S06.E13: Ill-Boding Patterns

[Curio]

11 minutes ago, AmeliaBedelia said:

Emma proposing would have been so much better. I'm picturing Hook showing up to their house with Emma already kneeling in the foyer. We could have gotten her pov for once about their relationship. And you're right, Hook would never say no to a proposal from Emma. Damn, now I'm even more pissed it didn't happen this way.

I'm actually holding out hope that Emma will propose to Hook in a redo proposal later this season once he comes clean about the secret. I think Hook will be so guilty about the secret that he'll temporarily call things off and say something like, "You deserve better than me, blah blah blah," and then eventually Emma will be like, "Dude, my best friend sent me to jail and my other best friend killed my really good friend but I technically don't know about that. I don't care."

[elle]

1 hour ago, KingOfHearts said:

* Gideon had a immunity to memory tea? Does he have one for iocane powder too?

Ha!

1 hour ago, KingOfHearts said:

Also, if Rumple killed all the ogres, how was there a Second Ogres War?

Oh, don't try apply logic here, you'll hurt yourself.

[MaiLuna]

Oh, Rumpel  is so noble for doing dark things! Is that where the morality of this show has sunk to? I was pissed for a moment they'd killed Blue. By the way, when we first met Blue she was one of the most powerful magical beings and now she's pretty much useless. 

And I don't believe for a second Bae would act like that. No way. But I kinda liked seeing not-yet-full-Imp Rumpel. Why wouldn't he give Bae a memory potion that erased more though?  

I gotta say, even though I hate that Hook didn't come clean first (he was pretty much cornered), the CS proposal made me a bit emotional. Let's just hope he actually tells her before she finds out another way.

Regina didn't blame someone else for once? And admitted the EQ was her? Color me surprised, I agreed and felt a bit proud for her. 

Why would Robin steal a snake?! And I can't believe they're actually going with Wish!Robin/Evil Queen, this show is so predictable. 

[KingOfHearts]

Quote

By the way, when we first met Blue she was one of the most powerful magical beings and now she's pretty much useless. 

imo, Blue has always been useless.

[Noneofyourbusiness]

13 minutes ago, MaiLuna said:

Why would Robin steal a snake?!

Did he? Or did she just escape?

[OnceUponAJen]

If one half of a couple goes to the Underworld to bring back the other half after she killed him, aren't they considered to be common law married anyway?

[daxx]

I'm so tired of every CS milestone being dogged by some kind of secret. They kiss, Pan tells him Neal is alive, first date, evil hand angst, first "I love you", darkness, proposal... you get the picture. 

I hope that they call off the proposal so they can have a do over later, a proper one that isn't shoved in the corner of a huge Rumple whitewashing retcon.

[jay741982]

1 hour ago, mjgchick said:

These dumb ass writers could've still gotten their angst with Hook telling Emma and Emma pretending like she didn't see the ring and thus her not knowing how to answer him for the next few episodes. 

 

They are clearly phasing Emma out. No wonder why this show is so dull now.

Yeah I'm not watching a OUAT without Emma not doing it 

[superloislane]

I did get my little squee moment during the proposal even if it wasn't what I wanted. That's what Captain Swan does to me. Also I figure they'll probably get another one down the line after the 'big bad secret' comes out.

Where the hell was Emma Swan during this episode? Rumple and Gideon talked about her. Hook and Archie talked about her. And yet she only appears for two minutes towards the end??? Did she go canoeing again? This show is dull as hell without her.

The rest was snooze city. Why doesn't someone tell this idiot Gideon that that's not how you become the Savior? Or are they actually trying to say it is because I won't accept that. I care so little about this guy. I rolled my eyes during his 'sad childhood' story and hoped he could just leave already.

I can't believe they might actually be trying to redeem Rumple. 5B and 6A have both gone to great lengths to show that Rumple is too far gone to ever be acceptably redeemed and now they're trying to flip it around all of a sudden? It makes no sense. And why is Belle just over everything her husband did? Sure maybe she's putting her son first but still...

What was the point to showing a Baelfire flashback? What did it even add to anything? It actually just destroyed the foundation of that character. Did we need to see Rumple's first son 'go dark' to make us understand why Rumple wouldn't want his other son to go dark? No we really didn't. I had easily accepted that he wouldn't want his son to go dark without any retconned flashback to give a reason.

