Souris

I vote we stage a coup of the OUAT offices and install Shanna Marie as the new show overlord. Or at the very least, Supreme Script Doctor. :)

I'm finding it a little ... interesting that the writers have been conspicuously silent about the ep since last night, just one or two stray pointless comments. It could be complete coincidence and simply pre-hiatus, holiday busy-ness, but I have this little fantasy of a frenzy of damage control and "We fucked up, how can we fix this?" being done in the offices after the fan reaction and ratings came in. "Ben Sherwood on Line 1! Paul Lee on Line 2! Walt Disney's ghost on Line 3!" Or maybe they're all smoking doobies and staring at their pictures of Regina while eating Twinkies. I know that former's not happening, and they'll soon return to their regularly scheduled SQ lovefest and "#NoSpoilers" and "Keep watching," but it's fun for a girl to dream about.

Heh, Shanna Marie, I posted about Chekov's gun on tumblr! I would say monkeys with typewriters could've written this ep, but that would be an insult to monkeys everywhere. There were so many epic fails of basic storytelling in this ep and half-season, it's almost laughable. Almost, if it weren't so pathetic that these writers actually get put in charge of a major network show and paid big money for this storytelling trainwreck. Once Upon a Time: Where Logic and Emotion Go to Die.

Bless Colin's heart. The actors try so hard, but sometimes you simply can't get blood from a turnip.

It's only going to get worse in 4B after that lackluster finale. They had all the momentum in the world from the Frozen arc -- and they squandered it with bad storytelling and heartless writing (pun not intended). If they blame it on Emma and focus on Regina even more (Is that even possible at this point? I know, I know, don't ask or we'll find out), the ratings will only fall faster. They've done no promotion related to Emma in forever, no promotion related to CS or the storylines with actual emotional depth (or at least the setup for it). They rush through everything with no emotional resonance to anything. How are fans supposed to care about what happens to the characters if the writers don't seem to? If they treat the show and characters as disposable throwaways, guess what? So will the viewers. Like YaddaYadda, I don't think any lessons will be learned from this. And if there are, it will be 100% the wrong lessons. A&E aren't interested in the truth or valid criticism.

I think this ep and the blatant lack of emotional followthrough over the Hook's heart plot may be the final nail in the coffin of my ties to this show. Huge, huge setup, but all emotional CS fallout was shoved aside for SQ pandering and bringing Emma into Operation Stupid. That tells me all I need to know about the show's priorities now. A big no thank you to all of that. It was so blatant that I literally now wonder if they've decided to change course and make SQ canon. I'm not even joking. After this lackluster, perfunctory finale, I suspect there is going to be a big drop in ratings for 4B, more so than can be accounted for by just the Frozen fans leaving; I think the Frozen fans have already left. I don't think the Evil Trio are enough to lure many viewers, Rumpbelle and OQ fans are upset, this ep showed TPTB no longer care enough about CS to even follow through on maybe their biggest story yet, so what's left? I mean, good for Belle, I guess. That's about it in the "positives" column.

Christina Perri, who is a vocal Hook and Captain Swan fan, has been teasing a secret that sounds like it involves Colin. Somebody asked her to like a post if it involved Hook, and she did. Speculation is that he's in her next video -- which would explain why he was in L.A. I want this to be true so very much. How great is it to be in a position that you could just cast somebody you're a fan of in your video, LOL?

Good Lord, now we've got Operation Stupid to shove into the finale, too! Way, way too much going on.

F is for Fairies, who may be good guys or may be shady.

Christie Laing posted a pic of reindeer on-set. Not sure if it's from the earlier Sven ep, or possibly we get a scene of the Frozen trio back in Arendelle and reuniting with Sven to plan their storming of the castle to take it back from Hans & His Hot Bros. There's also a pic of her in frozen-Marian makeup.

I was pondering the dagger. What would people think if somehow Belle became the Dark One? Some people did seem to like DarkMirror!Belle a lot more than regular Belle, LOL. I admit that I am rather intrigued by this thought of the Beauty becoming the Beast. I'm not sure how they'd work it given the rules of the dagger they've set forth, but they're all the time changing the rules of magic anyway, so they could come up with something where Rumple is still around, just not the Dark One anymore. It might be something interesting for their relationship dynamic, especially if they're still at odds over his betrayal of her with the dagger. (I don't actually expect this to happen, but I had the passing thought.)

WTF? This pass-the-dagger game is getting even weirder.

Well, now, THAT'S the weirdest, most inexplicable spoiler I've ever heard! WTF are those two going to be laughing together about?

Q is for the Evil Queen that they helped Snowing fight.

