S07.E08: Pretty in Blue

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

In an attempt to prevent a distressed Alice from running away, Henry and Ella follow her into Wonderland. Once there, Henry realizes that Ella has a surprising connection to this strange world. In Hyperion Heights, Jacinda reconnects with an old friend in a last ditch effort to regain custody of Lucy, but her decision to enlist outside help could put a strain on her burgeoning relationship with Henry.

 

[KingOfHearts]

I don't even know what the heck is going on any more. Everything is so convoluted and weird. At least things picked up to speed, I guess? Those three weeks are really going to kill the momentum, though. I haven't had such mixed feelings since 5B.

Edited November 18, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[Watt]

That was the first thing I said. "This show is weird."

[greekmom]

my stupid PVR cut the ending.. I saw up to the part Drizilla/Ivy wheeled up Anastasia's coffin where Eloise is holed up.

What happened?

[Rumsy4]

I still don't ship Henry and Murderella. The mother backstory was so extra. 

I guess Ivy did manage to poison either Henry or Murderella's heart so if they share TLK, they'll die. 

I loved all the scenes with Rogers/WHook. Colin acted the hell out of these two episodes. 

1 minute ago, greekmom said:

I saw up to the part Drizilla/Ivy wheeled up Anastasia's coffin where Eloise is holed up.

What happened?

There was no body in the coffin (like LOST). Apparently Ivy is also stupid, and didn't check it before she transported the large heavy coffin to where Gothel was. 

[Watt]

I just really excited thinking maybe if they break the curse Jacinda dies! Do it! Kiss!

[KingOfHearts]

I'm hoping Lucy really is Nick/Jack's child. At least then Henry wouldn't have to be tied to Jacinda.

The Regina/Weaver scene was super disappointing. It didn't remind me of the old Mills/Gold scenes at all. No big shocking revelation. No new dynamic. 

Edited November 18, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[Rumsy4]

11 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

The Regina/Weaver scene was super disappointing. It didn't remind me of the old Mills/Gold scenes at all.

I got a whiff of Golden Queen in that scene with the whole "together" thing. That's what that scene reminded me, and I was pretty grossed out. 

[Writing Wrongs]

How can Henry not think that Roni is coming on to him? Their whole vibe is so weird.

This show is so boring now. I ended up fast forwarding most of Henry and Jacinda's scenes.

A&E can we please stop with the fucking Star Wars referencing?

3 weeks is gonna kill the show. No one will remember or care what's going on. I guess Regina is going to get Zelena?

Edited November 18, 2017 by Writing Wrongs

[KingOfHearts]

Quote

The mother backstory was so extra. 

And apparently Murderella had a step-father as well? What the heck?

Nick reminded me of Nick Wilde from Zootopia. Was he supposed to be a reference?

Quote

A&E can we please stop with the fucking Star Wars referencing?

And Tron. Please. Just stop.

Edited November 18, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[Rumsy4]

14 minutes ago, Writing Wrongs said:

How can Henry not think that Roni is coming on to him? Their whole vibe is so weird.

I know, right??! It's so awkward. 

Quote

I guess Regina is going to get Zelena?

Think so.

14 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

And apparently Murderella had a step-father as well? What the heck?

Nick reminded me of Nick Wilde from Zootopia. Was he supposed to be a reference?

Why did he have to be her step-father?? It's stupid and pointless. 

Yeah--who is Jack/Nick supposed to be? I think he and Henry have more chemistry.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Rumsy4

[KingOfHearts]

Quote

Yeah--who is Jack/Nick supposed to be? I think he and Henry have more chemistry.

They mentioned something about giants, so I'm assuming he's Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. I thought maybe he was another Author at first.

[libsl]

I think Lucy is a de-aged Anastasia, but nobody remembers. My guess is that Drizella somehow forced Regina to cast the dark curse using Henry's heart, and somehow Rumple put some fail safes in that will allow it to be undone. 

