence nature finally cracked. Or so we assumed at the time (*cough4bcough*). Other great aspects in the episode was Rumple’s beautiful call to Belle (I still think it was a horrible choice for ABC to spoil that entire scene as a sneak peek), and Rumple and Neal’s reconciliation. Honorable mentions go to “Manhattan”, “Second Star to the Right”, “And Straight On ‘Til Morning”, and “Queen of Hearts.”
Favorite Character Introduced: The unpopular opinion here, but probably Hook. I don’t love the character, but I found him the most interesting out of the new Season 2 characters, and he was a fun villain throughout the series. I guess a large reason for me is Colin’s performance. He does a great job with the character. I think Rumple needed an antithesis, and he fit that role nicely. My answer for this question would have been Cora, but she was introduced in Season 1.
Favorite Moment of the Season: The moment I have the fondest memories of from this Season is during “Queen of Hearts. It’s when Cora tries to rip out Emma’s heart, telling her that “love is weakness.” This fails, as Emma retorts “No, it’s strength”, pushing Cora back with her magic. Not only was this the first time Emma ever performed magic, but she did so while protecting her mother. It really was a powerful sequence.
What was your reaction to the reveal that Baelfire turned out to be Henry’s father?: We all saw this coming, but only because it made so much sense. The writers couldn’t resist having the reason for the curse meet up with the savior of the curse. The son of darkness meeting the daughter of light. Snow and Charming’s reaction to the fact that Rumple was now a part of their extended family remains to date one of the funniest moments in the series. “It’s a good thing we don’t have Thanksgiving in our land, cause that dinner would suck.”
What was your initial impression of Hook?: See “Favorite Character Introduced.”
What was your reaction to the reveal that Dr. Whale was Victor Frankenstein, after an entire previous Season of countless speculation?: I was clueless until I discovered GoldenKey’s thread analyzing all of the clues. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t connected the dots sooner, as it made complete sense. I know it was a somewhat controversial reveal at the time, because Frankenstein is not a fairy tale nor even in the traditional fantasy genre. However, I found it intriguing that the show was willing to explore various literary genres. After all, we saw how there are many worlds out there, thanks to Jefferson’s hat. It was also an intriguing creative decision to have his world be A Land Without Color, in tribute to the old black and white horror movies. If you’ve read the original script to the Pilot, Dracula is even mentioned, proving that they had always planned to expand in this direction. David Anders confirmed that he knew he was Victor Frankenstein the entire time, and it was one of the reasons he agreed to do the role in the first place.
Do you feel like they rushed getting the show to Neverland? Should Cora have remained the antagonist for the entire Season instead of switching over to Greg and Tamara?: In hindsight, yes I do think they rushed getting to Neverland. Cora was an incredible villain, and one of Season 2’s main highlights. Greg and Tamara were rather bland and one-dimensional. I don’t think I need to bring up Tamara’s magical taser, and how ridiculous it was that she killed August with it. That was definitely the worst episode of Season 2, and definitely one of the worst episodes in the entire series. In theory, the whole real world vs. magic conflict could have worked, but then Greg and Tamara turned out to be merely Peter Pan’s pawns. Ruby’s character suffered from fading into the background in the 2nd half, to the point where Meghan Ory had to ask Adam and Eddy what was up. After explaining that the Neverland plot wouldn’t involve her, this convinced Meghan to leave the show to do Intelligence.
Regarding this Season, has your opinion changed at all looking back?: Season 2 is an odd Season, because I enjoy the moments and individual episodes more so than the full Season itself. It felt very clunky, unfocused, and over ambitious. At least the later Seasons have clearly set up arcs, although they certainly have plenty of flaws on their own. I’m not sure if immediately separating Emma and Snow from the group via a portal to the Enchanted Forest was one of the best moves, and that storyline dragged. Although, I did enjoy the idea behind Emma experiencing the Enchanted Forest for herself for the first time. As stated above, perhaps Cora should have been the villain for the entire Season, rather than placing in Greg and Tamara to rush to Neverland. Another issue I had was Regina’s flip flopping, particularly during the 2nd half, where she too easily fell for her mother’s manipulation. That said, I do respect Season 2 a little more looking back at it compared to my initial viewing of it.
In my opinion season 2 had the best characater development out of all the seasons, including season 1. The characters finally realized the truth about who they are and the curse, it allowed them to grow as characters and their actions made sense. In later seasons, it just felt like they turned into templates that do 360 every 11 episodes. In the end, what matter is the characters, that’s why I think season 2 was better then 3B-5A.
I think that Cora should have stayed till the end, mainly because it felt like the season didn’t have any climax, whereas season 1 had an amazing build up toward breaking the curse. Season 2 just felt like they suddenly ended Cora’s storyline and started something new. It easier for me to consider season 2 as just 1-16, and 17-22 are part of 3A, but that just me.
Favorite episode: definitely Manhattan. It had a lot of build up since season 1, this is the episode everyone was waiting for.
Favorite moments:
203 – Snow imagines the life she could have had with her daughter (we rarely see emotional scenes like this, it seems like the writers forgot how devastating the Dark Curse was, now it’s just a means for transportation).
216 – Cora dies and we see a side of Regina that all she ever wanted was for her mother to accept her.
221 – Emma and Neal portal scene. The potential. Sigh.
"All your questions are pointless"
Best episode… hard to choose, but I will go with storyline.
