KAOS Agent

Considering she bounced from very full faced to almost gaunt within the same scene in the finale, that's nothing. Snow's got a magical pregnancy weight-loss system.

I'm not at all surprised at there being zero time jump between the end of the finale and the premiere. Elsa didn't act like she was at all the type to hide out for a few months doing nothing. However, the showrunners are in denial about Jared looking like the 14 year old he is playing a 12 year old. Henry's sudden aging over ten hours is going to be really amusing.

I hate, hate, hate when Emma calls her parents mom and dad. It comes off to me as the writers taking a shortcut to establishing their relationship. Like they can ignore the fact that while these are Emma's biological parents, they didn't raise her, don't really know her at all and they can never be or have the typical parent/child relationship. As long as Emma calls them mom and dad, it's all good. We're one big happy family. To me referring to them as mom and dad somehow puts them into a position of authority/seniority or higher wisdom or something and I don't really like that either. It's like when they refer to each other by their given names they're on the same level and by calling them mom & dad that changes for me. I don't know really how to explain it, but it hits me wrong. I didn't like "Nasty Habits" and try not to think about it too much, but I remember Emma's freak out being less about wasting time and more about her expressing her upset that he was dead and she wasn't able to tell him how angry she was about it all. I think it all got tangled up in her realizing that they really had loved each other and she was pissed that he'd thrown that away and even though he knew the truth, choosing to spend all those years apart and not coming back for her when she did complete her destiny. I can certainly see Snow misinterpreting what Emma was saying because she didn't know the whole story. I think her pro-Neal reaction did come from not understanding and not knowing how to comfort her daughter. So when Emma confessed that she'd kissed Hook, Snow assumed it meant Emma was feeling guilty about it with regards to Neal and tried to make her feel better with a "I'm sure Neal will understand" whereas Emma was just confused about the feelings she was suddenly having for Hook and had wanted to talk to her friend about it. Snow completely misread her daughter in that situation and Emma pretty much shut down after that because she hadn't gotten the response she was looking for. It was an interesting direction to take the Snow/Emma relationship had they chosen to actually address it instead of using Snow's total lack of understanding about her daughter to add to the silly love triangle drama and then completely dropping it as an issue for them.

The funniest thing about making all of the villains related to each other is that it nullifies the "evil is made, not born" mantra they're constantly throwing out there. I'm starting to feel like there's an evil gene in the DNA of Enchanted Forest citizens. Or one could definitely make the case that the crazy runs strong in the Mills family.

T is for True Love, the most powerful magic of all

I think having the heroes go on the offense or some kind of quest while the villain tries to stop them rather than vice versa is much more effective on this show. In Season 1, Regina held all the cards and the power because only she knew the truth about what was going on. Emma was trying to fix things and would make some headway before Regina, who didn't need to be overly powerful, was able to build a defense or a distraction to cause Emma to lose ground. With Pan and Zelena, they each had goals and because the writers needed them to succeed until the very end, they were of necessity made more powerful than the heroes so that they could get close to winning. That is until they needed to lose and then we end up with the heroes suddenly able to overpower the supposedly unbeatable villain and the villains looking stupid for not just killing everyone right off the bat. If you have the heroes trying to get something, you can set up a villain who has shields or traps or whatever. Things that can slow the heroes down and keep them away from wherever/whatever they are trying to get to without having to make the villain this unstoppable force. Much as I got annoyed with the Team Princess arc, the way they set that up with Emma/Snow trying to get home and Cora setting obstacles in their way & trying to steal back the compass as they competed for the one portal (I'll ignore the ease with which a second portal was created) worked better than Zelena and Pan's complete and utter dominance over the heroes. They also made it so that there was a reason why Cora didn't just kill Emma & Snow - She needed/wanted their knowledge. While Cora later became too powerful because it suited their story, at least in the Enchanted Forest, they did not set her up as completely unbeatable. And even her loss was more believable because they did not diminish her power in some way as Emma only really won at Lake Nostos because she surprised Cora.

