Lady of the Lake
The things that stood out to me:
Regina. OMG I feel SO bad for her. Just that fact that she was so happy to hear from Henry, she dropped everything to go spend time with him, and then he stood her up because it was a trick to get into her office. Manipulative little bastard, although of course a. he learned from the best and b. Regina got a taste of her own medicine. But still, I felt bad for her and my preferred outcome is using her love for Henry to coax/train good behavior from her, and that's not going to work if he's always using it to manipulate her. I was hoping Charming was going to call him out on that, but no such luck.
Otherwise, though, Henry was pretty good this episode and I liked the Henry/Charming bonding. Although it annoys me that he's identified as the grandson of a prince. O HAI CHARMING. YOU AND SNOW CALLED YOUR LAND A KINGDOM. THAT MAKES YOU A KING OR MORE LIKELY A PRINCE CONSORT. THAT MAKES EMMA A PRINCESS AND HENRY A PRINCE BECAUSE DUH. :P
Also, Emma especially really brought the feels tonight.
And Jefferson... well, he was not a nutball, which was bad, but I did kinda care about him, so... idk. Props for the acting, I guess. Dear OUaT: you cannot call this character the Mad Hatter if he is not, in fact, mad. Also, while I understand everyone reuniting and all, I do not understand what the character has done to deserve closure so quickly. He kidnapped and administered date rape drug, he waved a gun around and demanded hattery, he helped Regina attempt to poison Emma, then he waltzed in and released Belle in the hopes that Rumple would kill Regina. He won't even discuss what he knows about portals. There's been no character growth, no development, no arc, and now he has achieved his hidden agenda with zero effort or fanfare. That's not interesting at all. So, show, if you want me to like him, please make him accidentally alienate his daughter because he is a nutball, maybe make him more of a wild card and less of a tool. (I mean that literally. He has little or no plot or development of his own. So far he has been a plot device.) I am interested in liking him-his acting is fun to watch-but thus far the show itself has not given me any reason to like him. I need more than leather pants and a tragic backstory.
I do not know what to make of Aurora and Mulan. I kinda like that Mulan is level-headed and pragmatic, while Aurora is angry and wants to kill people but doesn't know how, but they still have a bit of blandness that might just be the less-than-stellar acting. If it is, I hope they improve.
I feel like Cora has been shoehorned in. I would have preferred for the villains to be the chaos of anarchy in post-broken Storybrooke and FTL, random people banding together filling power vaccuums, etc. It's not bad, though, although showing us King George also was overkill. Also, I find I don't really care what Cora would do if she got her mitts on Henry. Wouldn't it just be more of the same crap she pulled with Regina? Seen it before!
It annoyed me that Emma was pretty much useless in FTL. Ok, so she doesn't know the weak spots or understand the dangers. Her gun should have been more useful and I wanted her, after being patronized, to turn around and be really awesome at something. I guess they were going for that a little bit, but it didn't feel right to me. That said, I do think it's good that she was helpless, and she had to come to terms with the idea of Snow protecting her. IDK, maybe what annoyed me might be addressed in a future episode?
ALSO: If King George knew where Charming's mother was, does that mean it was the same farm he grew up in? Or perhaps it was the isolated cottage Snow lived in? Either way, REALLY? The king KNOWS WHERE THESE PLACES ARE, THREATENED TO KILL YOUR MOTHER, AND YOU'RE JUST GOING TO LEAVE HER THERE AND HOPE FOR THE BEST? UGH. I blame the writing, not the characters. It also had the vaguely awkward medieval-esque dialogue that some other episodes have that really annoys me. Oh, and the curse was super contrived. SNOW WHITE. YOU KNEW THE APPLE WAS BAD NEWS, AND YOU JUST DRANK SOMETHING YOUR OTHER ENEMY HANDED YOU? Then it was a problem for exactly one episode and wrapped up neatly at the end? I mean, yeah, the drawn-out complications were annoying last season, but this wasn't even something tangible. How were we supposed to worry about it when it obviously was going to be solved in short order? Also, the baby gender amulet thingy was dumb. It's nice they tried to address the whole knowing the baby's gender thing, but it was still dumb. That whole plot was just... did I say dumb already? What saved it was Ginnifer's acting, and the themeatic connection to the present day FTL plot. It makes me sad that Charming's mother had to die in a contrived plot, she was a nice woman but the plot made her look kind of dense.
Also the ad for next week was REALLY dumb. I WAS interested in the episode until the promo was all like “oooooooh, Captain Hoooooooook is worse than Rumple!” No, promo. No. Individually, sure, why not. Captain Hook can rape and pillage and whatever all he wants. But there's no way I can see he could be more of a criminal mastermind. Rumple plotted for centuries. Captain Hook would not care about power, only gold, his boat, and murdering people who annoy/one-up him. How is that sustainable for a villain? Ugh, already I'm quite disgusted he's signed on as a regular. What could they possibly do with him? ESPECIALLY given that the promo made it appear that he was in FTL, not Neverland? What the hell, show? Don't tell us there is a multiverse and then collapse everything into one world! Argh.
Also, people online are trying to connect King George's backstory with Cora. I'm not sure whether it works, but I suppose there's room for it... idk.