S07.E10: The Eighth Witch

[formerlyfreedom]

When Drizella threatens the realm with a dark curse, Henry and Ella take extreme actions to protect Lucy and the others; and Regina is forced into making an unimaginable choice. In Hyperion Heights, Roni recruits Henry to travel to San Francisco to search for her sister, but when he learns Lucy has fallen unconscious, Henry rushes to be by her side. Meanwhile, Gothel earns the trust of Anastasia and the consequences of their budding relationship could prove to be fatal.

 

[Worsel]

My random thoughts on this episode:

 

Yay for off-screen Ella/Jacinda in the beginning of the episode. I am thankful they skipped over the whole Henry/Ella romance leading up to Lucy’s birth. The less we have to see her the better.

I think it is un-heroic to keep Drizella’s statue around on their terrace, as if they enjoyed what they did to her.

How can Rumple be so dumb as to not realize Lucy would be harmed when he helped Victoria? He ought to be several steps ahead of everyone. I miss the old clever, calculating Rumple.  Becoming “good” has not done this character any favors.

Regarding the first EF scene with Zelena: I thought Zelena had lost her magic last season, why would she have magic this season to help fight the other witches?

So was sparkly EF Rumple with the white elephant Wish!Rumple or the original Rumple that somehow got converted to sparkly Rumple? 

We have a Robin/Alice romance!  Much more chemistry than Henry/Jacinda.

Is it bad that coma Lucy is more fun to watch than awake Lucy?  And why couldn’t it have been Jacinda instead?

Favorite line by Zelena: “I was cursed to be a hippie!”

Nice to see Tiger Lily again, and resurrecting the scene from the end of last season is a good way to tie things together between the seasons.

I thought the curse needed the sacrifice of the heart of the one you love most?  I guess this isn’t the same curse as before?

[legaleagle53]

1 minute ago, Worsel said:

I thought the curse needed the sacrifice of the heart of the one you love most?  I guess this isn’t the same curse as before?

That would have been Henry's heart this time around, and Drizella had already poisoned it.

[KingOfHearts]

This show sucks so bad. The only things I liked were Zelena and Gothel betraying Drizella. Other than that, it was complete chaos and none of it made sense. The biggest problem is the lack of thematic reasoning. Nothing is setup well, the "payoff" is not payoff but rather an array of contrivances, and the character arcs do not lead up to anything meaningful. So much of it could be summed it in this phrase - "But why?" I do not care that Anastasia is the Guardian, or that Alice is in love with Robyn, or that the Faceless Witches are planning something bad, or that Zelena/Regina have to choose between Henry and Lucy. None of it really matters at all.

Another curse where the writers were too lazy to figure out how a character would have to give up the heart of the thing they loved most. Geez.

They really needed to show the identity of the one of the witches. Yzma or Madam Mim needed to pop up at the end.

I kid you not - the only unanswered question I cared about was the identity of Zelena's fiance.

Edited December 16, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[Worsel]

Just now, legaleagle53 said:

That would have been Henry's heart this time around, and Drizella had already poisoned it.

Exactly, making it impossible to cast the original curse.  But they made it sound like it was the original curse.

[cappoe]

*whispers* Just cause you have Regina say a dumb line about how she's not here for timelines doesn't excuse the fact that you are horrible and lazy writers that know how awful and lazy you're writing is*whispers*

 

This show sucks so bad now. Also put this as another retcon. Apparently in order to cast the dark curse you don't need the heart of the thing you love most but to have been able to cast the curse before. So basically I mean if these writers remembered their show which they should cause this SL was when the show was good Charming shouldn't have had his heart ripped out and Snow should have never cast the curse. But you know who am I with trying to find logic in this embarrassment of a season when even the writers can't make any semblance of their timeline.

[KingOfHearts]

Quote

This show sucks so bad now. Also put this as another retcon. Apparently in order to cast the dark curse you don't need the heart of the thing you love most but to have been able to cast the curse before.

And somehow the Black Fairy bypassed it altogether in S6 with no explanation.