Adam posted a script tease with Snow talking to Regina and that was cut. Snow never even showed up! I'm pretty sure that's the 4th or 5th time Adam has done this. It's a bad sign when the showrunners don't even know what scenes have been cut from an episode and even use those scenes to promote the episode! It's no wonder this season has been such a mess.

This Robin has much more of a personality than the old one. If only he had been this way before - maybe then he and his relationship with Regina wouldn't have been so bland and forgettable.

One good thing - Emma looked absolutely beautiful and happy for the TWO minutes she was there.

[Camera One]

Many of you have already said exactly what was I thinking while I was watching this dreck.  So this is what it feels like when an episode is all about R&R and a Charming family member only cameos in the last five minutes.   Emma was the only one... no Charming, Snow or Henry, without even an excuse for where they all are.  This one rivalled the worst episodes of this show to date.  

I didn't realize it was Destroy Baelfire Week.  This was arguably one of the most egregious retcons they've made, which destroyed all the Dylan Schmid flashbacks we had seen before this.  Not to mention, it made absolutely no sense.  If Baelfire was so vindictive and ordered someone's killing, a simple cup of Memory Tea wouldn't have erased the anger he should have been exhibiting towards Beowulf, but he expressed zero anger.  Why didn't Rumple erase more of his memory?  Why didn't Rumple hide Beowulf's sword/cloak?  None of it made any sense.  Plus the Memory Tea wouldn't stop Baelfire from exhibiting those angry/vengeful/murderous tendency again.  They made him into a complete sociopath right before he drank the tea when he mused about using fear of the Dagger to stop the Baker's son from bullying him.  Yet over and over, we had never seen the child Baelfire take that path.  I am astounded that A&E would willingly destroy a character they created themselves.  I guess I'll have to imagine that was some fake Baelfire... thanks, alternate actor.

I didn't feel anything with Rumple and Gideon's scenes since Gideon was acting like he was an insecure 13-year old and watching a grown man say those lines just made the character seem even more pathetic and delusional.  And Belle embracing Rumple once again at the end was completely unearned, but what else is new.  Like the Author plotline and the Hat Box plotline, I cannot buy the premise and it makes the story DOA.

I personally didn't enjoy this Robin any more than the other one, so all his scenes were a snore to me as well.  He was whiny as hell and now, we are back to Double Dose of Regina with the return of The Evil Queen.  Because we didn't get enough of her in 6A.  

So basically, I didn't enjoy anything in this episode except perhaps that one moment between Regina and Zelena in the vault.

Oh, I forgot to congratulate Beowulf for getting The Fallen Hero Award.  

I joke but I'm actually really disappointed that this show has sunk to such a new low.  I feel like the elevator just lurched and it went down 10 stories instead of the usual 1.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Camera One

[oncebluethrone]

Wow, everyone is really upset and I understand. However, I am in the minority here. I overall enjoyed this episode.  I thought the flashbacks were really good and tied into the present day storyline nicely.  My only problem is that Baelfire forced Rumple to kill Beowulf, but I think that was because the dagger was corrupting him. I thought that Beowulf was done well and liked the twist of him also being Grendel.  For the present day storyline, I feel bad for Gideon but I still don't like him and think he's kind of ridiculous. I have found that the best version of Rumbelle could be when they're working together, but not actually in a relationship, and I found it interesting that Blue forged the sword.  And now for the proposal. My feelings toward it are mixed.  I am happy that they got engaged, but I am upset about the circumstances.  Killian was all ready to tell her the truth, but Emma had found the ring, said yes before he proposed, and he didn't want to make her upset by putting a damper on her happiness so he made the wrong decision and proposed anyway. However, I refuse to believe that was the real proposal.

Spoiler

I think that he is going to tell her the truth next episode, based on the promo since both of them look devastated, which is going to lead into Killian going on his adventure to Agrabah with Jasmine and Ariel to atone for his sin and prove himself worthy.  And then at the end of that episode, we will get the proper proposal with truly no secrets hanging over them.

Edited March 20, 2017 by oncebluethrone

[KAOS Agent]

Man Gideon is tedious. That episode was so ridiculously boring. It's never good on this show when an episode revolves so much around guest characters. Robert Carlyle is good, but he can't elevate the dreck he was handed here.

Some Notes:

- Baelfire's eyes changed color. Now they're brown. It bothered me.

