S02.E13: Tiny

[KingOfHearts]

Quote

Kidnapped and brought to Storybrooke by Cora, the Giant (Jorge Garcia) unleashes his vengeance on the town when a case of mistaken identity leads him to try and settle an old score with David; Mr. Gold, accompanied by Emma and Henry, attempts to depart Storybrooke - hoping to keep his memory intact when he crosses the town line -- and heads to the airport in search of his son Bae; and Greg (Ethan Embry) questions Belle as to what she saw on the night of his car accident. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was and against his brothers' wishes, Anton, the Giant, climbs down the beanstalk and attempts to befriend some humans - whose intentions may not be so noble.

[KingOfHearts]

I can't say I'm a fan of this episode. It's just okay. The greatest bits are Rumple's struggles at the airport. I do like the twist that Jack is actually a woman and it's nice to see James again. What I don't like is how filler-y the episode feels. Cora is notably absent twiddling her thumbs al a 2A. While it's great to have Jorge Garcia, his character doesn't strike the chords of endearment in me that Hurley from Lost did. 

Spoiler

The bean farms the giants tended never come up again. It should've been explained why someone like Rumple wouldn't find a way to waltz up there and take magic beans. Even the giants themselves are never mentioned again. Instead of using something established like that beanstalk in the sky, the writers decided to pull magic beans out of their asses. I remember that Tiny and his fields got a mention in S5 and S7, but not so for the giants or their fields.

[Camera One]

From what I remember, the airport and airplane parts were the best.  For the first time, we saw Rumple really vulnerable.  This was the type of culture clash that would have been really interesting to explore.  

Spoiler

And then in 4B, Gold suddenly had no problem functioning in the "real world" when he was kicked out of town.

It was also interesting seeing Rumple interact with Henry more. 

The other thing that I stuck out for me was how Regina basically turned into Cora's lackey.  I was surprised a main character turned into a guest character's personality-less sidekick.  

I felt the same about Tiny lacking the charisma of Hurley.  

As usual, I don't mind filler, but I feel like this was just an excuse to have a giant stomping around Storybrooke.  

Edited September 29, 2018 by Camera One

[andromeda331]

So did I. Hurley was awesome and Tiny was just okay. I did like that Jack was a girl and I admit at the time I was surprised that James was so awful. I know others picked up on it in the Shephard but I never did. The best part was the airport. This is what I really wanted to see more of with the show. The culture clash between Fairytale characters and our world.

[Shanna Marie]

I actually kind of like this one. Yeah, it's mostly filler, but it's fun filler. I enjoy getting to see James, though it doesn't seem like the way he's depicted here and the way his relationship with George is shown here matches what we saw in season one. Season one James was an arrogant jerk, but not so much a murderous criminal sleaze, and George, with all his faults, seemed to have deeply loved James, while here he's utterly disgusted with him. I like Tiny getting adopted by the dwarfs. In the present, we get the Charmings looking like their old selves and having adventures. This is a rare case where doing the right thing and being nice to people paid off because helping Tiny got them the bean plant. Their interaction with Hook is appropriate for dealing with someone like him. Hook is interesting as he seems to be walking a survival tightrope, trying to keep the Charmings, Cora, and Regina all from going after him. He keeps the Charmings off-balance by being as inappropriate as possible, then sucks up to Regina when she and not Cora responds to his summons, and then he has to play nice with Cora. And all while he's clearly in severe pain and just wanting to get his revenge and not have to deal with any of these people. They did a good makeup job on his face because all those wounds look real.

The trip part of the story showed them all dealing with the outside world, which is always nice to see. Though I do have to wonder if driving to Boston to fly to New York was really the best way to go. Aren't there airports in Maine that would have had shuttles to New York, or would they just have flown to Boston and then to New York? The timing (or the editing) is also weird, since Rumple and the gang left town first thing in the morning, but we don't see them on the plane until after we've seen a scene after dark in Storybrooke. How long does it take to drive from Maine to Boston?

I had to giggle at the end where they've got a whole crew of people breaking up the ground to plant one tiny bean sprig. And if it took a century for the giants' crop to come in, how is that going to do them any good?

[companionenvy]

Yes, the flashback was filler, but it works reasonably well as a one-off, and in the meantime, things are progressing with other plotlines. The twist with Jack/Jacqueline was clever - as, I thought, was making James/Jack a kind of dark version of Snowing; their encouragement to Tiny about family and finding a place to belong was very much the kind of thing Snow, especially, would have said and actually meant it. In the present day, the adventure with Tiny also leads to the cute reveal about Charming's name actually being David.

As others have said, the scenes in the airport and plane work very well, playing up the culture shock and Rumple's sense of powerlessness, which is especially acute as he prepares for this highly emotionally charged meeting with Bae. But I think I'm even more impressed by the earlier scene with Rumple and David, where Rumple thinks David is threatening him (If anything happens to my family...), and then David finishes with "it would break my heart." Just a really nice, unusually nuanced character moment for both of them, especially Rumple had  just threatened to kill David and Mary Margaret if anything happened to Belle in the final scene of "In the Name of the Brother." There's frankly no reason for Rumple to think Snow and David are going to do anything to Belle; this is just a reflex for him - he trusts no one, thinks the worst of others, and relies on people's fear of his powers to get what he wants. In this episode, he projects that attitude onto David, and keeps the upper hand by taunting him with the fact that he can't cross the town line. But David is a very different person, and while he does have legitimate reason to mistrust Rumple, what he actually winds up doing is making a far more emotionally honest appeal to Rumple's better nature. Which actually works, to an extent, as Rumple is visibly chastened by realizing where David was actually going with the "threat." I think RC then plays his reminder that they have a deal as a bit of emotional defensiveness on Rumple's part; he actually does have enough of a conscience that he isn't planning to do anything horrible to Emma or Henry (not, of course, that he wouldn't be willing to if it wound up serving him, but all things being equal, he intends them no harm), and he has been affected by what David said, but rather than acknowledging that, he turns it to a purely transactional matter. Just a great scene.

