Once Upon a Time "Selfless, Brave and True"
So this episode was... pretty bad. There have been some dodgy episodes before, but this is the first that has been bad on a number of levels, so much so that it’s actually highlighted how not-good this show has been for a while now...
First of all, I concede that I am not a writer for television. Deconstructing episodes on-line is what comes after all the hard work of the writers/crew/actors. There are probably a million things that have to go into consideration when making TV shows that I know nothing about: constraints of the budget, actor availability, executive meddling and so on. So I always feel a touch guilty whenever I’m about to tear something apart like this, though I always fall back on the same line of reasoning: if I don’t like something, I stop watching it. The fact that I'm continuing to watch Once Upon a Time means that I still like it overall. Life is too short to invest time and energy into something I’m not enjoying, and I’ll admit to being rather baffled by the hordes of “fans” out there that are constantly bemoaning their various shows/franchises instead of just finding something else to do. Venting can be fun and therapeutic, but there’s a limit to how long it can go on before it just becomes impotent rage.
So the fact that I didn’t like this specific episode doesn’t mean I don’t like Once Upon a Time, and even though I recognise that this show has run into some trouble, it doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy watching it. That may sound like a contradiction, but I promise you, if I decide to call it quits, I won’t annoy you with endless rants on the subject. Besides, there’s still four more episodes left to win me back over.
***
So, we finally get some answers on August. Unfortunately, I didn’t particularly like those answers. Reaction seems to be generally divided on August: some people consider him a fan favourite, others are insistent that nobody him at all. Amusingly, I think shipping may well have played its part - he showed up on the heels of Graham’s death and has now been dispatched in favour of Neal. Initially considered an unworthy replacement, he’s now bowed out as a preferable alternative. Ah, irony.
I understand that Eoin Bailey asked for his character to be written out in order to move to another show. I can not only understand that choice, but sympathise with some of the writers’ decisions based on that choice. Though I really don’t think that a grown man being transformed back into the body of a child is an objectively “good” thing (given that just a few episodes ago the show itself presented Rumplestiltskin’s desire to turn Baelfire back into a child as disturbing and creepy) I can see how it was a relatively neat way of wrapping up the character’s arc without killing him off... just so long as you don’t think too hard about the implications.
But I also think that August’s fate is part of a bigger problem. Here’s the thing show - if you don’t want your actors to start jumping ship, then START PUTTING THEM IN YOUR SHOW. Stop wasting time by giving so much screen-time to new characters that we know (and care) very little about!
People like Ashley and Katherine have not appeared all season. Ruby and Archie and Granny and the Seven Dwarfs are pretty much MIA as well. Jefferson and Sidney are gone, Charming has been shunted to one side, and even Emma has been doing comparatively little all season. August got only one episode to wrap up his entire subplot.
And where has the emphasis instead? On Aurora, Mulan, Belle, Hook, Tiny, Neal, Whale, Milah, Cora, Tamara and Owen/Greg. Urgh, it’s like replacing Marian with Kate all over again, except on a much wider scale. All these characters were abruptly amplified or shoehorned into the story with little justification, and when you think about it, Cora is the only one who has had a genuine impact on the overall course of the show. Though I liked Mulan and Aurora, they and everyone else feels like stuff the writers threw at the wall to see what would stick.
This is reflected in the plot. The first season had a clear narrative arc: Emma arrives in a town where fairytale characters are living under a curse, completely unaware as to who they truly are. As the saviour, it’s her job to help people living in Storybrooke and eventually break the curse. She was the main character along with Snow White, Prince Charming, Regina and Rumplestiltskin, and the show didn’t waste time on periphery characters that didn’t directly impact on their stories. The season led up to its natural conclusion: Emma breaking the curse.
Now, there was actually a lot more that they could have done with this premise: not only in fairytale characters “waking up” due to Emma’s close proximity (as what happened with Graham) but also with Emma herself coming to believe that she was the saviour. If memory serves, this didn’t actually happen - she merely kissed Henry’s forehead and the spell was broken, thereby rendering most of the development and plotting of the Storybrooke storyline relatively null and void. But I digress.