- Gideon is awful and stupid and whiny and I am so disgusted that we're going to be stuck with him for the rest of the season and he'll continue to pull story from characters that I actually enjoy watching.

- On the subject of Gideon, why can't someone explain that killing the Saviour doesn't make you a Saviour? I don't understand if the writers really think we should believe this nonsense or if we're supposed to think all of these people buying into it are just that dumb. Why can't Emma defeat the Black Fairy? Or was Gideon supposed to be Beowulf in this story and his need to be a hero with all the credit associated with it is all he really cares about? 

- I was kind of hoping Robin would escape Storybrooke. He's more interesting now, but still boring. Zelena was the only thing saving the B-plot tonight.

- Was there any attempt by the Stiltskins to give Emma a heads up that Gideon now has the sword and is off to kill her again? 

- In an attempt to be positive, I will say that I did enjoy having two Henry-less episodes in a row.

[clairetvfanatic]

"OMG, I'm so bored!"

This is what I said out loud on several occasions during the show tonight .  I really don't understand what the writers are thinking here in what is possibly the last season.  Its just one bad idea after another.

On the plus side, as tainted as the CS proposal may be right now, I'd still take what we got over him proposing and Emma saying no.  Because of walls, guilt or other bs.  She was truly happy and don't tell me she hadn't been trying that ring on ALL DAY.

[Notwisconsin]

I just popped in to watch the beginning of the episode after a long time away....when was the time jump?

[mjgchick]

I loathe the Neal character (not a fan of grown adults screwing teenagers.) but the writers retconning his character just to make sense of the present really disgust me. They don't care what this does to what we've previously watched because they truly think we are all stupid. 

This show has had Emmaless episodes but they were never this bad. It's like these writers said "we gave you a full season of carrying the show in s5. Now it's time to give guest stars a chance on what might be our final season." Idiots. 

[asabovesobelow]

OH MY GOD with the characters second guessing themselves. Every character. Every episode. Every storyline.

I'm not good enough! I am good enough! I'm a changed man/woman! But have I changed enough? My past is in the past! My past is haunting me! Somebody, anybody, tell me how much of a hero I am so I can feel good for the next eight minutes until something else makes me question myself.

I just can't. This one was really, really boring.

[Arnella]

11 hours ago, KingOfHearts said:

Also, if Rumple killed all the ogres, how was there a Second Ogres War?

That struck me too.  Wait.  Were they intimating that Rumple committed genocide?  Whenever they try to make a bad guy "good", they totally screw it up. 

When in Rumple's time line did he turn that villager permanently into a pig and turned that other guy into a snail and squashed him just for looking at Bae cross-eyed?  The Baker's kid gets off scott free for abusing Bae?? Where is my power mad, deliciously dark but super over-protective Dark One??

A&E - you suck at retconning.  Please just stop.

[CCTC]

I don't remember any of the specifics from the actual Beowulf part of the plot line.  What a waste of the character.  For how they used him, they really could have just had any generic warrior, because they did not treat the Beowulf story in any memorable way.  I saw some stills last week of the woods that looked genuinely creepy, but they were more interesting than  anything in the final product.

I know Regina gets a fair amount of flack, including from me, but I think they actually have done a decent job of her having some self-awareness lately (except with her sister earlier in the season).   I do think she sometimes gets overused, but I do sense some genuine remorse from her from time to time and does seem to have developed some feeling for other characters.  With Gold, I have never felt that he has cared for anyone other than Belle, in a possessive way, or his sons.  He has never cared about the fate of anyone else, including his grandson, or the town in general.  It is all things that are directly attached to him.

[Curio]

26 minutes ago, CCTC said:

I know Regina gets a fair amount of flack, including from me, but I think they actually have done a decent job of her having some self-awareness lately (except with her sister earlier in the season). I do think she sometimes gets overused, but I do sense some genuine remorse from her from time to time and does seem to have developed some feeling for other characters.

The problem I have with Regina now is that it all seems too little too late to come to these obvious conclusions that should have been dealt with years ago, and instead of me feeling sympathy for her finally coming to some self-awareness, the only reaction I have is, "Geez, you're just figuring this out now?"

[Vyk]

13 hours ago, Writing Wrongs said:

Bullshit retcon. Bae would never have done that.

They did a hatchet job on Bae in this episode, and I don't like it one bit.  Because yeah, no way he would've done that.

And what happened to the original Bae?  This one was all right, but very much an inferior actor to the first.

