S02.E01: Broken

[yeswedo]

 

As fairytale characters awaken from Queen Regina's curse, they are not transported back to their home; Prince Phillip and his traveling companion realize they will be facing a deadly foe.

 

Note: please use spoiler tags when referring to major events that happen after this episode to allow new viewers to choose to be spoiled.

[stealinghome]

Ah, Broken. Honestly, I am always bittersweet on this episode because it's actually kind of where the show, in my headcanon, ends. imo, 'Broken' was the last, shining episode before the show started to get everything just so WRONG. So I love you, Broken, but you also make me sad, because you remind me where the show could--and should--have gone.

[KAOS Agent]

As I commented in the David thread, watching this episode now that I know and like Not!Cursed!David is much more interesting with the family dynamic. This time around I was rooting for a happy relationship with his daughter and he was so thrilled to "meet" her in that first scene.  I also really liked how very, very uncomfortable Emma was with the whole situation. She let them hug her, but it was written all over her that she was not particularly happy about any of it at all. 

 

With this rewatch, I pretty much skipped over all of the Phillip/Aurora/Mulan stuff because that was just a waste of space mostly there to set up the big twist at the end that this wasn't a fairyback, but that Emma & Snow were in the Enchanted Forest. Oh how shocking. Not. Should anyone ask, there was one hell of a lot of Enchanted Forest stuff that could have been cut for much more interesting and relevant Storybrooke character moments. Seriously, every time they went back to Phillip/Aurora/Mulan I was thinking how much more of this is there? And then they made it worse by soul sucking the incredibly attractive Phillip, the most badass Disney Prince there is. How rude. 

 

This episode needed to be mostly about dealing with the fallout and absolute chaos occurring in Storybrooke after the curse broke and magic had come to town. Instead, it was a very short character moment with Emma meeting her parents and then plot, plot, plot. I agree with stealinghome that this episode is pretty much where the show changed and knowing where they could have gone with it, instead of the path they chose, makes me sad as well.

[KingOfHearts]

This episode was long anticipated. The first half was definitely the highlight. My favorite parts of the episode include the cold opening with Neal in New York, FTL characters reuniting, Emma uniting with her parents, the townspeople going after Regina, and the fact the Enchanted Forest "flashbacks" happened in the present. I didn't care for the wraith thing at all. It was so contrived, and frankly pretty dark for a premiere of a family show. I would have rather had the episode focus on the fallout of the curse breaking rather than #SaveRegina.

 

I can't decide whether I liked the Team Princess twist or not. It was the catalyst for the perpetual plot, plot, plot. I think it took away a lot of Charmings family bonding time in subsequent episodes as well.

 

It's not one of my favorite episodes, mostly because of its plot. The aftermath of the curse breaking, though, was awesome for the first several minutes. Then the wraith thing happened, and I started losing interest.

Edited June 30, 2014 by KingOfHearts

[KingOfHearts]

Took a break on my NELB rewatch, and now I'm on Season 2.

There's a scene where Emma is determined to find out why Gold tricked her and the purple smoke came to town. Snow, of course, isn't having it and just wants to talk. Nevertheless, Emma is marching off to Gold's. In another scene, she protects Regina from the angry mobs and says "I'm still the sheriff".

What I like about these is how true they are to Emma's character. All this emotional and magical shenanigans going on, and she just wants to do her job. Yeah this is where fairy tales run rampant, but she's still going to apply real world logic and grounding.

[justmythoughts]

I've decided to rewatch the show now, at the end of S5. 

Many things are just boring, contrieved, plot useless twist... But it was sweet to watch Snow and Charming getting to "meet" their daughter. Emma was sad because she resents they sending her to the world and Snow counterparts that not being done, they would all had been cursed. And Emma replies: but together, what curse is worse? No, Emma dear, not together, EQ would not allow you to be with Snow nor Charming. Emma would be a baby forever, alone with the nuns or adoptive family, probably not loved, because that was the curse: no one should be happy. 

[Rumsy4]

I wonder if Emma's "savior" status would have let her age normally. I always liked the idea of an alternative take on the Show where Regina is unable to kill Emma and ends up adopting her instead. When Emma is about Henry's age, she starts forming an attachment to Snow, and the rest of the plot proceeds as before. 

