CCTC

I think part of the reason season 5 was kind of meh, is because they were reluctant to go all Dark-One with her. Her Dark One ended up being pretty boring. She tormented Meridia, but who could blame her for that. One interesting thing about Hook and Emma post-Dark One. Neither of them hungered for that power afterwards and wanted it back, whereas Rumple could not wait to jump back in once freed of the darkness. His heart was clean for about a half a week before he blackened it again. That is one of the reasons his latest redemption seems false.

Have they explained how they have met yet? It kind of seemed in their first scenes that he knew her in her original EQ stage,, but that would not make sense, because that would be in a different realm (although they seem to forget Jacinda-EF is a hard to get to place). If they met in the disenchanted forest, it would have been after Regina had reformed and it would not make sense for her to get recklessly involved with a dark character. Part of the problem with the relationship is that we have not really seen them have any normal interactions. Most of the scenes have been short "shocking" revelation scenes or short scenes where they are trying to get information from one another. None of the scenes have shown why they are attracted for each other and their relationship seems purely plot driven and does not really make any sense on its own.

There is another factor besides the writings between Snow and Charming and Henry and Jacinda. It might just be me, and it is a close call, but I think Snow and Charming might have had more chemistry as a couple than Henry and Cinderella.

So you are saying it was appropriate and consistent with that couple.

True - it is basically so he can be good to join his wife who he has an obsessive relationship with not because he really wants to be a better person. While I think he did a decent acting job, with him looking all elder statesman while looking at the framed picture of Belle, further emphasized how basically their relationship consisted of an older, controlling man with power wanting a much younger, sheltered woman (really not much more than a girl when they first met).

I missed the first half of the episode, but for once I am almost tempted to go out of my way and watch what I missed. This episode made me think they could have had a good season if they would have been focused and had a tighter plot from the start. Regina works better when she has a little bit of a bite to her and is not in earth mother mode. This is really petty. Carlyse did a decent job and was probably his best episode of the season, but I have a hard time not looking at his hair. It is probably just in an awkward in between stage as he is growing it out (although I liked it short), but it is half seventies feathered and half 80's mullet with a touch of the 80's permed look. He is a good looking guy, but the hair style kind of looks silly on him at this point. To counter my pettiness, his line delivery of spinning, spinning, spinning to Hook as he slipped into Rumpelstiltskin was well done. Yes - I thought they did a decent job with him in this episode, but after watching him six seasons, a little too much water has gone under the bridge and too many flips flops for any redemption to ring true. That said, I did think a lot of things clicked in the episode. Alice has really hit her marks and I could buy her and Robyn. I think Facillier is decent, and even he relationship with Regina could have been interesting if it would have played throughout the season. Unfortunately,there have too many starts and stops on the season and too many shifts in story line and it is so close to the end, that what develops now seems pretty irrelevant even if it is better than what they have had for a while.

It is a fun show, but when I think about it too much, I can't help but wonder if Rittenhouse has this much money and resources there would have to be easier and cheaper ways for them to get more power etc. than trying to change the timeline. There plan also seems vague, like they are going back in time and throwing things against the wall hoping one of their time changes will stick and somehow get them what they want.

I am kind of under the impression the coin changing to Nixon was just to show he was in imminent danger and that it probably changed back once they got him out of the party. I was under the impression that it was Kennedy who was assassinated in Austin from the look on Rufus's face. I think the writers were just trying to be clever and did not really think it through. I definitely could be wrong, although if Nixon did become president in 1960, hopefully that will he addressed in a later episode. Otherwise it kind of just seems like a cheap twist to shock.

It really did not make sense for Liv to be the only zombie that did not look normal, although I suspect part of it is that Rose would rather not have to wear a wig and extra make-up every week (which I would not blame her). It is getting a little creepy how often Liv's brain personality is mainly about sex. Wasn't Clive's girlfriend the one who wanted the open relationship and was clearly dating and was wary about committing in general. She never said anything about no sex, and there was no reason for Clive to assume that, so her reaction, while human, did not really seem justified. You can't make the rules and then get upset when someone plays by the rules, esp. since you let that much time go by before saying - hey maybe this was a mistake. I know they want drama and conflict, but Major's character now seems like a plot device rather than how the character would actually act. I will admit, I have not watched as closely as I used to this year, so I might have missed things where my Clive and Major observations are off.

Well to be fair they were sleeping ... Did Regina ever do any soul searching that it was part of her that did this to people she now considered family? I have to admit, even though Regina had long been untouchable by A&E by that point, I never thought the EQ would get a separate happy ending. I don't mind the idea of Emma sacrificing herself for the greater good, but she was so ineffective the 90 minutes preceding it, that it did seem more of giving up. Also, how she was quickly revived it seemed a bit hollow and a bit of a cop-out, predictable, and been there done that.