This season, the storylines have been all over the place. No less than four plots have been introduced: Emma and Snow trying to return home from what’s left of the Enchanted Forest, the return of Cora to take over Storybrooke (along with Hook’s vendetta against Rumplestiltskin), the search and rediscovery of Baelfire/Neal, and now the arrival of both Owen and Tamara as the latest villains. They also seem to be struggling with how to handle their flashback sequences. Last season it was easy enough to tie in the present-day activities with each character’s backgrounds and the intricacies of the curse. Now they’re floundering for ideas, leading to flashbacks that feel more like filler than anything vitally important to the story (did we really need two retellings of Frankenstein’s past?)
And so what we end up with is episodes like this: where dangling plot threads are hurriedly wrapped up because characters are getting squeezed out and their actors are getting tired of having nothing to do. And they can’t be blamed for that. An actor’s job isn’t to wait around for writers to give them something to do; it’s to act. This is why Eoin Bailey is joining Giancarlo Esposito in Elsewhereville and Meghan Ory isn’t far behind.
And unfortunately, a lot of unanswered questions are left in their wake. Though I’m still left wondering if Gepetto’s parents remain dolls in Mr Gold’s store and whether Abigail was ever reunited with Frederick, there’s a (slim) chance that they’ll be resolved later. But a LOT more time and effort was put into August’s storyline: building him up as a mystery, having him tamper with Henry’s Once Upon a Time book, connecting his backstory with Neal’s and identifying him as Baelfire, having a quasi-romantic relationship with Emma, and guiding her toward her destiny. More than that, he was an interesting character in himself: a guy who quite simply could NOT resist any form of temptation, who is given a terrible burden as a young child and fails repeatedly at it, and who goes about rectifying his mistakes in ways that only worsen the situation. I kind of like the idea that Emma has a guardian angel that absolutely sucks at his job.
But all that has fizzled now. In the space of one episode (most of which was spent on Owen and Tamara, two characters I have absolutely no interest in whatsoever) August completes his story and reverts back to a small child with no memory of his adult life whatsoever. He’s isn’t held accountable for any of his actions, Gepetto gets a reset on his son’s life (also without being held accountable for any of his actions) and nobody learns anything.
Plus, did August ever actually act “selfless, brave and true” during the course of the episode? I kind of got the feeling that he was on his way to New York to get Tamara’s potion and only decides to turn around AFTER he saw her photograph and realized he’d been tricked. Am I meant to infer that had the photo not fallen out he would have kept going?
The scene in which he’s transformed back into a little boy has to be the worst scene this show has ever done. The dialogue was stilted (“I won’t let his death be in vain!” - bad in itself, but sheesh - at least make sure the guy is actually dead before saying it), the direction was all over the place, the solution was completely contrived, and then the Blue Fairy pops up out of nowhere to wave her magic wand. Also, where the heck was Archie? On an episode that’s meant to be about Pinocchio’s decision-making skills, shouldn’t his OWN CONSCIOUS have been involved?
***
Then we have Snow White’s current predicament. I really have no idea what’s going on here, and I dislike what the writers have done to her. Sure, I expect her to feel guilty for using Regina as an instrument to kill Cora. But this mopey, wishy-washy, guilt-ridden Snow is nothing like Snow White of the Enchanted Forest who went into battle on several occasions. She’s killed before, surely, but no one has yet pointed out to her that she killed Cora to save everyone’s lives. And obviously no one has yet pointed that out to Regina either, who is gloating over the fact that Snow’s heart has now been corrupted.
None of that makes any sense to me unless I assume that the candle itself has put some sort of curse on Snow’s heart that will make her unconsciously act in destructive ways. So far it’s only manifested in slapping a man who fully deserved it (seriously, what mother wouldn’t react in that way when she learns she was robbed of her own daughter’s childhood by someone she trusted?) but that at least explains why Snow acted as though her hand was possessed and why Regina is taking such delight in her current predicament. Presumably the candle is making Snow behave in ways that she can’t control, though that automatically strips her of any blame, which surely is what the writers were going for in the first place. Instead they've robbed her of her autonomy and any chance of exploring the character’s dark side naturally. Facepalm.
