Sunday, May 13, 2012

Once Upon a Time: "A Land Without Magic"

Once Upon a Time's first season came to a stunning close tonight as Emma believed, Henry died, true love broke a spell (twice), the Mad Hatter got revenge on Regina, Belle returned, Mary and David were reunited, the whole town remembered who they were... until the last five minutes, it felt like a series finale. Without the final scenes of Gold dropping the true love potion into the well, this could have wrapped up everything into a neat little bow and been the perfect season. Here's hoping season 2 will deliver on the wonderful promise of season 1 and not make us wish there was only a first perfect season (I'm looking at YOU, Veronica Mars). With this remarkable ensemble cast and almost endless possibilities of what the writers can do with the fairy tales, I've no doubt we're in for another treat next year. 

I've been remiss in posting the last couple of weeks because I promised my 7-year-old daughter that she could watch the last three episodes with me, and that I wouldn't watch them without her first. Tonight we made sure my husband could put my son to bed so I could watch the show live with her, and she is SO funny. (Next year when I go back to posting on OUAT regularly, I'm adding a "what my daughter said" category for all the moments she made me laugh out loud.)

In "The Stranger," August was finally revealed as Pinocchio, but as he tried to demonstrate his wooden leg to Emma, she stared at it and saw nothing but a man's leg, because her refusal to believe in magic made her unable to see it when it was right in front of her. In that episode, we finally see his backstory, and that the blue fairy had turned him into a real boy and said he would remain one as long as he was "brave, truthful, and unselfish" (because as we all know, all boys possess these characteristics all the time, right?) ;) What I loved about the reveal is that just the week before, fans were finally turning onto the Pinocchio theory in droves, and it's like they knew EXACTLY when the audiences would glom on. I also loved the idea that Pinocchio talked to Emma the way Locke talked to Jack: "Why is it so hard for you to believe?" (I wanted Emma to say, "Why is it so easy for you?" And Pinocchio to shout back, "It's never BEEN easy!!") ;) Emma, like Obi Wan Kenobi, is told in this episode that she's their only hope, but she's not buying it. 

Fave lines from the 7-year-old in this ep: When David drops by Regina's house and Regina invites him in, my daughter said, "Oh no! She'll probably make him drink apple juice. Or eat apple pie." Ha! And later when David tries Regina's lasagna and says, "You really know how to work some magic," my daughter said, "BOOM!" (I've honestly never heard her say that, and it was perfect timing.) 

Her lack of belief continues into the next episode, "An Apple Red as Blood," an excellent adventure tale where a swashbuckling Xena Snow White: Warrior Princess and her equally awesome "Kick-Ax" dwarfs enter the castle of the king to save Charming, only to discover he's trapped inside a mirror. At the end of "The Stranger," Emma had abducted Henry and told him she was leaving, and in this episode when he realizes she's going to try to leave Storybrooke he stops her from doing so. She takes him back home and then faces the admonition of Mary, who is very angry with Emma's choices. In the other world, the queen (in another one of her FABULOUS Fairy-Tale World power suits), uses Charming to trap Snow White, leading to the aforementioned scene where Snow storms the castle, and she takes her back to "where it all began," the hillside where she saved Snow's life on the horse. She finally reveals the true price she paid when Snow shot her mouth off, and tells her to eat the poisoned apple or Charming will die. The twist here is that Snow willingly eats the apple, rather than being tricked, which in this version of the tale is the only way it'll work. (Again with the Lost references, it's like Ben Linus telling Jack that he didn't simply tell him he needed a spinal surgeon; he needed Jack to WANT to do the surgery on Ben.) In Storybrooke, Regina gets the Mad Hatter (oh YES he was back and my heart leapt) to allow her to snatch the apple from the FTW, and use it against Emma. She makes her an apple turnover, and Emma takes it home and lays it out on a plate, rather than doing the INTELLIGENT thing and just throwing the damn thing in the garbage (it came from Regina... do you need glasses, Emma??) Emma "trusts" Regina now that they've made a deal (which is a moment that highlights just how many fairytales are about deal-making... and, as Emma says in a BRILLIANT line, "In any deal both parties are a little unhappy." I never thought of it that way, but it's true.) Henry realizes he's willing to sacrifice his own life to save everyone in Storybrooke, and in one final act, makes Emma believe: he eats the turnover, and falls into a deep sleep. 

