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I think Regina is being set up to be the savior of the UW, which was heavily foreshadowed at the start of S5 when she lied to King Arthur about being the savior. Also, the clock started moving again when Regina helped her father move on to a better place and decided to stay behind and help rest of residents of the UW resolve their unfinished business. This obviously parallels when Emma decided to stay in SB in season one to help Henry.
Yes, I think that’s right. And if there’s a connection between Hades and Zelena, then it makes me think that this is going to be a Regina-centric half-season.
I think Hades is probably the origin of the Dark Curse, but I’m wondering whether he created it, or whether it is a more “primordial” evil, in the same way that the Dark One curse is a kind of corrupted original magic. And how does any of this relate back to the UW, soul accounting, unfinished business etc?
Also, what are people making of the five weird colored “streams” in Hades’s throne room?
[adrotate group="5"]t sounds, to me, like the writers are, once again, guilty of lack of world building. They need to save money so they can’t really build an entire set, with heavy CGI, for the Underworld so they use their already built SB set and a red filter.
Rumple’s line was an example of shoddy writing, yes. On the other hand, it doesn’t bother me too much that the UW is Storybrooke with a red filter. I think it’s actually preferable to yet another cheaply cobbled together CGI realm.
An easy solution would have been to have Rumple say something to the effect of the UW appears to different people as different things, and it’s appearing to them as SB because [insert reason blah blah].
Anyway, I agree with your larger point. A lot of the world building of UW is, so far, pretty muddled.
As many people have said, it seems like JMO and Neal especially play their characters that way, with the knowledge that their characters have true love. That is why the emotions and the acting choices seem so authentic and stand in stark contrast with the wooden way Emma quoted her father’s line of saying she’d always find Hook.
I agree with you. But I also think it’s entirely possible that the writers made that scene deliberately open to interpretation, and that there are several possible ways it can go in the future, depending on show renewal timelines, actors availability etc. But yes, it’s hard not to pay attention to the way JMo and MRJ play Emma and Neal, and this incredible sense of tenderness and care that seems there between them. Quite a contrast with Emma/Hook.
Without reading other people’s reactions… This was pretty solid, all in all. 8/10
Liked:
Henry Sr and Regina. I’ve always felt that Henry Sr didn’t make too much sense, but this episode both fleshed out his character, and resolved it. Henry and Henry Sr was a lovely scene. Bonus points for the Indiana Jones-style inferno prop (a kind of mashup of IJaHG and Temple of Doom?)
The Neal scene. Though I am note sure why Neal’s afterlife is resolved, considering he’s admittedly missing Henry. I think this is a majorly lost opportunity to have them have a scene together.
Cora. Cora’s always amazing. Cora and Regina together hit it out of the ballpark. It’s nice to see actual good acting on this show.
Hades. The actor nails it. Also, I am actually impressed with OUAT, for once, addressing the issue of class — although granted, a bit perversely if you think about it. I mean Cora’s eternal torment is to become a Miller’s Daughter again and deliver flowers for eternity? I suppose that if Hades is able to materialize one’s deepest fears, then this is actually an interesting commentary on what drives Cora as a character.
James. David’s evil twin has so much more chutzpah than his brother.
Rumple playing unwilling tour-guide. Much as I enjoy watching him ambling about in his designer overcoat and sneering at everyone, a bit more purpose to the ambling would be nice. They’re really not doing much with his character so far — the scene with Pan had promise but felt a bit rushed. I think I understand what they’re trying to do here, i.e. recapture that spirit of “chaotic neutral” where you never know whether Rumple is going to side with the heroes or the villains, but we’re missing a sense of purpose beyond ‘Hey, I want nothing to do with your harebrained schemes’ (though, to be fair, can’t blame him on that).
Mixed:
Belle. Nice, what was that — 5 seconds of screen time?
General plot. Maybe I was skipping over a lot of things, but so far the cosmology they’re laying out is a bit confusing. So, the UW is a sort of relay point on the way to other places: presumably, something more like Hell proper, and presumably some heavenly realm(s). But how on earth does this relate to unfinished/finished business? Or does it not? What if a villain is stuck in the UW — wouldn’t it be in their interest to not get things resolved, lest they end up in an even worse place? Anyway, I’m confused.
Disliked:
While I sort of like the Emma/Gold antagonism, blackmailing Rumple through Belle is a bit OOC for Emma — whatever one might think of Rumple, none of this is Belle’s fault, and she should not be used as collateral, especially by someone who has claimed for herself the title of Savior.
I’m still not 100% sure why the whole lot of them are so gun-ho about finding Hook. I get it that the plot demands it, but it would have been a lot more organic if the writing reflected different characters’ multiple motivations for following Emma blindly into the Underworld to retrieve a dude who is really not particularly relevant to anyone but Emma.
I’m pretty torn in regards to how JMo feels about CS, honestly. There are interviews where she presents herself as super into it and super into Colin. You can read it as having to shill a product but why not be consistent? Cause then you do get snark comments like “I didn’t write that” that call into question how much she enjoys her leading romantic storyline.
It seems that different actors on ONCE put different amounts of effort into keeping themselves disassociated from the characters they’re playing, and squish in the bud any comparison between themselves and their character. RC I think is at one extreme of the spectrum, and JMo is at the other. In every interview I remember seeing or reading, it’s very clear that RC is keeping a lot of distance from Rumple, the writing, and to some degree the show (i.e.”the money is good” sort of comment). I think Lana is similar, and this might have something to do with them playing quasi-villains. JMo, though, seems to identify with Emma a lot more, at least in how she’s presenting herself in interviews, so I think some of this flip flopping on CS has to do with her habit of talking about her portrayal of Emma with this greater degree of self-identification — and it doesn’t help when the audience squeals over “real life” JMo and Colin, which only encourages this conflation.
