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I'm assuming it will backfire in the 4A finale, Belle will find out and leave him, and that will be part of the cliffhanger. Then 4B will be all about Regina once more, Rumple's second (third or fourth or fifth) redemption and Belle's millionth "I forgive you because you're like a chipped cup" speech.

The villains on this show really gives me chills. I mean, creating a puddle around your car? I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight without having nightmares.

Why does Gold/Rumple drive in Storybrooke? Why didn't Gold/Rumple apparate himself to Arendelle, turn into a fly, wait 'til Anna was out of the room, grab the Mickey Mouse box and return to the Enchanted Forest? Does Elsa's dress wash itself or is there a special dry ice cleaning method that she uses to keep it sparkling clean.

So I'm speculating that Henry will happen upon Mickey Mouse's hat while working at the Pawn Shop, and he will bring it to Regina. Who saves the day after much angst and many tears, giving up her dream of asking the author to give her a happy ending. And then in the last 5 seconds of the 4A finale, a purple blob creeps out of the hat and voilà, it's Megavillain for 4B.

Hook totally overplayed his hand in this episode.

As predicted, Episode 4 of an arc is Rumple-Time. S1: The Price of Gold S2: The Crocodile 3A: Nasty Habits 3B: Quiet Minds 4A: The Apprentice I'm not sure if keeping to a formula like this might hold the storyline back or affect pacing, if they intentionally adjust plotlines just to give him the fourth episode. In the case of "The Apprentice", I suppose it worked out alright. But still... one of these days...

Gold seemed to hint that he will continue using Hook as his henchman. So 3B's Zelena uses Rumple will become 4A's Rumple uses Hook. Since Zelena and Rumple can't do everything they need with their own magic. They need henchmen to be more mobster-like.

It was nice to see Zoso. I love seeing old characters again. It would have been a pain to get all that gold makeup on, though, so he'd need to be paid for that.

The current-day Hook/Rumple stuff felt really circular to me. "I know Belle doesn't have the real dagger." Then, "I gave Belle back the real dagger." Then, "I saw you using the dagger!" And "Well, I have you on VHS." "And I can still tell Belle." "And I can still hurt Emma." It felt like I was watching a slight variation of the same scene three different times. Did Rumple really have to carry out such a convoluted plan to get something on Hook? A plan that revealed to Hook his own dirty little secret? Why the hell would Hook be going into a random old man's house and sucking him into a hat anyway. It doesn't even make sense. They seem to want to show Gold/Rumple being oh so smart, except when he's oh so dumb. Speaking of Dumb, the Sorcerer is pretty dumb as well if just a teardrop of someone who "did not succumb to the darkness" can break the lock. I almost laughed at the Evil Hand bit since it was so stupid. Who couldn't guess that Gold was playing Hook there. And even if getting his hand back made Hook question his base personality, why would the Hand act like it was possessed? I also laughed every time Rumple opened Mickey Mouse's hat just to stare at its beauty. I know people love Rumple being evil, but him completely turning to the dark side when Belle was Lacey maybe made sense. But now he's not torn at all? They are just relying on the actor to make us care when they ultimately show his ooey gooey emotional side again, but they can't play that trick if Rumple's evil goes too far. Whose power will he collect next? Blue for fairy power? Elsa for the ice power? And then ultimately, Emma for Savior power? Hook playing darts at the diner reminded me of Graham. Regina and Henry was total retread. I don't remember when they last did this so blatantly since it was basically exactly the same Henry and Regina scenes from last week. It's like they don't know what to do with Regina... what a shocker. I hate what they're doing with Henry here... it would have been more interesting if they had Henry try to work for Mr. Gold because he was desperate for a connection with his father, who he never got to say goodbye to. Instead, we get this crap which neither helps Regina's character development, nor provide Henry with his own arc. Why do they have Emma chasing after the Snow Queen with a gun? The flashbacks were alright. They still write Anna's dialogue as too colloquial and modern. I don't know why, but "Maybe" sounded too modern. "Perhaps" would have sounded more fitting. I get she's supposed to be exuberant but the dialogue takes me out of it. Still, it was written much better than the stuff with Charming in "White Out". I did like her line to Rumple that she didn't even face her inner darkness at the Apprentice's log cabin. Why did Anna tell Kristoff that her parents were trying to take Elsa's powers with the Mickey Mouse Box? I know Rumple said the box could do it, but it wasn't like her parents were specifically looking for it. Snow taking a Polaroid picture was hilarious. Snow/Charming/Elsa with Emma before her date was the best scene.