Fave line from the 7-year-old: After the Queen explains why she changed the image in the mirror before Snow and Charming could get closer, and then talks to her about her evil plan to meet her, my daughter said, "So... what did she mean about not wanting tongue marks on the mirror?" HeeHEE!!

And that brings us to the season finale. Henry is rushed into the hospital with Emma at his side, and Dr. Whale can't seem to figure out what's wrong with him. "It's like it's..." "Magic," Emma completes for him. She rushes into another room and dumps Henry's belongings onto a bed... including The Book. As soon as she holds it in her hands, that tiny glimmer of belief in magic resonates and causes her to see everything, and in that one moment she figures it all out, and knows in her heart that Henry was telling her the truth. She FINALLY believes. 

And that's when Regina walks in. Nice timing, Ms. Mayor. 

Emma goes nuts, pushing her into another room and slamming her against a cabinet, and Regina 'fesses up to everything. Despite everything, she really does love Henry, and knows she doesn't have the strength or time to fight Emma now; she must reveal everything to her if they're going to break this curse. And, as Regina says, magic in our world is unpredictable, and Henry could die. 

In the FTW, David has just swordfought his way out of the castle with the help of the Huntsman (Graham!!! Oh, dear writers, PLEASE bring him back in flashback many times in season 2... it was wonderful to see him again), and the queen uses magic to flick him into the Infinite Forest. But when he's there, he runs into the old, beginning-of-the-season, insane Rumpelstiltskin, all high-pitched giggles and jazz hands. He has Charming's mother's ring, the one that Snow White had originally taken from him at the beginning of the season, and he's enchanted it so when he's close to Snow, it will glow. But "all magic comes with a price," and in this one, he has to place the true love potion into Maleficent, who is in the form of a dragon. In our world, David tells Mary that nothing in his life makes sense except for her (an echo of what he originally told Mary at the toll bridge before he decided to make a go of it with Kathryn) and he's in love with her, but will be leaving for Boston unless she can give him a reason to stay. "David... I can't," she tells him, and our hearts break as we see the tears run down his face, and she, equally miserable, gets into her car. 

There's an oft-repeated trope in this episode that foreshadows the end, and that's that "Love is the only magic that is strong enough to break every curse." Despite the fact that Storybrooke is supposed to be the world without magic, I loved the idea that love IS a magic, that we have magic in our everyday lives. There's nothing reasonable or practical about love -- we feel it without provocation, we love unconditionally, we love our parents and children and friends and significant others and pets. Love is all around us, and it's like magic; it can do things to a person that they don't understand and that doesn't have any reason attached to it. People have died of broken hearts (witness how many long-married couples die within days of each other). Love can lift you up and it can force you to come crashing back to earth. All because of this magical feeling inside us that no one can explain. 

And it's stronger than anything conjured by the most powerful sorcerers in the fairy-tale world. 

Now that Emma believes, Regina takes her to Gold, who tells her about the love potion that he saved for a rainy day (to which Emma responds, "Well it's stormin' like a bitch, so where is it?"). You can see Regina's eyes glaze over for a moment, and I thought at first she'd try to wrestle the potion away and use it for bad, Henry be damned. But she stays true to herself and her son throughout this episode. He tells her he's hidden it inside someone, and she'll need her father's sword. 

Regina stops by Henry's bedside to tell him how much she loves him, and she's interrupted by the Mad Hatter, who tells her that he needs to cash in their deal of the previous episode: he helps her get the apple, he gets his daughter back. She says no, deal is void, the apple didn't work. (Yep, even by her kid's possible death bed, she doesn't have a heart for another parent.) So, the Hatter looks at her like he's about to hurt her more than she could imagine. I immediately thought he'd do something to Henry, but oh no, he came up with something better. 

