S06.E08: I'll Be Your Mirror

[darkestboy]

Another enjoyable one. I liked the split time thingy with Snow and Charming in this episode.

Emma and Regina trapped in the mirror world didn't feel too dragged out and I did like the use of the Dragon.

Sick bucket is required for every Evil Queen/Rumple scene and Rumple wanting Zelena dead seemed to floor Evil Queen a little bit. I did like the reminder of Zelena's previous deal with Rumple.

Rumple putting that bracelet on Belle was disturbed as well. 

Aladdin isn't a great thief in this version, is he?

Henry/Violet stuff was a little better than expected, 7/10

[Mitch]

I actually liked this episode also. I like it when Regina and Emma work together...as long as Regina is not crying...though the team up is missing its bickering element which I loved. No matter what Emma and Regina are going to see things differently and they are both the alpha females..(actually just alphas in dimbulb Storybrooke) and they should be bickering as they get sh*t done.

I like this EQ..sneaky manipulative and not going around and just slaughtering people, though still bad. Though I am confused, when do the writers think the EQ stopped and Regina started being Regina again?  I think when the show started that Regina was Regina..(still bad..) after 18 years of living as Mayor Mills, (maybe there are three..EQ, Mayor Mills and Regina)  and I didn't think Mayor Mills would have wanted Henry evil. After the curse broke we saw her even see that she was acting like her mother and letting Henry go to Charming.  The EQ still loves Henry, etc, but she wants him to kill someone? But she hesitates on killing Zelena?  Its almost like this EQ is an entirely new character with some of the same motivations.

Oh, and a good little scene with the EQ on the stairs transforming into Regina, and we all see it as a shadow.  An easter egg to the silent Nosferatu? I wish the whole show was as creative as their easter eggs.

[KAOS Agent]

I was thinking that this episode gave us real evidence of a character who benefited from the Dark Curse. Sidney may have had his memories removed, but he was living with others in a real world rather than stuck all alone in the Mirror World as a genie being required to do the Evil Queen's bidding. Oddly enough, he gained more freedom from the curse than he'd had in the Enchanted Forest. Although I was also thinking how awful it must have been when Regina sent him back there. Further, I realized that Regina did that just a few months ago in show time. 

[Mari]

Yup.

And the show--as well as the promotions at the time--portrayed it as though Sydney had committed a horrible betrayal by refusing to continue helping Regina.

Sometimes I hate this show.

Edited November 17, 2016 by Mari
Forgot something.

[YaddaYadda]

I could have skipped 6x08 and watched 5x05 instead. Same premise, including some of the dialogue about Henry being himself.

At least Merlin was released from the tree in 5x05. Pretty sure the Dragon's still in the mirror.

Edited November 17, 2016 by YaddaYadda

[Bishop]

I REALLY wish the writes would focus more on their story than on the Evil Queen.  Sorry folks, but I am over the Evil Queen and her revenge plots.  I feel like the EQ and Mr. Gold stories have all been there and one that.  I feel equally bored with Zelena too.  They are just too one-note for me.  

I loved the montage of Charming and Snow in the beginning, and I wish the show gave more screen time to them, and in particular to Charming who seems to take a backseat to his wife and daugher - and Regina and the EQ.  I would like to see more of his past explored and the return of his evil step-father.  That was fun to watch.

I also wish the writers had devoted some time to seeing how Hook and Emma co-habitat.  I just feel like they are skipping over the important dramatic beats of their storyline now.  We know they love each other and will fight for each other, but it would be nice to just have some extended conversations.

Also, I could have sworn that the EQ, when talking to Gold at his shop, said "the pirate and his son" when describing Hook and Henry.  Did I hear that wrong?

[AudienceofOne]

Poor Henry. It's bad enough the EQ is his adopted mother and step-great-grandmother. If the EQ gets pregnant to Rumple then he's looking at her giving birth to a kid that will be his brother, uncle and great uncle all in one. It's bad enough he already has an Uncle who's a baby and a soon-to-be stepfather who's also his step-grandfather. No wonder he's confused.