[Rumsy4]

7 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

They mentioned something about giants, so I'm assuming he's Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. 

Oh, I forgot about the giants. I guess he wasn't Jackie in this Realm. :-p

[thuganomics85]

I don't know if it looked like it before, but the portal to Wonderland really looks like the portals in Doctor Strange.

Should have known the fun wouldn't last for long.  An episode devoted to Jacinda and why she's the way she is, and how she and Henry are "true love" and all that shit.  This might be the stupidest pairing on this show and considering this series' history, that is saying something.

So, Nick a.k.a. Lucy's "father" is actually Jack from the whole Beanstalk thing.  Took me a second to place the actor, but I realize now that he was James 2.0. in True Blood.

Unless he's one hell of an actor, Rumple truly seems to be Weaver and has been effected by this curse.

Even if she's now apparently too dumb to notice that the coffin felt very light, Drizella is still one of the few things I like about this season.  Really becoming af an of Adelaide Kane now.

Road trip!  Who is this person that really hates Regina/Roni?  The first one that pops in my head is Zelena, but there are really so many options when it comes to who would have beef with her.

[Shanna Marie]

So, in the first episode, they took my suggestion to make Jacinda a waitress at Roni's (yeah, I know, the episode was completed before I suggested it). Now they're taking the suggestion I made a few weeks ago about how to make Henry and Jacinda's non-relationship more interesting by giving them an obstacle, like Lucy's birth father turning out to be an attorney who could help Jacinda get custody back. Except it's not an obstacle anymore because she has Lucy and we're back to them being able to choose to be together if they want to, and the only obstacle is the one we (and Regina) know about, that one of them will die if they kiss. But are they the only people with True Love who could break the curse? What about Regina and Henry? That's worked before. Or there's WHook and Alice.

I don't really understand how that custody thing was meant to work. Lucy was living with Jacinda in the first episode, wasn't she? Did Victoria technically have custody then, and that was a visit? Child services tends to be really reluctant to take a child from a mother, so it's hard to see how Jacinda would have lost custody, as long as Lucy was fed, clothed, going to school, and not being abused.

I mentioned in the spoiler thread that Alice being Hook's daughter and them just running into each other would be too anticlimactic, but I guess I need to draw a new line for "too anticlimactic" for this show. Yeah, it's an epic quest to find his daughter, and then he just runs into her without doing anything. Even him hearing about and reacting to the damaged tower happened offscreen.

Speaking of anticlimactic, talking about the Snowing romance and repeating a few of those beats doesn't make for an epic romance. We've barely seen Henry and Ella together. I don't think we've seem them have much of a conversation since the first episode, so this romance is feeling very out of the blue.

At first I thought that my theory about Lucy being Ella's daughter who was taken away from her and Henry being a stepfather was going to be proved correct when Ella went off looking for someone in Wonderland in the same episode in which Lucy's father shows up in the present, but if the HH father is Henry's friend in the fairytale world and if Ella didn't recognize him, I guess that's not the case. I wish they'd given an answer to Henry's question about why Lucy thinks he's her father because I've been wondering that. The book ends with Henry meeting Cinderella, but that doesn't explain why Lucy thinks her mother is Cinderella or why she thinks Henry is her father. Since Lucy didn't recognize Regina before the photo, she doesn't have her memories. She's piecing it together based on the book, like Henry did, except the book she had is about the previous six seasons, so that doesn't explain why she believes what she does.

2 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

Road trip!  Who is this person that really hates Regina/Roni?  The first one that pops in my head is Zelena, but there are really so many options when it comes to who would have beef with her.

I'm guessing Zelena. But has it really been years since she was cast out of Hyperion Heights, or is that what the curse makes her remember? And why can't they call Storybrooke and why can't Storybrooke know what's going on? Just saying that doesn't close that particular plot loophole.