I would much prefer it if Snow was defiant about her decision to do away with Cora, eager to justify her actions to Regina, her loved ones and herself. Because Cora’s death (at least in my opinion) WAS justified, Snow would receive support from her family and the community, even though taking a person’s life will inevitably change the one who took it. This then could be the first stepping stone in a story-arc that could have Snow dealing with her own self-righteousness and determination to destroy anything that threatens her own world-view. Flaws don’t always have to be vices - sometimes they’re virtues taken to extreme, and as they say: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That could have provided a much more mature and interesting parallel to Regina’s own fall from grace.
But at the moment the moral compass of this show is spinning out of control. Unlike what they attempted to say here, anger in itself is not a bad emotion. People have the right to be angered and disgusted by selfishness, greed and cruelty (and stupidity). You don’t just shrug your shoulders and instantly forgive people when they screw you over. Snow had the right to be angry at Gepetto for taking her daughter’s childhood from her, whatever the reasoning behind it. And then just to rub salt in the wound, he gets to walk off with his reborn son at the end, whilst Snow is still grappling with twenty-eight years of separation from her child.
***
Tamara and Owen. I just don’t care.
Admittedly, this season has been tentatively exploring the theme of magic versus science for a while now, particularly with the episodes that centred on Frankenstein. Greg Mendell’s alias seems to be a nod to geneticist Gregor Mendel and Tamara herself is running around doing laboratory tests on magical potions and zapping people with a taser. (Seriously, a taser? What on earth was that about?) These are clearly the type of people that Grumpy voiced his fear of mid-season: those that want to find and dissect and control magic, which in itself isn’t a bad storyline to explore... but now? With only four episodes to go? C’mon, at this late stage there’s no way the writers should be wasting time on anyone who isn’t in the opening credits.
And as villains, they’re just not that interesting. They’re having an affair behind Neal’s back? So what? They’re random villains we’ve never seen before with murky motivation/a fairly boring vendetta who don’t even seem like that big of a threat. We’ve gone from Regina and Rumplestiltskin as our fantastic villains, to Cora and Hook (one great, the other a failure) to Tamara and Owen. If you’re going to change things, at least change them for the better!
What’s wrong with reinstating Regina as the main villain? After Cora’s death shouldn’t she be on some apocalyptic meltdown? Couldn’t the rest of the show involve some sort of fight to take control of the town? I can’t really understand why Regina is still waltzing around like she owns the place; ordering food at Granny’s, calling herself the Mayor, etc. Her telling Snow that she’s just going to sit back and watch her corrupt herself seems like an easy out for the writers not to follow up on the natural progression of Regina’s plotline (that is, getting revenge).
***
Okay, let’s wrap this up. My final grievance with this episode is something that’s been bugging me for a while now, though it took me this long to realize what it was: a complete lack of emotional continuity. The writers are so caught up in their latest big surprise and astounding plot-twist and clever reveal that character development has been all but forgotten.
I can’t help but feel that things should have been simpler than this. At the end of last season I thought the flashbacks would involve Snow and Charming fighting to win back the kingdom from Regina whilst the Storybrooke plot dealt with the emotional fallout of everyone regaining their memories. Rumplestiltskin’s search to find his son would commence whilst the fairytale characters went about trying to find each other and their happy endings. Cora could have been the season’s big bad, with King George as a foil for Prince Charming and Regina torn between good and evil. Emma could fully embrace her role as saviour - perhaps by becoming the next Mayor as voted by the residents of Storybrooke - after all, she is their princess. We could have gotten something - anything! - between Emma and Charming. Do they even know that they're father and daughter?? Obviously they must know, but it hasn't been brought up once. Basically the show could have had plenty of emotional depth while still retaining a relatively simple storyline that avoids the convolutions of what we’re currently getting.