Before going to the "beast," Emma stops by August's room, and now she can see that he's turning into wood. She tells him she can't break the curse yet, because she's focused on Henry, her priority, and begs him to help her. He says he can't do anything, but she can. "You can save all of..." he says, interrupted when his throat closes up and his entire head turns to wood. (My daughter looked at me confused and said, "She can save an olive?" HAHAHAHA!!!! I seriously had to pause the episode, I was laughing so hard.) 

But, as my daughter and I were marvelling at Emma's Terrible, Awful, No-Good Day, this poor woman woke up that morning thinking Operation Cobra was the fantasy created by an unhappy boy, and now she's fighting a FREAKIN' DRAGON. For that is what she has to fight, and the form that the Queen had left Maleficent in in our world. Interestingly, the dragon is standing near Snow's coffin, which is also there, and I wonder if, back in the mine-shaft episode, would Henry and Archie have eventually stumbled upon the dragon if they'd followed those tunnels long enough? 

Meanwhile, the Hatter breaks Belle (BELLE!!!) out of her "prison," which, interestingly, is right next to Sidney's room (and who is the guy with the long hair who's always washing the floors? One of Cinderella's ugly stepsisters?? He looks like a Chief Bromden reject from a stage production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). He tells her to go straight to Gold and tell him that Regina had locked her up all this time. BEAUTIFUL. 

Emma defeats the dragon by piercing it in its heart and reducing it to ashes (I guess if they ever do find their way back to the FTW, Maleficent won't be joining them), just as, in the FTW, Charming defeats the dragon, gets the ring from Rumpelstiltskin, and finds Snow in the fancy new duds he was wearing in the opening moments of the series (nice moment of continuity to switch him from the clothes he's been wearing for several episodes to the one he had to be wearing to keep things consistent). 

Meanwhile, in our world, Emma brings up the egg, but Gold takes it from her and rushes off, just as Emma and Regina get the call from the hospital. They rush there, but it's too late: Henry is dead. My daughter and I were both upset; imagine that all this little boy ever wanted was for Emma to believe, and now that she does, he's not here to see it. I actually thought it was real, because I believed the season would end with them all returning to the FTW, and Henry wasn't part of that world so maybe he couldn't go there. 

But no, it's better than that. Belle returns to Gold, and Gold's eyes nearly pop out of his head. He's so elated he doesn't seem angry with Regina at first, until he takes Belle into the woods, up to the well that is his connection to the other world.

Emma rushes to Henry's side (notice that Regina hangs back) and she leans down and kisses him, breaking not only the curse of the apple, but The Curse. My daughter and I were cheering on the couch, SO happy and completely involved in what was happening, and it was marvellous to watch all of the other characters remember who they once were. The best, of course, being "Snow!" "Charming." SMOOCH. 

Mother Superior/Blue Fairy turns to Regina at the hospital and repeats what Gold had said to her in the previous episode, that she'd better find a good place to hide, because many people will want her dead. Regina rushes back to her house (not a good hiding spot, but anyway) and hugs Henry's pillow close. I believe her when she says she truly loved him. But just as everyone's getting their happy on, they see the purple smoke billowing from the forest. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin has dropped the potion into the well and causes it to spread throughout Storybrooke, bringing magic back. Henry says something bad is coming, and Regina stands at the window and smiles that evil smile of hers. 



And the clock returns to 8:15. 

So, what happened there? Did he take them all back to the fairytale world? Or did he just bring magic into this one? I'd love to see more of the characters dressed the way they are in the fairytale world, and it would be fun to see Emma having to adjust to gingerbread houses and knights and magical places, and watch these characters have to adjust to a return to their old lives again. But if we went there full-time, perhaps we'd lose that flipping back and forth that is key to the show. So maybe he just brought magic into Storybrooke, and now the characters still live in our world, looking like they do, but they remember who they were, and that would keep the flashbacks continuing. But would the fun of these people not remembering who they really were be gone now? What about all the other creatures that we haven't yet seen? (Ariel? Peter Pan? Jasmine?) 

