Once Upon a Time: 2x17

[butterfly]

Finally got around to watching this!

Comments

[masqthephlsphr]

I want to know how Henry ever learned anything if the same school day repeated itself over and over. Even if he advanced a grade every year (and how did he manage, with only one lesson to learn each grade), it'd be the same lesson for a year for each grade.

But yeah, he couldn't fail to notice how weird his life was in comparison to, oh say, people on the TV.

So glad we got the back story on Mendel. He went from a non-plot irritant to a plotty interesting guy.

My end-of-the-season theory is that Henry will run away from *all* the adults in his life and end up getting lost. Which will end him up in Neverland, home of the Lost Boys, somehow.

[butterfly]

I want to know how Henry ever learned anything if the same school day repeated itself over and over. Even if he advanced a grade every year (and how did he manage, with only one lesson to learn each grade), it'd be the same lesson for a year for each grade.

Well, for anyone who has ever been annoyed at Henry not knowing something, this would be the logical answer as to why.

More seriously, I suspect that Regina had to force the issue when it came to Henry's schooling so that he would learn at appropriate rates.

So glad we got the back story on Mendel. He went from a non-plot irritant to a plotty interesting guy.

Yep! That was a good move.

My end-of-the-season theory is that Henry will run away from *all* the adults in his life and end up getting lost. Which will end him up in Neverland, home of the Lost Boys, somehow.

I love this idea. He has a habit of running away, after all.

[masqthephlsphr]

He has a habit of running away, after all.

Indeed. He's quite resourceful that way. Which will, of course, force his parents to track him down.... Good thing Dad knows Neverland.

[therisingmoon]

Kitsis and Horowitz have said that when Henry began to notice how everything started to repeat itself except for him, that's what triggered him to run away and look for Emma. I still don't know he figured that Emma was his birth mom, though.

[therisingmoon]

gregor mendel...there's a genetics joke in there.

[butterfly]

Indeed! Also, I feel like I should rewatch the episode where he talked to someone on the phone, now that I know who he is.

[masqthephlsphr]

We still don't know who "her" is, though. The woman on the phone. It's been deliberately kept from us for some reason.

[therisingmoon]

Maybe it's Tamara, Neal's fiancee? Because how come she can come into Storybrooke without problems because the magic barrier is still there?

[anonymous]

I wonder how being born to a mother with no heart would screw up someone's ability to empathize. And trapping oneself in Groundhog Day doesn't seem like it would help any -- every show that's ever had that episode has shown the main character losing the ability to give a damn about other people when the day's just going to erase itself anyway.

[butterfly]

Yeah, Cora was not a good model for loving behavior. And the husband pretty much just enabled her (though he may not have had any choice? I need to rewatch S1, though, because I think he did still have his heart). It's the classic 'abused kid recreates the abuse with their own kid' cycle. Regina keeps getting trapped in cycles. The SB thing really was a good metaphor for how she lives her life.

[therisingmoon]

Henry I did have his heart (Regina had to kill him to cast the curse), and given how he's been portrayed in "The Miller's Daughter", he's been cowed his whole life by his own family before he even married Cora.

He deeply loved his daughter, but Cora is so power-hungry and Regina is so thirsty for vengeance, that anything he might have tried would have been for nothing anyway because they wouldn't listen to him.

[masqthephlsphr]

'abused kid recreates the abuse with their own kid'

One wonders how Henry the Younger is even remotely adjusted, given that he must have grown up with a daily dose of what young Owen experienced for a few scary days.

[grimorie]

I really hate that we're practically told to sympathise with Regina for failing to try to kidnap Owen. Its the way the camera lingers on her when she goes teary eyed. And all I'm thinking, are you kidding me?

She never learns and doesn't want to learn,she's the architect of her own destruction. Also I really feel like she'll look back to this moment with Snow and severely regret not killing her. *Cora* underestimated Snow and died because of it.

Does Regina really want an unfettered, calculating Snow after her? 'Cause lbr, that's most likely going to be the case.

[blacksquirrel]

I appreciate reading your thoughts on these eps because I am just weirded out by the Regina-eye-view of the world. I understand how she now hates Snow all the more for killing her mother, but the other option seemed to be letting her mother live so that she could kill the whole Snow-Charming-Bae-Emma family. Maybe in Regina logic that makes Snow a bad person, but even though it involved magic and manipulation, it was pretty much self-defense. I also still understand Snow feeling the weight of taking a life, but mot quite to the extent of turning herself over to Regina - that seemed extreme, as though she agreed with Regina that she should have just let Cora kill her whole family ... which is warped.