I am only half-joking, but I am not sure they even remember that. I am wondering if they even put any thought of where their scenes are taking place and how easy or difficult it is for various people to be in these places. They also all look the same - same forest, same trees, same technology, same dress, same ports etc. Some of that is because they are filming in the same locations and using some of the same sets, but it does not seem like much creativity was used in making places special and unique.

That just gave me a flash back to the really expensive fundraiser Lucy danced in and Jacinda catered that was supposed to look like a $500 per ticket event. Whatever happened to Lucy's dancing? Does she do anything now besides hang out at a bar? Does she ever spend time in that all important community garden?

There was about a minute of the show after the new break. He basically put a pin in a Nick voodoo doll and that killed him. Facilier seems like he could have been a good villain, but they have punted the who is the big bad and what the real evil plot/motivation is so many times this season that it is hard to care since you feel like it will just change again in the next episode. I agree Mader sells her character and her redemption seems more sincere and not as forced as Regina (I think it helps that you did not have her former victims being her biggest cheerleader), but it is amazing how really horrible past acts are almost dismissed as youthful indiscretions and anyone can be redeemed by wanting to be a better person. It does not help that when these characters are in evil mode, you never see them have any conflict or subtext of conflict when they are doing evil or regret of doing the act afterwards. It makes the person saying they want to change years later out of the blue and not likely. I also think Mader did a good job selling the mother-daughter relationship. In some ways it seemed more real than Henry-Regina relationship seasons 4 to 6, maybe because they allowed some normal conflict, whereas Henry seemed to almost almost worship Regina thinking she could do no wrong (which makes the season 1 episodes jarring to watch now). That is why it did not jive that she would leave just as they reunited and leaving her alone in a cursed town. Again, her leaving might have been more convincing had she talked about her boy friend once after getting to HH or we had seen them interact except for three minutes where they had some contrived dialogue after a hostage situation. Speaking of dialogue -- wow is there a lot of stilted speeches and clumsy exposition. Objectively, the last number of episodes have probably been better than the show has been in a while, but since I no longer feel a connection to the show, I really notice the flaws more than I did in the past. It also does not help that I do not sit down and watch it anymore, it is more on in the background while I am doing other things, so I think I miss a lot of things that would make the plot more sense.

I liked Zelina and the actress playing her, but that episode just drove home the point that all of the redemption seemed unrealistic and unearned. She set a young boy on fire because he was mad that she left him to get eaten by a witch (who she probably would not have cared had she not fallen in love with his father). It is hard to feel bad for her or really think someone capable of that kind of evil is really going to change. Plus, what did Zelina do to show she had changed? She had a baby with someone she raped and had her murdering boyfriend killed after he killed her baby's father. I think she maybe did a better job showing a bit more self-awareness at not being whiny when people did not immediately trust her, but why does Zelina deserve a fresh start beside the fact the actress is charismatic. Her HH scenes with her boyfriend would have had a bit more weight if Zelina would have mentioned him once since her departure from San Francisco. We see one scene of them together where has no problem that she has some hidden past that has attracted psychopaths as if she just revealed that she cheats at solitaire. We are supposed to buy this great love that would cause her to leave her family in crisis and her just reunited with daughter. It kind of had shades of the OQ going to be happy in the wish realm even though she really had done nothing to deserve a happy ending and Snow and Charming were still in a curse because of her.

Spending an episode or two back in the EF with Regina and the Charmings not remembering they were no longer enemies and dealing with some sort of inner conflict of killing each other and not fully realizing why would have been interesting. I agree, it could have been a good way for them to really explore their issues with each other. I remember thinking at the time, how inept was the Black Fairy to leave Henry and Emma in close proximity and have Henry with some knowledge and memories. Although they did not even bother to have that mean anything, since Henry never did reach Emma and the curse was broken without her doing anything to help break it.

Or when he did not seem concerned about Henry's mother getting killed and then sitting down for dinner with them about an hour later at the "last supper". I cannot wait to see what religious painting is copied in the series finale. Unless there was some plot point that required them to interact, you never got the impression that Gold cared about Henry and at best was indifferent to him at worst he seemed not to care for him or like him. A little odd, when you think he would have been a bit obsessed with Bae's son, esp. after he died.

Objectively, Legends of Tomorrow is not a great show, but it somehow embraces the lunacy and does not pretend it is great art and the relationship angst does not bog the show down too much, so it can he a fun show to watch. Probably more than it should be. Of the CW hero shows it might be the most entertaining (unless you throw iZombie into the that mix, but that might be in a decline at this point. The first season or two of iZombie was great). Legends remembers it is a comic book show and tries to have fun and is not all doom and gloom. Gotham falls into that category as well --it embraces its comic book over the topness (although it might be getting past its expiration date and starting to repeat things). Not sure it would be considered a superhero show, but Legion is in its own league. It is like one big fever dream.

