The Crocodile
Oh, hey, I need to properly respond to your comments now that I'm not being stupid! Will get on that... tomorrow.
Generally I liked it, although I think it is the weakest of the Rumple backstory episodes (but that's not saying much, of course).
All the Belle stuff was fabulous. Just-I cannot criticize it. Belle and Red! Red needs to be everyone's BFF because she is awesome. The best parts are Belle's reactions to things (food mostly, I guess. I would like to see her either baffled by electronics or learning them faster than anyone else in town), the real calling out of Rumple, and the gift of the library.
I actually kinda like Captain Hook. Not so much the leather-on-leather style (in my head Hook always looks like the Hook from Hook. Where's his fancy coats and wig and hat?), but the talk of him living by a code did my heart good. (Now say “Bad form!” SAY IT!) I wasn't a big fan of him being in love with Milha, although it didn't surprise me that much. I think that part of the story makes him look all tragic, which doesn't fit Hook so well, and it imo takes away his edge a bit. I do find myself approving of the way they played with the story otherwise, and I am very glad that Neverland is a different world. I do not understand his name change, although I suppose James Hook was always an alias anyway. It was, however, laughable how the promo for this episode hyped him up as worse than Rumple. All Hook did was let a married woman run away with him, helping her escape her husband with lies and threats, and a little sleight of hand. Rumple murdered his wife. Oh, yes, Hook is sooooooo much more evil for seeking revenge on Rumple! :P I'm sure we'll see other evil for him, but as of now he's only a shade or two darker than Jefferson, and Jefferson is a silly grey woobie who wishes he was cool enough to be a villain. Unless Hook shows us his edge quickly, I will fully expect Cora to pwn him and Rumple to chew him up and spit him back out, unless Belle asks him not to.
I do not like Milha, but I think she played exactly the role she was supposed to play. Part of me would like to complain about “if she never loved him, how come she married him in the first place?” but it is rare on this show to have a married couple not be true love, and to actually follow through with arrainged marriages and the like, and really they should be pretty common in FTL just like in the real world. I suppose I just do not think she was worth him coming after, and I didn't really see what Hook saw in her either, although clearly she was a good drinker, gambler, and if she became a pirate chick she probably lived up to the whole adventure thing. I'm ambivilent about the whole Rumple killing her thing. She was pretty awful to him with the whole leaving him lie thing, and she showed very little sign of being concerned about what happened to Bae. (Let's assume that she did love him, but she was not a motherly person and left the parenting up to Rumple mostly, and then she also figured that in leaving, Rumple would still take care of Bae. Give her the benefit of doubt.) She did nothing in the moment to warrant murder, but I figure Rumple was seeing his own behavior reflected in her and took his anger at himself out on her.
It does bother me a little that Rumple was that honest with her that quickly, making it obvious that they wanted to wrap that up in the episode, and that he's that perceptive about himself-really, show? I thought all the screaming about “how is it my fault? IT'S YOUR FAULT!” indicated that he was just a big mess psycologically. But I suppose he's had a lot of time to think about it, and the notion of Belle and Rumple actually dating in future epsiodes while Belle works at the library and Rumple tries to break the memory thing is just too cute for words.
Oh, and when Rumple was questioning Moe and finding out where he was sending Belle, well-I guess there's a reason Rumple believed Regina about Belle's fate.
Also, we knew (or figured) that Cora and Regina both learned the heart trick from the book, which came from Rumple, but somehow I never expected to see Rumple perform the heart trick himself.
Also, it kind of annoyed me that Hook was not brought to Storybrooke just “for some reason”. I mean, obviously they're going to explain that at some point, but. I mean, were Hook and Smee in FTL or Neverland at the time the curse was cast? What about the other pirates, where are they? Did all these people just happen to be in the protected land at the same time? Did Cora do it? Or did Regina deliberately exclude certain people (which doesn't make a ton of sense if the curse grabbed Smee out of Neverland, does she even know him? It's not like Jefferson where you could claim that she made the effort to drag him to Storybrooke because she wanted him handy and she wanted to lord over him.) ...I am going to wildly guess that Hook and Smee were in FTL for some reason, and Cora let Hook in on whatever protection they had going on but refused to let Smee partake. Because.
So, I've forgotten anything else I wanted to say. Basically, it had some weak points and issues, but overall it was pretty good. Better than last week, not as good as We Are Both. Let's call it enjoyable, but not terribly deep.