[legaleagle53]

2 minutes ago, Worsel said:

Exactly, making it impossible to cast the original curse.  But they made it sound like it was the original curse.

If it's a different curse (and how would Drizella know the difference if she didn't know exactly HOW Regina cast the original one?), then Regina and Zelena should know how to tweak it without Drizella finding out about it.  After all, Regina helped Snow cast HER version of the curse, and Zelena knew how to tweak that one to simply erase everyone's memory of the missing year rather than their entire personalities.

[ParadoxLost]

1 minute ago, legaleagle53 said:

That would have been Henry's heart this time around, and Drizella had already poisoned it.

I still don't understand. Doesn't the person casting the curse need to poison/sacrifice  Henry's heart?  Or is it a loophole because Regina had previously sacrificed her father?

And either way doesn't that make Regina look terrible retroactively because

1) Regina didn't need to kill her father, just take him to the brink of death and cast the curse so he'd be fine as long as the curse never broke (and don't A&E hate not thinking of that sooner because those evil Charmings would have been responsible for killing Regina's father)

or

2) Snowing didn't have to share a heart to cast the curse

or both.

[Lady Calypso]

My overall, general thought throughout the episode? What the hell is this shit?

No, really. Did I miss stuff, or did they completely contradict themselves in the episode several times? For example, the curse. Drizella stated that she couldn't get the last ingredient with the crushed heart of the one the curse creator loves most, so she gets Regina to do it. Only to...apparently not need that ingredient, after all? Would she not have needed to crush Henry's heart, then? Or is poison apparently enough? 

So, there really was an eight year gap before the curse was cast. I guess they attempted to explain it with the passing comment about time moving differently, but...eh.

I laughed when Henry's TLK with Lucy didn't work. An Emma/Henry breaking curse kiss, it was not.

Minimal Jacinda, which was for the best. Her acting in the hospital was all around bad. I am disappointed that they really have gone full steam ahead with Henry/Jacinderella. 

I did like Zelena/Regina scenes, and I did enjoy Robin and Alice. The Gothel betraying Drizella scene was predictable. I mean, obviously she was going to end up being the Real Big Bad (unless Ana becomes the next Real Big Bad?)

But yeah. I felt confused and did not like half of the episode. Annoyance, shoddy writing, annoying cinematography to be "creepy" and "ominous", and horrible flow from one scene to another. 

[CCTC]

26 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

. Other than that, it was complete chaos and none of it made sense.

I have not watched the show for a few weeks, so I thought I was maybe missing something because of that - but it sounds like there are some writing issues.

In some ways I do think it is better than it has been in a few years.  Gothel and Drizzila are more convincing at being the villains than the Black Fairy was, Jafar was underused, the EQ clone was a cartoon, and the season prior to that they were pretty timid at how evil with Dark Emma or Dark Hook would be, so I feel there is a bigger sense of a threat than there has been for awhile.   Although there is a bit of a been there done that with Drizzila.  I think they have gone to the woman  who turned evil because she felt hurt one too many times.  I agree with posts from earlier episodes, Ivy would have been better kept as a gray character instead of another mustache twirling, scenery eating witch.

This is where missing a few episodes might have added to my confusion.  Why does Drizzila want to get her revenge through the dark curse?  It just seems overly complicated and makes her have to life a tedious life while she waits for her plan to fully come together.    The dark curse never really made a lot of sense, although the first year it was fun and new and you were sucked into the story enough to not over-analyze its ineffectiveness as a revenge.  Now it has been diluted down and in retrospect makes Rumple look dumb for having such a difficult time manipulating its casting (when at the time he seemed like a master manipulator).  Similarly, whatever Gothel's plan is, I suspect when it is fully revealed, a lot of it is not going to make sense in how convoluted it was to get to her end result.

I like Zelina, and I am glad they did not go the sister-angst route, but the closeness between Zelina and Regina seemed a little fake, since they were at odds most of season 6 and we never really saw them truly develop their relationship.  The cast is pretty big as it is, not sure adding Zelina to the mix is going to help the mess of plot lines.  I wonder if Zelina's fiancee will eventually show up.  