[Rumsy4]

5 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

Unless he's one hell of an actor, Rumple truly seems to be Weaver and has been effected by this curse.

He is most likely awake, and has been since that episode where Alice woke him up. He's just playing a lone hand as usual. 

[KingOfHearts]

I wonder if Drizella just went around poisoning the heart of everyone who could possibly TLK. "Oh? Tiana and Jack went out for coffee? Better curse them just in case!"

It's painfully obvious that A&E didn't tell Adelaide Kane that Ivy was "awake" until 7x06. Now her performance is so trademark evil villain, even when she's pretending to be under the curse. There's nothing subtle about her at all any more. That's not to say Adelaide can't play the Big Bad part very well, but it's much less interesting.

Edited November 18, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[Noneofyourbusiness]

21 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

I don't know if it looked like it before, but the portal to Wonderland really looks like the portals in Doctor Strange.

All the portals this season have looked like Doctor Strange/Agents of SHIELD Ghost Rider portals, no doubt on purpose.

33 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

Why did he have to be her step-father?? It's stupid and pointless.

May mean that in this version the man who raised Cinderella is the biological father of Drizella and Anastasia, having married Lady Tremaine and fathered them after Cinderella's mother's death, making Cinderella the oldest of the three girls. If Lady Tremaine had them with another husband before marrying Cinderella's stepfather, then they're her step-stepsisters. Also, the woman holding what appears to be a dead Anastasia in the promo appears to be Rapunzel, so it seems Lady Tremaine is Rapunzel grown up.

[InsertWordHere]

I had a bit of a laugh at the temporary bartender (Roni really doesn’t have any other bartenders? She has to borrow one from another business?) at the end of this episode. Why was he obsessively cleaning a liquor pour spout with what looked like a bar pick? I wonder if he’s just supposed to be a quirky character, or this is supposed to show that Regina left the bar in good hands or if it was just something the actor decided to do with a prop. Either way, I laughed when I saw it. 

[Rumsy4]

^ I kept wondering if he was supposed to be some fairy tale character. 

[InsertWordHere]

Was he shown in the episode where Henry and Jacinda were caterers? 

[Rumsy4]

I don't remember. 

[InsertWordHere]

Just now, Rumsy4 said:

I don't remember. 

Me either lol. The last season and a half has been a blur. I only ask because Jacinda asked him why he wasn’t catering or something. 

[Rumsy4]

11 minutes ago, InsertWordHere said:

Me either lol. The last season and a half has been a blur.

Same. I keep zoning out. A Pirate's Life was the first episode I rewatched since The Other Shoe. 

[Noneofyourbusiness]

Lady Tremaine being Rapunzel would also explain her curse name being Belfrey, as in the belfry of a tower.

[KingOfHearts]

Quote

I had a bit of a laugh at the temporary bartender (Roni really doesn’t have any other bartenders? She has to borrow one from another business?) at the end of this episode. Why was he obsessively cleaning a liquor pour spout with what looked like a bar pick? I wonder if he’s just supposed to be a quirky character, or this is supposed to show that Regina left the bar in good hands or if it was just something the actor decided to do with a prop. Either way, I laughed when I saw it. 

Wasn't his name Remi? Is that a Ratatoullie reference?!

Edited November 18, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[twoods]

This arc would be much better if Ivy had been a grey character like she was at the beginning of the season, and she was torn between vengeance on her mom and falling for Henry (twist being that they are the true love couple). I'm still holding out for this because they have much better chemistry than lame Jacinda. Instead, Ivy is just plain old evil and it's boring to watch.

Edited November 19, 2017 by twoods

[VoicePlaya]

2 hours ago, Rumsy4 said:

I got a whiff of Golden Queen in that scene with the whole "together" thing. That's what that scene reminded me, and I was pretty grossed out. 

Same here.

