Souris

Will no one think of poor Arendelle? God knows who's been running the show there since their entire royal family has gone AWOL. Oh, who am I kidding, Sven has taken control and is ruling with an iron hoof.

If they want Yvette Nicole Brown to do Ursula again for any type of major arc, I don't think she'd be available right now. She quit Community to have more time to take care of her ailing father, and she's doing The Odd Couple instead (which is a much lighter workload, something like 15 hours a week for her instead of 60). Also, the Cruella actress took down her revelatory tweet. Oopsie!

It's not airing the 23rd because ABC is airing the American Music Awards.

I've noticed JMo seems to have stopped responding to fans much and everything she's posting is pretty benign, unrelated to Once and/or unlikely to get hate from the usual suspects. Way to go, asshats!

Sometimes TPTB seem to think they make things clear on the show, when they really don't.

I watched DaP. It was diverting enough, but I agree that Lizzie and Darcy didn't seem particularly like Lizzie and Darcy to me. I'd call it middling.

I'm not familiar with how respected EPoll is and what their methods are, hence my side-eye of them. I think publicists would definitely push -- publicists will push for anything that will give their clients a bit of positive press! Even if it is the PCAs, which I concur definitely ain't the Emmys. Also, I'm wildly cynical about this stuff. ;)

New character cast. Cruella de Vil? (Belle is with a Dalmatian pup in 4x11 filming.) Aurora's mom? Will she pop out of the hat with Maleficent?

Here's a list of the S4 ratings so far. Those are all final overnight ratings, it looks like. I take no small amount of pleasure in noting that the vaunted SQ ep had the fewest viewers and lowest rating. Yes, that was the World Series week, but it was a weak WS in the ratings. There was also notable drop between eps 2 & 3, which I think was some of the Frozen fans deciding not to continue after the live-action novelty wore off.

This is what the terms & conditions says about noms: I suspect that studios, networks and publicists also have a hand in pushing certain nominees via that vague "vetted through" wording, but that may just be my cynical side showing.

It is utterly ridiculous. They think one minute of Hook is too much. I just hate that Adam seems to only pay attention to the screamers.

Shouldn't Granny and Red be the ones who were tracking??? Hell's bells. They've completely forgotten about Red.

Was Belle wearing thigh-high knit stockings? Da fuq?

A resounding Meh. There were some weird technical issues in this ep. WTF was up with the shaky camera? I almost got motion sickness in the DQ/Anna scene in the jail. And there were odd edits and camera angles throughout. So Anna & Belle had to climb a mountain to get to the rock trolls in this ep, but Anna (in a wedding dress & carrying a book!) & Elsa were able to saunter there in the opener? I suppose Elsa could have magicked them there, but I side eye it. Way to waste Frances O'Connor. I liked the trio of Emma, Hook & Elsa figuring things out at the end. Obviously DQ planted the stuff for Emma to find. Shut up, Robin. And that's about all I feel like commenting on. I really do think the last ep broke me.

Welcome to my world of terrible scenario thoughts! That is a terrible thought. And unfortunately, it has multiple precedents on this show. As I said before, one can't count out A&E doing anything that strokes their Regina perma-boner. (Too much?)

FWIW, JMo was on Twitter at some point last Sunday. She tweeted a screen cap of Hulu with an Emma pic and replied to a fan who tweeted her a comparison pic of her and Colin at the soccer game with a pic of Flynn & Rapunzel from Tangled. I'm not aware enough of Twitter to know if the time stamp I see on her tweets was my Eastern time or her Western time. So either she was tweeting 2-1/2 hours before the ep or during the ep. OK, that was a little too tin-hatty investigative. Now I'm picturing Kevin Costner in JFK: "Back and to the left! Back and to the left!"

With this show, anything that is pro-Regina is imaginable!

Yeah, I think for many fans, myself included, it's not so much about Graham as about the reactions and repercussions of Regina murdering him -- or, as the case is, the lack thereof. It's just another one of the villains' crimes that have no repercussions whatsoever. Meanwhile, Emma saves a life and it's The Worst Thing Ever and Repercussion City.

