Senna

I will admit I felt a twinge when the flashbacks of Rumpel and Belle's early relationship came up. Skin Deep was my favorite episode of the first season. Unfortunately what followed in the series (lies, sleeping spells, more lies) irrevocably screwed up the couple in my eyes, so I didn't really "buy" all the sweetness of their happy (rip-off of Up) married life, and I cracked up every time someone claimed Rumpel was "pure of heart." (Really, show? Really??) I was also a bit confused by the prophecy and Belle's interpretation of it. Rumpel just thought they were waiting for the sun to set, but Belle interpreted the sun setting as her death, right? So she purposely decided to stay in a place where her life would be comparatively shortened? (I assume because our other characters aren't that old yet.) That's pretty dark and kinda sad -- sacrificial for Rumpel, but sucks for her son (and who knows if her interpretation is even correct). And somehow Rumpel didn't seem to be aware this (her aging and eventually dying) was happening? Rumpel just looked really dumb. And I'm pretty sure I yelled "Your relationship is nothing but secrets!" when Belle made her deathbed reveal. And then Rumpel starts talking about needing to give his dagger to a guardian -- where did that come from? I was interested in Alice and am curious about what happened in her fairy tale past, since she's obviously WHook's daughter but seemed kind of normal when she met Rumpel (as opposed to the crazy realm-hopper we saw in the first episode). As of this episode, Ivy is my favorite of the new characters. I have a soft spot for prissy characters like her. All that said, this episode was way more interesting than the last couple (which is not saying much ...) and gave me some actual curiosity for where the story is going.

That was ... a thing. I don't think it was completely terrible -- in fact, there were a few ideas I even kind of liked, like Cinderella on the motorcycle and Alice stopping Henry from interfering with someone else's story. Except ... why does Alice suddenly start interfering now, when Henry's apparently been doing this for who knows how long? And why did Cinderella punch Henry in the face when he was willing to let her use his motorcycle already? (I don't care for Henry, but punching someone who is only trying to help you is not exactly endearing.) And forget about gas, how does Henry keep a smartphone (synced to portals, no less!) charged in a fairy tale land?! There were just too many moments where I thought "That's kind of stupid" (far more than I feel like listing). And I don't really care for any of the newbie characters at this point. Alice is intriguing on the surface, but perhaps only because she was used sparingly. Nothing else really drew me in. Still ... I'll at least hang in there a little while for old times' sake.

I think, unless there's something else on that I actually want to see, I'll check out the first episode and see how bad the damage is. I don't totally hate (not yet) the idea of a similar story with different characters; I'm having more trouble with seeing how the returning actors will fit in without totally destroying the happy endings we've been left with at the end of season 6. Which I obviously don't want to see.

This was actually pretty enjoyable, even though multiple times I caught myself saying, "That's stupid" and had to actively not think about it. I liked the callbacks to previous seasons. I think this would've been a fine series finale; even if not everything added up (like Rumpel suddenly being redeemed because he wasn't a dick for once) and we never got a Hook/Emma TLK, it did have a nice, cheesy flourish (with the "totally-not-the-Last-Supper" painting). Buuuut. It's not. So we'll see about this season 7 thing. I will probably be back, but I'm gonna pretend whatever happens is more fanfic than canon. Since when do TLK's revive people from death? Cuz that would've been useful a few times ...

I thought the Black Fairy would, you know, make use of the fact that all the good guys thought she was vanquished. So much for that! Taunting is so much more important than surprise.

I have so many questions that I don't even know where to start. But I guess the main one is, A&E, why did you think this much retconning was a good idea? (That said, Rumple and the Black Fairy were pretty good in their scenes together ... but still, so much ... yaaargh.) ETA: Zelena running over the Black Fairy was probably the best thing that has happened this season (this half-season, for sure).

Ehhh. It wasn't the worst, but this season has set a high bar for badness. They should've led with Gideon having his heart controlled. You know, add some dramatic tension? Instead we got this wishy-washy "Is he good or bad?" for waaaay too long. I also have no idea what Gideon was actually doing for 28 years. Being tortured? Sitting in a jail cell? (I mean, learning magic, OK, but ... he clearly wasn't hanging out in the mines since he didn't know Roderick was still alive. How big is the dark realm?) I did like Emma acting more like herself and Hook tricking Blackbeard into using a bean (even though it didn't work). Show, why did you have to remind me of the stupid author plot? It's dumb, and I don't care.