[Selina K]

Sucked.

Writers room: Are there any characters on this show that seem to be well received overall?

Anonymous writer checking Twitter: Well, young Baelfire seems like he doesn't create much controversy? Generally well liked and praise for the actor ...

A&E idea bulb: Here's what we'll do ...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8:01 "Oh, I didn't expect to see Hook - well, maybe this episode won't suck as bad as I think it will."

~Rumple, Baelfire, Beowulf, Regina, Robin

8:53 "Blergh"

I liked last week until 8:54. This was pretty much the inverse of last week's episode.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Selina K

[Amerilla]

18 minutes ago, Vyk said:

And what happened to the original Bae?  This one was all right, but very much an inferior actor to the first.

The original Bae is 18 now, and 18 in a way that can't pass for 14 anymore. 

[Randomosity]

2 minutes ago, Amerilla said:

The original Bae is 18 now, and 18 in a way that can't pass for 14 anymore. 

So like Henry, except expendable.

[Curio]

11 minutes ago, Amerilla said:

The original Bae is 18 now, and 18 in a way that can't pass for 14 anymore. 

Why couldn't we have had a flashback to 18-year-old Bae instead? What was he up to? And as boring as I find broody Gideon, I feel like they should have ditched this entire Beowulf flashback for a flashback about Gidoen's time in the Dark Realm instead. Television is all about show don't tell, so instead of his boring monologue about how the Black Fairy tortured him, why couldn't that have been the flashback? I don't know anything about his character, so if they want me to be somewhat invested in his stupid, stupid, stupid plan to kill the Savior, at least give us a flashback to explain his actions. Knowing TS;TW, by the time they show Gideon's flashback episode, it'll be the episode where he does a heel face turn and becomes good, but at that point, no one will care about him.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Curio

[Shanna Marie]

I've been trying to make sense of the Rumple part of the plot, and it's just not working for me.

So, I can kind of see the villagers being a bit wary of having a Dark One in their midst after the Dark One was used to subjugate them, and a bit wary of it being the guy that they've been treating like a loser outcast. But I don't really get them thinking of him freeing them from the duke's tyranny, ending the war, and stopping their husbands and sons from being drafted as a negative, especially if he isn't yet using his power to oppress them. I also don't get how him stopping Grendel without using his powers is supposed to reassure them. For one thing, how will they know he didn't use his powers? Does he have a body cam? Would they believe him if he came back and just told them he stopped Grendel without using his powers? Would they really care, as long as he got the job done? Wouldn't using his powers to defend the village and save its people be a good thing? If Grendel was killing all the armed men going after it, how did Bae expect his father to defeat it without using his powers?

Then there's Beowulf, who has that hero issue so common on the show, where it's not that he wants to do good things, it's that he wants to be seen as a hero, and he can't do that if someone else gets to be the hero. So, naturally, his plan to become a real hero is to: 1) start a rumor about a monster; 2) kill everyone who comes to fight the monster; 3) wait for the Dark One to come after the monster; 4) Success! I'm not sure what he was really hoping the outcome would be. Was it just to get revenge on Rumple for ending the war before he got to be a hero, or was he going to come back to town bragging about killing the Dark One and saving them all? Did he know that you can't kill a Dark One without becoming the Dark One? How was he going to explain Grendel? Those killings were happening while Rumple was in town, so it's not like he could have claimed that Rumple was Grendel.

You know, this would have been a good opportunity to create some continuity by having Rumple having a HeadFormerDarkOne, since this was early in his time as Dark One. If he was trying to be good and use his powers for good, wouldn't the past Dark Ones have been tormenting him like with Emma and Hook?

[Curio]

9 minutes ago, Shanna Marie said:

You know, this would have been a good opportunity to create some continuity by having Rumple having a HeadFormerDarkOne, since this was early in his time as Dark One. If he was trying to be good and use his powers for good, wouldn't the past Dark Ones have been tormenting him like with Emma and Hook?

Shhhh...there's no such thing as continuity anymore. Here, now take this totally normal tea that doesn't have any memory potion in it...

[Primetimer]

If you thought Rumplestiltskin's backstory was a well that had run dry...you were right! But that won't stop Once Upon A Time from going back there anyway. Now with the poem that tortured you in high school!

