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Not exactly. I’m wondering if Flynn is Lucy’s son from an alternate future, and that the big changes he’s making to history are just incidental to his real goal of getting his parents togethe
So, more like Terminator meets Return to the Future? There seems to be a connection between Lucy and Flynn, but now that I think about it, I wonder if it’s quite as straight forward as direct kinship — that seems fairly predictable. Perhaps he is a former student? Flynn has two stated drives so far: “They [whoever they are] killed my family” and “I want to save America.” And we’re led to believe that future Lucy is the one who sets him on this path.
[adrotate group="5"]So my current theory is that Flynn is from the far future; sometime past 2016 when America has pretty much imploded into a post apocalyptic hellscape. His conversation with Lucy was pretty impassioned that he’s trying to SAVE America, not end it. I just don’t get why these events, why change these things
It looks like it’s inverting the things that we’d typically consider “bad” events in history, that, should they have not taken place, put society on a much different (and presumably better) course. I do wonder about the periodization. So far the historiography is pretty exclusively Euroamerican. Flynn is not going around trying to screw up, say, European colonialism. Also, I wonder how far back he’s able to venture, and whether there is a technological limit to that. One presumes that the further back you go, the more “payoff” there might be in terms derailing the course of things.
I’m getting the sense that it’s exactly the plot of Back to the Future, only this time Marty is the bad guy.
I don’t remember that film well. Do you mean in the sense that main antagonist is possibly the main protagonist’s biological progenitor and the story will become about ensuring that the main character doesn’t cancel herself out of existence?
It looks like what Hyde is holding in his hand is some sort of locket with a picture of a woman on it. A lost love perhaps? (points if she’s called Lenore) I could be wrong but it looks like a portrait of a woman on the necklace.
And looks like Rumple has it a few shots down. I wonder what Hyde traded it for?
So…why this kid? The creation he chose to interact with wasn’t a whore, it wasn’t a gunslinger, it wasn’t even Dolores, the good girl.
This makes me think of the little girl who knew about the maze. I thought this was one of the creepiest scenes in the show so far, where she is clearly there as a messenger/quest giver, and the facade of humanity just drops. It’s also intriguing that the Man in Black is not the intended recipient of the quest, so one wonders — who is? And what is the purpose of the maze?
If I had to guess, I’d he’s become disillusioned with “real” people–why else would anyone go to that amount of effort and trouble to create such realistic AI’s if not because they find the real world and its people so repugnant?
This is a crackpot theory, but I wonder if, from the Director’s perspective, the park is actually there for the androids rather than the humans in that it’s a petri dish of sorts for producing AI self-awareness. Like the Director is actually trying to achieve something like the Singularity, and in order to do that, he needs to create an artificial/accelerated evolutionary milieu. That line about “you are the most real when you’re suffering” from the Man in Black might be foreshadowing the idea that self-awareness is achieved as a result of suffering.
He seems more of the monster in a nightmare; he’s the dark mirror that is held up to humanity–here be dragons sort of metaphor for what happens when humans are allowed to give into their darkest and deepest desires.
I think what’s so utterly terrifying about him is this sense of self-absorbed ennui. His entire quest for the maze seems like this last ditch attempt to alleviate his boredom, and that sense of entitled nihilism is what’s so completely monstrous about him.
Rumpel’s tape… Anyone else think that came across like a suicide note? It sounds like he doesn’t have hope to ever speak to his child.
I think it could definitely be read as a goodbye of sorts — not sure it’s a suicide note per se…
Anyway, as to where it’s from, here’s one reference:
I thought there was some really interesting questions being asked, not just about reality (is this real/is this not?) but also about what counts as being alive. Does endless repetition of an emotional/cognitive state disqualify you from being considered a living being? Are memories the primary thing that makes one human? (And if so, where does this leave people with cognitive impairments that affect long term memory)?
I think the two most intriguing characters right now are the Director and the Man in Black. They seem to be interesting inversions of each other. There are a lot of implicit/explicit pairings like this: the narrative centers around multiple “couples”/”contrasts”. Dr. Ford/Man in Black; Dolores/Maeve; Ashley/Elsie etc.
I know this is originally a Chrichton novel, but I wonder if the showrunners have read Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. There is some aesthetic overlap, plus the main antagonist is also called the Man in Black.
I think the message is, as is typical of OUAT, half-baked. I mean, love for whom? What sort of love? There are vast differences between the four messages of the episode: (1)”you can die anytime, and therefore carpe diem” (Emma/Hook), (2)”you have only one shot at this, so be present” (Snowing), (3)”I’d rather die than give up on the people I love” (Cinderella), and (4)”we are over, but our love for our child transcends our individual interests” (Rumple/Belle).
These different messages are all about love,yes, but they are not all love over life. In 3 of these cases, the message is about love transcending ego. Rumple and Ashley are on the “winning” side of that equation, at least for now. Snow has the right message, but Charming is not listening. And Emma is, pretty explicitly, all ego — it’s all about jealousy, and fulfilling someone else’s expectations.
I thought this was actually a decent episode, considering it was largely a filler. It advanced some characters, put Charming back at the center, and got things moving along. Maybe a 7/10
Liked:
Snow and Charming were, for the first time in a long time, actually interesting. And Snow’s speech to Charming, while TM Snow, I actually bought. He does have a life and responsibilities, and no chance to “do over” — he’s got a young child, and this is it. So I actually was impressed, despite the thorough predictability of the drama.
The Rumple lullaby tape. I took this to be a poem that Rumple gave to Belle to sing to her child — not necessarily something to play to him, but something for her to make her own. I thought it was incredibly touching. Have we ever seen Rumple sing to little Baelfire? I feel like we have, but maybe that’s a false memory — it just makes so much sense with his character. I have colleagues who, having to travel for work, do something like this — videotape themselves reading a favorite storybook so that the other parent can play it in their absence to the kid. OUAT doesn’t manage subtle yet heart-wrenching very often, but I could absolutely relate to this, and thought this was a rare moment of true-to-life loveliness.
Stepmother gets the cake
EQ is a delight.
Lasagna scene
Flashbacks weren’t pointless, and actually expanded the story we already knew.
Disliked
The reverse good/bad step sister was a bit of a stretch. Also, the commentary about class was tedious and flat-footed. Before they can tackle class AE need to realize that they just “happen” to run many of their lower class characters through a woodchip mill. I suppose that’s better than their treatment of PoC characters, but still.
Hook / Henry fighting with sticks. Really? That wasn’t cute when Henry was 10, why should it be cute when Henry’s on the cusp of growing facial hair???
Emma barges into to Dr Hopper’s office like it’s her kitchen, plops on the couch, and goes into a tantrum about being jealous of Ashley’s “normal” family life? Then asks Hook to move in? Really? This woman is meant to be the empowered female lead?