First of all, I concede that I am not a writer for television. Deconstructing episodes on-line is what comes after all the hard work of the writers/crew/actors. There are probably a million things that have to go into consideration when making TV shows that I know nothing about: constraints of the budget, actor availability, executive meddling and so on. So I always feel a touch guilty whenever I’m about to tear something apart like this, though I always fall back on the same line of reasoning: if I don’t like something, I stop watching it. The fact that I'm continuing to watch Once Upon a Time means that I still like it overall. Life is too short to invest time and energy into something I’m not enjoying, and I’ll admit to being rather baffled by the hordes of “fans” out there that are constantly bemoaning their various shows/franchises instead of just finding something else to do. Venting can be fun and therapeutic, but there’s a limit to how long it can go on before it just becomes impotent rage.
So the fact that I didn’t like this specific episode doesn’t mean I don’t like Once Upon a Time, and even though I recognise that this show has run into some trouble, it doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy watching it. That may sound like a contradiction, but I promise you, if I decide to call it quits, I won’t annoy you with endless rants on the subject. Besides, there’s still four more episodes left to win me back over.
***
So, we finally get some answers on August. Unfortunately, I didn’t particularly like those answers. Reaction seems to be generally divided on August: some people consider him a fan favourite, others are insistent that nobody him at all. Amusingly, I think shipping may well have played its part - he showed up on the heels of Graham’s death and has now been dispatched in favour of Neal. Initially considered an unworthy replacement, he’s now bowed out as a preferable alternative. Ah, irony.
I understand that Eoin Bailey asked for his character to be written out in order to move to another show. I can not only understand that choice, but sympathise with some of the writers’ decisions based on that choice. Though I really don’t think that a grown man being transformed back into the body of a child is an objectively “good” thing (given that just a few episodes ago the show itself presented Rumplestiltskin’s desire to turn Baelfire back into a child as disturbing and creepy) I can see how it was a relatively neat way of wrapping up the character’s arc without killing him off... just so long as you don’t think too hard about the implications.
But I also think that August’s fate is part of a bigger problem. Here’s the thing show - if you don’t want your actors to start jumping ship, then START PUTTING THEM IN YOUR SHOW. Stop wasting time by giving so much screen-time to new characters that we know (and care) very little about!
People like Ashley and Katherine have not appeared all season. Ruby and Archie and Granny and the Seven Dwarfs are pretty much MIA as well. Jefferson and Sidney are gone, Charming has been shunted to one side, and even Emma has been doing comparatively little all season. August got only one episode to wrap up his entire subplot.
And where has the emphasis instead? On Aurora, Mulan, Belle, Hook, Tiny, Neal, Whale, Milah, Cora, Tamara and Owen/Greg. Urgh, it’s like replacing Marian with Kate all over again, except on a much wider scale. All these characters were abruptly amplified or shoehorned into the story with little justification, and when you think about it, Cora is the only one who has had a genuine impact on the overall course of the show. Though I liked Mulan and Aurora, they and everyone else feels like stuff the writers threw at the wall to see what would stick.
This is reflected in the plot. The first season had a clear narrative arc: Emma arrives in a town where fairytale characters are living under a curse, completely unaware as to who they truly are. As the saviour, it’s her job to help people living in Storybrooke and eventually break the curse. She was the main character along with Snow White, Prince Charming, Regina and Rumplestiltskin, and the show didn’t waste time on periphery characters that didn’t directly impact on their stories. The season led up to its natural conclusion: Emma breaking the curse.
Now, there was actually a lot more that they could have done with this premise: not only in fairytale characters “waking up” due to Emma’s close proximity (as what happened with Graham) but also with Emma herself coming to believe that she was the saviour. If memory serves, this didn’t actually happen - she merely kissed Henry’s forehead and the spell was broken, thereby rendering most of the development and plotting of the Storybrooke storyline relatively null and void. But I digress.