View the full article

[Camera One]

1 hour ago, Curio said:

Why couldn't we have had a flashback to 18-year-old Bae instead? What was he up to? And as boring as I find broody Gideon, I feel like they should have ditched this entire Beowulf flashback for a flashback about Gidoen's time in the Dark Realm instead. Television is all about show don't tell, so instead of his boring monologue about how the Black Fairy tortured him, why couldn't that have been the flashback? I don't know anything about his character, so if they want me to be somewhat invested in his stupid, stupid, stupid plan to kill the Savior, at least give us a flashback to explain his actions. Knowing TS;TW, by the time they show Gideon's flashback episode, it'll be the episode where he does a heel face turn and becomes good, but at that point, no one will care about him.

This was the Writers's "conundrum":  

In this episode, the present storyline would be Rumple trying to stop Gideon (Son #2) from becoming Dark.  

They needed to figure out what flashback story would reinforce that.  

Well, the *most* obvious parallel would be Rumple tried to stop a previous son from becoming Dark and failed.  

Oh wait, he only had one previous son - Baelfire.  And he was never tempted to become Dark.  Oh well, who cares, let's just make him become Dark and say *that's* why Rumple remained The Dark One!  It was all for Bae!  

The lack of creativity is astounding.   Yet they took it even further than they needed to.  Was it necessary to have Bae ask Rumple to straight-up murder someone?  And then AFTER Bae caused a murder, his attitude was a complete 180.  We've never seen someone be corrupted by simply commanding The Dark One to do something.  Did Belle become homicidal and dependent on the dagger too?  

BAELFIRE: But the baker's son will think twice about pushing me in the mud when he sees me carrying this.
RUMPLE: Oh, Bae, listen to yourself.  
BAELFIRE: Papa, I'm sorry I asked you to give up your power.  I understand now why it's so hard.  But we need it.  It's the only way to protect ourselves.

If this was what Baelfire truly believed deep down, these emotions should have been easily triggered post-Memory Drink. 

Edited March 20, 2017 by Camera One

[Noneofyourbusiness]

16 minutes ago, PreviouslyTV said:

Also, there's a whole thing about Robin and Zelena trying to remove the protection spell around the town, which even Regina can't do now. They've left town multiple times. Didn't they leave town this season? How the hell does this spell work? Who keeps re-casting it?

The Evil Queen strengthened it in "Heartless" so that no one could escape her threat to kill the town with Lost Souls water unless Snow and David gave themselves up. Which doesn't explain why Regina wouldn't be able to reverse her own evil half's spell.

[FormerMod-a1]

Apropos of nothing, but I keep reading the episode title as "Ill-BoNding Patterns".

[adam807]

9 minutes ago, aquarian1 said:

Apropos of nothing, but I keep reading the episode title as "Ill-BoNding Patterns".

Better than "Ill-Boning Patterns." I'll show myself out.

[Curio]

25 minutes ago, Camera One said:

If this was what Baelfire truly believed deep down, these emotions should have been easily triggered post-Memory Drink. 

I suppose this retcon proves that Hook was smart to let Pan's crew take Bae in Neverland. Little did we know that Bae was actually a crazy homicidal teenager who would have eventually killed Hook. Remember when Bae took his sword and slashed at Hook until Hook easily batted it away? Well, guess what folks? That wasn't just Bae being upset, that was Bae's dark murderous tendencies bubbling up to the surface! Hooray for retcons! 

Also, was I supposed to make a connection between Beowulf and Gideon? In the flashback, they wanted us to view Beowulf as a bad guy because he went about being a hero the wrong way, but when Gideon goes about being a hero the wrong way in the present, we're supposed to root for him to overcome this hurdle just because he happens to be a main character now? What? Also, it pains me so much how TS;TW do not understand basic morality and legal concepts. If you hire a hitman to kill someone, the person who hires the hitman is still charged with murder. Rumple doing Gideon's dirty work doesn't exonerate Gideon's conscience at all. This is all so, so, so, so, so stupid. There is literally nothing stopping Gideon from just asking for Emma's help to save the Dark Realm. I actually felt more sympathy for Beowulf because at least there was a history of Dark Ones doing bad things in the past, so he was somewhat justified in trying to kill this new Dark One. But there's literally no good reason for Gideon to kill Emma except to gain the arbitrary title of "Savior." Which, by the way Gideon, being the Savior sucks. 

Edited March 20, 2017 by Curio

[FormerMod-a1]

4 minutes ago, adam807 said:

Better than "Ill-Boning Patterns." I'll show myself out.

