The Cricket Game
1. Cora was like “You are my new minion now, Hook.” And Hook was like “I'm not sure I like this...” to which Cora was like “Too bad!” and Hook was like “oh fine whatever, call me when it's time to kill Rumple.”
2. So, with the amount of screentime Archie was getting early on I was very concerned for him, given that I've come to like him a lot. I was waiting for the death to be taken back but trying not to expect it (if nothing else, he's supposed to live as long as he needs to to help Gepetto, which at this point probably means he's gonna be beholden to the Gepetto family as long as it exists since August apparently no longer cares about reuniting and reconciling... w/e). By the end I was thinking about the between-seasons promotional material of Archie's patient notes, which revealed (among other things) that in Storybrooke he's very lonely, and that he was happier not remembering. All of which, when I assumed he was actually dead, was making me very sad. Then the last 30 seconds and I was like “yay he's not dead! Wait, he's going to be tortured? And he's still lonely and happier not remembering? ...and he's being used to achieve the exact opposite of what he wanted-the redemption of Regina? ...and he didn't get to become part of a ship? And on top of that, he's not a regular and it's probable he doesn't get to have a hapy ending anyway? ...I am not so sure I'm happy about this...” But yeah, I am glad he's not dead and I hope he gets much more story/appearances. (I may have considered writing something like “but but he's not my favorite! They can't kill him off!”)
3. I had no problem with Hook. I'm not sure what happened there.
4. All the Regina things were totally nailed. NAILED.
5. While I don't have a problem with it per se, I think it's funny how Rumple basically drops in on everyone all the time. It makes sense with the manipulations he's trying to achieve (in the past), but I feel like by now Snow should be like “oh hai Rumple, why don't you join us for lunch? What's new?” Of course, that's probably why he seemed mildly put out (or pretended to be for Regina's sake) that he wasn't invited to Snow and Charming's wedding. I keep reading (on Tumblr I guess?) a joke that Rumple's put more effort into their relationship than Charming has. He probably expected to be the best man AND the maid of honor.
6. I like the whole White family thing. All of them were cool; no one was terribly standout. Maybe Emma.
7. Dreamcatcher WHAAAAAAAAT? Seriously show? Okay, if you say so. That dreamcatcher was spotted in a promo and people assumed it was associated with Neal, because there was a moment with Neal and Emma and a dreamcatcher. The fact that it had nothing to do with him has confused me slightly. Are they trying to drop a hint or something? Is this why Neal seemed a bit lost on the whole dreamcatcher concept? I'm not sure this was a sensible hint even if he is Bae! Whatever, show! Dreamcatchers are a magic thing now, okay!
8. Lolllllllll tumblr insists that this must have been the one day Dr. Whale was not on call, or he would have known immediately that the body was not Archie. I'm not sure, as I feel magic probably would have fooled him for a while, at least the duration of the episode, but it's an amusing fanwank nonetheless.
9. Overall it was quite good. The flashbacks slotted in well without stepping on earlier flashbacks, Emma, Snow, and Charming all had appropriate amounts of compassion and mistrust, Rumple was inscruitable (to them; we know perfectly well what he wants from Regina) and also adorable with Belle and with Pongo, and Regina had some very believable bipolar-ness, mostly low-key depression with bursts of temper. I love that it was character driven and not plot driven-all about exploring these characters and not about leading them down the plot road.
10. The promo has me all excited-Rumple leaving town with Belle dramatically, Rumple beating Hook with his cane, Rumple announcing he is going to find his son. :D
11. Oh, and Red! I love Red. She is just an awesome pillar of the community.
12. I feel that all the Archie ships were teased, which pleases me greatly. (And by 'all', I mean Archie/Regina, Archie/Red, and Archie/Emma.)
13. Wow, a lot of the internet seems to feel that Regina's redemption is just making excuses for her. I think it's a little bit fast, but I appreciate that they're adding layers to it in her backstory to make it seem less fast. Also, we knew from the second episode that she was being pushed to do the curse by Rumple. (talk about excuses for bad behavior! Certainly not saying I don't love him for it, but no character has more excuses than him. Oh, I'm doing it to get my son back! The Dark One curse made me evil! And just because he's awesome and male, the internet doesn't seem bothered by it. I'm not bothered by it-he's shown no interest in redemption and little to no remorse and it works very well for him-but the internet shows its ugly misogynist hypocracy again.) And, if you watch the first season over again, you can clearly see that most of her behavior is all about Henry-trying to keep him. Which segues fairly well into working to redeem herself in Henry's eyes.
14. The other part of the internet is pissed that all the good guys are so mean to Regina. IDK man, she did curse them all, murdered lots of people, raped Graham, poisoned Henry in her attempt to poison Emma, and nearly killed Snow and Emma until Henry begged her not to. I think they're treading on dangerous ground, but they made reasonable assumptions and it's understandable how they react to her-she does make a huge effort to present only her evil, hardass, nutball facade to these people.
15. It would have been nice to have some mention of Graham when talking about Regina still being the same person/capable of murder, but no big deal. I figure Emma still assumes he died of a heart attack or whatever.
16. I am delighted with how character-driven the episode was and hope the trend continues. Here's hoping all the macguffin-chasing was just there to set up a whole bunch of character-driven dominoes!