beadgirl

I get the impression that after his passiveness in season 1, and the fact that Regina, Emma, and Snow do so much, the writers are trying to make him more heroic and just plain active.

Ah, thank you. That makes sense.

I don't think they've said anything about Leopold and Eva, but given Snow White's mother's "Oh I wish I had a daughter ..." I had always assumed she had not been able to have children easily. Gah. The timeline gave me a headache. The notion that Eva's evil started all this in motion is ridiculous; Eva was kind of bitchy and later mean, but she is by no means the bad guy for telling Leopold. I hope it is, as someone above speculated, Cora giving a biased account of things to Snow (although that seems a bit subtle for the writers). At least they showed Cora revealing her true reasons for abandoning Zelena ("with you I'll only be a miller's daughter"). Poor baby. (Not feeling bad for Zelena as an adult, however.) I'm not bothered by Leopold not recognizing the mother of his second wife -- she was much older then, and had clearly moved up in the world; I don't think it would have occurred to him she could have been the lowly peasant girl from decades ago. Although, now that I think about it: Cora married Prince Henry, right? And he was Regina's father, the one she sacrificed? Did he not become king in his own right? If Cora was queen, wouldn't have it been easier to marry Regina off to another royal house, rather than the create the "you saved my daughter" nonsense? If Henry was a king or at least a prince, why was he functioning as kind of a lackey for Regina? Did I miss something here?

Which is why I wonder if the Machine really did want them to kill him. That was their conclusion, but it was by no means certain given the rather oblique way the Machine communicates with them. And I'm really, really glad there was someone (Finch) to voice the non-consequentialist viewpoint. Deliberately murdering an innocent person is always wrong (in my moral code), and cannot be justified by any greater good. Powerful episode, and I'm dying to see how the Decima plot is resolved. But I'm also looking forward to a return to non-arc-y POI of the week storylines.

Yeah, that pan was one of the good bits; Skinner with Agnes's ("It means lamb! Lamb of God!") corpse was very creepy and Norman-Batesy. And to clarify, I liked the episode in general. I just feel that over the last few years there have been more and more references to Lisa and Milhouse, and I don't see it as plausible at all.

The biggest laugh for me was "Actually, it's 'LucaDollar.'" I will be calling Beadboy1 that from now on.

Why have the writers decided that it is now canon (so to speak) that Lisa marries Milhouse? What happened to the Lisa who "plan to have several torrid love affairs, and may or may not die young; [she hasn't] decided"?

I know. Especially since Emma has a right to know, given how it affects her either way. But then we wouldn't be able to look forward to Hook angsting away in secret over the cruel, impossible decision he must make. I actually like it. Well, from a storytelling point of view, not a moral point of view. I've never really bought Hook's reform because it seemed too easy, more about his attraction to Emma* and general self-interest than any moral epiphany, so seeing that he's still capable of evil makes sense to me. That said, as others have pointed out, his contrition seemed genuine, far more genuine than anything else so far. *Not that that's not a good way to show him changing. A person changing as a result of love and a desire to be worthy can certainly be a compelling story, but it has happened too quickly for me to see that yet with Hook. Plus his smarmy (I mean that in a good way) charm and the way the story is told makes it harder to see what kind of interior change he is going through, although this episode did help.

I love the episode where Sam visits and is surprised that Martin is a cop. And alive. "You told them I was dead?" "Well, we had had an argument!"

Congratulations, writers, you made me feel genuinely bad for Adalind. I bought it, mainly because that's how I'd react if someone took away one of my children. To me, she did not seem all that angry about it, and I suspect she will be much more focused on getting revenge over her baby (and I assume Renard will be telling her the baby is no longer with Viktor, since it would be pretty stupid of him not to). It was! Especially because he did such a good job pronouncing the name in the first place! I had visions of him practicing under his breath on his way to the Captain. I really enjoyed this episode -- Claire Coffee's acting, the bits of wit and snark, the coming together of different storylines, the sharing of knowledge and secrets, all of it.