This season, the storylines have been all over the place. No less than four plots have been introduced: Emma and Snow trying to return home from what’s left of the Enchanted Forest, the return of Cora to take over Storybrooke (along with Hook’s vendetta against Rumplestiltskin), the search and rediscovery of Baelfire/Neal, and now the arrival of both Owen and Tamara as the latest villains. They also seem to be struggling with how to handle their flashback sequences. Last season it was easy enough to tie in the present-day activities with each character’s backgrounds and the intricacies of the curse. Now they’re floundering for ideas, leading to flashbacks that feel more like filler than anything vitally important to the story (did we really need two retellings of Frankenstein’s past?)
And so what we end up with is episodes like this: where dangling plot threads are hurriedly wrapped up because characters are getting squeezed out and their actors are getting tired of having nothing to do. And they can’t be blamed for that. An actor’s job isn’t to wait around for writers to give them something to do; it’s to act. This is why Eoin Bailey is joining Giancarlo Esposito in Elsewhereville and Meghan Ory isn’t far behind.
And unfortunately, a lot of unanswered questions are left in their wake. Though I’m still left wondering if Gepetto’s parents remain dolls in Mr Gold’s store and whether Abigail was ever reunited with Frederick, there’s a (slim) chance that they’ll be resolved later. But a LOT more time and effort was put into August’s storyline: building him up as a mystery, having him tamper with Henry’s Once Upon a Time book, connecting his backstory with Neal’s and identifying him as Baelfire, having a quasi-romantic relationship with Emma, and guiding her toward her destiny. More than that, he was an interesting character in himself: a guy who quite simply could NOT resist any form of temptation, who is given a terrible burden as a young child and fails repeatedly at it, and who goes about rectifying his mistakes in ways that only worsen the situation. I kind of like the idea that Emma has a guardian angel that absolutely sucks at his job.
But all that has fizzled now. In the space of one episode (most of which was spent on Owen and Tamara, two characters I have absolutely no interest in whatsoever) August completes his story and reverts back to a small child with no memory of his adult life whatsoever. He’s isn’t held accountable for any of his actions, Gepetto gets a reset on his son’s life (also without being held accountable for any of his actions) and nobody learns anything.
Plus, did August ever actually act “selfless, brave and true” during the course of the episode? I kind of got the feeling that he was on his way to New York to get Tamara’s potion and only decides to turn around AFTER he saw her photograph and realized he’d been tricked. Am I meant to infer that had the photo not fallen out he would have kept going?
The scene in which he’s transformed back into a little boy has to be the worst scene this show has ever done. The dialogue was stilted (“I won’t let his death be in vain!” - bad in itself, but sheesh - at least make sure the guy is actually dead before saying it), the direction was all over the place, the solution was completely contrived, and then the Blue Fairy pops up out of nowhere to wave her magic wand. Also, where the heck was Archie? On an episode that’s meant to be about Pinocchio’s decision-making skills, shouldn’t his OWN CONSCIOUS have been involved?
***
Then we have Snow White’s current predicament. I really have no idea what’s going on here, and I dislike what the writers have done to her. Sure, I expect her to feel guilty for using Regina as an instrument to kill Cora. But this mopey, wishy-washy, guilt-ridden Snow is nothing like Snow White of the Enchanted Forest who went into battle on several occasions. She’s killed before, surely, but no one has yet pointed out to her that she killed Cora to save everyone’s lives. And obviously no one has yet pointed that out to Regina either, who is gloating over the fact that Snow’s heart has now been corrupted.
None of that makes any sense to me unless I assume that the candle itself has put some sort of curse on Snow’s heart that will make her unconsciously act in destructive ways. So far it’s only manifested in slapping a man who fully deserved it (seriously, what mother wouldn’t react in that way when she learns she was robbed of her own daughter’s childhood by someone she trusted?) but that at least explains why Snow acted as though her hand was possessed and why Regina is taking such delight in her current predicament. Presumably the candle is making Snow behave in ways that she can’t control, though that automatically strips her of any blame, which surely is what the writers were going for in the first place. Instead they've robbed her of her autonomy and any chance of exploring the character’s dark side naturally. Facepalm.