[profdanglais]

Could Emma have broken the curse if she'd been caught up in it?

I've always been annoyed by that scene as well. Instead of being angry at Regina for casting the curse, Emma rebukes her parents for trying to do the best they could for her and spare her the cursed life they had. I get that she has abandonment issues, but surely the knowledge that her parents only left her because they were trying to save her from literal evil would make her feel better? 

[Rumsy4]

That was a very normal reaction for Emma (and a fair one). It's not like she had a good life alone. Her life was filled with loneliness and betrayal. Besides, when Snow decided to send Emma to the Lw/oM in the Wardrobe, she did it so Emma would escape the world's most boring Dark Curse ever and save everyone when she was 28. The Black Knights came to kill baby Emma when Charming was on the way to do it. If the Curse had overtaken them at that point, and infant Emma had made it to Storybrooke, Regina would not have killed baby Emma, as killing the savior = breaking the Dark Curse. 

However, I do feel cheated that we never got a real discussion about the issue after that. That's when the writing started to focus too much on plot! plot! they never dealt with the fallout of the Dark Curse, becasue the writers were already on the Regina-redemption band wagon, and didn't want to call too much attention to the lasting consequences of her evil deeds.

[justmythoughts]

5 hours ago, Rumsy4 said:

I wonder if Emma's "savior" status would have let her age normally. I always liked the idea of an alternative take on the Show where Regina is unable to kill Emma and ends up adopting her instead. When Emma is about Henry's age, she starts forming an attachment to Snow, and the rest of the plot proceeds as before. 

What an amazing idea! Love it! Can we have it instead of S6 now?! 

I do think it was in character for Emma to not understand things from the Charmings point of view. She had 28 years of doubt, unloving homes. Storybrooke had 28 years of obliteration... No memory sounded better than pain to her. But I felt really sorry for the Charmings because they were very happy to meet her and Emma was kind of "yeah, I'm a grown woman now, no need for this sugar". 

[KingOfHearts]

I've got mixed feelings about this episode. On one hand, the interactions with the Enchanted Forest are clever and Emma/Snow needed to be tossed there for story reasons. But on the other, the wraith stuff really distracts from the Curse fallout and seems like part of a ploy to distract the audience from a lack of payoff. 

Spoiler

I still find it strange that everybody's attitudes about Regina change after this episode, except for Henry's. The angry mob visits Regina a total of once. The heroes agree to lock Regina up, but later she's free to go and they make no attempts to re-incarcerate her, even after the big spectacle in the next episode at the town meeting. Everyone, including Charming, was just totally okay with her hanging around. Rumple dropped his vendetta and never brought it up again. (Yet he held onto Zelena's against Belle's will for some reason.) I'm hardly on the "let's punish Regina" train, but everybody's reactions to her through S2 were odd to say the least. 

[andromeda331]

This used to be one of my favorites I loved the hugs, the mob wanting to kill Regina, Regina locked up, Rumple sending the wrath to kill Regina, I didn't mind Emma explaining her feelings because she did still spend 28 years having a crappy life and it made sense that Snow  and Charming were hurt by it. They never thought their daughter would end up having such a crappy childhood. I liked Philip, Aurora and Mulan. And mostly assumed Regina was still going to pay for her crimes. Knowing now that the mob was all that happened doesn't make it as fun now to watch and knowing the guy is Neal and what a let down he was. Team Princess was always one of my favorite arcs seeing Emma and Snow together, Emma seeing her mom as more then just Mary Margaret and her reaction to the Enchanted Forest. Charming taking care of Henry.  

Spoiler

I really wish Aurora, Philip and Mulan managed to work it out as a threesome. I never thought I'd say that about any characters but all three seemed to really love each other and it really seemed like it could workout for them.

I was always confused on Henry's reaction to Regina possibly being killed. Now he says that's his Mom? He's the one who she treated like crap and knew all last season she was a murderer.   

[Camera One]

8 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

I was always confused on Henry's reaction to Regina possibly being killed. Now he says that's his Mom? He's the one who she treated like crap and knew all last season she was a murderer.   

I can buy that a kid wouldn't want someone to be lynched by a mob, but considering this episode was supposed to have begun immediately after the finale, the turnaround from Henry was a reversal of whiplash proportion.