I have to wonder by the time of this episode, if the powers that be had realized Dania's character is not working, because she was pretty minimally used for an episode where her daughter was in a coma.

Edited December 16, 2017 by CCTC

[Mabinogia]

7 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

I laughed when Henry's TLK with Lucy didn't work.

That may be the biggest plot twist of this entire season. I 100% expected her little eyes to flutter, or, just as Henry was about to pull away, she grasps his hand, or any other cliché they could think of to show that Lucy really is his daughter. Of course then they threw in the bit about both sides having to believe. When did Regina give up her job as Evil Queen and become Exposition Fairy? Seriously, between the both believing bit and throwing that time anvil at us, poor little Rongina has been working overtime as the writers' puppet. 

I'm liking Gothel more each episode. I'm definitely on team bad guys this time around, since team good guys still consists of Jacinda and Lucy. I don't mind the rest of them, but I loathe and despise both Jacinda and Lucy and would be quite happy if they just vanished and the writers had Rongina expose that they were only a figment of Henry's fevered imagination and that this whole HH mess was a fever dream Henry had after contracting some lunatic bug on his travels. 

And yeah, it is really messed up to leave the stone body of your enemy on your patio. WTF? At least throw a sheet over her or build a fence, something. 

I have one question (well, many but...) what was the point of trying to cut down that tree? Was Henry going to build another wardrobe for Lucy and send her to Storybrooke? 

[Terrafamilia]

18 minutes ago, ParadoxLost said:

Or is it a loophole because Regina had previously sacrificed her father?

I think this is exactly the excuse being used.

[Mabinogia]

I think, once you kill the thing you love most, it's like a free lifetime pass and you get to cast as many dark curses as you like. Or maybe Regina's love for her father was so excessive that she has left over power from killing him to cast a few more curses. Or maybe the writers just don't give a fuck anymore and are too busy updating their resumes to actually put any thought into this sinking ship. 

[Rumsy4]

I haven't watched it yet. But if eight years have passed, why has NOBODY freaking AGED at all?!@!!!! Ugh. I give up. This season is a complete fever-dream. 

[cappoe]

8 years have passed in EF 2 , but yeah I have no idea why no one is aging. They really do think everyone watching this is dumb.

I think this is just as bad as the 6A finale. Yes I said it, it's just as bad as that awful SQ fever dream.

[Lady Calypso]

8 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

I have one question (well, many but...) what was the point of trying to cut down that tree? Was Henry going to build another wardrobe for Lucy and send her to Storybrooke? 

Basically to put him and Lucy in it to send them to a Land Without Magic. 

26 minutes ago, ParadoxLost said:

I still don't understand. Doesn't the person casting the curse need to poison/sacrifice  Henry's heart?  Or is it a loophole because Regina had previously sacrificed her father?

Well, that's bullshit because in that case, if you just cast the curse once, you can cast it as many times as you want. 

Also, the gang putting a statue Drizella up in their yard was disturbing and very unheroic. Come on! Did they turn into the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia with their statue trophies being on their property for all to see? She said see you in eight years, and eight years later, you....don't do anything? Sure, blood magic and all, but you'd think you would want to be more cautious.

This finale is irritating me more than I thought it did.

[ParadoxLost]

I do admit that during the last part of the episode and the preview that I thought there is a good show hiding somewhere in here.

They just need to cut all the parts related to Henry, Jacinda, Lucy, and Regina.

I think they might have something with Rumple, Alice, WHook, and Gothel if the whole thing wasn't such a convoluted and gigantic mess.

[cappoe]

Quote

I think they might have something with Rumple, Alice, WHook, and Gothel if the whole thing wasn't such a convoluted and gigantic mess.

Hence why the entirety of S7 got the end of the year award for most convoluted storyline.

[ParadoxLost]

4 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

I haven't watched it yet. But if eight years have passed, why has NOBODY freaking AGED at all?!@!!!! Ugh. I give up. This season is a complete fever-dream. 

@Rumsy4 This is your mission if you choose to accept it.  When you watch this thing, take notes.  Try to figure out what just happened.  We are confused as hell.  Don't make one of us watch this thing twice.