This episode was pretty meh. Whook/Rogers and Alice/Tilly remain the only plot I care about. Though the fact that they just randomly found each other was silly. The reunion itself was sweet. Well, until she almost killed him or whatever that spell did. But her just walking up to him? This show has reached new levels of lame. 

We finally got a Henry/Murderella kiss that just solidified their lack of chemistry to me. I still like him better with Ivy, even though her not bothering to look in the coffin before transporting it was stupid. 

Add Nick to the people I think Henry has more chemistry with than Murderella. That list just keeps getting longer. I still like him with Ivy the best, but I'd happily take him with Tiana or Nick. Who am I kidding? I'd take him with just about anyone over Murderella. 

[Rumsy4]

7 minutes ago, VoicePlaya said:

We finally got a Henry/Murderella kiss that just solidified their lack of chemistry to me

I think they exhibited negative chemistry in that kiss. I was so bored whenever it was just Henry and Murderella on-screen. 

[Camera One]

For a Jacinda-heavy episode, I actually didn't mind it.  The Whook-Alice connection followed nicely from the last episode, and I think it was a good choice to dove-tail that with the mystery of Cinderella's mother to reveal what a "poisoned heart" actually means.  It gave the events in the flashbacks some cohesion and purpose.  The Wonderland backdrop did make things slightly more interesting. 

It's a huge stretch that Drizella would somehow find Alice and pretended to heal her, so she would meet with Whook, so Henry would follow her into Wonderland, where Drizella could poison his heart against Jacinda, though.  Talk about convoluted.

There were so many mentions of Season 1 it was almost desperate.  Though I did find Lucy's line "Nobody wants to be a Kathryn" somewhat amusing.

I actually liked Nick/Jack.  He had some chemistry with Jacinda, so that's a first.   He's the first "who's his fairytale counterpart" mystery so far, though the Jack and the Beanstalk thing was just a throwaway line.

I'm not sure I like seeing Adult Henry becoming an alcoholic... it's hard not to think of Younger Henry.

Weaver's responses to Regina weren't realistic if he were still Cursed.  He would have thought she was crazy.  He wouldn't say "The only time we've worked together was at happy hour" or whatever thing he said.  I really don't get the point of Weaver on the show.

Rogers' growing friendship with Alice was also a nice subplot for the present-day.  I like Regina for pushing him towards that, and for caring about him when he was hurt in the flashback.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Camera One

[AnimeMania]

2 hours ago, InsertWordHere said:

I had a bit of a laugh at the temporary bartender (Roni really doesn’t have any other bartenders? She has to borrow one from another business?) at the end of this episode.

Roni should have other employees, because she is always walking around the town with other characters when her bar is supposed to be open.  Would you leave Cinderella in charge, since she just burned down her last place of employment.

2 hours ago, InsertWordHere said:

Was he shown in the episode where Henry and Jacinda were caterers? 

He was the caterer for the ballet recital.

[KAOS Agent]

An empty coffin is the cliffhanger they're going with for a three week break. Oh noes! Whatever will they do? Them actually having the body and starting whatever they were going to do would actually mean something was going to happen. This just means weeks of delay while they search for the body and have cryptic conversations about their nefarious plans. There's no drama or suspense with this.

Cinderella's necklace says they're true love or whatever, so now she's totally down with Henry. Really? So Henry's actions meant nothing until a magical object said it was meant to be. It was even dumber when she was telling Henry about the necklace and said one day the necklace stopped glowing. Her mother stopped loving her father. There was no other possible reason for it to stop. It's not like she could have died or anything. Oh wait.

Also, I loved the bit about how they can't get to Storybrooke and Storybrooke can't know they're there. Because reasons. It's not even worth bothering anymore.

[Lady Calypso]

I had my mother continue to asking me questions throughout the two hours of tonight, and some of the questions, I still couldn't answer. 