Well, that answers the question of whether Hades will be running around with that malfunctioning gas stove hairstyle all the time.
Crack theory: The underworld has the same rules as the hat: same number, same number out aka keeping the balance. Whilst the heroes are too busy preventing the likes of Pan and Cruella escaping, next season’s villain escapes unnoticed. When the heroes come to leave, they find out that one of them has to stay behind in order to keep the balnce. Rumple makes sure it’s not going to be him and then comes the massive dilemma. Snowing, OutlawQueen and Emma are all parents, they’ve got kids, Hook hasn’t. Yet they came all that way to save Hook. So who stays? On a side note if that scenario does play out then it makes Emma look completely awful. Either she intended to sacrifice Rumple and thus destroy Belle’s life and deprive the potential RumBelle baby of it’s father just so she could selfishly get Hook back OR she has to decide whether to leave Hook in the Underworld which is unlikely because she went all that way to save him OR she has to choose one of the others to stay behind and deprive another child of their paent because she’s too selfish not to let Hook go.
I can see something like that. I’m also still thinking that something about Rumple now being in possession of the former DOs “soul bundle” might come into play when it comes time to figure out who does and who does not come out of UW, and how to trade souls.
I also agree with your analysis: if the hypothetical Rumbelle baby isn’t pure speculation, then it would make Hook the only character who doesn’t have children “on the other side.” Therefore, were Emma to propose trading him for any of the accompanying (parent) characters, the act would be entirely indefensible. Similarly, were Hook to go along with this, I think his character would have to give up on any aspirations to the “hero” status. This makes me think that even if this is one way in which they try to solve the problem, it won’t work (after the announced heart-splitting plan inevitably flops).
The broader problem is that except for Emma, no one really has any connection to Hook — no one in the group is a parent, a sibling, or a close friend. Hook’s only connection is to Emma. So if they went that route, a sacrifice for Hook would have to be either extremely OOC, or a matter of tricking or strong-arming someone.
Alternatively, for everyone to come back, they might have to either trick Hades, or somehow get a bigger, meaner bully involved (Zeus, presumably)?
“He has learned something,” Kitsis said when asked whether Rumple might have learned from previous mistakes and do something as simple as tell Belle (Emilie de Ravin) the truth about being the Dark One again. (They didn’t say whether or not he will tell her, for the record.) “I think that if fans are like, ‘Oh, are they going to do the same thing again?’ — absolutely not. He’s learned a lot.”
This is the part of the article that leaves me questioning what Rumple possibly learned. He didn’t learn not to lie to Belle. He didn’t learn how to choose love over power. In other words, he hasn’t overcome his addiction to power nor has he really shown he’s no longer afraid to live without magic. So, again I ask what has he really learned? Are we really supposed to buy into the notion that because Rumple defeated a bear he’s now Brave (TM), all thanks to Emma, Merida and Belle? How is the audience supposed to believe that Rumple has learned how to wield the darkness for good, without letting it consume him and corrupt his supposedly good intentions, when not even Emma was able to do that?
The only way this made sense to me is if this is just a weird use of past tense. They are referring to future episodes we haven’t seen yet, but that are already filmed (hence in the past for them), maybe?
otherwise the only thing that Rump might have learned is that he inevitably gets caught so better fess up to Belle. That’ll be a step in the right direction at least.
Ahh, look at that. You used the title of the novel I’m currently working on
Cool – wait, what’s the title?
could also see him realizing he can’t overcome it, and therefore sacrificing himself for everyone (again). Although this time it wouldn’t be just to save his family, but to save himself from an addiction he cannot control.
To me that would be an extension of scenario 1. If pulling yourself out by the bootstraps fails, the noblest solution is to put yourself out of your own misery (a self-sacrifice essentially disguising a suicide).
I very much doubt they’d kill him. It doesn’t fit into their “happy endings” thurst, which–let’s face it–whether you ship the ships or not, is where every character is going to end up.
I see what you’re saying about the audience response and fan pandering. I think I’m just trying to play out the logic of the claim that Rumple=addict. I’m curious what the writers’ theory of addiction is. This might impact the plot in different ways:
Option 1: OUAT equates addiction to failure of individual morality and will (the “pull yourself out by the bootstrap, whelp” logic). Then I think it’s likely that Rumple’s arc will be “terminal.” In this scenario, either the (metaphorical) overdose or incarceration are the inevitable conclusions of making “bad choices.”
Option 2: OUAT takes a more community-based approach (ie. addiction is an illness, beating addiction requires a support network — whether a family intervention or an “AA” type organization or whatever — because “bootstrapping” out of it doesn’t work). Then Rumple might be “redeemed” in the sense that he will get “clean.” This would certainly fit more with the initial idea of the show, including the focus on family. However, it’s worth noting that the heroes so far have a “bootstraps” model of Rumple (i.e. they have been willing to throw him under the bus because “he’s been given plenty of opportunities to reform”). Outside of Belle, and in the absence of Neal, no support community really exists for Rumple, so changing this will require some different type of writing.
Option 3: OUAT decides to try its hand at moral relativism. In this scenario, addiction is not inherently evil in and of itself, and everyone is already “addicted” to something anyway. If so, Rumple stays the Dark One provided he doesn’t actively cause harm to others, and is straight up about his “using” with his loved ones.
Did I miss any other scenarios?