All I can think about with those pictures in the rain is the poor, wet actors and how horribly uncomfortable they must have been. At least the crew could have hats and rainproof gear. I cannot STAND being cold and wet, so the pics make me cringe for them. Beyond that, it looks like neither Hook nor Belle wants the dagger. "You take it! No, I don't want it! You take it! Ugh, rock, paper, scissors?" It seems like she gives him the dagger, he tries to give it back, but she won't take it. So IMO that makes it much less likely that Hook gets Dark One'd -- I don't think he'd try to give Belle back the dagger if it could control him. Interesting indeed that there was a Hook/Rumple scene after. I think the Colin/JMo pics are probably them and not CS in-scene, since Colin doesn't have the hook on. Could be rehearsal, I guess, but it seems more the actors to me. Speaking of CS, I really hope Hook tells Emma about the dagger! I'm tired of secrets.

Get ready for my latest sleeping-mind speculation horror, spurred by those Belle/Hook dagger spoilers and A&E saying the ending twist is their favorite yet: Rumple succeeds in his plan and crushes Hook's heart. Using the dagger to make him the Dark One is the only way to save him. Emma can't do the heart-splitting thing because even she can't remove her heart. Rumple keeps all the power, so Hook just has the dagger. Rumple leaves town, but finds that it's a hollow victory and returns. At the end of the season, Maleficent puts Emma under a sleeping curse. If Hook TLKs her, it will wake her, but it will also undo the Dark One curse, so he'd die. (Henry's not there and there's a time constraint to wake her up.) He sacrifices himself to wake her up. WTF is wrong with me??? So far none of these have panned out, so I hope like hell that streak continues. I'm guessing the dream I had where I couldn't find the ladies' locker room at the gym was unrelated, LOL. Though perhaps indicative of the fact that I need to go to the gym more! I much prefer the speculation that this is a way to show Hook's growth as he struggles with whether to exact revenge on Rumple and ultimately decides not to do anything. I just can't figure out what the big "twist" that A&E love is going to be if it's not Hook becoming the Dark One. Would they love Rumple losing his powers as a result of the hat spell?

The book arc makes no damn sense. Though it sounds like they're actually going to make it like somebody is controlling them by taking out pages? Blergh. Massive, massive blergh. Or maybe it will be something like Option A was "supposed" to happen, but one of the people involved did something to mess it up, so the "author" replaced the defunct Option A with what really happened, Option B. I wouldn't mind that as much, because Regina would still be responsible for messing up her own happy ending by running away from Robin at the tavern. So many tables will be flipped if they make it so Regina wasn't responsible for her own choices. Talk about the ultimate whitewash! Apparently Belle & Hook dug up the dagger before she gave it to him and drove off.

BTS pic of the Evil Trio and Snow. Merrin seems like she is going to be a fount of BTS info.

Pic of Hook and I assume Belle scene. They look like they're in some sort of waste area. Maybe they're burying/destroying the dagger? ETA: Another pic. Apparently she gives him the dagger and drives off. She's washing her hands of the whole Rumple business?

That's a weird development. Guess Rumple didn't cleave himself from it after all. Or he did and it's just a twisted memento of that wacky time Rumple had his heart. "Here, thought you might like this!" Why give it to Hook? Why not Emma, who could do something magical to keep it locked up if it still controls Rumple? I hope Hook doesn't do a tit-for-tat, "Let's see how you like being controlled by em" thing. Unless they use it to show that Hook is a better man now and won't use it for revenge. Or I saw speculation that in all the hat drama, Hook somehow becomes the Dark One. I don't know how that would work, since Rumple isn't dead. And, ugh. And, anyway, couldn't a TLK with Emma de-curse him of that?

I'm bracing myself for Regina being the one to tell Emma of Gold's plans. I fully expect it. Though why he would tell someone who could stop him about his plans, I have NO clue. I'm taking some comfort in the fact that she doesn't appear to be in the honeymoon house scenes. (We need to come up with a nickname for that house.) Sounds like Josh and Ginny were filming today with the Evil Trio.

Oh, I'm sure Snow will give being mayor back to Regina, because she just can't handle it and Regina is soooooo much better at it than Snow. (Democracy be damned!)

D is for Dopey, who likes snowflakes. Also for Dark Snow, who was no fun to live with.

They will be filming in Steveston Thursday: Thurs 4:30–8:30pm at Garry Point + 12:30 pm to 2:00am on Moncton St #OnceUponATime #Steveston is #Storybrooke

I think my ranking would be exactly like Shanna Marie's -- with the caveat that what they do in 4x11 could drop it.