Considering the hate directed at Jennifer Morrison for articulating exactly what happened onscreen in the Neal/Emma relationship, I think they'd be pretty smart to just be done with dealing with Neal in any way. Apparently, there are some very irrational people out there. Of course, they just had to name Baby Snowflake after him, so he'll be a constant presence forever. It's just so wrong. Even if the Charmings truly do not know how damaging Neal was to young Emma, they're still the dumbest people on the planet not to have asked about it before naming their child after him. It's like let's come up with a way to remind Emma for the rest of her life about this man who we really know nothing about other than that he impregnated our underage daughter and left her emotionally crippled. And either way whether Neal was Emma's true love or Neal was just the jackass who abandoned her - is inflicting a constant reminder of that person on her really a good idea? If what I thought was my daughter's true love had just days before died in her arms, I'd talk to her about naming my child after him. She might consider it a wonderful tribute or it could be incredibly painful for her. Maybe we should find out before we make a permanent decision.

So it's really the writers avoiding any of the fallout of their twists and skipping character development for Emma. I did want Henry to ask about it after he got his memories back because he at least seemed concerned about his mom when he was talking about it with Regina. Hook's jokes were not cool, but at least he completely stopped with them once he figured out that Emma really was upset about it. The Walsh situation was one of those things where I think Emma really was too hard to read even for Hook. None of the other characters have the ability to close off like Emma does and I don't think any of them can conceive of another person being able to do it so well that no one can tell that they are truly a mess about it inside. It's why I think the Charmings truly don't understand just how broken Emma is. They just can't imagine how someone could cover so well. Neal & Emma weren't in a relationship. He was engaged to someone else and she was not looking to get back with him. She loved him, but wasn't in love with him. So he "dies" and a few days later she's feeling good and a hot guy starts flirting with her, she took the opportunity that was presented. She wasn't looking for romance, she was looking for some stress release and fun. On the other hand, her getting over Walsh did seem abrupt and swept under the rug. However, she did have a developing interest in Hook prior to losing her memories, so you know there at least was something there to start with. The condensed timeline of the show does screw with things because in reality Emma should still be reeling from the Walsh reveal, but if they're going with Captain Swan, they couldn't continue having her push him away. It may have only been a week in show time, but for us it was months and something needed to happen. Also, if we were tired of months of I *heart* New York, imagine how awful months of Emma moping about Walsh would've been like.

There's something I've been wondering about with regards to potential issues for Captain Swan in the future. I've read quite a few comments elsewhere where people say that Emma & Hook will need to adjust to being in a committed adult relationship since neither have been in one for a long time. This seems patently untrue to me because no matter what anyone thinks about the Emma/Walsh relationship, it did happen and for Emma it was real. Is this relationship being overlooked because it's icky? Or because Walsh was playing her? It seems to me that regardless of the true circumstances, Emma was in a fully committed relationship and was even considering the idea of marrying the guy. He'd spent time with her son helping him with homework, he felt comfortable enough at her apartment that he was messing with the contents of the fridge. This seems like it was a pretty normal relationship that Emma was in. She ought to be pretty well used to having a romantic partner in her life, so why do people act like it never happened?

The only decent Zelena scene in my mind was the Regina/Zelena snark off at Regina's house and even then it had Zelena giving a monologue about the MacGuffin of the week was which in that case was the Cora seance. Pan didn't feel the need to run around and give everyone a bunch of clues that would lead them to discover what he was planning. He just liked to pop up and mess with their heads. I really liked that about Pan. It wasn't about him feeling important or whatever Zelena was trying to do, it was just him having fun playing with his new toys.

I'd just like Snow not to be the stupidest person on the planet in Season 4. The Snow/Zelena thing was just painful to watch. Hey, strange person wearing a giant emerald brooch whom I've never before seen! Why don't you be my midwife? Your only reference is my dead nanny? That's totally cool. We were probably friends in the missing year! Anything was better than that idiocy, even too much Snow/Regina. That said, I fully expect an evil nanny or just random first time parenting shenanigans to be the majority of Snow's story. Most likely with Snow asking Regina for great parenting tips - which will make me want to slit my wrists.

