KAOS Agent

I don't know why anyone thought this might be a surprise. Ginny was so obviously pregnant in "Going Home" that there was no surprise to be had. They spent the first half of the season with Snow wanting a baby, normally tiny Ginny is expanding and they wrote a year's time jump into the story. Who's shocked that Snow is pregnant? I think the way they did it just goes to this show telling us the interesting events that happened off camera rather than showing it. Snow waking up nine months pregnant would have been fun to watch. Instead, they that moment was a quick throwaway explanation told to Emma.

I love the look in Emma's eyes as she and Henry drive away from the town line. It's like she's finally happy and at peace with life. While it would have been a bittersweet ending, I would have been completely happy if the show had ended this way.

I agree that Henry should be blaming himself for being a dumbass and handing his heart to Pan rather than helping to free countless people from a curse and reuniting families, but the writers wanted to tie it all back to Regina and their theme of villains not getting happy endings, so they went with this. Never mind that the heroes aren't getting a happy ending either. I still wonder if they even considered that Snowing were actually paying a much bigger price than Regina. Claiming that it was Regina's price to pay was awful. If this show truly had villains paying a price for their magic, Regina would have been returned to the Enchanted Forest by herself or had everyone's memories of her relationship to Henry wiped away. The way this was done, Snowing once again lost their daughter and lost a grandson as well as being stuck with the knowledge that their daughter had gone back to thinking that they had abandoned her. Who knows if the other people were super thrilled about returning to the Enchanted Forest, which was overrun by ogres, overgrown and a total shambles when Emma/Snow left a couple of months ago. Do Gus Gus's friends really want to be mice again? Is Archie cool with being a cricket? Just whose price was this again?

I don't hold this too much against Henry. He was still a little boy who was about to lose everything he'd ever known including his mother. I may have serious issues about how they have suddenly turned the Regina/Henry relationship into this perfect thing, but Henry is blaming himself for this whole thing now and that's a very understandable reaction for an 11 year old. What makes it less palatable is the response to his remark. It started out okay with Regina admitting that she was wrong and that it's all her fault because she cast the curse out of vengeance, but then it went to blaming the whole "villains don't get happy endings" idea instead of continuing with the acceptance of responsibility and consequences for bad deeds. What makes Henry's comments particularly sad is that he said that he should have lived under the curse with her and none of this ever would have happened. We saw in Henry's flashback for the episode just how sad and lonely he was. His feeling like he needed to sacrifice his happiness so that Regina could continue to "win" and everyone else would suffer needed to be addressed instead of simply calling herself a villain who isn't allowed a happy ending.

This episode was a bit of a letdown for me after the extreme craziness of the spoilers and speculation during the break. I liked the real world New York part a lot, but the Enchanted Forest stuff was really disappointing for me. It does make the events of "Going Home" rather pointless to have it all reset immediately. It's kind of depressing to me to see Emma finally living the life she wanted and being so happy only for it to all be ripped away because of her Saviour status. I will say that I enjoyed Hook's reaction to bologna. I also liked that Emma was allowed to defend herself against Walsh and there was no talk of heroes don't kill or black hearts or darkness. It would be nice if this show could keep this going, but we all know that's a pipe dream.

The whole scene was full of holes, but here's the relevant content that essentially states it's a recent arrival: Smee: Don't you think we should head back to the ship? Hook: Not until I've found a way off this accursed island. We've dawdled here for too long. Now that I know there's a dagger to end the Dark One, we must return to our land. Hook learned about the Dark One's dagger from Bae. Since he and Bae met up soon after his arrival in Neverland and he refers to this being new information which renews his purpose, as well as talking about "dawdling" (not something one would call a century of living in Neverland), this occurred very early in his time there. He hadn't even left to do cake runs for Pan yet. Then there was Tinkerbell, who told Hook that she used to be a fairy "a long time ago" and then her wings were taken away. It's just frustrating to watch when these errors are so off. On top of the ridiculous continuity errors, it also highlighted to me how stupid it was to tie Tinkerbell to Regina because it only places Tink in Neverland for at most a few years pre-curse and Hook was wandering around the Enchanted Forest for a while before the curse was cast. Their time in Neverland couldn't have overlapped much at all.