I just watched a clip of the reunion hugs, and we can pretty much time the payoff from the curse breaking... it lasted 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

It struck me when Grumpy said it.  "Why are we still here?"  THAT was never explored adequately, in terms of how everyone thought about being stuck in Storybrooke, because the Wraith stuff was an immediate distraction.

Edited August 17, 2018 by Camera One

[andromeda331]

1 minute ago, Camera One said:

I can buy that a kid wouldn't want someone to be lynched by a mob, but considering this episode was supposed to have begun immediately after the finale, the turnaround from Henry was a reversal of whiplash proportion.

I just watched a clip of the reunion hugs, and we can pretty much time the payoff from the curse breaking... it lasted 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

It struck me when Grumpy said it.  "Why are we still here?"  THAT was never explored adequately, in terms of how everyone thought about being stuck in Storybrooke, because the Wraith stuff was an immediate distraction.

That's a good point. Emma asked at the end of season one why they didn't all go back to the Enchanted Forest and Henry didn't know and here its Grumpy who asked that question and they never did answer it. I wish they had.  Henry's remark feels like whiplashed after the first season if it wasn't for Regina never getting punished again or if Henry had come off torn it might make a little more sense. We never saw him torn at all in the first season. The closest was in the first episode with the she didn't love him she only pretended too. But that was never followed up on. But now it just feels like the first step or first excuse they came up with as to why no one murdered Regina. Which makes little sense she still should have been tried for her crimes and sentenced or one of her many victims would hardly care about how Henry feels after what Regina did to them, the people she's murdered and families she ripped apart.  They really should have some attempting to murder her.  

[Camera One]

12 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

But now it just feels like the first step or first excuse they came up with as to why no one murdered Regina. Which makes little sense she still should have been tried for her crimes and sentenced or one of her many victims would hardly care about how Henry feels after what Regina did to them, the people she's murdered and families she ripped apart.  They really should have some attempting to murder her.  

I think that hits on the nail on the head.  The Writers were coming up with reasons why Regina would still be up and around and interacting with everyone on the show, so Henry became a convenient excuse.  Bringing magic to Storybrooke also ensured Regina and Rumple could maintain their freedom and the upper-hand with a clear advantage (hopefully the audience forgets about those pesky fairies).  

[KingOfHearts]

31 minutes ago, Camera One said:

It struck me when Grumpy said it.  "Why are we still here?"  THAT was never explored adequately, in terms of how everyone thought about being stuck in Storybrooke, because the Wraith stuff was an immediate distraction.

The writers never explained what exactly the Curse was. Isn't Storybrooke part of it?

Spoiler

Later it just became a mass-transport spell, except then it wasn't when the Black Fairy cast it. 

24 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

Henry's remark feels like whiplashed after the first season

It's a problem with the first season that affects the grand scheme of things. We didn't see until maybe the season finale that Regina loved Henry. There was never a moment where Henry really regarded her as his mother, outside of just calling him "his mom". I would think if you wanted to patch that relationship just as little so that Henry would at least care, you'd put some minor endearment in the last episodes of S1. 

Spoiler

Of course that all gets retconned when Henry says later he should've never went to find Emma. 

Edited August 17, 2018 by KingOfHearts

[companionenvy]

I was pleasantly surprised by both of this week's episodes. My memory of S2 is mostly negative - I think colored by later events - but 2A at least begins well. 

I'm particularly impressed by Ginnifer Goodwin's acting in this one. She and JM are both good in the reunion scene, but GG is particularly effective.

Most importantly, the show actually is starting to deal with emotional fallout in an effective way. It makes sense that Emma wouldn't be so ready to forgive, and she's right that her parents didn't do it for her, in the end of the day - they did it for the realm. I still think they needed at least one more episode before the Charmings were separated again, but the show is hitting the right emotional beats, IMO.

Henry's extreme whiplash is a problem. I get that he wouldn't want a mob to kill Regina, but his "she's my mom" is a little rich after a season of "I need to find my real mom because you're the evil queen." But the idea that they aren't killing her/letting her die for Henry's sake isn't a terrible one.

[Camera One]

I think I've fixed the Henry problem with one added line

On Main Street, ARCHIE quickly runs up to the group.