And this is exactly why I expect to see a lot less Snow White this season. Parents can try to balance work and family, but it cannot be done if you're working 18 hour days. A 9 hour work day sure, but if you want to spend quality time with your baby, you simply cannot work these crazy long days. It's especially hard when both parents are putting in those kinds of hours. Reading this though, I bet JMo was really happy to be doing something really fun with Emma in the season finale considering how tired I'm sure she probably was at that point in filming. It's not so bad if you're having fun.

Regina is Rasputin. I like it. If you consider that the entire kingdom had been ripped from their homes and had their identities stolen by the Evil Queen, I'm not sure you wouldn't have a peasant revolt if Regina was placed in power again. These people have been living in a democratic society, know the history of the "real world" and understand quite well how to form a government of the people, one where they're not stuck suffering at the whims of some woman who murders an entire village because she's pissed at something a child did ten years ago. John Q Public couldn't care less that Regina loves her son. They care that about a week before the curse was reversed, Regina was planning to kill them all with the fail safe diamond. Down with Regina! says the peasantry.

Emma is a character these writers should love to write for. She's not judgmental, has a totally blank slate for a past, is willing to do pretty much anything if given the right reason, has lots of cool street skills and is not encumbered by either a goody-goody storybook persona or an I turn people into snails and crush them/slaughter an entire village because I suck villainous past. She's generally good, but more grey than anything and doesn't need to be stuck in the "boring" hero mold. It should not be difficult to give her something interesting to do. Please, I'm begging you, writers, give her a decent storyline. Let her kick some ass. On a totally separate note, given the absolute lack of coverage of the Charmings as a family, I always wonder what David & Mary Margaret say to each other when they're talking about Emma. Does David ever comment to his wife on the fact that their daughter never smiles? Do they ever wonder what happened that created an Emma that can just completely shut down all emotions at the drop of a hat? Do they ever think of how Emma must feel surrounded by all of these people who screwed her over/let her down? Do they ever think of Emma the person not Emma the saviour or Emma the daughter?

Technically, Emma's had four flashbacks, but that includes Henry's birth scene and the brief glimpse of Emma the most adorable baby ever in "The Stranger". If you want to count her as a baby in the Pilot, that's five.

You know, I'm not so sure about what Regina thought it would be like, but from their conversation in the cell, it sounded like Regina had all control over what happened to whom. Rumpel had her agreement that he would be comfortable in his cursed life, it didn't seem like he could do that for himself. It's why Regina thought he wanted to make another deal. Since I'm all over the transcripts today, here's where I'm getting the impression Rumpel didn't really have control over what happened to him or anyone else: From "Save Henry" Evil Queen: (Angrily) Your taunts will get you nowhere! I know you too well. You want to make another deal. Well, I won't. Rumpelstiltskin: (Laughs) A deal? You already promised me a good life in this new land. What more can I want from you? Evil Queen: Oh, to be let out of this cage. To be let out of our last deal. To escape the curse.

Don't forget they've also set up the Rumpel/Belle fake dagger situation, although the showrunners did say that would be backburnered for a while. Apparently, Rumpel gets a honeymoon period albeit one with a potentially rampaging Elsa. I am very seriously concerned that this is going to become Once Upon a Frozen with a Side of Outlaw Queen and that is very much not a show I am interested in watching. I've not seen Frozen and don't intend to, so all of this hype means absolutely zilch to me. I care about the core characters - Emma, the Charmings, Regina & Rumpel - and so far all the press has not been about them which puts me squarely on the side of Frozen is a bad idea.