In addition to all the curse stuff I'm also completely confused on why the Dark One wants to preserve the Gold identity for post curse.

[Rumsy4]

2 minutes ago, ParadoxLost said:

Don't make one of us watch this thing twice.

Okay. I literally (yes-literally) started laughing out loud when I read this. Don't worry--none of you will have to watch it twice. I can't promise to take notes, but I'll try my best not to zone out. But something tells me it's a hopeless business.

[InsertWordHere]

1 hour ago, KingOfHearts said:

I kid you not - the only unanswered question I cared about was the identity of Zelena's fiance.

If it's Walsh it would serve her right.

47 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

My overall, general thought throughout the episode? What the hell is this shit?

No, really. Did I miss stuff, or did they completely contradict themselves in the episode several times? For example, the curse. Drizella stated that she couldn't get the last ingredient with the crushed heart of the one the curse creator loves most, so she gets Regina to do it. Only to...apparently not need that ingredient, after all?

They said it was the magic of a person who had sacrificed the thing they loved most. So it's a loophole. Apparently all the many other dark curses could have been cast by just getting Regina to do it. Sorry Felix (well, Pan would have probably done that anyway), Charming's heart, and Merlin. 

I will say I am intrigued by what's going on with Rumple. I think he sacrificed something (his sanity?) to help Alice, and she feels she owes it to him to stay with him? He also said he locked Mr. Gold in a room and implied the teacup would unlock him, so was he not Mr. Gold in the EF scenes when he was Imp!Rumple? Has he merged with Wish!Rumple? 

ETA: It occurred to me that maybe Regina really did sacrifice the thing she loves most, her magic (hey maybe that was her real sacrifice during the first curse). Unfortunately, the show gave no indication that she would permanently lose it by casting the curse and judging by her conversation with Zelena, she doesn't seem to think it's permanently gone. 

Edited December 16, 2017 by InsertWordHere

[ParadoxLost]

2 minutes ago, InsertWordHere said:

They said it was the magic of a person who had sacrificed the thing they loved most. So it's a loophole. Apparently all the many other dark curses could have been cast by just getting Regina to do it. Sorry Felix (well, Pan would have probably done that anyway), Charming's heart, and Merlin. 

I'm kind of retroactively sad that they never did a half season where Regina threw a tantrum every time they didn't eat her lasagna and recast the curse with new personalities for all.

[tennisgurl]

55 minutes ago, cappoe said:

*whispers* Just cause you have Regina say a dumb line about how she's not here for timelines doesn't excuse the fact that you are horrible and lazy writers that know how awful and lazy you're writing is*whispers*

 

"Your questions are meaningless"-The Writers, to any poor souls trying to make sense of this mess. 

All of this ret coning of how the Dark Curse is supposed to work is just ridiculous, and continues to make Rumple retroactively look like an idiot. I mean, he created this enormous, years long Machiavellian plan, stretching generations and universes, to get to the Land Without Magic, and, as it turns out, if he had just turned a few more pages of his spell book, he could have done it all in five minutes! And Regina should be pissed that she had to kill her dad and crush his heart, when she could have just bypassed all of that or found a loop hole. The true Savior we needed all this time was...a lawyer! 

I still have no freaking clue how this time line is supposed to work, or how this stupid multiverse runs. So, its been 8 years...why has no one aged? And have we ever figured out how long Henry was running around the multiverse, so much so that he aged like 15 years while his moms and step dad aged about three months? And thats just the start. I dont get it! I swear, somewhere in the multiverse, Barry Allan is sighing with relief that, for once, his timeline isn't the most fractured and convoluted one in the multiverse! 

I did like some things. I still like Gothel as a villain, and Robin and Alice have potential, and I do kind of want to know whats up with Rumple, but the massive leaps in logic, plus the fact that I dont care about most of the newbies, is making this whole  season a real drag. How sad are things when seeing Zelena is a highlight? 

[Writing Wrongs]

I'm so embarrassed for this show now. The acting seems really off. Even Zelena didn't do it for me.