ARCHIE: There you are. Come with me. I need your help. Dr. Whale’s whipped everyone into a frenzy. They’re going to Regina’s house. They’re going to kill her!

LEROY: Great, let’s watch!

ARCHIE: No. No, we cannot stoop to her level. No matter who she is or what she’s done, killing her is wrong.

HENRY: He’s right. Please. She’s still my mom.  

EVERYONE stares at Henry.

HENRY: Just kidding!  Let's finish up the story by chasing her up the mountain so she can fall off a cliff!

-----

All joking aside, I think the order of the lines in that scene were interesting:

Quote

Archie: No. No, we cannot stoop to her level. No matter who she is or what she’s done, killing her is wrong.

Henry: He’s right. Please. She’s still my mom.

Emma: We have to stop them.

David: If the Blue Fairy is right and magic is here, Regina could have her powers back. They’ll be marching into a slaughter.

(The group runs toward the direction of the mob.)

First, they have Henry speaking up.  Then, they have Emma agreeing with Henry. 

Spoiler

It was like an omen of things to come (if this were a later season, Snow would have spoken next in support of saving Regina).

After that they have David speak in favor of going towards the mob, but for a very different reason.  He clearly cares more about the crowd getting hurt than Regina.  

They could have cut Henry and Emma's lines and have David speak right after Archie.  

Edited August 17, 2018 by Camera One

[andromeda331]

2 hours ago, Camera One said:

I think I've fixed the Henry problem with one added line

On Main Street, ARCHIE quickly runs up to the group.

ARCHIE: There you are. Come with me. I need your help. Dr. Whale’s whipped everyone into a frenzy. They’re going to Regina’s house. They’re going to kill her!

LEROY: Great, let’s watch!

ARCHIE: No. No, we cannot stoop to her level. No matter who she is or what she’s done, killing her is wrong.

HENRY: He’s right. Please. She’s still my mom.  

EVERYONE stares at Henry.

HENRY: Just kidding!  Let's finish up the story by chasing her up the mountain so she can fall off a cliff!

-----

All joking aside, I think the order of the lines in that scene were interesting:

First, they have Henry speaking up.  Then, they have Emma agreeing with Henry. 

  Hide contents

It was like an omen of things to come (if this were a later season, Snow would have spoken next in support of saving Regina).

After that they have David speak in favor of going towards the mob, but for a very different reason.  He clearly cares more about the crowd getting hurt than Regina.  

They could have cut Henry and Emma's lines and have David speak right after Archie.  

They really could have. David's worry makes more sense. If Regina had her magic back she would hurt the crowd. That was what she was going to do because she thought she had her powers. But it turned out she didn't and the mob was ready for blood especially Whale.

[KingOfHearts]

14 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

But it turned out she didn't and the mob was ready for blood especially Whale.

Spoiler

And somehow Whale is the bad guy for barging into Regina's therapy session. 

[daxx]

Love the look on Regina’s face when her magic doesn’t work. Rumple was so gleeful that he’s getting rid of her that he brags to Emma and Snowing about the wraith forgetting that Belle is in the next room.

Spoiler

Imagine what a wonderful life they might have had if the wraith had taken Regina.

I mean Hook would have still hitched a ride with Cora and they would have had to deal with her, but Hook and Emma would have still met and I’m certain he would have given up his revenge for her in any scenario. Then they would have had to deal with Tamara and Greg but without the failsafe they wouldn’t have been as dangerous. 

[KAOS Agent]

That whole part where Snow wants to know why Emma isn't happy about being a family was such a nice character moment. I loved how David, who didn't have a whole lot of time spent with Emma during the curse, immediately knew to back off and tried to stop Snow from pushing it. Maybe he also recognized that she thought he was a total jackass and grasped that she wouldn't be thrilled to have him as a father. 

Spoiler

It's sad that that whole thing is now completely spoiled because both of them should have immediately remembered having closed the door on their daughter's happiness. Knowing what they did, they should have understood exactly why Emma wasn't jumping for joy at the discovery of her parents. 

[tennisgurl]

So we begin season two! Honestly, its a pretty good start to the season, and seems to set up a lot of good follow up from the first season finale. We get some good emotional follow up with Emma finding out that MM and David are her parents, and everyone getting their memories back. Its got lots of good emotional beats, and the start of some promising conflict between the characters. 