Man, Jacinda is still the worst. Her scene with Alice at the tea party was absolutely awful. I just couldn't mind myself to care about her Mommy Issues. Also, I never, ever want to hear "I will always find you" on this show if it's not Snow or Charming saying it. I hated Jacinda saying it several times in the episode. The necklace thing was pretty dumb too, but it is on par with the ridiculous magical objects on this show. It's just that my hate for Jacinda/Murderella is so strong that I couldn't be bothered to care. I am hoping that Murderella jumps to take the poisoned heart instead, as a twist. That would give them a reason to get rid of the actress now that they know she isn't working.

Also, I'm hoping that Jack actually is Lucy's father. I did notice a look between Murderella and Jack in their last scene. 

So apparently, Regina can't go to Storybrooke at all, and she doesn't want to call them. Ok, fine. Maybe she can't leave Hyperion Heights. 

Except she totally can because she's going on a trip to San Francisco, another state, with Henry. 

Also, where has Jack/Nick been all this time? At least with the original curse, if I remember correctly, Regina had to alter it when Emma was getting close to the truth. She had to bring back Kathryn to separate Snow and Charming. But here, it's just like...what, Nick's been hiding away all this time? 

The Whook/Alice stuff wasn't actually that bad. Ok, Whook appeared in the episode for two scenes, but we got some good scenes with Alice. 

I will say, the actress who plays Lucy did a decent job this episode. Her cry out for her mom at the very end of the episode was actually really well done. How can it be that she's a better actress than Dania Ramirez?

I do really like Adult Henry when he's not with Jacinda. His scene with Sabine was really good, and his scenes with Ivy are always interesting. Hell, he also has good scenes with Regina, and his scenes with Lucy aren't the worst. It's just his scenes with or about Jacinda that make me annoyed at him. I mean, Andrew J West is really, really trying, and he's doing what he can to sell this True Love romance with Murderella, but it's really one sided.

[Mitch]

Not bad episodes...I know its not popular here but I like Hook (I know he is not the same Hook) and the actor when he is not made to have lovey scenes with Emma and play some kind of Harlequin romance version of a pirate. I think the actor does a really good job of playing regret and a bit of sadness (things that Parrilla should have played with Regina since s2..) and I like that his relationship is going to be with his daughter. Agreed that Ivy would work much better as a grey character but A & E don't know how to write that..your either a "HERO" or a "VILLAIN"  even though the whole concept of this show really is crying out for a exploration of redemption and choices and how everyone is good and bad. Hopefully Gothal will be the real big bad because even though I like Ivy.. her snippy Millennial does not hold a candle to Mayor Mills.  Gothal is kind of scary and I am just thinking how well she and the actress would have worked as the Big Bad last season...(they find out Rump had her chained up in the tunnels under SB and don't believe him that she is the mother of all evil as she plays them..)

I am liking this season in the LWOM that the villains have to play everyone instead of standing in Main Street and practically doing a Power Point on what exactly they are going to do and gloating about it. There is an air of mystery like S1 and there is a more..gothic feel this season which is a nice break from the blandy Disney airy fairy magic is great stuff we have had previously. 

But still, they stakes aren't that high..if Regina and Henry can just leave the hood to go find Zelena...why not just leave the hood? Its not like the Curse of S1...its just like everyone needs their memories back..Why can't they go to SB? Why can't they call SB? Why doesnt Regina go to SB and get her magical stuff from her crypt to fight Ivy?

I don't want to be mean but the Cinderella actress looks old in the close ups and the Henry actor is just not magnetic enough to build a show around.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Mitch

[twoods]

I think the Murderell actresses' tics are driving me nuts and taking away from her scenes. Her eyes are always darting around, and sometime she she sticks her tongue out the side of her mouth in the middle of a monologue. She is ruining the entire Henry/Lucy arc. I love the actor that plays Nick and am sad that his charisma is ruined by being saddled with Murderella. 

I hope that Rodgers wakes up soon and remembers that Alice is his daughter. Their scenes together are nice.