LOL!  That's would be a whole different kind of fairy-tale! 

[Shanna Marie]

4 minutes ago, Curio said:

What? Also, it pains me so much how TS;TW does not understand basic morality and legal concepts. If you hire a hitman to kill someone, the person who hires the hitman is still charged with murder.

We also have that issue of it somehow being evil to stop a murderer. Hadn't Beowulf been murdering the men of the town who came to take care of "Grendel"? Wouldn't it be a good thing for them to have done something about him? Maybe not kill him, but use the Dark One power to arrest him and bring him to town for justice. How is letting an unrepentant murderer who's willing to keep killing in order to look like a hero a good idea?

[BoPeeps]

The "I'll Boding Patterns" is a reference to the ineptitude and piss poor writing that is systematically destroying this show, fast.

It is obvious that the creators and writing team have totally lost their way and their interest in keeping this series alive. Beyond a point of salvation.

A&E just don't have the necessary talent or smarts to write a cohesive, progressing, honest story anymore.

A brick wall has been reached.  Every strong female character has been abandoned  and every male character has lost their substance.

It is nothing but disjointed plot points.

They have very effectively betrayed the fans, their actors and their empty promises that this show is about hope of any kind.

Sadly, it is unwatchable.

Very sad.

[Mathius]

The weirdest thing is that despite the horrible continuity with the rest of the show, they actually remembered to keep continuity with OUATIW this time, referring to the supposed monster as "a Grendel", insinuating it's a species, which fits OUATIW where the Red Queen turned a man into "a Grendel".

[sharky]

1 hour ago, PreviouslyTV said:

If you thought Rumplestiltskin's backstory was a well that had run dry...you were right! But that won't stop Once Upon A Time from going back there anyway. Now with the poem that tortured you in high school!

View the full article

I don't know who wrote the subheads for these recaps the past two weeks, but they've definitely been accurate. Blerg. 

[Rumsy4]

5 hours ago, mjgchick said:

I loathe the Neal character (not a fan of grown adults screwing teenagers.) but the writers retconning his character just to make sense of the present really disgust me. 

They turned Baelfire from wonderful kid into a douchecanoe then to retconned saint, and back to douchecanoe. And there is literally nothing to explain a single one of these transformations. It's like they're four different charatcers.

47 minutes ago, BoPeeps said:

They have very effectively betrayed the fans, their actors and their empty promises that this show is about hope of any kind.

Yeah. It's a travesty.

27 minutes ago, sharky said:

I don't know who wrote the subheads for these recaps the past two weeks, but they've definitely been accurate. Blerg. 

Yeah. Too funny. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

 .  I really don't understand what the writers are thinking here in what is possibly the last season.  Its just one bad idea after another.

The show is seriously confused about what the audience wants to see and ratings bear that out. Last night's episode reached a new low in ratings. 

A&E are stubbornly married to a formula of villains and flashbacks to their own detriment. I can't imagine anyone cares about Gideon and they've given us no reason to.

[Curio]

4 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

The show is seriously confused about what the audience wants to see and ratings bear that out. Last night's episode reached a new low in ratings. 

A&E are stubbornly married to a formula of villains and flashbacks to their own detriment. I can't imagine anyone cares about Gideon and they've given us no reason to.

I actually liked Gideon in the premiere when he was Morpheus for a hot second, and he was okay when he was communicating to Belle in her dreams, but now that they've made him a whiny little brat who wants to kill for no good reason at all, I despise him.

But 100% yes to your point about A&E not understanding what the audience wants to see. It's like they actively search out the things we do want to see, then do the exact opposite because it's not what we're expecting. Because, you know, all that matters anymore is angst and surprise twists and secrets. Even LOST figured out after a while that flashbacks were boring, so how has OUAT not figured it out after six seasons?

[mjgchick]

And it was for characters no one cared about. A character that makes zero sense on why he wants to do what he wants. Why is no one telling him that what he wants is impossible? The shit Emma went through in her life where she was repeatedly kicked in the face without turning heel on the world is why she's the savior. At least how the show has written the character but to add this Aladdin stuff where he's a savior as well and ended up being selfish and now one of Rumples children who thinks he can be the savior by killing the current savior will make him a hero is ridiculous even for these writers. I wished Disney would step in but it seems they only cared to do that when Frozen was on the show.

