Once Upon A Time: Broken
Storybrook:
This season opens in storybrook right where last season ended. Magic is coming. I had high expectations for this episode and it really fell flat for me.
The purple smoke arrives and suddenly everyone remembers who they are. Hugs abound. Old wounds, like the fact that Charming thought you capable of cold blooded murder, are forgotten.
A super cheesy moment between Charming and Snow and Emma occurs that concludes with Henry calling them grandma and grandpa. Gag.
Dr. Hopper aka jiminy cricket come running asking for help. Please stop the angry mob from killing Regina. Seriously?
Our fearless threesome agrees to save the evil queen. Why? We're not sure. It looks like Dr. Whale is the most upset but again the reason behind that seems unclear. Oddly, even though everyone's memories have returned. Regina's magic seems to still be missing.
Emma remands Regina to custody and puts her in the only jail cell in town.
Meanwhile, Belle has been reunited with Rumple who is overjoyed with the prospect of having her around again. He is harboring a deep hatred for Regina and hopes to seek revenge. Belle doesn't want him to hurt anyone.
Rumple promises but then concocted a plan that would allow him to bring a dementor to town to suck the soul out of Regina. Seriously? What fairy tale is this?
Rumple digs out a spooky charm and heads over to the jail where he puts the charm in Regina's hand and tells her that she'll now get what she deserves.
Regina is marked and now waits for her soul to be sucked. When the dementor arrives Snow, charming and Emma fight it off and the. The four of them devise a plan to send it back.
This plan involves the mad hatters hat, Regina's inability to do magic unless Emma touches her and really bad CG. It ends with Snow and Emma being sucked into the vortex too and landing in the fairy tale land.
Meanwhile back in fairy tale land...
Mulan looks like she wants to run a few people through. Starting with Sleeping Beauty. The opening scene shows a stranger receiving a letter simply stating "broken".
We then join Phillip and Mulan at the bedside of SB. Sleep is about to be kissed by Phillip and Mulan, although her face is concelled, appears agitated.
Shortly after the kiss of life, the threesome are attacked by a dementor. Great. More bad CG.
Philip becomes marked by the same bracelet that marked Regina. He knows his time is limited. He attempts to lead the women back to safety but soon realizes that he must leave them
There's a lot of making out and why not? Did you see Prince Philip?
After sticking his tongue down SBs throat, he goes off into the forest to pretend to gather firewood but we all know he's going to meet his fate with the dementor.
Mulan isn't about to sit around and let this happen even if she knows that Phillip will never stick his tongue down her throat.
She leaves SB behind and try's to find Phillip. SB follows. Great. Just what we need to make the battle complete--a girl in a dress.
Philip gets his soul sucked and Mulan and SB return to the castle just in time for the arrival of Emma and snow.
Tune in next week to find out if this is going to get better or not...
What did you think if the first episode?
Once Upon A Time: An Apple As Red as Blood
In STORYBROOK
The show opens with Regina dreaming of a lynch mob that included all of our favorite characters. Henry tells her, as she is strapped to her dying apple tree,that she did this to herself and then Emma says "Off with her head".
That will wake ya up!
Regina visits with Gold who tells her that while he is sorry about her dilemma (mostly Emma), he cannot help. She cannot take her out or the curse will be broken. In essence, just like in her dream, her hands are tied.
Regina puts a white rabbit card on Paige's bike, who I thought was named Grace in STORYBROOK, and the Mad Hatter returns. Jefferson visits with Regina who offers him a deal. A trip back to their world and then upon their return she will let Grace remember him. He says no. She doesn't remember, he forget. Done. Deal.
So after scrounging up some magic, including the ring Daniel gave her. They are able to activate the hat just enough to retrieve a poisonous apple. This was slightly past my realm of believability but I am willing to go with it.
August has giving up. He is slowly becoming wooden again. He shows Henry and tells him that he plans on spending whatever time he has left with Marco, his dad.
After having a true mother and daughter spat, Emma seeks council from Dr. hopper, which strikes me as odd, but he tells her that she doesn't stand a chance trying to take Henry from Regina.