I don't understand why there is an argument about canon here. Emma was the Saviour. It was built in by Rumpel when he created the curse. When Regina learned that, she set out to kill the baby. Canon fact. Here is the exact dialogue: "A Land Without Magic" Mr. Gold: Of course. True love, Miss Swan—the only magic strong enough to transcend realms and break any curse. Luckily for you, I happen to have bottled some. Regina: You did? Mr. Gold: Oh yes. From strands of your parents' hair, I made the most powerful potion in all the realms. So powerful, that when I created the Dark Curse, I placed a single drop on the parchment. Just a little safety valve. Emma: That's why I'm the savior, that's why I can break the curse. Mr. Gold: Now you're getting it. From "Queen of Hearts" Emma: You created the curse, Gold. You made me the saviour. So everything I’ve ever done… It’s exactly what you wanted me to do. Mr. Gold: I created the curse, dearie, but I didn’t make you. I merely took advantage of what you are – the product of true love. That’s why you’re powerful. From "Save Henry" Rumplestiltskin: And yet, here you are. Feeling the need to gloat. Something's missing, isn't it, dearie? Evil Queen: Not at all. I have everything I want. Nothing can stop me now. Rumplestiltskin: (Giggles hysterically) Not quite. Evil Queen: What does that mean? Rumplestiltskin: The savior, the child of Snow White and Prince Charming. (The Evil Queen scoffs.) Rumplestiltskin: She can stop you. She can break the curse. Evil Queen: Well, looks like getting rid of a baby made my to-do list.

Emma's emotional and character arcs were pretty much completely skipped over in 3B and seemed like a total afterthought that was rushed and shoved through in the finale. Much as I loved the finale because it finally gave Emma a chance to shine, it was still mostly plot, plot, plot with a light switch flipping character moment at the end. 3B was such a disappointment because they had set up so much with regards to Emma and then just pretty much ignored it. Stealing Emma's magic with the highly contrived kiss curse was, in my opinion, the most disgusting plot point from 3B. Not only did they waste several episodes of Emma supposedly developing her magic, but they removed something from Emma that made her special and then completely skipped over how that should have made her feel by sticking with the endless I *heart* New York refrain. Beyond the fact that it's ridiculous that you can just cast a spell that steals someone's magic (why isn't this done all over the place by all stripes of magic users?), I don't understand why couldn't they have just created a story where harnessing & using enough magic was too much to expect from Emma in such a short time. It's been shown to take years to develop truly powerful magic, so that would have been very plausible. That way Regina still could have found it within herself to defeat Zelena and I wouldn't feel like the writers needed to diminish one character in service of another. They also completely skipped dealing with Emma's relationship with her family. What was done in the finale did nothing to fix the very real problems between the Charmings and Emma. Sure, Emma realized that she loved her family and wanted to stay with them, but Snow "dying" causing her to run home and call her parents mom and dad made that moment so unearned. Emma was not the only one with problems in that family's relationship. I strongly dislike the implication that everything was Emma's fault and now that she's accepting, it's all good. Snow straight up told Emma that she wasn't enough, got a replacement baby and never once bothered to try to broach this issue with her daughter. And then these people named their do over baby after the man who abandoned their daughter pregnant and in jail and left her emotionally stunted for over a decade. Regardless of the circumstances, what were these parents thinking? What were these writers thinking? It's just a giant blinking sign over the Charmings that says, "We do not know or understand Emma!"

I sure hope that was what it was meant to be because those idiots had no plan on how to get Emma and have her remember them. If they were truly cursed like Dark Curse 1.0, they'd have been screwed. Regina clearly didn't know how to make a memory potion because she was unable to even duplicate the stuff she got from Emma in "Witch Hunt", so what exactly was the plan? Did they even know if they'd be able to leave town (monkeys notwithstanding)? Were they planning on calling up Ms. Swan and getting her to do something? Or have Snow show up at her door claiming to be her mother? That would've gone over a whole lot worse than Hot but Crazy Pirate Guy. At least Hook knew Neal's address and could work on her memories, no one else other than Rumpel knew that. Pretty much all of Dark Curse 2.0 was a ridiculous plot device that shows the writers never gave it any more thought than ooohhh let's have the Charmings cast it and get everyone back to Storybrooke. We'll just ignore all of the things that were involved with the initial Dark Curse other than transporting everyone and rebuilding the town.