Don't think this has been posted yet: Colin O'Donoghue's Five Favorite Films over on Rotten Tomatoes. He also (briefly) compares playing Captain Hook to his role in Carrie Pilby.

This episode was kind of dumb (and I couldn't follow the timeline because I couldn't remember how things fit into the Agrabah story and Ariel's story), but I kind of enjoyed it nonetheless. We got fabulous genie Jafar, adorable Ariel on a flying carpet, and drunk Snow White throwing knives. Plus, on the plot side, Hook and Emma have reconciled (at least, Emma has) and Gideon's goal now makes slightly more sense (trying to get Emma to help him instead of killing her for ??reasons?? -- even though he's totally going about it the wrong way). Or maybe the last couple episodes were just so bad my expectations for this show have been completely nuked?

Yeah, the dreamcatcher scene was contrivance of the most bizarre kind. They might as well have had Emma read the secret in Hook's secret diary under the mattress. But at least the secret is no longer polluting the air and we can move along. The Evil Queen/Regina stuff ... should've been over episodes ago. I mean. I was almost liking the Evil Queen and Wish!Robin snarking at each other (would've liked something more like that back when Robin was Regina's love interest), but the flashback was a total snooze and a waste of Rose McIver as Tinkerbell. Though once again, at least this plotline is over and we can move along. What there is to move along to ... well, we'll see. I'm cautiously optimistic for Hook's little adventure (I like Nemo and Ariel), but less so for Emma angsting back at home.

I'm just going to pretend like this episode never happened and make up my own head canon about Hook proposing to Emma. *drinks memory tea* We still don't even know why Gideon thinks killing Emma will make him a hero, do we? (Other than the sword makes people heroes, but it DOESN'T EVEN WORK.)

I can only echo others, that this episode seemed unusually enjoyable until those last few moments. Sigh. I was feeling some hope for the rest of the season, but it's been extinguished. A&E just can't seem to resist the stupidest path.

Well, I'll give the show this: Robin was more interesting this episode than he's practically ever been. (Which is pretty sad to say.) But I will not give them that his life would've been miserable if the Evil Queen had been taken out. Sorry, that makes no sense. What also makes no sense is spending so much of the episode on August. I mean, it's nice in a way to remember that there are other characters in the show ... but it's not like there was anything special about him in the wish realm that we needed to see him there at all (especially when Hook was turned into a ridiculous footnote). I'm glad we've gotten the middle of town showdown out of the way. I realized during this episode that I forgot a lot about the past half-season over the hiatus -- the shears of fate (lol), Aladdin the genie, etc.

Well ... if there were to actually be a second season, then this might've been all right. Ozma took over with West, Frank died, the true Beast Forever appeared. Jack, Eamonn, and Roan have all been broken down and are ripe for new chapters. Glinda and West seemed like they might make an alliance ... maybe. But since I don't think there will be a second season (terrible ratings), and since they didn't even make any attempt whatsoever to tie things up, then this was kind of not great. What was the point of telling us Karen was Dorothy's mother only for it to be Jane instead? Why couldn't Frank have just said it was Jane in the first place? Who then is Dorothy's father? (If it even matters.) How did things go down when Karen and Dorothy first got sent back to Kansas by Jane? Who is the Beast Forever? A skinless dude who can turn into a dragon thing, yeah, but *who* is he? Why was he there? Where did he come from? Who is Mother South? How did Frank take over Oz in the first place? How did Mombi end up with Ozma? I could go on and on ... but I guess we'll never know *sigh*

Like others, I'm finding that I don't really care that much about Dorothy (and certainly not about Roan/Lucas) any more. (Though I didn't think Dorothy was actually planning on killing Glinda in the first place? I thought she was just going to try to talk her out of fighting the Wizard. Of course, she did attack Glinda later, but that was after she was locked up and witnessed all the messed up things going on in Glinda's little world). In that plotline, I am firmly Team Toto. I have disliked Langwidere from the start, so my reaction upon her "death" was basically "What(Ev)er." The robot reveal was pretty good though (or at least, cool to look at). I don't really care about Jack trying to avenge her, either. Now we come to the only people I still like in this show: Tip and Mistress West. The scene where West agreed to do things Tip's way was very sweet (even though it didn't end up that way) ... and Tip looked awesome at the end. So Dorothy can go back to Kansas, but Tip and West better be the ones to rule Oz. ETA: As an aside, did the skinless man make anyone else think of Attack on Titan? Just me then?