[Camera One]

Gideon clarified in this episode that he needed to save "his people" from The Black Fairy's curse, whatever that's supposed to mean.  Yet he's believing what she says about killing Emma?  It's so idiotic.

How would Gideon remember that his mother gave him "Her Handsome Hero"?  He was a magical baby who could understand language from birth?  Why didn't The Black Fairy just destroy the book?  His story made no sense.

So now magic can figure out combination locks?  Why was the sword hilt so poorly guarded?  Why wouldn't Blue have mentioned that she forged the sword?  It's not new but the heroes have to stoop to a whole new level of stupid to make this plotline work.

Shouldn't Rumple put Gideon under a Sleeping Curse or maybe trap him in Pandora's Box?  Gideon has such strong magical powers because.  

Regina can tell a random box is missing from among all the crap that's in the vault, but not until the last possible moment so Robin can clumsily spill some of the spell onto his skin?  The Snake was so poorly guarded? And now Regina suddenly realizes she shouldn't have split her evil half from herself.  Once again, we applaud that the character finally shows some self awareness, but the Wish Robin stuff was only cursorily related to this conclusion.  Yet they sidelined main characters to insert this pointless subplot which isn't even entertaining.

[Curio]

Wasn't David keeping the secret about researching his father's death one of the big "oh no, he's keeping a secret" plots in 6A? What happened to him telling Snow? How does David get off the hook for keeping that secret from his wife, but Hook has to brood for multiple episodes about his secret? Granted, the secrets are massively different, but still. And we literally just got done with an arc about Emma keeping the Savior fate a secret from her family. And Aladdin kept it a secret from Jasmine that he was alive. And Belle kept it a secret from Rumple that she planned on sending Gideon away. And David kept Emma's Wish Realm adventure a secret from Snow by not telling her anything about it. How do the writers not see how repetitive this is?

Also, isn't it out of character for Rumple to tell Bae that he'd be willing to move to another town? Hasn't Rumple always been Mr. Homebody with both Milah and Belle?

I didn't mention this earlier, but I did enjoy the actor who played Beowulf. Too bad the writing did his character no favors. (Sadly, I tuned out most of the dialogue and kept wondering how tall he was whenever he was on screen.)

[Camera One]

Wasn't David keeping the secret about researching his father's death one of the big "oh no, he's keeping a secret" plots in 6A? What happened to him telling Snow? How does David get off the hook for keeping that secret from his wife, but Hook has to brood for multiple episodes about his secret?

Who cares about Snow.  David only gets one episode per season, you know.  It's twisted but the Writers believe Hook is more worthy of screentime and they like writing him brood.  They couldn't care less if the audience wants that or not.

[Mathius]

8 minutes ago, Camera One said:

 It's twisted but the Writers believe Hook is more worthy of screentime and they like writing him brood.  They couldn't care less if the audience wants that or not.

The audience wants funny Hook who goes adventuring with Emma (and sometimes Henry).  Brooding Hook is probably their least favorite Hook.

[Curio]

23 minutes ago, Mathius said:

Brooding Hook is probably their least favorite Hook.

Brooding Hook is the writers' favorite Hook, but the audience's least favorite Hook. Just give me back my funny, snarky pirate, Show!

[Camera One]

Emma was looking so guilty coming down the stairs at the end because she was upstairs with Snow, Charming and Henry where they spent the entire episode putting finishing touches on their spaceship to get the heck out of dodge.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

This episode attempted to pull off a bigger retcon with Rumple being evil to protect his sons from doing the same. Bae's earl grey aside, I thought Rumple was acting very OOC in the flashbacks. I don't believe for a second that he would have successfully gone as far as he did without magic. Hasn't the show been trying to establish that he was always a power hungry beast, even without the dagger? Was killing Beowulf against his will really that traumatizing? He was skewering random soldiers with his knife right after he became the Dark One, and not to mention he had already murdered Zoso. We already knew that Rumple justified himself using his son, so this episode's retcon is really not news.

[Camera One]

What's "new" aka contradictory is that Rumple was apparently holding back and it was Bae forcing him to murder someone who pushed him over the edge.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Camera One

[Vyk]

19 hours ago, InsertWordHere said:

54 minutes. That's how long it took for a member of the Charming family to show up on my screen. Haha, remember in season one when this show was about them?

Yeah.  Season one.  The show as a whole is about the people of Storybrooke, not just the Charmings.  So it didn't bother me that many of them were absent.