Or is it possible he's erased some of the memories again? What's clear is that with magic, comes power, as he tells Belle, and the two people who have used magic are Rumpel and the Queen. Will she regain everything she's lost? And what will happen to the rest of them? 

All I know is, we're in for a very long three months. 

20 comments:

The Question Mark said...

The purple smoke left me SO confused!!! Judging by what Gold said to Belle, I think he's opening the floodgates for all manner of fairy tale beasties, kinda like what Gozer was doing to NYC at the end of "Ghostbusters". This would back up Henry's comment that the smoke is "something bad", because a bunch of trolls and ogres and fire-breathing manticores rampaging throughout modern-day Maine would NOT be pleasant (awesome, yes, but unpleasant for all involved). So maybe Season 2 will be about Emma and the others having to send these things back to where they came from?

Missy said...

Sounds like a GREAT finale.
After 5 loooong months of commercials saying OUAT is coming soon,it finally is tomorrow night.
29hours from now...I can't wait.I'm sooo friggin' excited.

KathyT said...

it. was. perfect.
except Emma's idiot trusting of Gold scene. did she not spend the whole season NOT trusting him?? that was an argh moment for me.I get it in terms of moving the story along, but geez.

Rebecca T. said...

I loved this finale so much! My Dad is concerned about it being more than one season, but I'm just so excited it got renewed that I am having blind faith they will make the second as good as the first.

I definitely hope that they keep flipping back and forth between the two worlds and it will be interesting to see how the purple smoke/magic affects things in the real world.

I loved seeing Rumple and Belle together, but my heart broke when Rumple still felt that he needed magic/power more than anything. That look on his face - just horrible!

And Regina's ending smile was perfectly evil. That woman has the evil queen look down!

Colleen/redeem147 said...

Since the curse is broken, it's possible that the FTW doesn't exist anymore, and now they need to live in our world. Or that Gold will use the return of magic to leave Storybrooke and take over our world.

In any case, I was telling Emma to kiss the kid already. Didn't she read the book?

JS said...

LOVED the finale! I was frustrated that Emma trusted Gold, and at first, I didn't understand why releasing Belle was detrimental to Regina, but I guess rather than be in an unholy allegiance, Rumpel can now combat the Queen directly, knowing she lied to him.
Funny, right before the episode, my husband and I were watching Doctor Who 6.12 Closing Time, **SPOILER** where, despite it being obvious and trite and really about neural processes and hormones, the Doctor admits that love saves the day. 
One curious moment – Regina also has a bedside love confession, but is interrupted before she kisses Henry. Would her kiss have broken the spell?

Dusk said...

I was drinking soda when I read "She'll make him eat apple pie" I laughed so hard my nose was soda-burned.

I'm pretty sure August will be back. Now we know what he was doing in the strange book scene, but he isn't the author of the book since he abandoned everything about FTW until the pain in his leg started when Emma stayed in town, and when she stayed in town, Henry already had the book.

I hope the writers are more clear on the Regina/Snow feud. Snow didn't know Daniel was dead but thought she ruined the Regina's life anyway. Apprently the writers said Snow thought she caused Daniel's exile and seperated Regina from her true love and that's why she hated her.

When Grumpy said "At least keep the little knife betwen your tufflets." I heard it wrong the first time, but I think what I heard meant the same thing.

The Mad Hatter first showed us that portals can travel to different worlds, now he showed us they can travel across time too. Baelfire can be any age they want now.

Loved the finale, lost track of which dragon fight was which for a bit, and hated Emma trusted Gold but I can see why she'd pick him over Regina.

Rumple said Belle didn't remember him but she would. Did he already expect Emma to restore Henry and everyone's memories or would he use the purple smoke somehow?

I thought it was really cool of a finale. Bringing magic to our world opens the door for all kinds of things in the show without sending them home. It had a lot of good parts.