Ohhhhh, that Framework tease! Freaking Grant Ward! FREAKING HYDRA! (But not until freaking April? Booo.) I love Daisy and Simmons together. I don't even ship them (well ... maybe I do now!), but that scene where they were trying to figure out if the other was an LMD had way more chemistry than any of the actual romantic couples. (Not to say the similar scene with Fitz and Simmons wasn't excellent as well, but I feel like Daisy and Simmons together are something special.) Honestly, this episode was all-around the best of the arc for me. I've been a bit bored and uninterested in this storyline; I think it's been the focus on Coulson (and the Philinda romance that I don't buy at all ... and the boring Russian baddie). But now, I'm actually excited to see what's going to happen in the next episode.

Geez, that scene with Jack and Lady Ev in the woods was really cringey. I'm really not sure what they're aiming for with those two; I certainly didn't find it either sexy or romantic. But then again, even Dorothy and Lucas/Roan's tryst didn't really bring much feeling -- at least I wasn't disgusted there. More like, it felt slightly rushed/out of place, but I guess they had to get it in there this episode so Lucas could feel betrayed when Dorothy talked about leaving and then Dorothy could feel extra betrayed when Roan started kissing Glinda. (I guess I'm not really feeling the romantic plots this time around.) Sylvie rolling the house around was very cool, though. I also loved the visuals of the scene of the soldiers chasing the young witch through the brightly colored hanging fabrics. Everything else with the witches seemed to happen awfully fast. We go from Anna's shocking death to all of the council being offed in one fell swoop. I don't quite understand what happened with the young witch -- Mistress West said the Wizard used up her power -- did she not have control when she was in the hole in the ground? Was killing the council an automatic reaction or somehow forced by the Wizard? Mistress West was the most sympathetic character for me this week.

While I never liked Anna much, if she dies now ... ouch. That was not what I expected for her character. Frank obviously has some serious dysfunctions, particularly when it comes to women. I'm now questioning even more how Karen wound up where she did, both in the sense of apparently attacked/dead? in the present, but also 1) giving Dorothy away when she got back from Oz, and 2) working at a laundromat (I think?) when she was previously a scientist. But I'm glad we're getting some of the pieces. Likewise, we've gotten a few more pieces for Lucas, but not the whole picture. Actually, the fact that the other soldiers apparently saw the witch girls getting away rings a bit weird to me. Why wouldn't anyone have mentioned that before? The soldier last week (who was there!) made it sound like no one knew what was in the wagon and Lucas/Roan was just a crazy berserker on a killing spree. Since I like this show a lot, I'm just going to go ahead and leave it at "The Wizard's soldiers are totally unorganized and terrible at communicating," which is why they left Lucas for dead instead of warning the Wizard and attempting to capture the girls. I loved the look of West's spell-casting. (Though it didn't seem at all as painful as she acted like it was going to be.) The pretty in this show always gets me. I felt a bit sorry for Lady Ev over her dad, but her voice and, by extension, character is still really grating to me. This week's mask was also particularly creepy. I hope they do something more with her than yelling at everybody if she's going to keep appearing. Poor Tip and poor Jack. I feel for them both.

I really liked this episode as well. Those were some nice, unsettling effects with the creepy little girl. Tip's storyline was intriguing, and I loved the "my only choice as a girl is a nun or a whore?" line. With this episode, Jack has also come into his own. It was kind of sweet that the first thing he was thinking about on waking was Tip. (Did I imagine it, or was his metal side switched between the opening sequence and his next scene? -- Just realized I was probably looking at the mirror.) I'm intrigued by the city of Ev and its rulers, though I found the princess herself to be quite annoying and shrill. I was expecting her to be revealed as robot or something with her off manner of speaking. I think Lucas/Roan (per the CC) remembers more than he's said. I think he recognizes the guard. I was wondering if I missed the why of Nimbo's massacre, but it sounds like the recapper found it somewhat mysterious too (I get that there was magic and that was "bad" but that's about it). And on a random note, it was interesting to see Anna's hood off and realize ... I didn't expect her to be a blonde. I guess it stands out since she has such dark eyebrows, so she's most likely a bottle blonde, and why is a nun dying her hair, which she keeps covered all the time? (But I know I am overthinking it ;) )