Because it came up in a previous episode thread, I also wanted to note that David doesn't seem to be thinking that going back to the EF would mean leaving Emma and Henry behind - I'm not sure that it has occurred to him that Emma might not come with them until Snow mentions it. From the way it is written, it isn't impossible that David has considered it and wants to go back anyway, but neither is there any particular reason to think that he's willing to leave her behind. 

[tennisgurl]

I remember not being particularly found of this one throughout my first viewing, as I thought it was basically pointless filler in the middle of the Cora antics, but now, I like it a bit more. Its fun seeing Snow and Charming having another adventure, and I like their take on Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack being a woman is a fun twist (and I like the actress who plays Jack a lot) and it was nice seeing James again. He is a bit more of a clear villain in this than in his first appearance, which is kind of weird, but like how King George has to become more evil as the stories went on, I guess the same happened here. 

As others have said, the airport scenes with Henry, Rumple, and Emma are definitely the highlights of the episode. We finally get some of that fish out of water stuff with fairytale characters interacting with the modern world, and it works really well. Not only is it interesting, and even sympathetic, to see Rumple feeling so out of sorts at the airport, it had some nice stuff between him and Emma. I really do find their relationship at this point on the show to be pretty interesting. Its often antagonistic, but in a more "I dont trust you, but we arent really enemies right now, and I can even kind of appreciate you" kind of way than with, say, Cora. Emma seems to actually feel some sympathy for him, knowing that he is nervous in the modern world, as well as being off to find his long lost son, and as someone who also has been thrown into a world she isnt prepared for, and had an emotional reunion with her own long lost son, she can empathize. Henry is also so cute in the airport, asking lots of questions, and getting all excited about Cinnabun. I suppose Henry didnt get out of Storeybrooke very much either. 

I find it weird that they kept sedating Bell/curse Bell so often. No wonder she feels all confused and out of sorts. Also, the reference to Jack getting the shrink mushroom in Wonderland was cute, but also makes me wonder how people in this world now keep jumping around, when its supposedly so hard? She could be lying, but then how would she have the mushroom, or know what a Jaberwok was?

I also like that Snowing doing something good did also lead to something good, with Anton giving them the bean that they need. While some of the dialogue is a bit off in the flashbacks, I did like seeing the giant kingdom, and its sweet when Anton got welcomed into the Dwarf team. And they managed to actually follow up with things already set up, with George, Anton, and his meeting with Emma earlier. Its one of those stories where everything works out, because the heroes are willing to risk being hurt to do good, which is a nice lesson to see in a show about fairytales, and knowing...what comes later.

Spoiler

And, of course, I think I appreciate this episode more now that I have seen the crappy version of it. When they were writing Gothels backstory, did they not think we would notice that she and Anton has almost the exact same backstory? Almost beat by beat? A kind supernatural creature associated with growing things lives hidden from the human world with their family. Never the less, they have a fascination with humans, and want to meet them, despite a well meaning older relative saying that no good can come of it, and humans will screw them over. They ignore this advice, and meet some humans, after spying on a human gathering, who seem nice, and want to befriend them, only for the humans to follow them home, betray them, and slaughter their family and their entire species, leaving only them alive, now hating humans and wanting revenge. Except here it makes more sense, as James and Jack specifically got in good with Anton to steal his family's treasures because they were greedy, and had a national debt to pay off, and killed the giants when they tried to defend their home. The prehistoric mean girls just betrayed Gothel and killed her family because...humans are assholes who hate magic for no reason. Its just peak season seven. Copying what was done better earlier in the show. 

[Camera One]

Was Rumple afraid on the plane because he didn't have magic?  Or because he was on a plane?  Was riding a plane not in his real-world download?  

[Shanna Marie]

41 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Was riding a plane not in his real-world download?  

If "Mr. Gold" had never left Storybrooke and had no memories of being in an airplane, it could be unsettling for him. Lots of people who know about airplanes still get nervous the first time they fly. Lots of people get nervous on airplanes even when they've flown before (and they always seem to end up sitting next to me -- my superpower is keeping people calm during flights, though there was that time I resorted to handing over a Tylenol PM). But I suspect control freak Rumple doesn't like his fate being in someone else's hands. He's not a "passenger" kind of person.

[legaleagle53]

On 10/20/2018 at 6:15 PM, Camera One said:

Was Rumple afraid on the plane because he didn't have magic?  Or because he was on a plane?  Was riding a plane not in his real-world download?  

It was because he had no powers.  He'd become so completely dependent on them that he was afraid of not being able to function without them.

[CCTC]

On 9/29/2018 at 11:56 AM, companionenvy said:

the adventure with Tiny also leads to the cute reveal about Charming's name actually being David.

That was a legitimately amusing scene.  I wish they would have done that more - embracing some of the more ludicrous elements of their situation.  The had a cast talented enough that they could work the humor while playing it straight and not play it as camp as if they were winking at the audience

Spoiler

(at least at that point of the series.  They really did waste the acting skills of much of the cast, regular and recurring characters the last few years of the show).

[KingOfHearts]

2 hours ago, CCTC said:

That was a legitimately amusing scene.  I wish they would have done that more - embracing some of the more ludicrous elements of their situation.  The had a cast talented enough that they could work the humor while playing it straight and not play it as camp as if they were winking at the audience

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I think the best humor was when the show was self-aware about its weirdness, but it didn't go out of its way to be weird.