[Rumsy4]

8 hours ago, KAOS Agent said:

Also, I loved the bit about how they can't get to Storybrooke and Storybrooke can't know they're there. Because reasons. It's not even worth bothering anymore.

25 minutes ago, Mitch said:

Why can't they go to SB? Why can't they call SB? Why doesnt Regina go to SB and get her magical stuff from her crypt to fight Ivy?

Storybrooke would be the best place for Regina to take Henry. There's Emma, and a whole townful of people who know Henry. Not to mention Hook Prime, who looks exactly like Det. Rogers. All the people from his "book" will be there. Plus all the magical artifacts in Gold's Shop and Regina's Vault that they can use to defeat Ivy/Gothel. But they can't go there for "reasons". 

Edited November 18, 2017 by Rumsy4

[Shanna Marie]

10 hours ago, VoicePlaya said:

This episode was pretty meh. Whook/Rogers and Alice/Tilly remain the only plot I care about. Though the fact that they just randomly found each other was silly. The reunion itself was sweet. Well, until she almost killed him or whatever that spell did. But her just walking up to him? This show has reached new levels of lame. 

Yeah, I love how the search for Cinderella with her slipper happened almost entirely offscreen, with it being resolved with them walking up to her and handing her the shoe. Now we've had zero search for the epic quest for Whook's daughter, and that's resolved by her just walking up to him and saying, "Papa!" This show really loves its anticlimaxes.

8 hours ago, KAOS Agent said:

Cinderella's necklace says they're true love or whatever, so now she's totally down with Henry. Really?

It's the Lazy Writer's Guide to Romance: Why bother writing a relationship that develops because characters have mutual interests and values and that builds as they get to know each other and go through experiences together when you can have some magical object declare that they're true love? This is almost as bad as the pixie dust/tattoo thing with Robin and Regina. At least Murderella and Henry had shown signs of kind of liking each other before the necklace glowed (it was still underdeveloped, but they were kind of acting attracted earlier in this episode). Regina hated Robin until she saw the tattoo.

10 hours ago, Camera One said:

Rogers' growing friendship with Alice was also a nice subplot for the present-day.  I like Regina for pushing him towards that, and for caring about him when he was hurt in the flashback.

It just would have been nice if we'd seen some development of what kind of relationship Regina and WHook had. She and Hook Prime were never really friends. They mostly snarked at each other. He called her out on her behavior/attitude and she made remarks about his disability. I didn't get the sense that they'd developed any more of a bond when we saw her with Hook Prime earlier in the season. Now suddenly she's all maternal and caring toward WHook and Rogers, but we haven't seen them interact at all during the past to explain why Regina would now be that worried about Rogers or why she'd be sitting by his side when he was ill. If Hook Prime were sick and Emma wasn't around, Regina would probably mock him. Did they bond during the offscreen search for Cinderella? Is WHook more favorably inclined toward Regina due to his interaction with WRegina?

Henry's 80s obsession is particularly eyeroll-worthy because I have several friends who are literary agents who represent young adult fiction, and one of the big topics of discussion lately among them has been how many teen novel manuscripts they've been getting lately in which the contemporary teen characters are obsessed with 80s pop culture. Usually, that turns out to be a sign of a lazy writer who just sticks his/her teen interests into a book rather than figuring out what a current teen might be into. It's become so ubiquitous, and so usually ends up being a sure sign of a bad book, that it's become almost an automatic pass on the author/book the moment they see the current teen protagonist being 80s obsessed, especially if it's a sign of how "cool" that kid is. Here, it's particularly weird because Henry really should be about 17-18 in 2017 (well, based on the latest age they gave us for him, but he really should be closer to 16 based on his age in the pilot). There was sort of a reason for Storybrooke Henry to be into the 80s, since that was when Storybrooke was frozen in time, so he essentially grew up in the 80s in spite of being born in the 21st century, but there's no reason for Hyperion Heights Henry to be 80s-obsessed, other than that the writers are aging GenXers. Hyperion Heights Henry should be nostalgic for the 90s, especially in Seattle -- grunge and flannel and the X-Files.