I just watched the bonus clip extended mat chat with this team, and I must say Phil really gave it his all in trying to counsel the two of them and help them to meet in the middle. Not sure how successful that actually was, though...

In the extended mat talk bonus clip, they also mentioned they forget their clue somewhere and had to go back to get it. On top of having to find someone to sell the expensive guide book to. Phil sort of made fun of him for saying being second was bad, and he sort of laughed. So far, I'm willing to give Jim the benefit of the doubt, since he hasn't been ugly to his teammate, or to other teams. The "tell me about it" was kinda funny considering Shelley didn't have a Save to fall back on. I wonder if Jim recognized that.

That looks a little like "Grimm" to me. I still haven't had a chance to try that show yet. I'm not huge on crime procedurals, so maybe I'll wait 'til I can marathon it on DVD.

Some people are just naturally extremely self-assured to the point of arrogance. It is compounded when people naturally have an external locus of control where any failure is blamed on outside factor. I'm assuming Jim has had a successful dental practice for years so that would be reinforced. Self-confidence is one thing, but saying idiotic pronouncements that second is the first loser and making a huge deal out of not being first is annoying. I hope he was actually humbled by this leg, since they actually ended up dead last. Which is a new thing for him and probably something he hasn't experienced for years.

I remember Jim immediately said they need to find someone with a phone. The Wrestlers and the Surfers huddled around a map they had brought along I think you're right for T&T that there was no cut since most of us got the impression they knew. Team Survivor, the Bikers and the Mom/Daughter didn't have to answer since they drove efficiently. Which leaves Team Scientist. I don't think they showed how they got the answer.

They only showed a clip, so maybe some racers knew, or maybe T&T asked someone before naming them? It's good if they knew them from memory. Those countries are pretty common and the capital cities well known.

Even in S2 and S3, sometimes, I did enjoy the flashback stories more than the present-day. Even when the flashbacks did nothing in furthering the plot along, at least it tended to have a resolution at the end of each episode, so we could see the "heroes" get a win of some sort. Whereas in the present-day, you had the villain of the season or half-season making a fool out of and constantly one-upping the useless protagonists, with the writers blatantly spinning their wheels by having the characters chase their tails. Even in Season 1 Storybrooke, I was frustrated by the current-day plot as well, like the Mary Margaret/David stuff, or Regina/Sidney tricking Emma, etc. But at least Season 1 Storybrooke had no magic, so it was a direct contrast between the magic-infused flashback and the everyday-life-non-magical current day. Now, the current day has magic - worse than that, it's magic with no clearly defined rules. As we've said many times before, I think an easy way to try to improve the show would be to eliminate magical abilities in the present-day (no guarantees though since these writers can make a mess out of anything). 2B and 3B would have been so much better (on paper) if Cora and Zelena had to work within the laws of physics. It would have prevented the tiresome formula of the megavillain being able to do whatever they wanted for 6 episodes before a deus ex machina or five suddenly result in their defeat, only to have a new megavillain emerge from the ashes. Do people think the flashbacks this season might be better because they tell a coherent story, which is more akin to S1 which told the story of Snow White in flashbacks? Back in S2, I was wondering how they could replicate that and initially I thought it would be telling the Sleeping Beauty story, but it would be tough if the entire cast of Sleeping Beauty wasn't in Storybrooke. But now they're doing fine with only Elsa in Storybrooke, so I'm thinking they might have been able to do this in S2 if they had Aurora in Storybrooke with amnesia or something. But they couldn't do that same formula for multiple seasons in a row... since revealing mysteries by flashbacks essentially only works if the title character doesn't remember what happened. And they already did this in 3B, though much less successfully.