Hook made a deal with Pan to get out. That's why he was working for him. How isn't made clear, but it was definitely facilitated by Pan. Smee was taken by the curse both times. Hook didn't go with his crew the first time because he was with Cora in the bubble and the second time, he ditched his crew when he got the message to save Emma and took off to get outside the curse's reach. I have some other questions: - What happened to the rest of the Oz Boob Witch Guild? - What exactly were Zelena's directives to Walsh? - How did Emma's stuff transfer back to Storybrooke? The black leather jacket she wore in 3.13 & 3.14 was the same as she had in Season 1 and she did not have time to pack in "Going Home". Did the blue jacket survive? If so, can I have it? - Where is the Black Fairy? - How did Snow get black fairy dust? - Where is King Midas? If he left Storybrooke, would he be cured of his gold problem? - What the hell was Tamara's story?

When abroad I always make sure that I fit in and people assume I'm a local. Unfortunately, they also all seem to think I'm a nice, friendly person with a giant sign on my back that says, "Ask Me for Information". Yeah, that doesn't work well with me. I don't know what time it is, I don't know when the next bus/train/tram is coming, feel free to get off at any stop you wish, no, I don't know where that is, please leave me the hell alone. None of my friends ever had the problems I had with being considered Information Central. I really hate to give away that I am not in fact a local and while my accent is often mistaken for a native, I make stupid grammatical mistakes that identify me as foreign. I prefer not to talk at all. However, I've been in a lot of places where no one speaks English and I am much, much more comfortable speaking when the other party can't just get fed up and start speaking in English.

As I commented in the David thread, watching this episode now that I know and like Not!Cursed!David is much more interesting with the family dynamic. This time around I was rooting for a happy relationship with his daughter and he was so thrilled to "meet" her in that first scene. I also really liked how very, very uncomfortable Emma was with the whole situation. She let them hug her, but it was written all over her that she was not particularly happy about any of it at all. With this rewatch, I pretty much skipped over all of the Phillip/Aurora/Mulan stuff because that was just a waste of space mostly there to set up the big twist at the end that this wasn't a fairyback, but that Emma & Snow were in the Enchanted Forest. Oh how shocking. Not. Should anyone ask, there was one hell of a lot of Enchanted Forest stuff that could have been cut for much more interesting and relevant Storybrooke character moments. Seriously, every time they went back to Phillip/Aurora/Mulan I was thinking how much more of this is there? And then they made it worse by soul sucking the incredibly attractive Phillip, the most badass Disney Prince there is. How rude. This episode needed to be mostly about dealing with the fallout and absolute chaos occurring in Storybrooke after the curse broke and magic had come to town. Instead, it was a very short character moment with Emma meeting her parents and then plot, plot, plot. I agree with stealinghome that this episode is pretty much where the show changed and knowing where they could have gone with it, instead of the path they chose, makes me sad as well.

The only way I can even try to plug the gaping plot hole that is the plethora of magic beans seemingly available to any random pirate who passes through is to go with the idea that Rumpel just can't live without magic and thus, was willing to spend centuries working on a scheme that would get him to Bae and still allow him to have magic. Beans don't allow for that, so he looked for some other method. The guy's immortal, so I guess he's not worried about time... The rules of the new curse and Storybrooke were so badly addressed that I just try to avoid thinking about it. Robin and his Merry Men were stuck living in the woods because why? They don't qualify for housing like everyone else? It can't be that new people didn't get housing because Zelena conveniently got a very secluded house with a storm cellar - in Maine no less - even though she had no control over the curse. Mary Margaret is apparently no longer a schoolteacher, but Regina is still mayor? New people didn't get false memories, so the town line is no longer a thing? Or is it still a thing for original Storybrookers, but all new people can come and go as they please? Why wasn't there a mad rush out of town the second Zelena was defeated?

This one pisses me off to no end because David actually refers to himself as sheriff, which no you are not David. Princely privilege did not hand him the job for which his daughter was duly elected. An election in which he actively campaigned for the other guy. I hate Sheriff David with the fire of a thousand suns. Deputy David is okay and it did seem like he deferred to Emma when Little John was missing, so maybe there is hope. The privilege assumed by so many characters on this show sets me off. Speaking of, will there ever be an election for mayor of Storybrooke? Does Regina actually work as mayor anymore? Who actually is making sure things like road repairs and sewer maintenance are happening?