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The idea that Rumple goes too far leads me to a few conclusions
1) He’s going to accelerate Belle’s pregnancy
2) He’s going to use the shears as soon as Morfetus is born
3) The using of the shears will fundamentally alter Morfetus into something darker, crueler, and more dangerous than even Rumple could have imagined and this will serve as a mini wake up call for Rumple. Most recent photos do have a lot of Belle and Rumple together as if they have a common goal.
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Oh, it’s Lily. No doubt about it in my book. I don’t think it’s what the writers originally planned (if they actually had anything planned at all) and I’m not sure it makes a lick of sense from many standpoints–race, the timeline–but yeah, it’s Lily.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Why do I feel like I might be changing my name after this episode?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"GENERAL: This is one of those frustrating episodes where there’s a ton of potential but is rendered lackluster because of the writers inability to explain their world and the rules that govern it. I like the idea of a Mirror World but it’s frustratingly opaque: no magic, one way (Sydney could talk to Regina and control what she saw!); and somehow putting one specific mirror back together allows Emma and Regina to escape unless you just so happen to have a god’s hammer? I also seriously question how close a family could be if no one can tell that one of their own is not really one of their own when they are acting atypical and in-universe OOC!
This isn’t to say that there aren’t good bits. Like I said, there’s a lot of potential here. The EQ doesn’t see herself as evil, just a strong leader who does what it takes. Henry has being tempted to the dark side, for good reasons, by his own Darth Vader. All good, philosophical elements that should be thoughtfully considered. But that’s the problem, isn’t it? The writers spend little time actually exploring those conflicts for more than a hot moment. I didn’t for a second believe that Henry would smash the Dragon’s heart, so all that conflict was sorta pointless.
Rating: 7/10
LIKED
–The montage of Snow/Charming asleep and awake was seriously adorable. I wish the show had more of these “normal” moments–simply living, even if it’s in a heightened magical world.
–The visuals of the Mirror World are cool
–“Everything is a balance–the darkness and the light” #Theme!
–LOL at the Abu puppet
–“Don’t try to Darth Vader me.”
–The EQ doesn’t consider herself evil, but a strong leader who does what is necessary.
–“Family makes you stronger than you’ll ever be alone.” #SeriesThemeInANutshell
MIXED
–“Never compromise who you are.” Okay, good message but every character on this show keeps compromising who they are. In fact, this entire season is about Regina compromising her entire identity; she is the EQ, the EQ is her.
–Why don’t Emma and Regina have magic in Mirror World? What is it about this world that nullifies magic?
–I find it very hard to believe that none of the Charming’s wouldn’t suspect that “Regina” wasn’t really Regina, especially when she says “I’m not sure she [EQ] was a monster.”
–The Dragon lost a daughter. It’s Lily isn’t it?? *sigh*
–Eh, the Dragon CGI wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either.
–When did Aladdin and Jasmine deal with the Genie?? We saw their entire story in episode 5?
DISLIKED
–Violet stood Henry up for John Hughes movie night– Is Henry 13 or 30?
–And in this week’s “random MacGuffin” category we have: the Hammer of Haphaestus! Feel free to make up your own story as to why Rumple has that.
–Henry gets clued into the fact that “Regina” isn’t Regina not because she’s literally acting nothing like his mother (talking of princes and monarchy and ruling elite) but because of an odd turn of phrase.
–How is the world one way when Sydney and Regina could easily communicate?
–Everything about Rumbelle horrifies me, from both Belle and Rumple’s side.
–“Rumpleslitskin takes children. Not the other way around.” Every time Rumple has made a deal for a baby–except for Regina– it had ulterior motives, a hidden agenda.
CONFUSIONS
–All summer A and E (and Lana) kept saying that the EQ was “pure evil” but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the EQ has hints of Regina–her love for Henry–and that Regina still has some of the EQ’s hallmarks–snark and fierceness. Yet, STILL, no one talks about re-integration! Why hasn’t this come up at all? Why hasn’t anyone clued into the fact that you can’t separate yourself from your darker half? That you are always going to contain multitudes?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"The NFL game went over by about 20 minutes, so part of 60 Minutes will definitely cut into OUAT’s timeslot.
I’ll change my prediction to a 1.0, but with a strong likelihood that it’ll tick up to a 1.1 next day
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Speaking of the giver, has anyone seen both the film and read the book? Which should I go for first? I hear both are pretty good.
Book. The most recent film–like from a few years ago–I’d avoid.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"What I like most about The 100 is that it defied my expectations. I am one of those viewers who avoided it because the promos and snippets made me believe that it would be about one thing–teenage angst in the middle of some sort of crisis, full of all the tropes and cliche characters you can imagine. I genuinely love the CW but they do stick pretty firmly in their wheelhouse. I imagined Clarke as a “heroine” who has traits pulled from Buffy, Katniss and Bella Swan–complete with the exasperating love triangle with two guys (lolz, this statement and the reality of the show) and that the conflict the world was under would fall into the vague “humans destroyed the world for reasons that are never fully explained and it’s really only important to know that your heroine will save it.”