It would not completely shock me if that was the case in this show from time to time...

Good point, it is not like someone who is cast as Romeo is not going to know he does not set up a house in the suburbs with his new wife and a dog at the end of the play. Still he is not going to play the balcony scene like - what is the point, we are going to be dead soon anyways.

I am wondering if when he first appeared he really was simply Jack of Jack and the Beanstalk. I suspect this serial killer story line was not developed when he was introduced and the idea to make him Hansel came later. It seems like most of 7B were ideas that came up after they had already aired the first episodes. A lot of what we saw at the beginning of the season ended up being inconsequential.

The fact that it looks like Wicked era Zelina has a confrontation with the Jacinda EF realm seems like it might be a bit contrived. Henry starts the season by going to explore other realms that seemed to be a new discovery that they existed at that point -- and there are hundreds of them - but as the season goes on, it seems like it is as easy to get to as driving from the city to an outer suburb. There are all these worlds, but it seems like everyone ends up in the same disenchanted forest or the wish realm, which really should not have existed on the same plane as the other realms, since it was created by Emma's wish and people should not have a history of visiting that realm before her wish created it.

It does show a bit of consistency that the remorseless serial killer is someone who was tormented and almost murdered as a child and the targets that we are supposed to see as innocent victims were witches - not innocent witches - but the evil murderous kind. Have they addressed Gothel trying to get her coat hangers lately. They have really gotten bad at completely ignoring plots that are not the main part of the episode and then when they do revisit it it has been two months and you have to remember what happened.

Hopefully we would get to see another well written fountain scene. I wonder if Emma's apartment is still there (or was that Boston?). It seemed to be left to be available whenever it was needed - rent magically paid similar to Henry always having gas in his bike.

While they did not have the Hook murders David's father story developed at the point of the underworld arc, you think they would have had one of the four dead parents of Chamring/Snow make an appearance. They could have skipped the episode of Regina's horse. I guess David did have the episode with his brother. Although I felt they largely did that to have the Cruella scenes and to do cute Patty Duke twin faking identity type scenes, and any issues were resolved in a rushed fashion. On a superficial note, I kind of wish they would have gone all out on James and Cruella causing havoc in Story Brooke Hell. They probably would have been more interesting as the main antagonists than Hades and would have had some more history with the characters. Of course then we would have missed the epic love of Zelina and Hades (who might have forever tainted any specialness the true love's kiss had left)

Yes - I was talking to someone and completely missed what happened here. I completely missed on Nick being Hansel - partially because why do we care since Gretel is dead and Ivy who would have been the only other one who might have been semi-interested in his Hansel identity. If they were going to make Nick the killer, they maybe could have given him some screen time since October. Even in this episode he did not really contribute much except the big twist ending. (Although I guess it does make sense that he is Hansel and wants to kill witches from his childhood trauma). Jaceida and Henry did not bother me this episode, but they really are the definition of anti-chemistry. When she walked through the bar door they emanated the heat of a Popsicle While I might like Henry more than Jaceinda, the anti-chemistry might be more on him. The expression on his face when he sees her is one of a rather blank expression with a goofy grin. I think he might be trying to channel some of the innocence and wonderment of original Henry and it really does not give a passionate true love feel. Ivy really was one of the positives of this season. It is too bad Lady Tremaine was not more effective or written better, because it could have possibly been a decent arc if people had been fleshed out a little more at the beginning and they had done a better job showing some of the relationships early on. Regina saying she understood obviously made sense, but seeing Ivy's redemption just made me think that is really how they should have handled Regina in season 2B. Have her influenced by Cora,but the more she sees and spends time with her the more she questions things and ultimately seeing what she did wrong and actually seeming sincere in her regret. Instead they had her cackle when her mother threw an innocent lady to her death and had no understanding of why Snow had to do what she did. Overall, I actually thought it was a decent episode, although my other petty comment is that Weaver doing the good thing because it will bring him closer to Belle just rang false. His whole story line just seems like treading water until they can reunite him with Belle and the only reason it exists is because they got the actor for another year, and then did not know what do with him. Yes -- they introduce one motive in one episode and then it is completely different later. Things Tremaine and Cinderella did in the premiere really did not make sense later. Goethelle is also a bit like that. what she does in one episode does not really flow with what happens later. Plus her actions are not always the smartest. Why betray Ivy - she could have had two gifted witches in her employ and under her influence. I am surprised she just let the sisters waltz through the porthole without trying to stop and/or kill them. And yes, most of what happened the first number of episodes of the season ended up being pretty pointless.