Seasons 8-10 are not my favorite, but I do have to give the writers credit for a few wonderful episodes. I just watched the one where Martin goes to the parole hearing of the guy who shot him. From the guy's apparently genuine remorse, to the gazillion emotions Martin feels and his decision to not speak for or against parole, to the poor, poor mother's grief, it's well done. And on a lighter note, Niles shooting himself in the foot with the irrational demand nonsense is amusing.

That's one of my favorite scenes too, 24k Kate! I loved how seriously Steven takes the playacting. (His pretending to forget to unbuckle his belt reminds me of when my father tried to spring out of the car, all ready to fight another driver, only to spring right back in because he forgot to take off the seatbelt). I don't know if I have favorite episodes, but there are tons of favorite scenes and one-liners. Such as when Alex tried to fight a parking ticket, and Mallory kept sabotaging it.

I just can't get excited about his character. I mean, I get why he is appealing, but he does nothing for me. Plus, I don't think he's atoned enough (nor is contrite enough) to make up for the horrible things he's done in the past. Maybe a Hook-centric episode will help.

I liked it too, mostly (wasn't crazy about the waist). And it was nice to see something other than the ubiquitous strapless gown all brides are now apparently required to wear. And that's a good meta-reason for it. Nick's mom taking the baby would be a good way to resolve the storyline temporarily, without adding a baby to a couple on the show. And it would give Kelly a chance to be all maternal again. But, long-term, what are they going to do with that baby? Even the most powerful baby in the world doesn't make for an interesting character, and having it come down with SORAS would be lame.

It's interesting, because (as a result of my Catholicism) I was certainly primed to think of the Vorlons as good, especially at the end of Season 2. But learning that they were manipulating people via their religious and cultural beliefs, and Kosh 2.0 being a total jerk, meant I had to reconsider what they were doing. On the other hand, I never saw the Shadows as anything other than evil; it's one thing to think that conflict and chaos bring out the best in people, but another thing entirely to actually start wars and encourage fighting and death. I think I read somewhere that JMS thought the order of the questions asked (Who are you, What do you want, Why are you here) was critical, and answering the Shadows' question first without knowing who you are would lead to disaster. It implies that the Shadows are a little more wrong than the Vorlons.

The special child destiny is cliche (I was hoping for a more original reason for everybody wanting the baby), but I liked the episode anyway; especially the confrontation at Nick's house. And I liked the acknowledgement of the tensions, agendas, and complicated relationships among all the parties, rather than a more simplistic "us v. them." And hey, we finally get the specifics on how Wesen can identify a Grimm when they woge! And the ring! I've been wondering why Juliette and Nick had not discussed marriage, given the reason Juliette said no in the first place.

This episode was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed Shaw's reaction to being a blogger and dental hygienist, although at the same time I kept thinking about how much fun Zoe would have had at the reunion. And I thought Carbonell's (love him) character was interesting -- a number that was a perpetrator, not a victim, but also not strictly a bad guy. There were lots of great little bits of acting, too. Camryn Manheim expressed so much frustration and anger with just a look, and I loved Finch's happy look when, after complaining about how hard the job would be, Fusco then immediately followed it up with a "let's do it" attitude. I didn't get that impression, actually, and I think Root decided to make the call herself once she overheard the new messages and realized how much firepower was being sent to take out Reese and Shaw. Also, given Vigilance's abhorrence of surveillance, it would not surprise me if the Machine had a harder time tracking them and their plans (although Root obviously was able to intercept at least some information). How the hell does Collier escape without a hitch every single time, and what kind of hold does he have over his people that so many of them are willing to commit suicide at the slightest provocation?

Well, I wrote too soon, obviously. Sigh. Can I still get Ursula?

I really really really want that, because I'm shipping Neal and Emma big time, but I want it to be real and earned. Hook isn't doing it for me, partly because he is too pretty, and partly because I think he has done way too much evil to "deserve" Emma. Yeah, Neal horribly betrayed her, but Hook's life as a pirate and his work with Cora is much worse on a global level. I'd love to see Ursula again, especially if she can out-evil Regina. I want to see more Ruby, too.