That's Your Solution To Everything, Move Under The Sea. It's Not Gonna Happen!
Once again, it has taken me until Monday evening before I got the chance to see Sunday's OUaT -- I am getting really, really tired of these 12-hour weekend shifts -- but see it I did, and I find I have kind of a lot to say about this one.
First off, I should probably admit that I've never actually seen The Little Mermaid. Or, well, maybe I've seen random bits of it? I maybe have very, very vague memories of walking in and out of a room where a small child was watching it and not paying any actual attention. But I'm not even entirely sure about that. I have read the Hans Christian Andersen story, which I always thought was really very unpleasant. Anyway, this version of Ariel seemed, well, nice enough, but her story in general left me a bit "meh," and didn't exactly satisfy, although that may be because it's not actually over yet. And the way the "secrets" theme tied in with the rest of the episode was so not subtle, in the way that this show is often not subtle. Which, y'know, is mostly OK. I do like the fact that both Snow and Ariel do come to the conclusion that you should just tell the person you care about the truth, already. Mainly since I've kind of been saying that to David for the past couple of episodes. (By the way, is it horrible of me that when Snow blurted out the truth about Neal, my immediate reaction was to laugh and go, "I see Snow has not gotten any better at keeping secrets since she was twelve!" It is, isn't it? I am a terrible, terrible person.)
Fortunately, the present-day story pleased me a lot more, enough that I came away feeling really good about the entire episode. You know, normally this "everybody has to tell a secret" plot point is the sort of thing I'm inclined to roll my eyes at, because it's such an incredibly obvious device to force some character revelations, either to each other or to the audience. But I must say, they pull it off remarkably well here. Snow and Charming's back-to-back confessions were genuinely kind of heartbreaking. (And, you know, I always did think another child was something those two would want.) And major points for having Emma's real confession not being that she still loves Neal (which would have been cheesy and obvious and, honestly, not all that secret), but rather that she wished he were dead because it would have been easier. Which is so very believable, and so much more painful. And as for Hook... I'm very mildly worried about the possibility of a Neal/Emma/Hook triangle here, just because this show does not have a history of pulling off love triangles well. And I still don't see any Emma/Hook happening long term. But I am actually quite touched by the thought that Hook is finally finding it in himself to be able to let go of the past, to perhaps open himself up to some hope for the future.
Speaking of which (sort of)... I wasn't thrilled with the hallucination!Belle stuff in earlier episodes. Again, it seemed like kind of a cheap device to give us a window into Rumple's internal conflict. But the payoff on it here is really good. I love that while at first we saw this vision playing on his weakness and his fear and his much-vaunted survival instincts, here it's tempting him with love and hope and a possibility for the future, and it's that approach that comes very close to working. There's some wonderful complexity there, and it very much plays into the idea this show constantly has that love, while extremely powerful, can always cut two ways. (And surely there is some kind of interesting parallel there in fake!Belle's suggestion that they could start another family with Snow's desire to do the same.) By the way, just for a moment there, I thought the shadow Belle is revealed to be was in fact Rumple's own shadow talking to him, which I thought was rather neat. But I'm pretty sure it is, in fact, meant to be an agent of Pan. Which, plot-wise, is probably much better.
And that leads us, I think, to Regina, who very much steals the episode. Oh, she is in fine form here! She gets a deliciously evil moment or two in the flashback. (I confess, I did laugh at "This is what death looks like.") Then in the present, she gets to be wonderfully snarky with Emma while trying to teach her magic the Rumple way. (Rage, damn you! RAGE!) And yet, this is clearly the new Regina, the one who refers to Henry as "our son" without even thinking about it anymore. Without minding. And then, of course, she gets to lay some entirely justified and truly beautiful verbal smackdown on Rumple. Oh, gawd, how I have missed the two of them together! I hadn't even realized how much. Mind you, it really says something about Rumple's mental state that it took Regina to come up with the kind of twisty third option that is usually Rumple's own stock in trade. But, oh, I just love her so very, very much in that moment. And, man, do I want to see the two of them kicking Pan's ass!
And next week, we are finally going to get to go back and see how things are getting on in Storybrooke. Hooray! Because I do very much want to see what the real Belle is up to.
But, oy, I think "Hey, no problem, mermaids can travel between realms, so let's send this one to Storybrooke!" really is yet another major step undermining the whole idea that travel to this world is so nearly impossible that it required this elaborate Dark Curse plan for Rumple ever to get here. Well, I am going to try very hard to tell myself that a) since there is magic in Storybrooke now, it's less difficult to get there than it used to be, and b) since Rumple knew from the prophecy that he would get here using a curse and not a portal (or a mermaid), it doesn't make him entirely stupid that that's approach he pursued. Yes.
