Review of Once Upon A Time episode "Desperate Souls" -- Awesome Robert Carlyle. Subpar Writing.
The episode wasn't gawd awful, but it wasn't the best either. It was pretty medicore, average for me. Which is a shame because I have really been loving Robert Carlyle's portrayol of Mr. Gold/Rumple (which btw he looked amazing in Storybrooke -- he has this cool Jeremy Irons vibe to him as Mr. Gold that I just love). Normally Jane Espenson's episodes are some of my favorite episodes on television. "Desperate Souls" just didn't hit the mark for me.
I think a lot of the episodes' themes were just too jumbled, and I felt the mythology surrounding The Dark One should have been discussed earlier prior to this episode. It did give foreshadowing to killing Rumple with the dagger, and someone later taking his place as The Dark One. I totally understood why Rumpelstiltskin killed The Dark One because he was desperate to keep his son safe. Sometimes people do the stupidest things when they are desperate. It's just something about the episode just didn't flow well to me. It might have been the lack of mythology surrounding The Dark One, or it was the transitioning from Storybrooke to Fairytale that didn't mesh together very well. Though I did like the parallel of Rumple's firestarter tendencies in both worlds. It wasn't exactly one thing *shrugs*.
There were some things I did enjoy, such as Rumpelstiltskin and his son. I think they did the perfect casting for Rumple's young son Baelfire. The actors had great chemistry with each other. I enjoyed their interaction so much that I wonder if we will get to see an older Baelfire in Storybrooke. It's just great to see another side to Rumple/Mr. Gold's character. Another thing I enjoyed was how Regina spoke to Sidney/Mirror after the fire....."you fool" had me rolling for a good couple of minutes
. I loved the small interaction between Mary and David *sigh*. Ginnifer and Josh have so much chemistry with one another they don't have to talk to one another lol.
I did love how Ruby, Granny, Mary, and Archie rallied behind Emma after the fire. It was a great, small interaction between all of the characters. Speaking of small interaction I loved how Ruby served Emma at the end of the episode. No judgements or anything like that. Something that isn't uncommon with Ruby's character because we seen it already in "The Price of Gold".
I liked seeing Henry and Emma quarreling, and later making up at the end of the episode. I wasn't expecting to see the Sheriff race end so....well.....quickly. I was hoping for at least an one to three episode arc *shrugs*. Anywho, it did deliver some backstory on Henry being born in lock-up.
As I said the episode wasn't gawd awful, but it doesn't rank high on my list.