Edited November 24, 2016 by AudienceofOne

[Shanna Marie]

This is the Too Stupid to Live episode. In previous episodes, they discovered that the Evil Queen was always a step ahead of them when Regina came up with the plan for fighting her because they're the same person and the Evil Queen can anticipate Regina's every move. So what do they do in this episode? They let Regina take the lead in coming up with the plan to defeat the Evil Queen.

In a previous episode, we saw how the Evil Queen fooled them by posing as Archie. But have they instituted any security protocols for verifying people's identity? No. They get fooled by the Evil Queen posing as Regina, and it's only a slip of her tongue that clues Henry in. No one challenges "Regina," and they talk openly with her about what's going on.

These idiots deserve to lose.

And then there's Belle with Rumple. I'd totally forgotten the bit where he basically put a tracker on her so she couldn't escape from him. Basically, he's the psycho ex who's so possessive of the woman who leaves him that he sticks a GPS tracker on her car or stalks her so she can't go anywhere without him knowing (and meanwhile, he's fooling around with another woman, but that's okay for him. His ex doesn't have the right to leave him). I noticed in the thread from the original airing that we pretty much figured that had to be the nail in the coffin of that relationship because it's hard to see that as anything but abuse.

Spoiler

And yet they got a happy ending together. Ugh. Way to romanticize abuse, guys.

[Camera One]

I think my breaking point for these latter season episodes is 15 minutes. 

Though I already wanted to quit when Henry started rattling off 80's movies to show Violet's his "fun side"... the dialogue is just so cringy.  Plus I laughed out loud when Jasmine told Aladdin he can't help Belle/Zelena because he has to help find Agrabah.  

The first thing I noticed in this episode is Prince Charming is way too tall for that bed.  If he is sleeping on his back, his head is practically touching the front grate.  

So multiple days pass by at the start of the episode, but The Evil Queen has done nothing.  Why didn't she get rid of Emma and Regina earlier?

We're supposed to believe the most pessimistic half of The Evil Queen would associate with Rumple, who has betrayed her multiple times?  Oh riight, it's because she's hot for him.

I forgot that in this episode, Rumple said again that "Villains don't get happy endings" and "Love is weakness"... can't use these catchphrases enough on this show.

Spoiler

The Evil Queen replies she doesn't want an ending, she wants a BEGINNING.  Wow, they were already thinking about the "Happy Beginnings" song in this episode!  These Writers are just a-m-a-z-i-n-g.  

So the Emma/Regina adventure episodes in Season 4 were "Breaking Glass" and "Lily".  In 5B, it was the finale.   Were there any others?   

The Evil Queen is pathetic.  Hook figures out her plan and she just knocks him out?  Why not kill him?  Trap him somewhere?  Send him to the ends of the Earth?  

Are you telling me The Evil Queen wouldn't have taken Violet's heart and controlled it so Henry would be happy.  But oh no, only a TRULY horrible person like Emma would do something that evil!

Emma starts to tell The Dragon what happened to Snowing and he already knows?  How?  He's just watching the show from the mirrors?  I fear this punishment is even worse than previously thought!

Edited July 21, 2019 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

On 7/21/2019 at 4:03 PM, Camera One said:

So multiple days pass by at the start of the episode, but The Evil Queen has done nothing.  Why didn't she get rid of Emma and Regina earlier?

I don't think she was going after them. She only threw them into the mirror world because they were trying to send her there. She mostly seems to want to mess with Emma's relationships and to "darken" Regina, while she wants to really hurt the Charmings. Though I don't think the writers really thought about what she wanted. She just did whatever random thing they needed for each episode.

On 7/21/2019 at 4:03 PM, Camera One said:

Though I already wanted to quit when Henry started rattling off 80's movies to show Violet's his "fun side"... the dialogue is just so cringy.