[KingOfHearts]

45 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

Storybrooke would be the best place for Regina to take Henry. There's Emma, and a whole townful of people who know Henry. Not to mention Hook Prime, who looks exactly like Det. Rogers. All the people from his "book" will be there. Plus all the magical artifacts in Gold's Shop and Regina's Vault that they can use to defeat Ivy/Gothel. But they can't go there for "reasons". 

Is it the cloaking spell?

[Rumsy4]

Just now, KingOfHearts said:

Is it the cloaking spell?

Robin and Regina were able to talk on the phone when he was in New York. It's not like Regina would've forgotten all their phone numbers. And then, once near Storybrooke, someone from inside the town could come and get them using Ingrid's scroll or something else. 

[Camera One]

It was pretty much because of "reasons", as KAOSAgent said above. 

The way the Writers, uh, I mean, Regina, phrased it... the "they can't know we're here" part... So presumably, bad things will happen if the people in Storybrooke found out?

Edited November 18, 2017 by Camera One

[Rumsy4]

8 minutes ago, Camera One said:

So presumably, bad things will happen if the people in Storybrooke found out?

Maybe Regina is afraid nobody in Storybrooke would actually help them out. 

[CCTC]

2 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

Maybe Regina is afraid nobody in Storybrooke would actually help them out. 

I suspect they all changed the numbers on their flip phones.

[InsertWordHere]

Maybe Storybrooke is stuck in a snowglobe. 

[Camera One]

I've thought of another possible way to write Jacinda out... Lucy is actually the daughter of Wish Henry, who had amnesia and accidentally slept with Jacinda, who thought he was the Other Henry, who...

14 hours ago, Rumsy4 said:

Yeah--who is Jack/Nick supposed to be? I think he and Henry have more chemistry.

The Henry we've been watching fell in love with Jack/Nick when they were together on the beanstalk.  Emotionally confused, he desperately tried to get into a relationship with the first girl he crashed into, literally.  I mean, Adult Henry and Jack/Nick can spend their life talking about their favorite 80s bands and watch sci-fi movies together.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Camera One

[tennisgurl]

How is it that Henry has more chemistry with literally everyone except for his supposed One True Love? They actually have anti chemistry, like a black hole where romance is sucked in and disappears into dark matter. Instead, he has more chemistry with Jack/Nick (but, lets be real, A&E arent going there any time soon) and Roni/Regina (who is his MOTHER), and, honestly anyone else he shares scenes with. Jacinda was alright this week I guess, but I just have no interest in her. My feelings towards her usually rotate between straight up dislike, and indifference. So yeah, kiss her Henry! Kiss and end all of this!

I miss when Ivy was more morally grey and interesting. Now she is just muahahah evil all of the time, which is much less interesting. She is doing a good job with it, but this character actually has some potential, and the idea of her with Henry is WAY more interesting than the epic love of boredom that is Henry/Ella, but I guess thats not what we get. 

I do continue to enjoy the Rodgers and Tilly stuff, its actually quite compelling and the actors are both really good and work well together. And I do like Jack/Nick, so at least I have a few new people that kind of work. Sometimes. When they get to do stuff. Which isn't much. 

This backstory is so convoluted, even by this shows standards. I just dont get it, and I dont care to figure it out more. 

[Curio]

I really enjoyed the brief Nick/Jack scenes, which usually means his character will turn into a jerk and be written off soon.