I still don't know what the hell is going on. Now there's a coven of witches? Whaa? 

Rumple gives Anastasia the John Locke test and finds out she has Carrie powers.

Since Henry only seems to consider Regina to be his mom now, I'm assuming Emma has never seen her granddaughter.

Yay, long hiatus!

[cappoe]

How convoluted the storyline is honestly makes it so easy for general audiences to just give up at this point.

[CCTC]

12 minutes ago, Writing Wrongs said:

Since Henry only seems to consider Regina to be his mom now, I'm assuming Emma has never seen her granddaughter.

I was wondering about that - it sounds like they had 8 quiet years, and they did not seem to consider the fact that they should be prepared if something did go wrong in 8 years, so they could have been in touch with Story Brooke, but it sounds like Henry has forgotten about Emma, Hook and the Charmings.  Although maybe they have had some contact with them, since Regina was in touch with Zelina.  It seemed like it was pretty easy for Regina to pop into whatever realm Zelina was in (even though it had a different rate of aging).  Another instance, where something was near impossible in season one can now be done with a twitch of the nose.  Zelina, Gold, and Regina all left SB - the Charmings and the Swan-Hooks probably have a party every night.

The breaking of the blood curse seemed like a bit of lazy writing as well.  It can never be broken, unless you have more than one person trying to break it.  Shouldn't have Regina have known that, and shouldn't they at least have had their guard up that something might happen at the 8 year mark.  It is not like they have not had plans go south in the past.

Edited December 16, 2017 by CCTC

[Writing Wrongs]

When Drizella came to to pronounce her curse at the beginning, I thought it was a joke. It was so badly acted. And then she gets turned into a Weeping Angel.

Rushing Henry and Ella's story was a mistake. Why should we care about years of offscreen stuff? I think they were banking too much on fans being interested in a grown up Henry that they didn't bother to develop his character or romance any. 

I was also confused by Zelena's home. She runs a farm or something now? wtf? At first, I thought it was a glamour to keep people away from her castle or something.

[cappoe]

6 minutes ago, Writing Wrongs said:

When Drizella came to to pronounce her curse at the beginning, I thought it was a joke. It was so badly acted. And then she gets turned into a Weeping Angel.

Rushing Henry and Ella's story was a mistake. Why should we care about years of offscreen stuff? I think they were banking too much on fans being interested in a grown up Henry that they didn't bother to develop his character or romance any. 

I was also confused by Zelena's home. She runs a farm or something now? wtf? At first, I thought it was a glamour to keep people away from her castle or something.

I think if the writers know the reaction to S7, literally no one cares about the romance between Henry and Cinderella. The anti chemistry couple.

[Senna]

I laughed when I realized this was the winter finale and we won't get any more episodes until March, because *this* is what they left us with?  It's amazing how convoluted this show manages to make things (and I think we still don't even know why Gothel is doing all this?  Her aim was the Guardian ... for some reason ... so was casting the dark curse somehow part of that?).  It tries so hard to be mysterious and really, it's just trying *too* hard most of the time.  For a small example, the Alice and Robin thing.  They're a couple, that's fine.  But trying to build it into a reveal by having Robin not say Alice's name, and Alice just writing "My Love" on her letter ... it just comes off as silly to me.  There wasn't any real reason to make it mysterious for a whole twenty minutes or whatever.  It's like the writers are allergic to being straightforward.  (I wonder if Zelena's fiance will be a "shock" too.  Speaking of Zelena, why in the world was she carting her wedding dress to cycling class?)

Anyway, this episode felt really messy and disjointed.  I'm a little bit curious about Anastasia, and Alice & Robin, but other than that, I kind of welcome a break.

[CCTC]

3 minutes ago, Senna said:

I wonder if Zelena's fiance will be a "shock" too. 

It will probably be whoever they set up Regina to fall in love with pre-curse.  He will have gotten involved with Regina in one world and unwittingly gotten involved with "Kelly" in the cursed world.

[cappoe]

3 minutes ago, CCTC said:

It will probably be whoever they set up Regina to fall in love with pre-curse.  He will have gotten involved with Regina in one world and unwittingly gotten involved with "Kelly" in the cursed world.