I was really anti-Snow in my last post in this thread. Apparently, I had strong feelings post 5A. This episode wasn't quite that bad to Snow, although I am still annoyed at them for once again disrupting Emma's life to fix their problems. They told her that she could get her wish and be happy living a normal life as a family with Henry. Then they want to rip that away from her to solve their problems once again. Their predicament better be damn dire or they need to have been exploring ways to reunite with Emma long before being told that she's the one needed to save them. Otherwise, Emma's happiness is being sacrificed once again not because they love and miss her, but because they need the Saviour. This episode does highlight how little attention was paid to the timeline. Somehow Hook arrived in Neverland about the same time as wingless Tinkerbell. Those events only happened at least a century apart. It's distracting to see these obvious errors. Honestly, the end of this episode was the only time in the entire run of the show where I felt like Emma and Henry really were given their best chance at happiness. Given the situation we see them living in when Hook knocks at the door, they were definitely in the best situation I ever saw them in. They were happy, healthy and enjoying their lives.

I never saw it as pushing or cheerleading one over the other. It wasn't like I thought Snow looked at the potential of Captain Swan and wanted to nip that in the bud by advocating for Neal. However, it just seems weird to me that she could have a realistic view of Hook and not be trusting of how that relationship would work out, but not look at Neal and also show some wariness. The fact that we never find out whether Snowing ever actually know the truth about the history of Neal/Emma is yet another problem with the show's refusal to show a growing relationship with between parents and daughter. I can buy Snow having some naive view of True Love and fate and all that jazz, but Mary Margaret and Emma had some serious conversations about a lot of things and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that Emma's one night only policy was a direct result of her relationship with Henry's father. I kind of wonder if the whole thing isn't some manifestation of guilt at what Emma's life was like. If in all that sadness she met her True Love and was now reunited with him to live happily ever after, then maybe Snow could believe that it was worth it for Emma. As it is, Emma's entire life sucked because of their poor choices and it's not all that great now. She doesn't seem all that thrilled with the role of Saviour and her future isn't particularly promising if she's constantly asked to save everyone. Meanwhile, Snowing are happily planning to move on with their lives with a new baby. If Snow can set Emma up in a happy family with Neal and Henry, it's like the perfect ending to Emma's fairy tale and she doesn't have to feel bad that her life is wonderful while her daughter's life continues to be lonely and leaves her stuck with a job she never asked for and is coming to deeply resent.

The rugelach challenge was a repeat from S2. They aired that episode a couple of hours before this one. In that challenge they didn't give the bakers an ingredient, but they told them they couldn't use the usual rugelach fillings and provided a list of what they couldn't use. They were also required to make coconut macaroons or something like that. It's pretty stupid that these bakers hadn't at least skimmed the challenges from the previous shows since they do repeat. Duff usually gets some kind of Hannukah challenge. Why wouldn't they brush up on some traditional Jewish baked treats before appearing on the show?

The naming of older ballparks is funny. Back in the 50s, August Busch bought the Cardinals team and its ballpark and after renovations tried to rename the ballpark "Budweiser Stadium". The commissioner vetoed that idea because he wasn't keen on naming a ballpark after a beer, so they named it after the owner's family. Anheuser-Busch then promptly released a new beer called Busch Bavarian Beer. Although this was obviously done to game the system, it turns out Busch Beer is actually named after the stadium, not the other way around.

I watched one of the original Charmed episodes where the Evil Queen made fairy tales come to life. Since Rose McGowan played Young!Cora, I thought it was funny when she turned into Snow White. She ate the poisoned apple and died. Sadly, she had no Prince Charming and the dwarfs were not impressed. Also amusing was the part where the Evil Queen imprisoned some poor guy in the mirror.

Wrigley owned the team and paid to upgrade/expand the stadium multiple times. It's not like he did that just so that he could use it as an ad for his chewing gum.

Maybe he didn't care at that point because he wasn't there. The Nevengers were distracted by others giving him time to finish working on Henry. He's got to know at this point that the kid is a moron with a huge hero complex. It should be a cake walk to get that kid to do what he wants.

