Queen of Hearts
...also consider this the place to put thoughts and spec on the other episodes between Tallahasse and Queen of Hearts: Child of the Moon, and Into the Deep. This is all stuff I wrote a few days ago; currently my brain is all about Stargate, but if I don't post it now I never will! So.
1. I do not understand why everyone in this show is so keen on Hook. I mean, show's trying really, really hard, but show also does not know how to make an appealing bad boy (case in point: August, who only stopped being awful when the show stopped making it look like he was flirting with Emma, and is mainly interesting because he is a failing failer who fails). All he ever seems to do successfully is a minor double-cross involving sleight-of-hand. He is a giant weenie who can't just pick a side and stay there (I'm pretty sure his side is supposed to just be 'whichever side gets to kill Rumple', but since we love Rumple no matter what side he's on, that is not a good thing). I believe it is equal parts the acting (I sincerely doubt the actor has the slightest idea which side he's on and who he's playing in any given episode) and the writing (which in trying to make him both villainous and romantic just flailed around and made him neither; also the writers do not seem to understand the actual Hook or how to use the phrase 'good form'. What the hell, show.) SERIOUSLY. If they wanted to have someone be a foil for Rumple, wouldn't it make more sense to have someone who is justified and kind of a good guy or something? I'm glad Belle and Emma each didn't buy what he was selling, but GOD WHAT A DICK. While trying to get revenge on Rumple for killing his supposed true love, he starts hitting on the first unattatched woman who shows up? YEAH, THAT'S DEDICATION. He had some fails that pleased me, but not enough to make him interesting, and you can't have a character be all fails if you want them to be a dangerous villain. This episode took away the only truly villainous thing we've ever seen him do-don't get me wrong, I'm much happier that Aurora was fixed and she's off to have adventures with Mulan, but it just turned him right back around to square dick. You know what would appeal to me? (I don't think they're gonna do this, will have to rewatch 2x4, but) If Hook comes to fight Rumple and he's all “at last, I will kill you!” and Rumple is just like “...who are you?” I mean, I don't honestly think he'd forget the man who stole his wife, but that would just be perfect.
2. Please, show, for the love of god, slow down, take a breath, and stop trying to introduce a million new plots and characters we don't care about. Everyone's reunited; please keep it that way. Show us the family and/or town being disfunctional. Show us more flashbacks about Emma's past, or maybe some about Henry growing up or whatever; fill in the gaps on characters we already know; bring back recurring guest stars (cough David Anders cough cough), but don't be afraid to focus an episode or two on just a few characters. Stop tearing Charming and Snow apart-that got old before last season was over. Bring back August and Neal and maybe Jefferson (I know he's off being the Winter Soldier right now, but god help me I miss him. Way better than not-Hook). Give us character moments.
3. Also, show, I would like to have actual things to actually ship show up sometimes. Perhaps Regina/Whale, Regina/Archie, or Red/Whale. (Snow/Charming is waaaaaaay too canon to ship, you don't need to ship it. Rumple/Belle is very shippable, but they need more of both adorableness and sometimes they need Belle to call him on his shit and sometimes she needs to decide she's okay with a certain level of shit. (that metaphor went bad...)) Please to stop throwing men at Emma and telling us to ship it. It doesn't work that way.
4. I have decided, for the sake of my sanity, to pretend that this Hook, Killian Jones the dick, is not the real Hook in the OUAT universe. Like, he went to Neverland and he happened to have a Hook. So Peter Pan started calling him Hook (with his memory thing, just assuming he was the same Hook). Some of his behavior he picked up from what Hook is supposed to do and the idea of pirates in FTL. But mostly he's just some guy. Neverland had its own Hook, who came from this world (like everyone else), and he was the Hook who was Hook. So there, show. :P
5. There were a LOT of explanations and there wasn't a lot of awesomeness, partly because half the episode was trying to tell us that Hook was super-cool and failing. But there were moments: Snow and Emma were great, Regina was... good, although I'm still not sure I approve of how fast she decided she wants redemption. Rumple didn't do much, but what he did do was good. Mulan/Aurora FTW. Belle being all “bitch please” to Hook's story. I am glad that they tied together the seemingly random elements of the season neatly, even though some of those things didn't really have any business being brought up in the first place. (Why have Aurora under Cora's control for like half an episode, for one?)
6. I am picturing Mulan and Aurora saving Phillip.
P: hello?
A: Yay! We saved you! (hug)
M: :( Don't I get a hug?
P: well this is awkward um... oh well room for one more, right? (Aurora breaks away from him and hugs Mulan) ...um, ladies?
...that, or the ladies unintentionally sabotage their own quest. Or maybe Mulan's super determined to complete the quest and bring Phillip back because she thinks it will make Aurora happy, and maybe Aurora thinks that, too, but maybe she thinks that it will make Mulan happy-she's so gung-ho, after all-and when they get him back he's suddenly a third wheel and no one is happy and they don't understand why.