We had a lot of discussion here after the initial airing about whether or not Henry should have been so hung up on 80s movies. But even if he was, since Storybrooke was sort of stuck in the 80s, the problem is that the writers were so caught up in Gen-Xing all over their 21st century teen avatar that they don't seem to have thought about how that might have applied here. Why would Violet be so out of place in Storybrooke? It's not like she was plunked down in John Hughes Memorial High School in suburban Chicago. She's from Camelot in a school full of kids from the next storybook kingdom over. She should have fit in better than Henry -- which could have been something interesting to explore. They never showed or even suggested that he had any friends at all. I don't think we ever saw him talking to another kid, aside from the one episode with Hansel and Gretel. He was the real outsider. He wouldn't have fit into any of the cliques, especially once the curse was broken. It might have been interesting if Violet had fit right in and didn't have to rely on him for friendship and Henry, who'd been there for years, was the one on the outside, fearing that he was losing Violet.

On 7/21/2019 at 4:03 PM, Camera One said:

I think my breaking point for these latter season episodes is 15 minutes. 

I usually don't make it that far before I start doing something else with it on in the background. If I do both in one night, I might see a bit more of the first one because I do my physical therapy exercises during it, which means I'm more or less paying attention. Then I may switch to knitting, and then I start reading e-mail, Twitter, etc., or I re-read the whole thread from the original airing because that's more interesting than the actual episode. I may look up at the screen when a good scene or moment comes on, or when something surprises me because I forgot it. These episodes are "newer" to me because I haven't rewatched them, but they're a lot less interesting than the older ones I've seen multiple times.

[KAOS Agent]

Honestly, reading the threads for these episodes just reminds me of how bored and disinterested I was in this season. Every episode where the Evil Queen gets a lot of focus is such a turn off for me. I don't know why anyone thought that retreading several seasons worth of Evil Queen vs the Charmings would be must see TV. 

Mirror world was dumb and I forgot about the dragon and how we found out that the Taser of Doom wasn't as powerful as it was first presented. Anyone on the edge of their seat wondering about the Dragon's missing daughter? Me neither.

[KingOfHearts]

6 hours ago, KAOS Agent said:

Anyone on the edge of their seat wondering about the Dragon's missing daughter? Me neither.

Spoiler

Still can't believe the writers chose Zorro to be Lily's dad instead of the Dragon.

[tennisgurl]

How did everyone NOT instantly realize that Regina was really the EQ the second she walked in like "I mean, is she really evil you guys?!" when she said she got rid of her. At least Hook caught on pretty quickly, and even Henry put two and two together. 

The mirror world was kind of cool, as was seeing The Dragon again, but like many things about this show, both were terribly underused. A&E continue to come up with some decent ideas, but fail to really use them to their full potential. 

Henry's obsession with 80s movies continues to make him sound like a 37 year old man in the body of a 13 year old. Maybe it would work if they really established that Storybrooke was stuck in a time bubble and he did grow up in the 80s, but it never really was. Its not like people dressed like it was the 80s or talked about how excited they were for the new Madonna song every single year, so it just comes off as Henry the A&E plug in character. 

Charming and Snow and their sleep trades off are sad and sweet, and its nice to actually give them something to do. 

The terrible threat of the EQ of kind of hurt when she seems to mostly just be hanging around town making kissy faces with Rumple for most of the time. Aladdin and Jasmine showing up just seems more random every time we see them. Like "oh yeah...your a thing."

[Shanna Marie]

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Henry's obsession with 80s movies continues to make him sound like a 37 year old man in the body of a 13 year old.

More like 47-year-old man. 80s teens are in their late 40s/early 50s now. Yikes.

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Charming and Snow and their sleep trades off are sad and sweet, and its nice to actually give them something to do. 

It's sad when they play more of a role while under a sleeping curse than they did when they were both fully awake.