Boy, was I wrong.
There are so many ways that the 100 breaks those expectations. Yes, Clarke has some of the same traits as previous CW/teen inspired heroines but it’s so much more…visceral in her case, if that makes sense. This isn’t a game and Clarke isn’t destined as a Savior. In fact one of the smartest moves the show made in recent season was to avoid having Clarke be Lexa’s clear inheritor of the Commander chip. Lexa didn’t die to serve Clarke’s ascension to, what amounts to, godhood. Clarke actually goes and tries to give it to someone else and it’s only under a no win scenario that she’s forced to take the chip and then beats it at its own game. I also think that Clarke’s body count is likely higher than Buffy and Katniss’s combined. The events of Mount Weather are proof alone and while there’s inner conflict over those choices, it’s also made clear that in these cases, Clarke doesn’t have much of a choice. Her people have to be put before others and what helps serve this theme is that the world building on the 100 is so strong. I get how this world works–it’s one of constant war and bloodshed and differing groups who have different outlooks on life even though, historically, they are the same people. It has its own language (such a smart move on the part of the writers!) and groups who have a very clear philosophy (jus drein, jus daun) that they actually act on; the way the world impacts every character is so nuanced and compelling. Take Octavia–now there’s a CW cliche if ever there was one, at least at first. She’s the dangerous girl; she’s sexy and snarky and a bit too bold for brass but also clearly falls into the “not the protagonist and not the heroine” box. Octavia could have been just the sidekick, following everyone, never really any help except as a foil for the heroine, Clarke. Instead, the writers made her a living breathing person who negotiates her own identity in light of interactions with the people of the earth, like Lincoln (RIP). Instead she becomes one of the more forward thinking characters on the show, trying to find a fragile peace in a world that is all about conflict and war. Actually, now that I’m talking this all out, The 100 has done such a superb job with all their female characters, from Clarke to Octavia to Raven to Abby to Lexa.
Which brings me to…Clexa. I feel like you can’t really talk about The 100 without bringing up Clexa and, invariably, the “bury your gay” trope. I don’t honestly know how to talk about it and it doesn’t help that around the same time Clexa became canon (and then uncanon by virtue of mortality) OUAT did their own hamfisted, token LGBT relationship and the comparison is so ripe for the picking. How to actually develop an LGBT relationship vs how to never ever write one! On the one hand, I think killing Lexa made sense in terms of the world (constant death and conflict) and in terms of the show’s mythology (we had to learn more about the chip, ALIE, and Becca) and sadly a lot of that meant Lexa had to die for those themes and that story to progress. However, the timing of it–literally moments after Clexa became very real, very raw, and very romantic on screen–was shocking (and maybe it was suppose to be because, again, one of the bigger themes of the show is that peace is a tiny moment before the next moment of war) and unsettling because of the number of times all the other hetero characters have been put into harm’s way and lived to tell the tale, but Lexa–a warrior’s warrior–was killed in a super fast moment that wasn’t even about battle. I still can’t decide if it was a misstep on the part of the writers (and they may have had their hands tied due to the actress’s role on Fear the Walking Dead) but if one good thing did come out of Lexa’s death, it’s that the bury your gay trope is being talked about by more than the insiders of the LGBT community and, hopefully, progress is going to be made. (and yes, I recognize the horribleness of saying that lots of gay characters had to die in order for progress to be made…)
While S4 was really strong on a mythology front (and so eerily reminiscent of Battlestar Galactica, down to the bot in a red dress) there were some issues for me and pretty much all of them go by the name of Bellamy. First, I like Bellamy–really I do. I think he’s a perfect equal to Clarke (and by extension, Lexa) and his story for the first few seasons was compelling, especially as he moved from “dude bro” to “troubled but sympathetic hero” largely due to his relationship with Octavia, a sister not a lover! However, in the most recent season, I wanted to hit him upside the head several times. It doesn’t help that his main conflict this season, and so much of his impetus, was rather ill defined because the relationship that *ahem* blew up was kept off screen until the beginning of the season, only to end in the same moment of its reveal. Now, had it been Octavia who died (for instance) and that death caused Bellamy to go off the rails and join forces with someone like Pike, then that makes total sense. So much of Bellamy’s character is about protecting his sister and often times his inability to do so. But because the relationship was so underdeveloped, it only made Bellamy look stupid and best and unhinged at worst.