7. I do love the development of Emma. How she has moved from refusing to believe she's the savior because she can't fathom being needed and important like that, to deciding that there's nothing special about her to make her the savior and it's just because Rumple happened to pick her to carry out the plan. Poor insecure low self-esteem Emma just cannot handle suddenly being important and needed and loved. And of course, all her fails this season just fed fuel to the fire, all the while she's not realizing that Snow White is in it to protect her and be with her no matter how much failing she does. Also, though it may turn plot-devicey, I love the Emma Love Magic thing. (Although, if she is powerful purely because she's the product of true love, then we should be seeing similar things from Ella and Thomas' year-old daughter Alexandra, and any future offspring Abigail and Frederick and Aurora and Phillip might have, because they had love strong enough to break curses, too. Unless it is retconned like the half-cylon baby thing.) I think she isn't necessarily always protected, but she was in that moment because she was feeling it. That was an act of love, throwing herself in front of Snow.
8. I am completely on board the Neal-is-Bae train again, partly because of things that the internet pointed out that are not spoilers but may be clues (ok, one thing), but also because I realized that-if this season is about redemption, we've only been seeing it from Regina so far. She only wants to redeem herself in Henry's eyes. Rumple has never shown any signs that he thinks he needs any kind of redemption, not even with Belle-all he has learned is that he needs to be careful what he does around her. So, if the show is going to push or tease his redemption, he needs to succeed in finding Bae, and that needs to completely fail to solve anything for him. A Bae who grew up without him, is probably angry with him, and told August how to control/kill him, might be the thing to shake him up, predictable though it might be. Because so far, he's had the excuse of sympathetic/good intentions-he made the curse to reunite with his son, he clings to his power because he needs it to get his son back (although obviously he also clings to the power for power's sake and he does horrible evil things for petty selfish reasons, too)--so what will happen if/when he finds his son and his son wants nothing to do with him? Not to mention that Regina has had plenty of punishment she's trying to work through for her casting of the curse, but Rumple has had virtually no repercussions for creating the curse in the first place and getting Regina to cast it-there's the fact that he still can't leave, but it's clear he sees that as one more obstacle/problem to solve, not as possible karmic punishment.
(Also, I recognized a guy on Stargate and looked him up and turns out he played the Knave of Hearts on OUaT. This is what the internet refers to as 'Vancouver Actor Bingo'.)
1. I do not understand why everyone in this show is so keen on Hook. I mean, show's trying really, really hard, but show also does not know how to make an appealing bad boy (case in point: August, who only stopped being awful when the show stopped making it look like he was flirting with Emma, and is mainly interesting because he is a failing failer who fails). All he ever seems to do successfully is a minor double-cross involving sleight-of-hand. He is a giant weenie who can't just pick a side and stay there (I'm pretty sure his side is supposed to just be 'whichever side gets to kill Rumple', but since we love Rumple no matter what side he's on, that is not a good thing). I believe it is equal parts the acting (I sincerely doubt the actor has the slightest idea which side he's on and who he's playing in any given episode) and the writing (which in trying to make him both villainous and romantic just flailed around and made him neither; also the writers do not seem to understand the actual Hook or how to use the phrase 'good form'. What the hell, show.) SERIOUSLY. If they wanted to have someone be a foil for Rumple, wouldn't it make more sense to have someone who is justified and kind of a good guy or something? I'm glad Belle and Emma each didn't buy what he was selling, but GOD WHAT A DICK. While trying to get revenge on Rumple for killing his supposed true love, he starts hitting on the first unattatched woman who shows up? YEAH, THAT'S DEDICATION. He had some fails that pleased me, but not enough to make him interesting, and you can't have a character be all fails if you want them to be a dangerous villain. This episode took away the only truly villainous thing we've ever seen him do-don't get me wrong, I'm much happier that Aurora was fixed and she's off to have adventures with Mulan, but it just turned him right back around to square dick. You know what would appeal to me? (I don't think they're gonna do this, will have to rewatch 2x4, but) If Hook comes to fight Rumple and he's all “at last, I will kill you!” and Rumple is just like “...who are you?” I mean, I don't honestly think he'd forget the man who stole his wife, but that would just be perfect.
2. Please, show, for the love of god, slow down, take a breath, and stop trying to introduce a million new plots and characters we don't care about. Everyone's reunited; please keep it that way. Show us the family and/or town being disfunctional. Show us more flashbacks about Emma's past, or maybe some about Henry growing up or whatever; fill in the gaps on characters we already know; bring back recurring guest stars (cough David Anders cough cough), but don't be afraid to focus an episode or two on just a few characters. Stop tearing Charming and Snow apart-that got old before last season was over. Bring back August and Neal and maybe Jefferson (I know he's off being the Winter Soldier right now, but god help me I miss him. Way better than not-Hook). Give us character moments.