Jack, noooo! I hope he can be saved somehow. I like that Dorothy was willing to part with Lucas after the events of last episode (even if they still ended up together because of circumstances). I was also slightly amused by the contrast of Dorothy wanting Lucas' real self to be someone who "says everything's going to be OK" and later in the episode, Tip getting mad when Jack kept saying "everything's gonna be OK." I'm finding the witch of the West interesting so far, and I'm curious to see what they do with her character.

I felt very differently about Emerald City. I was expecting it to be stupid (gritty Oz? Come on!), but it held my full attention for the whole two hours, and I thought the visuals were gorgeous. (I will admit, how much I looooved the visuals may have caused me to overlook other weaknesses. It was just so so pretty.) Yeah, a lot of things aren't clear yet, but to me it felt like getting a glimpse of an interesting new world. I was sucked into the show, and I will definitely be tuning in next week. But it seems like it might be a love it or hate it show, so different strokes for different folks :) By the way, for what it is worth, I can see where people are getting the GoT comparisons (violence, sexual content, politics), but the shows felt very different to me. Emerald City felt sort of whimsically dark, while GoT is firmly not whimsical.

This was soooo much better than I was expecting from a "gritty Oz reboot." It might be that I've been totally taken in by how freakin' pretty the show is (especially for a network TV fantasy show -- I'm used to Once Upon a Time), but I also enjoyed the slightly uneasy dynamic between Dorothy and Lucas (good that he's not just a love interest ... at least not yet), and the sense that there's a whole lot going on in this world with witches and magic and the Beast and all that jazz. I don't know where it's going, but I'll definitely be along for the ride.

Making Princess Emma a weakling was a copout (this is the daughter of badass Snow and Charming, who defeated the Evil Queen! Happy people don't have to be weak). Not even mentioning Hook in the wish-world was a copout. (Also, having Henry still exist is ... weird.) Blaming Belle equally (compared to Rumpel) for what happened to Gideon was an awful, gross copout. Evil Queen not getting what she deserved from the wish made zero sense. For all the people she's killed, she "deserves" something awful to happen to her (death, I would say). I'm really not understanding the whole "I have what I want!" response. And was turning into a snake the result of Gideon or the wish? (If it was the wish, why did it have a delayed reaction? That would also be a copout.) (And if Gideon showed up because of Charming's wish ... there must be some rather convoluted reasoning there that will no doubt also be a copout lol.) I did like Aladdin being grossed out by EQ. It was also kind of funny to see Regina faltering in her attempt to bring out the savior in Emma (though not so funny to see her straight up murdering Snow and Charming, even if they are "fake" -- I wouldn't be taking any chances in assuming that). All in all, I feel like it wasn't great, but it actually wasn't as terrible as I was fearing (faint praise). I'm not going to miss it over the break though. ETA: Don't you usually have to do ... something ... to be knighted? Like, slay a dragon, break a curse, write a good book series, etc. What did Henry do, other than be grandson of the King and Queen?

Ah, nice catch. I totally forgot about that! (In fact, I briefly wondered why in the world she was wearing such a hideous bracelet when the camera lingered on it.)

I was trying to figure out why this episode seemed so lacking in impact even though there was an unexpected twist (the black fairy is Rumpel's mother). Probably because Belle already knew this for years ... and come to that, we haven't heard anything about the black fairy in ages, so it all felt kind of random. Why was Rumpel even trying to summon her at this particular point in time (and not long before now)? Because Belle could read fairy (but for some reason he couldn't just ask her to read a spell? And how did he know anyway)? I am a bit curious about the black fairy and what her story is, so I'll give the writers that. (Even though it would've been nice if they'd brought this up back when they first mentioned her.) I don't understand why Belle didn't have Blue hide her along with baby Gideon. Unless it was just a matter of only being able to transport one person? They didn't even bring it up as an option ...