S01.E10: 7:15 A.M.

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Mary Margaret and David continue to grapple with their unrequited love, and Emma and Regina grow suspicious over a mysterious new stranger in town. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Snow White yearns to ease her breaking heart as Prince Charming’s wedding to King Midas’s daughter approaches.

[Rumsy4]

The present day Snowing stuff is awful this episode. I didn't like it at the time either. I deeply dislike wishy washy David Nolan. David was having sex with Kathryn but thought she was on Birth Control, but was also maneuvering his schedule to see Mary Margaret each morning. Even though it's technically becasue of the curse personalities, both Mary Margaret's and David's behaviors make me cringe. 

Poor Stealthy. RIP.

Snow holding a flaming torch over a small pile of hay and threatening to burn the castle down was ridiculous. 

Loved all the Emma-MM scenes. 

August's mystery box speech reminded me of JJ Abrams's, which was probably the intent.

[Camera One]

5 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

The present day Snowing stuff is awful this episode. I didn't like it at the time either. I deeply dislike wishy washy David Nolan.

I hate that they decided to resort to soap opera shenanigans when they didn't even have to.   I think it shows how uncreative they were even back in Season 1.  Once again, it was only the actors who made it work, because all it did was to make the characters more unsympathetic in their "let's dirty up the heroes since they're otherwise boring and bland" mindset.

[KingOfHearts]

13 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

August's mystery box speech reminded me of JJ Abrams's, which was probably the intent.

Not since Pulp Fiction have we seen such ambiguity from a mysterious container.

Spoiler

I know you're Baelfire.

Edited June 30, 2018 by KingOfHearts

[Shanna Marie]

I tend to have some sympathy with David because his memories are entirely fake and he didn't even get them until the curse was weakening. As he put it, he has memories that don't mean anything and feelings that do mean something.

Really, it comes back to Regina is the Worst and the writers have consent issues. Regina may not be actually raping anyone here, but she's setting up situations that remove people's ability to consent. With all the talk about the bird that's monogamous, I felt really sad because David and Snow would have liked to have been monogamous, but Regina threw him into a fake marriage and made her think she was single and lonely. Now Kathryn and Whale are always going to be there. They'll always know they were with other people while they were married. And poor Kathryn. She's just a pawn in all this. Regina's beef is with Snow, but she's using Kathryn to mess up Snow's life. It's awful how Regina can listen to Kathryn talking about Regina being her friend, all while knowing what she's doing to Kathryn. She has to have zero conscience.

Spoiler

And worse, when Regina is later in a similar situation, she can listen to Snow giving her pep talks without apologizing for what she did to Snow. She doesn't seem to ever feel bad about what she did, and instead of having empathy, she just whines about how awful things are for her.

[Camera One]

It was 7:15pm so I decided to watch this episode.

When the show first ran, I didn't realize the VCR wasn't taping until 15 minutes into the episode.  I was pretty devastated since I was such a completist.  So this episode has always been lacking because I had missed a chunk of it.

On rewatch, it felt very much watching a soap opera both in flashback and in present-day.  The actors made it work but at the end of the day, it was still frustrating in many ways because it was blatant how plot got in the way of the characters at every turn.  The 360 kiss at the end of the episode felt flat and unsatisfying because they set it up in a way that made the relationship immoral and unfair to Kathryn.  Who wants to feel guilty rooting for a coupling?  

Spoiler

This is only episode 10, but it's frustrating knowing that the Writers would have zero movement in David's character for the next 12 episodes.

The flashback stuff was also soap-opera-ish as hell.   Not to mention it was inconsistent with the last time we watched this story.  David was forced to go along with the wedding because his mother's life was at stake.  But that was forgotten in this one.  George was all about the wedding but then he said that he could kill "James" and he would become a martyr and "Midas would laud his death and the merger would be complete".  Huh?  If that was the case, why did she need the wedding?  She could have said "James" died defeating the dragon.  So once the kingdom "merged", George was confident that he would hold on to power?  Midas had no interest in ruling?  

I also didn't like how foolish Snow was being in the flashback, from making a deal with Rumple, to drinking the potion, to carrying the letter around and dropping it, to getting caught so easily, etc.

How did David know where to send the message via bird?  If he knew where she was, why would he risk Snow going to the castle to see him?

Why was Mary Margaret hiking by herself in the middle of the episode?

The Stranger really annoyed me, especially his smug talking in riddles.  "It's really frustrating not to know, isn't it?"  Who is he?  A&E's surrogate?  

I did like the old-fashioned language back in Season 1.  "How goes the feast?"  "Your absence is felt."

On first watch, I was neat to have mashups like Red bringing food to Snow, and I liked that this episode also revealed how Snow met the Dwarves, and it connected with Regina in an earlier flashback seeing Snow "cavorting" with Dwarves.  

Spoiler

It's just sad all these supporting characters were dropped like last week's garbage by Season 2.  I liked Snow's heart-to-heart with Grumpy in the cell.  

I did like Emma telling Regina, "He must be one of those untold millions you Cursed".  

[Rumsy4]

8 hours ago, Camera One said:

How did David know where to send the message via bird?  If he knew where she was, why would he risk Snow going to the castle to see him?

I don't think he did necessarily. Maybe the EF forest birds are somewhat magical and can locate people by their names. :-p It fits the fairy tale aspect. 

Spoiler

Neal sent the memory potion to Hook via bird in Season 3 as well.

[Camera One]

3 hours ago, Rumsy4 said:

I don't think he did necessarily. 