Oh joy another riveting love triangle.

[Eolivet]

I did get a kick out of "Fly, my pretties, fly" as Zelena's chant for her spin class.

And I feel like I've seen the "evol witch coven" and "scary little girl" in every B horror movie, and every supernatural TV series (The Originals and The Vampire Diaries both did variations on the theme). Didn't this show used to be about fairytales or fairytale-adjacent books like The Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein? I don't remember a fairytale about a witch coven. At least make it like, they're the cursed Good Witches of the North/South/East, or something.

I'm sort of annoyed Drizella isn't the real Big Bad and got thrown down a well, as I find the Gothel actress tedious. Adelaide Kane was one of the only ones really hamming it up. She seemed to know what kind of show she signed up for, and she committed to it. She also seemed delightfully irredeemable, so I'm annoyed she has to take a backseat to Ren Faire Witch.

[Kktjones]

I haven't watched tonight's episode, but from what I gather, the gang has now been in EF2 and part of the resistance for something like 8 years. So it's been 8 years and Hook is still wearing THE EXACT SAME CLOTHES?? Someone please tell me this isn't true. I mean come on! Really?

Also from the pics and gifs I've seen, Alice and Robin look cute. 

[Camera One]

3 hours ago, KingOfHearts said:

They really needed to show the identity of the one of the witches. Yzma or Madam Mim needed to pop up at the end.

Yes.  The sudden plot appearance of a coven of random nameless witches was ridiculous.  They needed a way for the audience to connect to it.

2 hours ago, Rumsy4 said:

I haven't watched it yet. But if eight years have passed, why has NOBODY freaking AGED at all?!@!!!! Ugh. I give up. This season is a complete fever-dream. 

It's even more ludicrous that wherever Zelena was, Robyn is now 25 and magic-less Zelena still looked exactly the same.  

1 hour ago, Writing Wrongs said:

When Drizella came to to pronounce her curse at the beginning, I thought it was a joke. It was so badly acted. And then she gets turned into a Weeping Angel.

That struck me as well.  That has been consistently the best new actress this season, but that was the typical "You will be Cursed on your ___th birthday" speech and it was delivered in the clunkiest way possible.  It seemed too rushed and lacked presence.  The dialogue may also have been too wordy.  I thought this was the first episode where Drizella seemed like a very unconvincing villain, right when they needed that the most.

We have to wait 'til March 2nd for the next episode? 

Edited December 16, 2017 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

Quote

magic-less Zelena

Can someone please explain to me why Regina thought magic-less Zelena could be of any use in a witch fight?

Why didn't they place Frozen!Drizella inside a prison Mother Gothel couldn't get to? Did they seriously just drag her to the courtyard? Why did they hold Lucy's birthday party a few yards away on the day Drizella's prophecy was supposed to come to past? 

This episode reminded me of "A Curious Thing" - episode begins with the villain threatening the family. Time passes with nothing done to mitigate the danger. Everything is explained in a convoluted fashion that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Curse gets cast for reasons. 

Why does Robyn have blonde hair? Her parents were dark brown and ginger.

Quote

Yes.  The sudden plot appearance of a coven of random nameless witches was ridiculous.  

It's like all the random Dark Ones we saw in 5x11. No identities. No faces. They're just... there.

Edited December 16, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[ParadoxLost]

3 hours ago, KingOfHearts said:

They really needed to show the identity of the one of the witches. Yzma or Madam Mim needed to pop up at the end.

I was so confused during that scene. At first I was thinking that they had brought back a bunch of Dark Ones from the Dark Swan goes to the Underworld season.

Then Gothel revealed the menacing coat hanger and that was really anticlimactic.

Another thing I don't understand.  If Gothel needs eight witches why de-witch Drizella and combine her powers into Anastasia.

That's going to look really dumb when Regina and Zelena are inevitably two of the witches down the road.

[Camera One]

2 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

It's like all the random Dark Ones we saw in 5x11. No identities. No faces. They're just... there.