I loved the finding (nemo) Bae in manhattan storyline and Cora’s absolutely genius storyline from being the miller’s daughter to the queen of hearts it was fabulous.I think season 2 was the most FUN season on ouat, it was this season that pulled me hopelessly into ouat. Season 1 was a bit boring and i missed some episodes without caring. But seaso 2??? Omg! !! I watched every episode 5 times and was obsessed. (I still love watching season 2 on Netflix)
I really loved that Neal was the son AND the father and was absolutely shocked about it! Unlike the rest of you guys, i did NOT look for spoilers (i didnt care enough during season 1, and season 2 was like harry potter for me, where the story was holy and i wanted NO SPOLIERS.)
So the reveal was delicious and fun. I loved every second of it and squealed like a squirelWhen Hook put that Hook on his hand and answered “neverland” to smee’s where are we going, i was SO EXCITED! I couldn’t wait to see him in Neverland and be all shady and -really- this amazing actor put me at the edge of my seat every time he was on screen, because I never knew who he would betray THIS time or which side he is on. I LOVED being afraid of him, it was such a rush. When Rumple asked if he was done trying to kill him, and Hook said he was I was, like, suuuure! And I was so excited to see how it would play out in neverland, how he would betray EVERYONE one at a time, for a chance to get (his hands) his hook on Rumple.
Alas, season 3 killed him. He became SO BORING that i just looked at him as a pesky fly and waited for his character to ship off to forgotten island.I think the biggest problem with S2 was that the writers could never settle on if the story was internalized or externalized.
What I mean by this is that there were some huge plot points like child-parent dynamics of betrayal and forgiveness and manipulation with Regina-Cora, Rumple-Nealfire all while Emma was figuring out how to be a daughter to Snow and Charming. Those are very internalized stories. They exist inside the small circle of characters and don’t touch on the outside world and characters too much.
But then on the other side you had Rumple bringing magic to SB right off the bat. You then introduced the idea of the Outsider in Greg which morphed into GOAT/Home Office. Someone out there hated magic and wanted it eradicated and was using two people who had similar ideologies as their tools of destruction. This is a very external storyline. It involves the outside world and characters who stand outside the small circle driving the narrative.
It’s possible to have both–and looking back, I think they handled it better than they’ve handled a lot of the stories since–but it did feel off kilter at the time. We go from Cora being set up as the Big Bad to Greg crashing his car back to Cora as the main villain but only to dispose of her rather rapidly, introducing Tamara and then by extension the Home Office and suddenly we’re off to Neverland. The result being that the internal stories never felt like they were given proper weight and the external stories never felt fully developed.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I think one of the issues with season 2 was that it had so much potential that it never quite reached.
Broken- I don’t think Mulan or Aurora should’ve been in this episode until the last scene where they find Emma and Snow. The whole timeline was off- Present day Storybrooke we saw Emma and Snow just go through the portal but apparently in FTL they’d been lying under rubble for a day and a half. MAP took time away from the Storybrooke side of things which is what people really wanted to see so I think that kind of created a resentment towards those characters. It would’ve been better to have the wraith immediately suck out Philip’s soul after Emma and Snow arrived which would have still given the same interaction between Mulan/Aurora and Emma/Snow without taking the time away from the main cast in Broken.
Belle’s amnesia/Lacey- I think the problem with the whole amnesia/Lacey storyline was that the writers really needed to choose one or the other rather than cram both in. Also, I think Lacey should’ve been a character in S1 Storybrooke so that by the time Skin Deep rolled around you actually get an OMG moment that Lacey the hard drinking party girl was actually the sweet book loving Belle. As it is, Lacey only existed for 2/3 days timeline wise. The amnesia plotline (though they’ve overdone the amnesia plot device as the seasons have gone on) could’ve been really interesting as they could’ve used Belle’s state as a metaphor for mental illness and shown people pulling together to help Belle get better. As it were, you had Ruby lying to Belle for no reason at all since Belle just wanted confirmation that what she saw was real and it was Ruby denying it that made Belle kick off. Ruby was in effect gaslighting Belle. Also, Snowing were meant to be looking after Belle whilst Rumple was out of town but at no point did they visit to check up on her. They just left her there so that Regina could knock her out and go through her bag and then Greg was able to talk to her. I actually don’t think it was a coincidence that after Greg talked to her and told her she wasn’t crazy that we saw a calmer Belle who was actually willing to talk to Rumple. In fact Greg was the only one who helped Belle. A complete stranger did Belle more good than her “friends” who either completely ignored her or gaslighted her.
GOAT/Home office- I think Tamara would’ve been better off just being Neal’s fiancée rather than a double agent in a plot that went nowhere. At least then when the writers chose to get rid of Neal in favour of CS, they could’ve sent him back happily to New York to be with his fiancée and Henry could go and visit which would account for his lack of screentime in Storybrooke for several episodes in 4A if he was out of town visiting his dad. It would’ve also shown a separated couple working together to raise their son. The Greg storyline could’ve worked if he was just a stranger that entered and left town but I think the whole Home Office plot would’ve worked better if it had been Adult John and Michael that came to town. You’ve still got that connection with Baelfire which is why he’d give them information, you’ve got an actual reason why they’re working for Pan in secret and why they’d take Henry to Neverland because they want to save Wendy. Pan could’ve still sent them in Season 3 to retrieve Pandora’s box but it just would’ve tied the story together better than having them arrive the day everyone went to Neverland as Belle put the shield up but then hang around doing nothing until episode 7.
I disliked Henry in season 2 because he was so bratty. Considering he was supposedly meant to be a smart kid, he was such an idiot that he planned to blow up magic with dynamite. He was so annoying that I hoped the dynamite would go off in his hand to teach him a lesson. Sure, Regina or Rumple would be able to fix it, but he would’ve learned the hard way. What was even more annoying was that the adults, I think with the exception of Rumple and Emma when she finally stepped up and told Henry no, let Henry get away with his bratty behaviour.
All magic comes with a price!
Keeper of Felix
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