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So Snowing comes across an injured villager in a burned down village and their response is to offer him the chance to be a servant for them?
lol! Oh my god, yes. I’m sure they thought of it as giving the poor wretch a job.
[adrotate group="5"]I think this might be so, but its such a rehash of last season during the dark swan arc. Plus the figure is s bit too tall to be Rump. But I think this is a good highly probable guess.
I think it would be even more of a rehash of last season than the Emma split, because the core of the Emma split idea is not based on Dark One – non-Dark One. It’s whatever she is when she’s not the savior.
On the other hand, presumably if Rumple splits himself in half and that actually extracts all of his DO powers into one entity, there is no reason for that entity to even look like Rumple/Gold. It’s a mashup of DOs at this point, so there should be a bit of Nimue, a bit of Zoso, a bit of Gorgon the Terrible, a bit of Rumple and so forth.
On the other, other hand — Rumplestiltskin’s original tale says that at some point he got so angry that he, literally, tore himself in half. So I think that plot line with the serum is still in the running, I just don’t know that it would intersect with the Emma one.
ALL of that, especially about Golden Queen. Do the writers not remember the following conversation?
I think there’s a more general conversation here about the link between sexuality and “evil” that she zeroes in on in this review. And then there’s also that whole thing where different characters have, at various points, used sexuality as a weapon to intimidate or get their way. EQ has certainly done that a lot.
But I’m actually willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt, and say that they’re not actually trying to establish a preexisting attraction. The two “flirting” episodes are pretty different. The FTL version of Rumple has this very strong gender-queer vibe. He does everything he can to make people feel uncomfortable and off balance, usually by being inappropriate in some way. I think he’s actually pretty flirty with men too (some of his interactions with Charming are eyebrow raising, as I recall). And in that scene, Regina’s body language is a bit skeeved out, I thought — which makes me think that this is precisely what FTL Rumple is going for.
The real potential retcon is the present-day scene, where Regina comes on to Rumple. But in retrospect, remove the sexuality, and she did the exact same thing to Zelena. Again, if you weed past the creepy “ooh, what’s our untold story”, she says practically the same line to Zelena, minus the sexual overtones, and it boils down to this: “what you really want is someone who accepts you for who you are, and that’s me.” For Zelena, where that hits the worst is Regina. For Rumple, it’s Belle. So it actually makes perfect sense with EQ’s overall MO this season.
I liked it. I thought it was better then any of the other new shows that have come out so far.
I did too. The main female protagonist is a bit young to be going up for tenure, but hey, whatever, I’ll suspend disbelief 🙂 I too thought it was well-done, and has an intriguing premise.
Whether or not he’s actually the one who did the killing, I’ve no doubt that Rumple is the one who arranged for Charming’s father to end up dead. Like he said to the Count, he needs Snow and Charming alive and together and procreating.
I can see that. I think when the show writes Rumple the best is when he sets things in motion, and leaves people enough rope to hang themselves from, so to speak. This is what makes him such an interesting and complicated villain — unlike the EQ, Rumple at his best/worst doesn’t go for the blunt instrument approach. Similarly, he is at his most boring when they try to make him evil for power’s sake. It doesn’t jive with the initial concept of the character.
If I were writing the show, and decided to put Rumple back at the center of the different intrigues, as they’re doing now, I would play with the theme of abandoning children. That is much more in tune with the questions that drive his character. So I would have him set things up so that daddy Charming decides to abandon his two boys and skip town. So he could be blamed for it, but there would always be the technicality that he didn’t force anyone to pull the trigger, as it were. Just my 2c.
Here is my crackpot theory that tries to put the hood and magic factor into the picture. So it’s Emma’s dark non-savior side that she split off by drinking the serum. That half of Emma decided, whether because she is actually selfish and bad, or because she is still trying to save everyone, but has less ethical qualms about how to go about it, that she needs more power. She therefore stabs Rumple with the dagger and gets his powers (a logical, if depressing demise for Rumple), becoming the new Dark One again, with all the accumulated powers of dark-oneness. But unlike Rumple, who seems to have learned to symbiotically contain the darkness without going all out rampaging evil, Emma’s Evil Ash can’t do that, and becomes something truly monstrous.