Emma decides to leave. She offers a parlay of sorts to Regina, who graciously agrees to allow her to remain in Henry's life. Regina gives her an apple tart as a going away present. A poisonous apple tart.
Henry comes over to see Emma at her house and Emma tells him she must go. Henry says why won't you believe. He warns her about the tart. She doesn't listen. He tells her that he didn't want it to come to this but it has too and he eats the tart.
Henry collapses.
In FAIRYTALE land
James is captured by King George. It looks like he is about to be beheaded, but at the last moment the guillotine is turned into water by the EQ. She offers whatever Midas would have given the kingdom and more.
Why? Asks George. So he can help me destroy Snow White.
Snow has quite the army of misfits. There is Granny and Red and all the dwarfs. At one point she has all the fairies in the land and they decide to rescue James.
Of course, it is a trap and after some much cheesy fighting scenes, Snow reaches Charming James in the prison, but alas he isn't there. It is just him in the EQs magic mirror.
The queen offers a parlay and tells Snow to meet her where it all began. They meet at the stable and she tells snow that Daniel is dead and that it remains her fault. Snow is shocked. She says, you took my father. Can we call it even. EQ says no. We can't. Se offers her the same poisonous apple that is later retrieved by Jefferson.
Eat this and remain trapped in your body forever or I will kill your true love. Um... Are those my only choices?
Just like the traditional fairy tale, Snow eats the fruit and collapses.
Next week is the series finale... What will become of Henry?
Once Upon A Time: The Stable Boy
This week we final learn just why Regina hates Snow and quite frankly, it's a little justified.
IN STORYBROOK:
It opens with Regina fiddling with a simple ring and we flashback a week and hear how she and Gold came up with a devious plan to get rid of Kathryn.
Back in the present, David whines a lot about Mary Margaret, Regina spends what too much time mocking MM and I continue to be amazed by the fact that Emma gets paid to be a Sheriff.
Sydney brings Emma flowers because he has nothing else to offer. Gold sets up a pretrial interview with the DA who happens to be King George or Charles Widmore depending on the show.
August tells Emma that when he gets writer's block he starts at the beginning and retraces his steps. She heads back to the dig where Ruby unearthed Kathryn's heart. She finds a piece of a shovel. She and August break into Regina's house and located the broken shovel. Like any good sheriff, she returns the next day with a warrant.
The shovel has been replaced.
She accuses August of being a traitor, but finds out Sydney is the traitor. She located a bug in the flowers he brought her.
Mary Margaret apologizes to Regina saying that she is sorry for whatever she has done to her. Apology not accepted.
In a major turn of events, just as MM was headed to court Kathryn is found alive in the alley.
IN FAIRYTALE land....
Regina is actually likeable and somewhat friendly and nice. Her mother on the other hand is pure evil. Regina is in love with Daniel, the stable boy. She is afraid to tell her mother.
I can't say I blame her as she is a wicked sorceress with a very bad temper.
Maxine from Wizards of Waverly Place comes barreling through her land on a runaway horse. Regina saves her.
Because she saves her, the king proposes. We learn that Maxine is really Snow White, the motherless daughter of King Leopold (whom I just love). Regina's mother accepts on her behalf and Regina is devastated. After all her true love, the stable boy, has not yet been capture by the dread pirate Roberts.
Regina rushes off to tell Daniel they must flee. Snow witness this and is very upset. Regina consoles her and tells her some ridiculously Disney-like crap about true love and how love is the most powerful magic of all and it creates happiness.
Honestly, I gagged a little.
Snow promises she will never tell anyone that Regina loves Daniel, but her cuteness is no match for Regina's evil mother, who gets the truth out of Snow after just one commercial break.
Regina's mother pulls Daniel's heart from his chest while Regina looks on. She tells her that love is weakness and that power endures.