I just watched the bonus clip about that travel guide book they bought, and it does reflect better on Misti since she gets to talk more than in the actual episode.

I just watched the bonus clips, and at the mat, Maya mentioned they seem to take longer than others to get to the task, but do well once they get there. She didn't elaborate on possible reasons why, though. They are such a likeable team and I enjoyed Maya's dancing at the mat in the clip, especially her Irish jig.

They seemed to be working just now. Hopefully, you can get them to play. One of the bikers got quite worked up at the daughter from the mother/daughter team at the travel agent's. She said it wasn't a big deal but she sure was talking about it for quite a long time. So it looks like it wasn't just the Mother/daughter who was looking for the cars in the parking lot. T&T took a long time to find them as well. Though I think they did the right things... re-reading the clue, and then eventually finding the cars without arguing with one another. After the clip of the Mother/daughter trying to find one of the locations, I'm not sure who is the problem anymore. They were both sniping at each other. The mom clearly doesn't like being told what to do, even simple things. So it looks like it might be slightly more her. The mom should probably be the one giving directions since she prefers giving orders than following them.

They didn't have time/interest to give him an investigative plot, though that could actually have been funny comic relief if everyone was hiding stuff from him. Though they haven't known how to use the Henry character since his heyday in Season 1. And now as usual, they have him as Regina cheerleader on Operation Groan. I actually like Henry, and I have been so disappointed in the stuff he has been given, though I understand that most viewers want less of him, not more. But I am still agog that they wrote the scene for him telling Gold to erase all his memories except the New York one. They really don't have a handle on him at all.

They could have kept a similar plotline, in that the New Curse couldn't be broken until Henry remembered, and Emma would still be torn about that. So Emma helps individual people remember, until near the end of the arc. Rumple could have been a mental patient at the hospital due to Neal being in his head. I still think Henry should have remembered everyone BUT Regina, and she can slowly earn his trust.

The other new thing seems to be occasional closeups in the interviews, only showing one racer. It's kinda weird. I don't remember them before this season, but maybe I haven't been observant enough.

If anything, the problem is every episode is based on "twists". I agree that many of the twists lately have been lame, but having twists still seems to be the main goal, above character development or even organic plot development. Ep 1 - Elsa and Anna's parents had a big secret! - Anna is missing! - Gold finds Mickey Mouse's hat! Ep 2 - Kristoff knew David! - Bo Peep is evil! - Anna was the one who taught David how to sword fight! - The Snow Queen was in Storybrooke all this time! Ep 3 - The Snow Queen was in the urn! - The Snow Queen was Elsa's aunt! - Snow Queen knew Emma! - Gold knew the Snow Queen! I suspect they start with these and then just pad the episodes out from there with stuff for shippers, a dash of Woegina and then a bit of the time filler afterthought characters like Snow. I agree with that. As we've discussed before, it was ridiculous how quickly they reverted back to the status quo in "Going Home". Now that it has been done, the whole reset has been wasted and can't be done again. They could have used that reset to do stuff that they never got to do by having the Curse be broken at the end of S1. Instead of an underground movement against Regina, 3B could have been an underground movement against Zelena, as Emma helps one person after another regain their memories. Zelena could be clueless about Emma until it's almost too late. Regina could have experienced what it would be like in a Cursed town with Zelena as Evil Mayor, and that could have built towards her redemption. They would end with Emma breaking the Curse again, maybe this time with Regina's help, rather than just Regina saving the day.

LOL, KAOSAgent. Glinda couldn't go through the door since she was banished there by Zelena. Glinda is probably as pure as they come since on this show, pure equals stupid and giving multiple chances to crazy unstable psychopaths. Nobody can do Regina's level of White Magic since she's the most special person in all the realms. The reasons Glinda seems shady are similar to the reasons why Blue seems shady. It's mainly because of limited information about them and their powers since the writers never worked them out and aren't interested in telling their stories. Other than the fact that they "created" the villains by making them feel excluded.

Maybe she was worried that in the waiter task, they would need to hold the tray with one hand and then use the other to serve the food without setting the tray down? The other alternative is she lacked confidence about her memory.