How would EQ even know and why would Regina not say something if she knew all along.
Plot!
He didn’t even ask the EQ to spare Henry and he couldn’t be sure that the EQ wouldn’t harm Henry just to get to Regina.
Hmm, good point. Ok, I’ll venture an in-story explanation other than “plot.” It all depends on whether EQ and Regina are completely separate entities, and whether Rumple thinks they are (or not). If they are “avatars” of the same single entity (think the wrathful vs the merciful aspect of a deity), then Rumple can assume that EQ won’t, in fact, hurt Henry, because love for Henry is at the core of Regina’s (whole) character. They might have different ideas about what that love is — same as with Cora, for example — but it would be there. So while Rumple’s not taking responsibility for Henry, he might be assuming that whichever way the cookie crumbles, Regina/EQ will take care of her family (as Rumple himself always does, no matter where he is on the evil gradient, so it wouldn’t be a crazy assumption). My cookies are on the idea that you can’t just factor the evil part out and be rid of it, which means that I’m guessing that Rumple is hedging his bets vis a vis Henry. (On the down side of this theory, it would mean that we’re supposed to be taking the sexual tension between Regina/Rumple as canon, because if EQ is trying to put the moves on him, then that’s how Regina feels somewhere deep down. Bleagh.)
Rumple seems very likely. On the other hand, he had no problem parting with the coin — didn’t seem to be too concerned about whatever EQ was planning to do with it. Rumple’s general MO in relation to other villains is this: “here, have this thing I hoarded, now give me what I want and leave me and my family out of your armageddon plans.” Since he’s not a dumb man, and he knows EQ (arguably, they’re always trying to think three steps ahead of each other) I don’t think he’d so easily part with the coin if that would lead Charming to discover he assassinated his father — just because I don’t think Rumple would want the inconvenience of being bothered by Charming clan’s righteous anger.
My cookies are also on Emma’s non-savior side. Archie’s therapy session really sets this up: so, whatever she thinks is left if she is not the savior is probably what would get “extracted” from her should she drink the serum. And my guess is that she would drink the serum to try to “save” herself from the savior’s fate.
I thought this was actually a pretty good episode, with some great performances (mostly Lana and Bobby). Lana hits it out of the ballpark as both EQ and Regina. 7/10
Liked
Lana as EQ is a delight, terror that she is.
There is an effort, however shoddy sometimes, to address the stuff that’s at the core of OUAT, which is this issue of the relationship between reality, text, and imagination. Ok, the sequel stuff Henry was saying is a little silly, but points for at least trying to lace the plot through with the conceptual universe. Beats looking for magic mushrooms in the swamp.
Despite the pretty flat flashbacks, there is that small town feel again, and I actually don’t mind the sense of “mystery” and “not is all as it seems” that they’re trying to recreate.
I didn’t hate Hook. For the first time in, like, ever. He actually apologized to Belle, and was a decent, level-headed human. He was also not dominating every singly conversation.
Mixed:
Archie — it’s nice to have him back, and great that Emma is going to see him, but there’s something that feels shady about him.
Disliked
The Count of Monte Cristo story was not particularly interesting or well done, but at least it was contained to a single episode. Also, “Your eyes… Oh, thank you…” Telegraphic romance is telegraphic.
The whole Belle thing, and that stuff about wanting to do well by her son (Mofetus the amazing Oedipal child), just feels really flat and not engaging to me. There are literally no stakes to this story anymore. There’s nothing likable about the kid, and nothing particularly likable or salvageable about the relationship, in the way it’s been presented. At this point, I’m not even rooting for Rumple to sacrifice himself for his family and redeem himself — been there, done that. The only way I feel Rumple’s story will wrap up satisfyingly is if he’s reunited with Neal in the afterlife.
Oh for the love of all that is holy, why are they retconning the Rumple/Regina dynamic? That’s just not right. And sure, Bobby and Lana can pull it off because they’re amazing actors, but this just gives me the same kind of icky creeps as the Zelena/Rumple thing. If they want to throw in some more wrenches into the Rumbelle squeaky wheel, why not come up with a love interest for Rumple who isn’t, actually, symbolically or actually his kin?