I’m honestly not sure what to expect moving forward. I know there is a huge “save the world” conflict that arose at the end of last season and that’s going to be the main thrust of this upcoming season but I don’t know how it plays out. And this it to the show’s credit. I don’t want the 100 to feel predictable because like I already said, one thing that really sells it is how it broke a lot of the ready formed cliches.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I have a lot of feelings about OitNB. It’s show that I adore but that often makes me uncomfortable (in a good, question your own reality, kind of way). What I like so much about OitNB is that it is, essentially, telling stories of people who are disenfranchised, who’s own stories are often simplified and uncomplicated so that “the majority” will find them easier to understand. This includes women, as a broad category, and then gets down to the details of color, race, immigrant status, sexual orientation, and economic standing. The reason why OitNB often makes me uncomfortable (again, in a good way) is that it forces me to reckon with my own status in society and this is where it’s helpful to talk about Piper. I think, by and large, most of the fandom of OitNB will tell you that while Piper is the main character, she’s by no means the favorite–in fact a lot of people consider Piper the worst character, though I think this is done deliberately. Piper for all intents in purposes is a middle class (upper middle class, even) white, (mostly) heterosexual woman with a good family, a good economic status, and a good education. She has no inroads with her fellow inmates because most of them are neither middle class, nor white nor heterosexual, do not have strong family ties, little economic standing outside of what they made by working hard, both legally and illegally, and do not have the sort of education Piper does. I talk a lot–A LOT–on these boards about privilege and the white heterosexual male perspective that makes up our TV narratives but OitNB reminds me that, when all is said and all is done, I am a lot more like Piper than I am like Taystee or Sophia or Red or Poussey. I’ve never had to exist with the level of disenfranchisement that they have as people of color or transgender or an immigrant or gay (and in almost all those non-Piper cases, being more than one of those disenfranchised categories). Piper’s privilege and her own tunnel vision for her concerns probably comes across best in S4 with her (accidental) forming of a Nazi gang. It was done to protect her (ridiculous) business ventures but with heavy overtones of unintentional racism and frankly misogyny.
Season 4 is my favorite because it felt so gosh darn relevant. Obviously it’s tackling the American phenomenon of “Black Lives Matter” but in a way that shows how complicated us vs them mentalities can be. Can we say Poussey was murdered? Accidental homocide? Who’s to blame–the officer who held her down? The rioters? The system that treats criminals like animals so that they must act like animals? The corporate overlords who turned the Litch into a prison for profit? Does that make it Caputo’s fault? Narratives are rarely simply–straight up heroes and villains is child’s play–and when you’re dealing with something as labyrinthine as the American justice and prison system it should never be uncomplicated and S4 did such a great job of of complicating everyone’s narrative for both good and ill. Cuputo–semi good guy who is actually trying to make life at the Litch easier, trying to improve the women’s chances once they leave his facility, but also has little backbone when doing all that conflicts with his own personal love life. One of the most horrifying moments for me in S4 was a small one: it’s Caputo learning that his girlfriend Linda has never set foot inside the Litch, has no idea what it looks like or what the situation is, simply sees it as a place to make a buck for her company, let’s her totally railroad all his good-intentioned education plans…and then goes home with her anyway. Linda, to me, is the real villain of OitNB s4–or at least what she represents, the sort of myopic white privilege that never seeks to examine or question the system that she benefits from. She’s… a stand in for white privilege and institutionalized racism.
What comes next in S5? I suspect it’s only going to get darker. OitNB does a great job or balancing humor and reality–S4 was no exception–but I think the days of laughing more than thinking are long gone. After the death of an inmate, Daya holding a gun to an officer’s head, the riots, the anger spilling out in every direction, I can’t imagine that it’s going to return to Red chasing a chicken for dinner (all time favorite OitNB quote: “All I wanted was to eat the chicken that was smarter than all the other chickens to absorb its power. And to make a nice Kiev.”)
Favorite character: Taystee probably gets my top choice. I think that she’s a leader in her community and I like that she’s actually quite intelligent. Of all the inmates she’s the one I have no doubt will survive once she’s on the outside (she tried once, it didn’t work, but I don’t think that story line will repeat with her). After her, Red, Sophia, Doggett (post S1), Nicky and Suzanne (who broke my heart with her story this past season).
Questions:
Piper and Alex–does anyone care anymore?
Suzanne’s girlfriend–Maureen–why is she in prison? Every time it’s brought up, it’s kept couched in language that lets the audience know it’s a big deal and is worthy of a gasp once it gets revealed
Have we seen the last of Aleida Diaz (Daya’s mother)
Watching Moritza swallow an infant mouse with a gun to her head…I still can’t get pas that image. Nor past the image of the other officers deciding not investigate what happened when it’s clear she’s traumatized because “brotherhood.”
Were you satisfied with the ending of the Doggett and Officer Coates story? I think forgiveness is complicated and I was sorta with Boo about Doggett not letting Coates off the hook, but at the same time, Tiffany is right–you have to try and make peace, even if toast can never be bread again.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