3. Also, show, I would like to have actual things to actually ship show up sometimes. Perhaps Regina/Whale, Regina/Archie, or Red/Whale. (Snow/Charming is waaaaaaay too canon to ship, you don't need to ship it. Rumple/Belle is very shippable, but they need more of both adorableness and sometimes they need Belle to call him on his shit and sometimes she needs to decide she's okay with a certain level of shit. (that metaphor went bad...)) Please to stop throwing men at Emma and telling us to ship it. It doesn't work that way.
4. I have decided, for the sake of my sanity, to pretend that this Hook, Killian Jones the dick, is not the real Hook in the OUAT universe. Like, he went to Neverland and he happened to have a Hook. So Peter Pan started calling him Hook (with his memory thing, just assuming he was the same Hook). Some of his behavior he picked up from what Hook is supposed to do and the idea of pirates in FTL. But mostly he's just some guy. Neverland had its own Hook, who came from this world (like everyone else), and he was the Hook who was Hook. So there, show. :P
5. There were a LOT of explanations and there wasn't a lot of awesomeness, partly because half the episode was trying to tell us that Hook was super-cool and failing. But there were moments: Snow and Emma were great, Regina was... good, although I'm still not sure I approve of how fast she decided she wants redemption. Rumple didn't do much, but what he did do was good. Mulan/Aurora FTW. Belle being all “bitch please” to Hook's story. I am glad that they tied together the seemingly random elements of the season neatly, even though some of those things didn't really have any business being brought up in the first place. (Why have Aurora under Cora's control for like half an episode, for one?)
6. I am picturing Mulan and Aurora saving Phillip.
P: hello?
A: Yay! We saved you! (hug)
M: :( Don't I get a hug?
P: well this is awkward um... oh well room for one more, right? (Aurora breaks away from him and hugs Mulan) ...um, ladies?
...that, or the ladies unintentionally sabotage their own quest. Or maybe Mulan's super determined to complete the quest and bring Phillip back because she thinks it will make Aurora happy, and maybe Aurora thinks that, too, but maybe she thinks that it will make Mulan happy-she's so gung-ho, after all-and when they get him back he's suddenly a third wheel and no one is happy and they don't understand why.
7. I do love the development of Emma. How she has moved from refusing to believe she's the savior because she can't fathom being needed and important like that, to deciding that there's nothing special about her to make her the savior and it's just because Rumple happened to pick her to carry out the plan. Poor insecure low self-esteem Emma just cannot handle suddenly being important and needed and loved. And of course, all her fails this season just fed fuel to the fire, all the while she's not realizing that Snow White is in it to protect her and be with her no matter how much failing she does. Also, though it may turn plot-devicey, I love the Emma Love Magic thing. (Although, if she is powerful purely because she's the product of true love, then we should be seeing similar things from Ella and Thomas' year-old daughter Alexandra, and any future offspring Abigail and Frederick and Aurora and Phillip might have, because they had love strong enough to break curses, too. Unless it is retconned like the half-cylon baby thing.) I think she isn't necessarily always protected, but she was in that moment because she was feeling it. That was an act of love, throwing herself in front of Snow.
8. I am completely on board the Neal-is-Bae train again, partly because of things that the internet pointed out that are not spoilers but may be clues (ok, one thing), but also because I realized that-if this season is about redemption, we've only been seeing it from Regina so far. She only wants to redeem herself in Henry's eyes. Rumple has never shown any signs that he thinks he needs any kind of redemption, not even with Belle-all he has learned is that he needs to be careful what he does around her. So, if the show is going to push or tease his redemption, he needs to succeed in finding Bae, and that needs to completely fail to solve anything for him. A Bae who grew up without him, is probably angry with him, and told August how to control/kill him, might be the thing to shake him up, predictable though it might be. Because so far, he's had the excuse of sympathetic/good intentions-he made the curse to reunite with his son, he clings to his power because he needs it to get his son back (although obviously he also clings to the power for power's sake and he does horrible evil things for petty selfish reasons, too)--so what will happen if/when he finds his son and his son wants nothing to do with him? Not to mention that Regina has had plenty of punishment she's trying to work through for her casting of the curse, but Rumple has had virtually no repercussions for creating the curse in the first place and getting Regina to cast it-there's the fact that he still can't leave, but it's clear he sees that as one more obstacle/problem to solve, not as possible karmic punishment.
(Also, I recognized a guy on Stargate and looked him up and turns out he played the Knave of Hearts on OUaT. This is what the internet refers to as 'Vancouver Actor Bingo'.)