That is an interesting theory that would fit. Star on the hat = star birthmark. I wonder if the people who are sent to our world would remember what happened? I'm utterly convinced it's Hook who will "die." I'm trying not to worry it'll be a permanent death, because I think that would be a huge mistake (and a total dealbreaker for me). I’m mostly worried that it will be the cliffhanger for the midseason break, which would be TORTUROUS. I have a few theories. He could get saved with a TLK (though I think it's too soon for the show to want to do a TLK with them) or magic tears. Maybe Hook will sacrifice himself, and that act of sacrifice will end up saving him, a la Anna in Frozen. Maybe he will be sucked into the hat (“true love is the greatest magic of all”) and Emma will jump in after him as he did with Zelena’s portal. He said he would follow her to the ends of the world or time; in a sense, death is the end of time. He didn’t know if she would follow him as he would her; that would let him know she would. I would enjoy an ep inside Hat World with Emma encountering trapped magical beings as she tries to save Hook and find a way for them to escape. Heck, maybe she could meet up with Maleficent and make a deal for her to help them in return for Mal being freed, too. A particularly evil way he could be revived: via his hand. Perhaps there is enough “life essence” in his hand that Emma could reattach it (or force Rumple to, or Regina, since the show always has to make Regina be the one to “fix” things) and that essence could revive him. Now, that would come with a serious drawback: Hook would revert to the Hook at the time the hand was severed. We’ve already seen the effect it had on him, which could have been foreshadowing. So 4B would involve Emma trying to get him back to the hero side of things and fall in love with her all over again. In a way, that would parallel Charming trying to get through to Snow after she took Rumple’s forgetting potion. Perhaps Emma would end up putting herself in harm’s way to save Hook, which would open him up to her love for him — and if the hand actually is cursed (I don’t trust Rumple that it isn’t), a TLK could then break it. I could even imagine he revives after the hand is reattached, Emma kisses him, and he replies with something like “Well, thank you, lass. Who are you?” I'm not saying I'd like that latter storyline, because UGH, but I could see it happening as a way for them to push the reset button and slow down the Captain Swan happy ending. I feel like A&E probably want more angst there for awhile.

Probably 50 kids came through for us and zero Elsas or Annas. Most were minority kids so I wonder if that's a factor. Best was a girl with a zipper on her face with it half unzipped and icky underskin makeup on that half. Several generic princesses and royals. One especially adorable little witch. One Urkel. Hardly anyone was a specific character. I was a steampunk lady.

Did the Live+3 ratings for the last ep ever get released? I don't know what day they usually are.

I would put nothing past them at this point in their Vichy government for the Reginazis. Yeah, I know, over-the-top and unlikely, but I'm just that jaded.

I have to say, this godawful past ep REALLY whacked my enjoyment of this show in the kneecaps. I was enjoying this season a lot, but now I kind of don't really care if I see another episode or not. Instead of watching live, I'll probably DVR the eps and see the reactions before I decide whether to watch or what scenes I should skip. I just can't deal with the show's kowtowing to Regina and her fans anymore. It's gotten too unpleasant to watch and too hard to ignore. I mean, it was clear before, but this ep crystallized it in such an in-your-face fuck-you, fuck-Emma way that it overshadowed everything else, even stuff I liked. The more I think about it, the more disgusting I think the ep was. Hearing that the ep was so popular in other circles is just downright depressing.

Personally, I think that's a GOOD thing that it went away. IMO a romantic relationship shouldn't have belligerence and rampant conflict -- if it does, it's probably not a particularly healthy one. Which isn't to say that some conflict isn't normal, because it certainly is, but two people showing one another support most of the time is a much healthier aspect for a relationship than constant fighting. I'm thrilled Hook is supportive of Emma, because I like Emma and want her to have somebody who respects her and supports her -- things her life has been sorely lacking in. Support is vital to a good relationship.

Dani-Elle, I followed you! I'm oraclecat.tumblr.com -- mostly OUAT, but some art and photography I find pretty, and a few random other things sometimes. There are spoilers on my blog, but I always tag #ouat spoilers. Note that I'm very anti-Regina and Swan Queen! :)