Emma's memory flash, Regina admitting it's all real, them going to Gold and him giving Emma her Dad's sword. August's last words before he became completely wooden again. The Huntsman helping Charming. Emma using a gun instead of a sword on the dragon and failing. I liked the pulse of light when Henry woke up and everyone remembering and Snow/Charming and Belle/Rumpelstiltskin reunions. Regina saying she does really love Henry and crying in his room. Her smile when she sees the purple smoke. The purple smoke covering everything in the cliffhanger ending.

And if I saw it right, the clock read 8:05 when David left town, so moving to 8:15 in the day was just natural until the purple smoke covered it. The curse was black smoke, so whatever Rumpelstiltskin did, it isn't the same as Regina's spell. I'm thinking people like the Blue Fairy and others will get at least some powers ack and have to find a way home and fight against Regina and Rumple, which will be really juicy.

I also don't have high hopes for this, but I see a potential way they might have Graham come back. They know he's popular and his kiss with Emma seems to imply the start of true love. (Don't really feel the August/Emma vibe, and while the actors have chemistry, they aren't playing that angle with Jefferson and Emma.) In fairytale world Rumpelstiltskin said magic cannot bring back the dead. But he just brought magic to our world, and Regina said here, magic is unpredictable, so maybe one of the effects of the purple smoke could be bringing Graham back. I don't know how likely it is, but it is something I think they could possibly do.

Would love it if Rumple's wife before Belle was alive and actually the Queen of Hearts. They are hiding her face for a reason after all. That way if Baelfire is Henry's Dad like some think, Henry has 4 of the coolest grandparents ever.

Nagging question: Why did Regina want Sow's heart when she sent the Huntsman after her?

Dusk said...

Oh yeah. August admits to Emma he is the 7-year old who found her by showing her a newspaper article. Emma was in her car looking at the same article in the file about herself when August showed up at the end of True North. I thought it was nice continuity.

Inara said...

My initial thought was that magic has come to Storybrooke (Henry's "This is bad" could be construed that it will give Regina and Rumpel enormous powers) and that next season we'll continue to see flashbacks in FTW while in Storybrooke the characters try to find a way to get back "home" while dealing with the above Regina/Rumpel's intrigues.

Here's an idea: What if Bael is Henry's father? He pops into our world, grows up, hooks up with Emma...

shobiz said...

I like The Question Mark's theory, that Gold opened the floodgates, kind of like a portal from FTW to the real world. It's like Storybrooke just became a Fairytale Hellmouth.

So many great, mythic storytelling images in this episode. The writers did an amazing job of showing parallel stories in the FTW and Storybrooke, culminating in those awesome dual-intercut dragon battles: Charming putting the egg into the beast, and Emma retrieving it (and of COURSE she needed to use her FATHER's sword -- awesome). Even the symbolism of the egg is great, given all the parent/child stuff happening. I loved the scene, right at the climax of Emma's dragon fight, when they cut to a quiet moment in the hospital, where Mary-Margaret is reading the book to Henry (grandma reading a story to her grandson). And the parallel True Love's Kisses, followed by the broken curse, brilliant.

I thought of LOST several times, especially when Snow and Charming recognized each other in the real world. It felt very Sideways-awakening. And speaking of LOST, besides the clock returning to the magical 8:15, I noticed when Emma dumped out the bag with the book in it, it seems Henry not only his usual Apollo bar in there, but also a cassette tape of Geronimo Jackson. Hee! (Also, cassette tape = further evidence of how time stood still in Storybrook for over 20 years.)

Great finale! My daughter (also 7) is now getting her first painful taste of the dreaded summer hiatus.

RavenPaul13 said...

Great season, I look forward to seeing it on bluray August 28!

shobiz said...

Oh, another thing I forgot to mention... I can't believe Emma fell for Mr. Gold's trick in the elevator shaft. Has she never seen Raider's of the Lost Ark? "Throw me the idol, I throw you the whip."

And that wasn't the only Spielbergian reference in the show. I LOLed when Charming saw Maleficent in human form and said, "I'm gonna need a smaller egg." That HAD to be a reference to the famous line from JAWS: "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

SenexMacdonald said...