Also, next week's promo! :D
Generally I liked it, although I think it is the weakest of the Rumple backstory episodes (but that's not saying much, of course).
All the Belle stuff was fabulous. Just-I cannot criticize it. Belle and Red! Red needs to be everyone's BFF because she is awesome. The best parts are Belle's reactions to things (food mostly, I guess. I would like to see her either baffled by electronics or learning them faster than anyone else in town), the real calling out of Rumple, and the gift of the library.
I actually kinda like Captain Hook. Not so much the leather-on-leather style (in my head Hook always looks like the Hook from Hook. Where's his fancy coats and wig and hat?), but the talk of him living by a code did my heart good. (Now say “Bad form!” SAY IT!) I wasn't a big fan of him being in love with Milha, although it didn't surprise me that much. I think that part of the story makes him look all tragic, which doesn't fit Hook so well, and it imo takes away his edge a bit. I do find myself approving of the way they played with the story otherwise, and I am very glad that Neverland is a different world. I do not understand his name change, although I suppose James Hook was always an alias anyway. It was, however, laughable how the promo for this episode hyped him up as worse than Rumple. All Hook did was let a married woman run away with him, helping her escape her husband with lies and threats, and a little sleight of hand. Rumple murdered his wife. Oh, yes, Hook is sooooooo much more evil for seeking revenge on Rumple! :P I'm sure we'll see other evil for him, but as of now he's only a shade or two darker than Jefferson, and Jefferson is a silly grey woobie who wishes he was cool enough to be a villain. Unless Hook shows us his edge quickly, I will fully expect Cora to pwn him and Rumple to chew him up and spit him back out, unless Belle asks him not to.
I do not like Milha, but I think she played exactly the role she was supposed to play. Part of me would like to complain about “if she never loved him, how come she married him in the first place?” but it is rare on this show to have a married couple not be true love, and to actually follow through with arrainged marriages and the like, and really they should be pretty common in FTL just like in the real world. I suppose I just do not think she was worth him coming after, and I didn't really see what Hook saw in her either, although clearly she was a good drinker, gambler, and if she became a pirate chick she probably lived up to the whole adventure thing. I'm ambivilent about the whole Rumple killing her thing. She was pretty awful to him with the whole leaving him lie thing, and she showed very little sign of being concerned about what happened to Bae. (Let's assume that she did love him, but she was not a motherly person and left the parenting up to Rumple mostly, and then she also figured that in leaving, Rumple would still take care of Bae. Give her the benefit of doubt.) She did nothing in the moment to warrant murder, but I figure Rumple was seeing his own behavior reflected in her and took his anger at himself out on her.
It does bother me a little that Rumple was that honest with her that quickly, making it obvious that they wanted to wrap that up in the episode, and that he's that perceptive about himself-really, show? I thought all the screaming about “how is it my fault? IT'S YOUR FAULT!” indicated that he was just a big mess psycologically. But I suppose he's had a lot of time to think about it, and the notion of Belle and Rumple actually dating in future epsiodes while Belle works at the library and Rumple tries to break the memory thing is just too cute for words.
Oh, and when Rumple was questioning Moe and finding out where he was sending Belle, well-I guess there's a reason Rumple believed Regina about Belle's fate.
Also, we knew (or figured) that Cora and Regina both learned the heart trick from the book, which came from Rumple, but somehow I never expected to see Rumple perform the heart trick himself.
Also, it kind of annoyed me that Hook was not brought to Storybrooke just “for some reason”. I mean, obviously they're going to explain that at some point, but. I mean, were Hook and Smee in FTL or Neverland at the time the curse was cast? What about the other pirates, where are they? Did all these people just happen to be in the protected land at the same time? Did Cora do it? Or did Regina deliberately exclude certain people (which doesn't make a ton of sense if the curse grabbed Smee out of Neverland, does she even know him? It's not like Jefferson where you could claim that she made the effort to drag him to Storybrooke because she wanted him handy and she wanted to lord over him.) ...I am going to wildly guess that Hook and Smee were in FTL for some reason, and Cora let Hook in on whatever protection they had going on but refused to let Smee partake. Because.
So, I've forgotten anything else I wanted to say. Basically, it had some weak points and issues, but overall it was pretty good. Better than last week, not as good as We Are Both. Let's call it enjoyable, but not terribly deep.
Also, next week's promo! :D