I guess I was confused how he knew where to find her at the end of the episode, when he happened upon Red.  I guess the talking bird could have told him, LOL.

[Shanna Marie]

I'm more annoyed by Snow and David in the past than in the present. I can understand what's going on with them in the present because the curse is messing them up but their real feelings are too strong for the curse, once the curse is weakening.

But they're being total drama queens in the past. They'd had just that one encounter, and yet she's so upset about not being able to be with this guy she barely knows and spent most of her time with him snarking at him that she has to resort to going to the Dark One to get a potion to erase her love for him? And he's willing to let the kingdom go to ruin and put his mother's life at risk over this woman he barely knows who berated him non-stop? I can't count the number of times I met someone at an event, got started chatting, thought we were hitting it off and it might go somewhere, only for him to mention a wife/girlfriend/fiancee. And you know what I did? I thought "Darn, all the good ones are taken" and moved on. I didn't feel the need for a love potion. I guess it wasn't True Love.

Spoiler

I seem to recall expecting to see more flashbacks fleshing it out, maybe showing they ran into each other after the robbery/Troll Bridge incident and before this episode, but I don't think there is more, other than the earlier meeting that grows the magic baby tree thing.

[Camera One]

I definitely expected further flashbacks showing Snow and Charming interacting more deeply before they fell in love.  I thought that was the point of this show, to really develop the relationships that were so instant in the fairy tales.  But nope, chronologically, "Snow Falls" was all there was.

Having said that, I could also understand why they acted the way they did.  I could buy that this was Snow's first major crush.  Her life on the run was so isolating and so sad, that I can understand why in the log in the forest all alone, she would think non-stop about Charming after their meeting, latching onto him as a possible happy ending if she weren't being hunted down.  Ditto for David, who had always lived a simple life on a farm, suddenly blackmailed to pretend to be someone he wasn't and to marry someone and live the rest of his entire life as someone else.  How trapped would he feel, especially after meeting a woman who he finally felt like he connected with?  I don't think this show would have become a favorite at all if I started becoming annoyed with them since they were both essentially victims.  To me, these horrible circumstances that they didn't choose were destroying their entire future chance of happiness.  So from their personal perspective, it's more than being drama queens.  In Season 1, True Love was seemingly a more rare thing in this Enchanted Forest of Fairytales (maybe with the idea of First Loves being once-in-a-lifetime), so that also contributed to potentially explaining their strong feelings.

Yes, it was contrived as hell, and I hated the whole love potion as an extra added obstacle.  I remember groaning with that cliffhanger.  A simpler story is better but A&E were all about clutter.  It was another case of a "hero" getting duped because

Spoiler

they cared more about making it part of some convoluted plan that Rumple was cooking up with the True Love hair spell.  Except all of that was pointless anyway since everyone and their neighbor can have True Love 

Edited July 4, 2018 by Camera One

[profdanglais]

Yeah, watching it the first time, I remember wondering if I'd missed an episode since basically the only Snowing we'd had at this point was Snow Falls, yet all of a sudden they were madly in love. And I had been WAITING for more Snowing for what seemed like ages. 

[Shanna Marie]

22 hours ago, Camera One said:

Having said that, I could also understand why they acted the way they did.  I could buy that this was Snow's first major crush.  Her life on the run was so isolating and so sad, that I can understand why in the log in the forest all alone, she would think non-stop about Charming after their meeting, latching onto him as a possible happy ending if she weren't being hunted down.  Ditto for David, who had always lived a simple life on a farm, suddenly blackmailed to pretend to be someone he wasn't and to marry someone and live the rest of his entire life as someone else.  How trapped would he feel, especially after meeting a woman who he finally felt like he connected with?

There's feeling a bit down because you can't have the person you want, and then there's taking a potion to erase all memory of him or putting your mother's life and the welfare of the kingdom at risk. Really, just one more episode showing maybe one more encounter that gave them a stronger sense of connection (with the fact that they just happened to run into each other again making it feel like fate kicking in) would have made a lot more sense.

In a way, the season 3 finale makes it work better

Spoiler

because while him rescuing her from the black knights was more dramatic, him spotting the ladybug and realizing it was her actually says more about him and the kind of person he is. They also spent a lot more time together while they were in the wagon Hook was driving on the way to Regina's palace to rescue Emma, and it seemed like they talked more during that journey. So if you imagine this episode in the aftermath of the timeline change, I can buy it a little better.

[Camera One]

12 minutes ago, Shanna Marie said:

the welfare of the kingdom at risk. 

I still don't buy that the welfare of the entire kingdom was on David's shoulders, nor should it be.   It's very well to blame someone for not making such a sacrifice but from his perspective, there was no reason why he should feel obligated to go through with it.  The whole thing with his mother was never mentioned so that was more of a plot hole. 

[Shanna Marie]

28 minutes ago, Camera One said:

I still don't buy that the welfare of the entire kingdom was on David's shoulders, nor should it be.   It's very well to blame someone for not making such a sacrifice but from his perspective, there was no reason why he should feel obligated to go through with it.

This is where some development would have helped. If we'd seen starving peasants and some sign that George had sold everything of value in the castle, then David looks like a jerk if he says "screw the starving peasants, I'm in love" and chases after some girl he barely knows. If it's just that the royal treasury is getting low and George wants to gear up for war, then it's not David's problem. Then there's the threat to his mother. It might have been nice if there'd been some mention that he'd made some kind of provision or arrangement to protect her.