Snow being Neal's cheerleader never made a whole lot of sense to me just because there should be major qualms based on past history. It made sense that she and David weren't super enthusiastic about Hook for obvious reasons. I can understand wanting to help Emma with her confused feelings, but I didn't like that Snow was taking a side and really pushing for Emma to do something that she didn't want to do. Snow had her say and Emma decided against meeting Neal. Don't interfere with Emma's decision making once you've given your advice. Part of it is that I personally wouldn't be comfortable giving advice on this subject beyond taking Emma through a basic objective review of the pros and cons of a relationship with Neal. Whether it's worth it to open herself up to the kind of pain Neal had inflicted on her in the past is entirely up to Emma. Maybe the positives did outweigh the negatives (given Echo Cave, I'd say no), but she's the only one who can judge that. I think maybe the only thing I would be absolutely comfortable saying would be that it should not occur only because it would make Henry happy.

I think Neal/Emma could have worked, but it would have required a lot more time to pass in show for it to work. The compressed timeline doesn't allow for those two to properly deal with their past and get to know each other again and still fit into an acceptable time frame for the audience to not get tired of waiting. The timeline being what it was, they needed Emma's romance to involve a character who didn't have that kind of baggage to deal with. They could be off on an adventure and then have a quiet moment at the end with no need to delve into the heavy relationship angst that Neal/Emma would require. I also think that Emma becoming the Dark One would have been a massive problem for Neal, one that I'm not sure their newly rekindled relationship would have survived given Neal's reaction to Emma simply using magic to light a candle.

I forgot about this fun statement. I did love Regina's classification of Neal as "this person". First off, she says Emma has everything and couldn't possibly understand how Regina feels, which is a ridiculous statement. Emma spent almost her entire life with no one, not even a Henry, so I'm pretty sure she knows exactly how it feels. Kudos to Emma for simply agreeing and quietly shutting Regina's freak out down. The other issue with this little outburst is that Regina is demonstrating an understanding that she values those things that Emma has, which makes her no regrets speech a bit of a problem. Regina murdered her loving father and tried to kill her mother twice, but she doesn't regret it, except that she obviously does because she doesn't have the love and support they offered (at least from her father). She walked away from her True Love because of her fear and need for revenge, but she doesn't regret it, except again she does because it means she doesn't have a thief that pines for her. She doesn't have a "person" either, largely because she murders anyone who could possibly offer her something like that. There's an awful lot of things that she envies for her to not regret anything simply because it got her one thing she wants. This is especially true now that that one thing is potentially going to be lost to her. In fact, the only reason Regina is able to even get this close to rescuing Henry is because Emma has all of these people who are willing to aid in the cause. Regina is alone.

I see a lot of fans thinking this is so sacrificial and wonderful and whatnot, but I look at it differently. Regina didn't love Henry enough to be able to handle who he was. True unconditional love would have Regina keeping Henry without a magical aid. Why did she need a magic potion? Because she couldn't deal with the reality of who he was. Her whole little story to Henry was full of delusion. "Once upon a time, there was a Queen and she cast a glorious curse that gave her everything she wanted. Or so she thought. She despaired when she learned that revenge was not enough. She was lonely. And so she searched the land for a little boy to be her prince. (Laughs) And then, she found him. And though they lived happily, it was not ever after. There was still an evil out there lurking. The Queen was worried for her prince's safety. While she knew she could vanquish any threat to the boy, she also knew she couldn't raise him worrying." Seriously. She despaired when ruining everyone's lives wasn't enough. Nope, she was lonely. So after killing a guy and orphaning his son for not wanting what she was offering, she decided she needed an infant to love her and quell her loneliness. But wait, the boy's mother, whom she also orphaned, is a lurking evil and she can't deal with that, so she needs to use magic to fix her problems. This is not a sympathetic figure to me. This is someone who needs psychological help. I have so much trouble with this whole thing.