I didn't know it could be possible, but it was even worse than the Dark Ones.  

If we have no idea what this witch coven is, why would we care about their symbol spray painted on concrete?  

[InsertWordHere]

19 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

It's like all the random Dark Ones we saw in 5x11. No identities. No faces. They're just... there.

Can one of them finally be the boar?

[KingOfHearts]

How did Drizella have control of the Curse's effects when it was Regina who cast it?

[Camera One]

6 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

How did Drizella have control of the Curse's effects when it was Regina who cast it?

Well now, Regina (or more precisely, her blood) is just an "ingredient".  Drizella was the caster because she mixed the ingredients together?  Except this was totally not the way it was previously.

Every time they do a retcon, something from the original series breaks.

Edited December 16, 2017 by Camera One

[legaleagle53]

7 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Every time they do a retcon, something from the original series breaks.

Every time they do a retcon, a kitten or a puppy dies.  WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE KITTENS AND PUPPIES?

[Watt]

So I haven't had time to watch this episode or the last and normally I'd just come here and read what ya'll have go say and get the basic gist of the episode. But you guys are giving me nothing! ?I am so confused about this episode.

[Lady Calypso]

20 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Well now, Regina (or more precisely, her blood) is just an "ingredient".  Drizella was the caster because she mixed the ingredients together?  Except this was totally not the way it was previously.

Every time they do a retcon, something from the original series breaks.

Except Drizella even said in this episode during the curse casting scene that she couldn't cast the curse because she didn't have the last ingredient, or whatever. If anything, Drizella just managed to write down the "rules" down but she never actually enacted them, since it was Regina's blood that started the curse. 

I guess, if Regina had more time to stall, she could have switched her and Drizella's roles, in which Drizella was the one to forget while Regina remembered. 

Also, is Storybrooke and Hyperion Heights not in the same world? Because couldn't Regina drag Henry there and get his mom and other magical beings to help with the Henry dying conundrum? I mean, it's not like they haven't dealt with similar situations before. Drizella's poison seemed awfully vague too. Does it not have a cure? Is it only aggravated with magic? Is it tied to Henry's memories? Can't he be awoken and then still be fine? 

Also, I'm confused as to how many people were dragged from The Disenchanted Forest to Hyperion Heights/San Francisco. Also, how can the cursed people be in two separate cities? Does that mean there are other cursed individuals elsewhere in America? Does it travel globally? Should I even care if the main characters don't? Because the ones who are awake are damn selfish if they end up not caring about anyone else cursed. Man, I miss season 1, when things made sense. Every cursed person was trapped in town. Henry cared about breaking the curse so everyone could be happy. Regina and Rumple were formidable villains and their motivations didn't feel half assed, and there was no need for three different Big Bads in the span of 10 episodes. 

1 minute ago, Watt said:

So I haven't had time to watch this episode or the last and normally I'd just come here and read what ya'll have go say and get the basic gist of the episode. But you guys are giving me nothing! ?I am so confused about this episode.

Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it. None of it made sense because they either ended up contradicting itself with the series itself (or even in the same scene) or they made a vague statement about something and then didn't bother to explain it further, which made it seem like a contradiction. 

I guess all I got from the episode is that Gothel took Drizella's magic and gave it to Anastacia, who seems to have quite a bit of power that Gothel wants to manipulate, she tossed Drizella down a well with Rapunzel/Tremaine/Victoria, and....Henry will probably not die when the curse is broken, but they're totally playing it like he is. I assume someone will take his poisoned heart and die in his place.

Now, bets on who that'll be? If the showrunners are actually listening to the critiques, it'll be Jacinda who makes the heroic sacrifice, and at least that gets rid of one of the major problems (and there are MANY, but that's a huge biggie). Then, they'd just have to deal with Lucy, fix the writing, make Henry more interesting somehow, etc. 

[Camera One]

18 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

Also, I'm confused as to how many people were dragged from The Disenchanted Forest to Hyperion Heights/San Francisco. Also, how can the cursed people be in two separate cities? Does that mean there are other cursed individuals elsewhere in America? Does it travel globally?