What a fantastic way to end the season!

I squealed as soon as I realized that the queen was Maleficent. One of my favourite characters of all time; I loved the Disney film and her transition. Nice to see that it was wonderful here too.

I also loved the cuts between the two battles with her. Very cool and very well done to everyone working behind the scenes.

I am sure that the purple smoke has a catch to it. Even though Regina is pleased once she sees the smoke, the magic it possesses has to be obviously different than the black smoke of the curse. If not, why bother with putting it into the story?

What it means though is something we can spend the next three months discussing.

So I will begin - I think the colour will be important. Outside of the 'royal' aspect of it, in looking it up - purple represents good judgement, spiritual fulfilment, and peace of mind. It also symbolizes magic and mystery. Hmmm, interesting. :)

Blam said...


until the last five minutes, it felt like a series finale

I totally agree.

Like you said, I'll be hoping that the next season can live up to this, but contrariwise to some other shows I could mention (and will — Alcatraz, which I liked a lot more than many), the game-changer final moments that made this a "mere" season finale were preceded by an episode that was such a satisfying conclusion to the season/series to date that I almost wish it would end there.

I'm adding a "what my daughter said" category for all the moments she made me laugh out loud.

Ha! I can't wait. The "BOOM!" was hilarious. You should tell her, though, that August was actually saying "You can save Olive," and when she's old enough she'll get to watch Fringe.

This is one of my favorite retorts ever:

Mr. Gold: "I didn't use all the potion. I saved some — for a rainy day."
Emma: "Well, it's storming like a bitch."

Belle is back and she has Crazy Claire's Jungle-Hair — except brunette. I must say that I prefer EDR as blonde Claire or midnight-black Goth Claire to Belle, but I'll take her any way I can get her.

I kind-of like the real world starting to collide with FTL as some vestigial magic has survived in the real world in the wake of the curse, but a dragon in the caves below Storybrooke was hard to swallow. I'm not saying that I don't have an imagination, and I realize that this is a TV show. I just don't think that it really computes on a narrative level with what we've seen as all magical creatures have become people or inanimate things and real-wold analogies have been made for every FTLer (except Pinocchio, kept save in Emma's ark); the Curse wasn't trying hard enough if Maleficent's fate is being trapped as a dragon even "here". Going from a real dragon to a lowly iguana, or becoming a porcelain dragon figurine? That's more like it, although then of course we wouldn't get Emma fighting a dragon — except that we could if her believing had started to loosen the hold that the Curse had on certain Storybrooke residents, something that perhaps would only fully occur when she awoke Henry, which frankly would've been more in line with what Henry and August kept insisting would happen.

Also, I agree that it was kinda dumb of Emma to trust Gold, since not only did she spend the whole season generally not trusting him but that whenever she did he screwed her over.

VW: toupeco — n. A wigmaking concern.

Blam said...


@Rebecca: I loved seeing Rumple and Belle together, but my heart broke when Rumple still felt that he needed magic/power more than anything.

Some people just never learn, and it's usually the more self-destructive people. Which isn't to say that my heart didn't break a little, too, only because I don't want to see any character played by the fetching, oh-so-palatable Ms. De Ravin unhappy; she can do a lot better than Rumpelstiltskin, though.

@JS: Regina also has a bedside love confession, but is interrupted before she kisses Henry. Would her kiss have broken the spell?

I wondered that as well, and I'm rather hoping that the possibility was left open on purpose; that would just be good writing.

@Dusk: lost track of which dragon fight was which for a bit

The idea was to parallel them, though, so I figured that was intentional.

@Dusk: The Huntsman helping Charming

I enjoy how basically everybody in FTL just wants to help Snow White, from meeting her (like the Dwarves and Red and the Huntsman) or simply hearing about her.

My one real disappointment with the episode was that we didn't get more scenes between/amongst the Storybrooke folks as the Curse was lifted and they realized what was what, but then this wasn't actually a series finale; whether we got those or not, what I really, really wanted was to see a group of people, like right after Snow and Charming rushed towards one another, to sort-of talk over one another saying "Oh... Right!" "She's not a homewrecker!" "Duh! Snow and Charming! How stupid are we?"