Spoiler

Of course, pretty much none of this is followed up on at all. As much as I like the idea of Emma being stuck in the magic world, her and Snow being immediate separated from the rest of the cast and into new danger means that we never get any of that follow up about how any of them feel about being reunited, or the weird feelings about Emma finding out that her bestie and her friends asshole kinda boyfriend being not only her same age parents, but being literally Snow White and Prince Charming, and Snow and Charming finally meeting their 28 year old daughter. 

Speaking of follow up, I am clearly an asshole because when the angry mob was chasing Regina, my first thought was "Yes! Yes! Take her ass out!"I mean, yeah I dont really want to watch her get burned at the stake, but its great to see her vulnerable and getting told off for her evil bullshit. Its also an interesting beat that, while Henry has randomly gone all "shes still my mom!" while he spent last season basically trying to get away from her, Charming is just worried that the people in the mob will be hurt by Regina's magic. He doesn't sound like he really gives a crap if they string Regina up from the nearest apple tree, but he is worried that his people might get hurt. 

Spoiler

It makes me think of how close we were from Regina getting executed in the EF, if Snow hadn't been an idiot and let her wander off to cause more havoc. Knowing this is as close as we get to her facing any real consequences for anything she does, I am holding this close to my heart. Also, knowing who Whale really is, its pretty appropriate that he is in charge of angry mob duty. Really, did all these people just totally get over their rage at Regina in a few episodes, or do they spend the rest of the series fuming that their leaders are now chilling with their oppressor who murdered their friends and families and ruined their lives without even a trail, or a chance for everyone to throw apples at Regina or something?

I remember not being a fan of Mulan/Aurora/Philip when I first watched it, and...I really dont know why. Maybe because I wanted to get back to the heroes I knew and loved, and didnt know why these new characters were here (oh, I was so young!) and wanted to get back to the Storeybrooke crew. But now, I really appreciate them, as they actually do seem like the characters they're supposed to be (well, Mulan after becoming significantly more hardcore) and its fun to see these characters from different stories getting together and adventuring together, which is what this show is supposed to be about! I like all three of them, and am actually already pretty invested in Philips death, and can see how hurt Aurora and Mulan are by his death. Its a good set up, and Emma and MM showing up is a good place to start the season, even if, well, you already saw my issues. 

[Shanna Marie]

The bit at the beginning with Neal in New York seemed to have actually been shot on location rather than Vancouver posing as New York. At least, I felt like I knew exactly where he was at various points, so unless Vancouver is so good at playing New York that they can mimic actual, specific locations at that level of detail, this may be the one thing in the series that's actually in the real location.

Henry's attitude toward Regina is rather whiplash-inducing. I could see him not being keen on a mob lynching for anyone, but the "she's my mom!" thing came out of the blue, given that he spent the previous season insisting that she wasn't his mom, that she didn't love him, that she was the evil queen. He's read fairy tales. He should know what the likely outcome for a villain was going to be. What did he think would happen? Meanwhile, there's Regina's sudden turnaround, where she's trying to show him physical affection and using that soft, motherly voice to him. She never acted that way during all of season one. She was totally cold to him, never showed any physical affection, seldom even touched him, never used that soft voice with him. The relationship as they're depicting it here (and in the previous episode) just comes out of nowhere rather than flowing out of what we've seen.

But I do think Emma was in character. She's worked with the justice system enough that she would want a fair trial, not a mob execution. Between her having that attitude and David not wanting anyone to get hurt, they had enough reason to intervene without Henry suddenly calling her his mom.

Loved the Charming family reunion. And I actually liked the mob. It's a realistic reaction.

I have questions about the Aurora side of the story. They had her lying alone in the castle. Philip and Mulan said something before he woke her about having to tell her everything. It seems Philip was really into Aurora, barely noticing that Mulan was there once Aurora woke, so it wasn't about how he and Mulan got together while Aurora was asleep. Was it about the curse? You'd think she'd have figured that out pretty quickly. It seemed to be setting up some kind of mystery. Also, was her castle in the area affected by the curse, but she wasn't taken, or was she also in the non-affected area? Where are her parents? Where were all the servants? And why is a blond, blue-eyed princess in a Middle-Eastern-looking castle?