Apparently, they all got transported to Hyperion Heights, but Victoria pushed the residents out with her high rents, with the aim of separating the fairytale land people so they wouldn't reunite.  Zelena was one of those people who left Hyperion Heights "years ago" according to Roni.

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I guess all I got from the episode is that Gothel took Drizella's magic and gave it to Anastacia, who seems to have quite a bit of power that Gothel wants to manipulate, she tossed Drizella down a well with Rapunzel/Tremaine/Victoria, and....Henry will probably not die when the curse is broken, but they're totally playing it like he is. I assume someone will take his poisoned heart and die in his place.

Henry will definitely not die.  Though when Regina was saying how either Henry dies or Lucy dies, I was pretty much at the point of, who cares.

So Villain #1 (Victoria) and Villain #2 (Ivy) are at the bottom of a well and can be ignored if needed, while Villain #3 (Gothel) and the pending Villains #4,5,6,7,8,9,10 (the rest of the Coven) can all take their turns in the back-half.  Why have one good villain when you can have 10 mediocre ones?

Edited December 16, 2017 by Camera One

[ParadoxLost]

24 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

Except Drizella even said in this episode during the curse casting scene that she couldn't cast the curse because she didn't have the last ingredient, or whatever. If anything, Drizella just managed to write down the "rules" down but she never actually enacted them, since it was Regina's blood that started the curse. 

At least one review of this episode said that neither Regina or Drizella cast the curse.  And I don't think that it was meant as a spoiler even though my reaction to who the articles said cast the curse was a great big "Huh?"

I am quite frankly confused on whether I'm confused or the entertainment writer is confused.

I'm starting to think this is one of those episodes where editing mistakes were made and important scenes were cut to the point that what was going on fell apart.

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Henry will probably not die when the curse is broken, but they're totally playing it like he is. I assume someone will take his poisoned heart and die in his place.

I'm going with Regina has to get her powers back so she can remove Henry's heart and do some kind of true love heart sharing ala Snowing to avoid inevitable death.   Original plan was probably Jacinda.  Not so sure they'll go there now.

[Camera One]

I was thinking about this episode and... why did Henry need to build a magical wardrobe exactly?  Couldn't he and Lucy just go to Seattle with the Book and wait for Hyperion Heights to drop?  Did Gothel and Drizella close every portal out of the Alt Enchanted Forest or something?  Why was Rumple stuck there?  Why didn't they all just leave? 

[darkestboy]

Good enough mid season finale. Of course, the show won't really kill Henry and they probably won't even kill Lucy either. There will be a loophole of some sort, won't there?

I liked Zelena's reintroduction and I'm glad they didn't waste time having her memories restored as well. Her fiancee is probably someone we know but who though?

Drizella getting played by Gothel wasn't too much of a shock and kind of karmic after forcing Regina's hand with the curse though. At least Drizella and Victoria can commiserate each other in the well for an episode or two.

Anastasia will probably become Gothel's undoing at some point though.

Robin and Alice have a better love story than Henry and Jacinda, 7/10

[Camera One]

When Henry took Lucy to the "oldest" part of the Enchanted Forest, that was in the Alt Enchanted Forest, right?  So Tiger Lily from the Original Enchanted Forest came over via portal, just to deliver the Old Gepetto's axe?  How did they communicate with her?  Wasn't there another Gepetto in this Alt Enchanted Forest?  

Was it just me, or did Henry start chopping during the day and then it was night, and he made zero progress and then he got chased?  

We finally got back to the moment we saw in the Season 6 finale, but we still never saw what burst through Henry's cave home door.  

Edited December 16, 2017 by Camera One

[Lady Calypso]

2 minutes ago, Camera One said:

We finally got back to the moment we saw in the Season 6 finale, but we still never saw what burst through Henry's cave home door.  

Well, since it looks like they just took the season 6 clip and inserted it into this episode (I only caught a glimpse of the scene once when browsing last year's finale to catch up to this season), they clearly didn't bother to try to show the Coven of Eight, or whatever the dark hooded figures are supposed to be.