The other big problem I had, although we really have yet to see how the purple smoke turns out, was Rumpelstiltskin's bottled true love being the impetus for great danger. I won't argue that true love would be powerful enough to drive any wish, but I also feel like it should be pure enough to overpower any wicked intentions of that wish.

@Inara: My initial thought was that magic has come to Storybrooke

Yeah, I didn't think that there was any doubt that we were still in Storybrooke, just with everyone waking up to their true identities and what had transpired, with the purple smoke billowing in.

@shobiz: It's like Storybrooke just became a Fairytale Hellmouth.

Exactly!

@shobiz: I LOLed when Charming saw Maleficent in human form and said, "I'm gonna need a smaller egg."

Oh, I loved that line and I agree that it had to be intentional. You even got a reverse-Spielberg of sorts in the gun not working against the dragon and Emma having to go back to the sword, cf. the classic Indy moment(s).

My guess on where we pick up when next season begins: The smoke gets darker, turns into John Locke and stabs Renly Baratheon in the back, then says "Finally! Now where the f--- is Don Draper?"

Either that or the purple smoke is Figment.

Dusk said...

@Blam: They said true love is powerful. Power itself is neither good or bad, the user makes it so.

A lot of people are disappointed in Rumple for apparently rejecting Belle again. But he kept her with him as the purpe smoke came out and maybe this time love won't make him lose his powers. Some still support him and say he'lll need them to protect Belle and find Bae.

shobiz said...

@Blam - Figment! Haaa! Awesome. That would be the lowest of the low in Disney-fication.

sjr99 said...

@Nikki - you asked about the long haired guy always washing the floors at the hospital psych ward...I think that whole scene was a nod to 'Cuckoo's Nest' - the only two people in the scene (besides Belle and Jefferson) were the Chief look-a-like and the nurse who had a hairstyle exactly like Nurse Ratched's!

Fred said...

When I saw the purple smoke rolling over Storybrooke, I thought they might play Jimi Hendrix, Purple Haze.

Oh, now that magic has returned, and we know the Mad Hatter can open a portal to the fairytale world, does that mean the town's inhabitants will try to return, leaving Regina behind in our world? I also believe the reveal after the purple smoke will force Snow and Charming to have to seek out Jimminy Cricket for some analysis, now that they realize they are grandparents.

How parallel the last episode seemed to Lost. Once more Emile de Ravin's character was off her head, this time in a mental hospital. Characters suddenly wake up to their former reality and realize who they are to one another. All we are missing is the Source . . . but, oh, wait, there is the well (substitute for a glowing cave). So how will Season 2 begin? Are we going to see someone's daily routines: playing a record, making breakfast, washing up, riding a stationary bike . . .and then, purple smoke?

I hope Gold doesn't become his alter ego, Rumplestiltskin. He is much deeper as Mr. Gold, and the hues and shades of personality dramatized as Mr. Gold go beyond his magical alter ego.Maybe his antiqe store becomes a shop of magic to which the town's residents come to buy their magic amulets, potions, a case of McCutcheron's whisky, etc.

@Blam I kind-of like the real world starting to collide with FTL as some vestigial magic has survived in the real world in the wake of the curse, but a dragon in the caves below Storybrooke was hard to swallow. But if you can't believe that then you can't believe the room of hearts under the crypt, nor the glass cover for Snow's bier. It seems the magic stuff survives underground--so Storybrooke is structured like the psyche, an Unconscious, where all that stuff of dreams and magic occurs; a Conscious, where the rational world lives (Grimm's book of fables is just that, a book).

Dusk said...

@Fred You gave me another idea. What if the purple smoke coming frm underground brings a bunch of new fairytale characters here, like who they hinted at Ariel for example?

That way we would still have the back and forth that is so important to the episodes but also move things forward in Storybrooke.

Intresting fact I found out: Regina was Greta from the Looking Glass Station.