But what makes Medusa different from Regina? We've seen the village slaughter Regina traffics in, so how come it's fine to kill Medusa but not Regina? It's more of this show's nonsensical morality. If they are going to stick with the heroes don't kill explanation to justify Regina and Rumpel's plot armor, then they need to be consistent with it with other "villains". In this case, Medusa wasn't remotely shown to be a threat to them. She was the subject of some stories Snow had heard from palace servants as a child, which says that she wasn't out there causing problems any time in the last decade or so. There is no excuse to go kill her as part of an ill thought out plan to stop Regina. That's pretty typical of this show. They always brush off Emma's suspicions. I can't think of a time where Emma had a feeling about something and turned out to be wrong. It's not like she gave them reason to disbelieve her instincts. Then Snow took it even further when Regina was upset about falling for the switch by telling her that they all had. No, Snow, Emma repeatedly questioned things to all of you.

I feel a bad for Medusa here. She was just minding her own business and along comes Snow to chop off her head. I thought heroes didn't kill. Not cool. Snow and David deserve to be turned to stone for the attempt. Since I'm bagging on Snowing, I'll just continue. First, Regina has threatened them directly. They know it is coming. Instead of spending a little time thinking of non-Medusa related ways to neutralize her, they decide to hope for the best and try for a baby immediately. I get not wanting to put your life on hold indefinitely, but is it too much to ask them to put it off for a few months while they are facing a direct threat? It's just irresponsible to consider bringing a baby into that situation. The fact that Emma is the one who suffered the most due to their reliance on Hope™ makes it worse. Then there's Snow's lamentation that Emma didn't listen to her about Neal. It's obvious nobody heard Emma's Echo Cave confession besides Neal. I still don't think they know the entirety of the Neal/Emma saga. There's way too much water under that bridge for other people to be meddling in whatever might/should happen between Emma and Neal. On that note, I liked the Hook/Neal conversation. Hook not wanting to be a reason for another family being separated was a nice touch. He's willing to let things play out without inserting himself into the equation, which I appreciated. The shade he threw at Neal about walking out on Emma before and his doubt about her letting it happen again was excellent. Hook is miles ahead of Snow in terms of understanding Emma.

Written by Andrew Chambliss

The only character whose life we saw in detail in the movie was Veronica. Everyone else got the quick catch-up summary. That basically leaves them with a clean slate for the revival to create their present lives. Who they were ten years ago is not necessarily who they are today and we saw some of that at the reunion. Weevil, for example, seemed to have been on the straight and narrow with a wife and daughter. That would make him a very different person from who he was as a teenager. How much he has changed isn't something we know, but judging him now based on his actions as a teen would be silly. While the faces may be familiar, the characters won't be the same. Writing them off before the revival even airs does both the character and yourself a disservice.

We already knew he was abandoned as a child. They even filmed the scene where his father abandoned him. It was meant to be the opening of "Manhattan". The details were never known because the scene didn't make the cut, but Rumpel said in that episode that he wounded himself so he wouldn't abandon his son like his father had done to him. It's very clearly a retcon here because in that episode he specifically refers to his being drafted into the army as a way to prove himself to the rest of the world as something other than a coward. He talks about it being something he's been waiting for all his life and that he's been living under the shadow of his father's cowardice for too long. None of the stuff we saw here would give the rest of the world any impression that his father was a coward. Shiftless, lazy and crooked, yes. Cowardly, no. No one would even know what happened to Malcolm or have any reason to label Rumpel a coward because of his father's actions. Beyond not seeing how Malcolm became the Pan we see, it doesn't track with the backstory they've already given Rumpel.

This story can't even be truly attributed to the Once writers since the Frozen stuff was so heavily supervised by Disney. While I disliked Anna's tour of the Enchanted Forest, the Frozen storyline was enjoyable to me. It was coherent, meaningful and featured some level of realistic feelings and actions from the Frozen characters. It may not have been everyone's cup of tea, but the Frozen part of the 4A arc was definitely one of the best written of the entire show.

Oh man, the episode where everyone is pissy and fighting about things not related to their mission. I really love Emma for basically telling everyone to get over it and get back to saving Henry. I despise the lighter fight so much -- although it did result in Hook's pretty speech, so maybe it wasn't a total loss. I really like the support and encouragement that Hook gives Emma in this episode because it's something that Emma has never had in her entire life. That it remained in character for Hook to say it and was entirely sincere made it all the better.