First off, I should probably admit that I've never actually seen The Little Mermaid. Or, well, maybe I've seen random bits of it? I maybe have very, very vague memories of walking in and out of a room where a small child was watching it and not paying any actual attention. But I'm not even entirely sure about that. I have read the Hans Christian Andersen story, which I always thought was really very unpleasant. Anyway, this version of Ariel seemed, well, nice enough, but her story in general left me a bit "meh," and didn't exactly satisfy, although that may be because it's not actually over yet. And the way the "secrets" theme tied in with the rest of the episode was so not subtle, in the way that this show is often not subtle. Which, y'know, is mostly OK. I do like the fact that both Snow and Ariel do come to the conclusion that you should just tell the person you care about the truth, already. Mainly since I've kind of been saying that to David for the past couple of episodes. (By the way, is it horrible of me that when Snow blurted out the truth about Neal, my immediate reaction was to laugh and go, "I see Snow has not gotten any better at keeping secrets since she was twelve!" It is, isn't it? I am a terrible, terrible person.)
Fortunately, the present-day story pleased me a lot more, enough that I came away feeling really good about the entire episode. You know, normally this "everybody has to tell a secret" plot point is the sort of thing I'm inclined to roll my eyes at, because it's such an incredibly obvious device to force some character revelations, either to each other or to the audience. But I must say, they pull it off remarkably well here. Snow and Charming's back-to-back confessions were genuinely kind of heartbreaking. (And, you know, I always did think another child was something those two would want.) And major points for having Emma's real confession not being that she still loves Neal (which would have been cheesy and obvious and, honestly, not all that secret), but rather that she wished he were dead because it would have been easier. Which is so very believable, and so much more painful. And as for Hook... I'm very mildly worried about the possibility of a Neal/Emma/Hook triangle here, just because this show does not have a history of pulling off love triangles well. And I still don't see any Emma/Hook happening long term. But I am actually quite touched by the thought that Hook is finally finding it in himself to be able to let go of the past, to perhaps open himself up to some hope for the future.
Speaking of which (sort of)... I wasn't thrilled with the hallucination!Belle stuff in earlier episodes. Again, it seemed like kind of a cheap device to give us a window into Rumple's internal conflict. But the payoff on it here is really good. I love that while at first we saw this vision playing on his weakness and his fear and his much-vaunted survival instincts, here it's tempting him with love and hope and a possibility for the future, and it's that approach that comes very close to working. There's some wonderful complexity there, and it very much plays into the idea this show constantly has that love, while extremely powerful, can always cut two ways. (And surely there is some kind of interesting parallel there in fake!Belle's suggestion that they could start another family with Snow's desire to do the same.) By the way, just for a moment there, I thought the shadow Belle is revealed to be was in fact Rumple's own shadow talking to him, which I thought was rather neat. But I'm pretty sure it is, in fact, meant to be an agent of Pan. Which, plot-wise, is probably much better.
And that leads us, I think, to Regina, who very much steals the episode. Oh, she is in fine form here! She gets a deliciously evil moment or two in the flashback. (I confess, I did laugh at "This is what death looks like.") Then in the present, she gets to be wonderfully snarky with Emma while trying to teach her magic the Rumple way. (Rage, damn you! RAGE!) And yet, this is clearly the new Regina, the one who refers to Henry as "our son" without even thinking about it anymore. Without minding. And then, of course, she gets to lay some entirely justified and truly beautiful verbal smackdown on Rumple. Oh, gawd, how I have missed the two of them together! I hadn't even realized how much. Mind you, it really says something about Rumple's mental state that it took Regina to come up with the kind of twisty third option that is usually Rumple's own stock in trade. But, oh, I just love her so very, very much in that moment. And, man, do I want to see the two of them kicking Pan's ass!
And next week, we are finally going to get to go back and see how things are getting on in Storybrooke. Hooray! Because I do very much want to see what the real Belle is up to.
But, oy, I think "Hey, no problem, mermaids can travel between realms, so let's send this one to Storybrooke!" really is yet another major step undermining the whole idea that travel to this world is so nearly impossible that it required this elaborate Dark Curse plan for Rumple ever to get here. Well, I am going to try very hard to tell myself that a) since there is magic in Storybrooke now, it's less difficult to get there than it used to be, and b) since Rumple knew from the prophecy that he would get here using a curse and not a portal (or a mermaid), it doesn't make him entirely stupid that that's approach he pursued. Yes.