But I thought 100% that Nick was going to turn out to be Roland in the Enchanted Forest. (They even kind of look alike.) When it was mentioned that Henry had a connection to him, it totally made sense. Last we saw of Roland, he was sent off to live a life in a different realm, so it would make sense for Henry to run into him eventually. And it would make sense that Henry would have a close relationship with Roland because they kind of got to bond for a brief time in Storybrooke and feel a familial connection. Nick being a generic fairy tale Jack the Giant Slayer is way less interesting. I know we sometimes groan about how many freaking family members show up on this show to complicate the family tree even more, but in this instance, it actually would have benefitted the plot. Who knows, maybe this show will surprise me and Jack's real identity is Roland, but why keep that a secret? In the Season 3 finale, Regina said that being with Robin and Roland made her happy, so wouldn't the writers want to bring him back for the sake of Regina's character? Is Roland kind of miffed that Regina didn't want to raise him when his father died? How would Regina react to seeing Robin's son grown up and being reminded of a True Love who died? That's some interesting character dynamics the writers will probably never bring up.

I surprisingly liked the production design of Wonderland. The OUAT in Wonderland series had such terrible CGI, but the maze and the tea party sets in this episode were actually well done.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Curio

[RachelKM]

3 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

How is it that Henry has more chemistry with literally everyone except for his supposed One True Love? They actually have anti chemistry, like a black hole where romance is sucked in and disappears into dark matter. Instead, he has more chemistry with Jack/Nick (but, lets be real, A&E arent going there any time soon) and Roni/Regina (who is his MOTHER), and, honestly anyone else he shares scenes with. Jacinda was alright this week I guess, but I just have no interest in her. My feelings towards her usually rotate between straight up dislike, and indifference. So yeah, kiss her Henry! Kiss and end all of this!

I miss when Ivy was more morally grey and interesting. Now she is just muahahah evil all of the time, which is much less interesting. She is doing a good job with it, but this character actually has some potential, and the idea of her with Henry is WAY more interesting than the epic love of boredom that is Henry/Ella, but I guess thats not what we get. 

I do continue to enjoy the Rodgers and Tilly stuff, its actually quite compelling and the actors are both really good and work well together. And I do like Jack/Nick, so at least I have a few new people that kind of work. Sometimes. When they get to do stuff. Which isn't much. 

This backstory is so convoluted, even by this shows standards. I just dont get it, and I dont care to figure it out more. 

All of this. I hate to wish anyone out of a job, but Murderella brings everyone down.  Literally everyone else's scenes with anyone else are better.  I really don't think the object of the heart curse story was to make me fervently hope for Henry and Ella to break the curse and kill her. 

I also enjoyed Ivy/Dru more when she seemed to have layers. 

 

I love Rogers and Tilly.  And I enjoyed the semi sailor imagery of "becoming untied" and "drifting" used by WHook and his daughter. 

 

Side note, if Nick is Lucy's dad in this reality and everyone knows it, 1) why did his parental rights never have to be severed and 2) if his rights were not terminated, why isn't he paying child support?  He may have been a slacker when Lucy was born, but he's got his life together at this point. 

Edited November 18, 2017 by RachelKM

[Camera One]

9 minutes ago, RachelKM said:

Side note, if Nick is Lucy's dad in this reality and everyone knows it, why 1) did his parental rights never have to be severed and 2) if his rights were not terminated, why isn't he paying child support?  He may have been a slacker when Lucy was born, but he's got his life together at this point. 

That part made zero sense.  Why would Lucy have no knowledge of ever having met him?  Didn't she have any downloaded memories?  He seems like an alright guy, yet he doesn't contribute anything to Lucy's well-being at all?   That part really stuck out in this episode.  

Edited November 18, 2017 by Camera One

[tennisgurl]

Honestly, the Henry and Nick meeting at the bar played out pretty much like a Meet Cute in 90% of quirky Indie romantic comedies. 

"Hey! Your listening to the same semi obscure indie band that I love!"

"No way! You like their more obscure song, which is also the one I like! Your awesome!"

"No, YOUR awesome! lets get a coffee or something..." 

If this was a different, better show, I would 100% think they were setting up Nick/Jack as Henry's new love interest.