I would much prefer it if Snow was defiant about her decision to do away with Cora, eager to justify her actions to Regina, her loved ones and herself. Because Cora’s death (at least in my opinion) WAS justified, Snow would receive support from her family and the community, even though taking a person’s life will inevitably change the one who took it. This then could be the first stepping stone in a story-arc that could have Snow dealing with her own self-righteousness and determination to destroy anything that threatens her own world-view. Flaws don’t always have to be vices - sometimes they’re virtues taken to extreme, and as they say: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That could have provided a much more mature and interesting parallel to Regina’s own fall from grace.
But at the moment the moral compass of this show is spinning out of control. Unlike what they attempted to say here, anger in itself is not a bad emotion. People have the right to be angered and disgusted by selfishness, greed and cruelty (and stupidity). You don’t just shrug your shoulders and instantly forgive people when they screw you over. Snow had the right to be angry at Gepetto for taking her daughter’s childhood from her, whatever the reasoning behind it. And then just to rub salt in the wound, he gets to walk off with his reborn son at the end, whilst Snow is still grappling with twenty-eight years of separation from her child.
***
Tamara and Owen. I just don’t care.
Admittedly, this season has been tentatively exploring the theme of magic versus science for a while now, particularly with the episodes that centred on Frankenstein. Greg Mendell’s alias seems to be a nod to geneticist Gregor Mendel and Tamara herself is running around doing laboratory tests on magical potions and zapping people with a taser. (Seriously, a taser? What on earth was that about?) These are clearly the type of people that Grumpy voiced his fear of mid-season: those that want to find and dissect and control magic, which in itself isn’t a bad storyline to explore... but now? With only four episodes to go? C’mon, at this late stage there’s no way the writers should be wasting time on anyone who isn’t in the opening credits.
And as villains, they’re just not that interesting. They’re having an affair behind Neal’s back? So what? They’re random villains we’ve never seen before with murky motivation/a fairly boring vendetta who don’t even seem like that big of a threat. We’ve gone from Regina and Rumplestiltskin as our fantastic villains, to Cora and Hook (one great, the other a failure) to Tamara and Owen. If you’re going to change things, at least change them for the better!
What’s wrong with reinstating Regina as the main villain? After Cora’s death shouldn’t she be on some apocalyptic meltdown? Couldn’t the rest of the show involve some sort of fight to take control of the town? I can’t really understand why Regina is still waltzing around like she owns the place; ordering food at Granny’s, calling herself the Mayor, etc. Her telling Snow that she’s just going to sit back and watch her corrupt herself seems like an easy out for the writers not to follow up on the natural progression of Regina’s plotline (that is, getting revenge).
***
Okay, let’s wrap this up. My final grievance with this episode is something that’s been bugging me for a while now, though it took me this long to realize what it was: a complete lack of emotional continuity. The writers are so caught up in their latest big surprise and astounding plot-twist and clever reveal that character development has been all but forgotten.
I can’t help but feel that things should have been simpler than this. At the end of last season I thought the flashbacks would involve Snow and Charming fighting to win back the kingdom from Regina whilst the Storybrooke plot dealt with the emotional fallout of everyone regaining their memories. Rumplestiltskin’s search to find his son would commence whilst the fairytale characters went about trying to find each other and their happy endings. Cora could have been the season’s big bad, with King George as a foil for Prince Charming and Regina torn between good and evil. Emma could fully embrace her role as saviour - perhaps by becoming the next Mayor as voted by the residents of Storybrooke - after all, she is their princess. We could have gotten something - anything! - between Emma and Charming. Do they even know that they're father and daughter?? Obviously they must know, but it hasn't been brought up once. Basically the show could have had plenty of emotional depth while still retaining a relatively simple storyline that avoids the convolutions of what we’re currently getting.