I like this episode if you put it in a vacuum. If you consider what came later, it gets frustrating.
 

Spoiler

 

They seemed to set up so much stuff and raise so many questions about the Philip/Aurora/Mulan story, and it was all dropped. They even brought them back, only to drop them again. They may be the biggest victims of the ADD writing (other than maybe Robin) in that they kept setting up stuff and then just never dealt with it, but it wasn't like they forgot the characters because they used them again.

I hadn't noticed that the dwarf bow to Regina at the end of season 6 was a reflection of their bow to Snow upon greeting her in this episode. UGH.

At least once here (and I think again in the next episode), they said magic works differently here. Pity that went nowhere. It would have been more interesting if they'd used that.

In general, it seems like the writers never so much as glanced at this episode again when they wrote the rest of the series, other than to take things and give them to Regina.

 

[companionenvy]

Spoiler

57 minutes ago, Shanna Marie said:

I hadn't noticed that the dwarf bow to Regina at the end of season 6 was a reflection of their bow to Snow upon greeting her in this episode. UGH.

Yes, that was really grating! One of the most disappointing things about this and the next episode, in retrospect, is the way the show totally dropped the ball on Mary Margaret and David actually being the leaders of this people, to the point where a couple of seasons later we get the WTF scene of Mary Margaret, as mayor, complaining that now she gets where Regina was coming from. Which...does not make sense for someone who grew up as the crown princess and functioned for at least a little while as the actual ruler. 

The show so often didn't seem to know what to do with Snowing, which is mind-boggling when you consider that they had two ready made arcs in 1)exploring their relationship with Emma and 2) having them navigate the responsibilities of leadership in these very altered circumstances.

Even with GG being less available in later years because of her RL pregnancies, there is no reason she and JD couldn't have spent their more limited time on the show on scenes that addressed these two threads.

[tennisgurl]

21 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

The bit at the beginning with Neal in New York seemed to have actually been shot on location rather than Vancouver posing as New York. At least, I felt like I knew exactly where he was at various points, so unless Vancouver is so good at playing New York that they can mimic actual, specific locations at that level of detail, this may be the one thing in the series that's actually in the real location.

 

I forgot to mention that, but what a weird sequence! I mean, I kind of get what they were going for, with this being modern day New York contrasted with the fairytale stuff in Storybrooke and in the EF, but it was edited and shot so bizarrely, all shaky cam and Mumblecore aesthetics, and its so jarring, because they dont normally do this when we get stuff in the non Maine parts of the modern world. Its like a few shots from a 90s Gen X dramady got stuck in the show, and they decided to keep it because no one wanted to edit it out.

[Camera One]

I remember thinking it felt like a ripoff of "Lost", to create mystery and intrigue. 

How was that bird able to fly from Storybrooke to NYC so fast?  

22 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

The bit at the beginning with Neal in New York seemed to have actually been shot on location rather than Vancouver posing as New York. At least, I felt like I knew exactly where he was at various points, so unless Vancouver is so good at playing New York that they can mimic actual, specific locations at that level of detail, this may be the one thing in the series that's actually in the real location.

That's definitely not Vancouver.  In this podcast on "Welcome to Storybrooke", A&E say Michael Raymond-James did film on-location in NYC (Central Park, subway, updown/downtown, "guerilla-style").

[Shanna Marie]

In this episode, we have the Clash of the Regular Character Villains. Normally, the regular always wins, so even if a character is in the wrong, if they're a regular, we're supposed to side with them. But here we have, in one corner, Regina, who cursed the whole town and kept an innocent woman locked up in an insane asylum for 28 years. In the other corner, we have Rumple, who restored magic to the town to carry out his own agenda. Which one will be right this time?

Regina wins! Even though she pretty much deserves everything she has coming to her, and more, when Rumple attacks her with a wraith as payback for what she did to Belle, we have to rush to Regina's rescue and save her. We can't just let her suffer the consequences of her actions.

But never fear! Rumple doesn't have to face any consequences for devastating the town with his attack. So, although he doesn't succeed in destroying Regina, they both still win because they come out okay and no one seems to mind what happened.

[KingOfHearts]

On this show, "you tried to kill me!" is equal to "you said something mean about me on Facebook".