Snow is surprised to learn that Regina is now marrying her father. She tells Snow that Daniel ran off and that she is surprised to realize she does, indeed, love King Leopold. Snow is happy. Snow tells her that she knew her mother would understand about how love works and Regina realizes the child did not keep her promise.
She has been dreaming of making her pay ever since.
We are on hiatus until April 22nd but return with a little more info on Rumple and the mysterious, yet oh so sexy, August.
Once Upon A Time: Red-handed
This episode made up for last week's lame event. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time!IN STORYBROOK
David and Emma have a little pow wow at the police station and she says "It doesn't matter that you can't explain a damn thing. You are gorgeous and I will let you go."
David leaves and apparently heads to the woods to look for Kathryn.
Ruby has a childlike fit at the diner and quits because Grannie won't let her see the lemurs. She was going to leave town but MM says live with us. Do you get the impression that MM brings home lots of strays and that she probably owns a lot of cats!
Emma works at the only sheriff department in the world with a surplus budget. She gives Ruby a job answering phones and running errands. Some of which are a little questionable.
MM finds David in the woods where she too is looking for Kathryn. He's dazed and confused. She fetches Emma who brings Ruby. Ruby finds him straight away. David has lost his memory.....AGAIN.
Dr. Whale says probably a side effect of his comma and that maybe he could do a lot of things with no memory of them.
Emma says last time this happened he was headed somewhere specific. She sends Ruby out there to look. Ruby digs up a jewelry box with a human heart in it. Really?
It's looking like our man David is finally going to be arrested but alas it is MM. Her fingerprints were all over it.
That complicates things.
IN FAIRYTALE LAND
Peter the Hot comes knocking on Red's door. Grannie is hard core in Fairytale land. She doesn't want Red out of the house. She doesn't like Peter.
Soldiers come knocking on the door. Grannie says stop fighting the wolf. Hid. It is the only way to be safe. She sends Red to bed. She tells her to stay in her cape.
Grannie stands guard with a mean ass cross bow.
The next morning Red finds Snow hiding in the chicken coop. She lets her stay with them. They find a well full of blood and the entire army slain in the yard.
The men are rallying. They are going to KILL THE BEAST.
Grannie fills them in. She says that when she was a girl she saw the beast. She saw it kill her six brothers and her father. It nearly chewed off her arm. She tells them to stay and hide.
Red tells Snow she feels trapped. That Grannie won't let her out. That she loves Peter but that as long is the wolf is out there Grannie won't let her be with him.
She convinces Snow to hunt the wolf with her. They track it and realize that it's part wolf part man. It looks like Peter is the wolf.
Snow convinces her to tell Peter. To save him. Snow deceives Grannie and pretends to be Red. Red sneaks out to tie up Peter. To save him from himself.
Grannie learns of the defeat and rushes to Peter's aide. For he is not the wolf...RED IS THE WOLF.
Next week: Just how pure is Snow White?
Once Upon a Time: What Happened to Frederick
In Storybrook:
David became synopsis with liar, liar, pants on fire. He learns from Kathryn that she has applied and been accepted to law school in Boston.
His reaction is to go for a walk with Mary Margaret. MM decides to pull out the honest card because we all know that people having a heated affair think about honesty A LOT. She implores David to tell Kathryn that he cannot go to Boston. He says OK, but we all have our doubts.
Meanwhile we learn that being a biker and a writer is a plausible combination and the name of our mystery writer is indeed...August Wayne Booth. Um....at least he didn't say John Wilkes Booth.
He invites Emma for a drink and hauls her off to some enchanted wishing well where they can get water from a magic lake. "If you drink from it, something that is lost will be returned to you."
Hmmm...tempting.
We are privy to a scene in which August is carefully drying and rebounding a book. Could it be THE book of stories that Henry is missing?
Sure enough after drinking from the wishing well the book just finds Emma underneath her car. It appears August had something to do with it. His role in this story is still quite a mystery to me.
David encourages Kathryn to go to Boston but fails to mention why he cannot go with her. He every so charmingly tells her that he doesn't want to hold her back. I threw up in my mouth a little.
Kathryn goes to visit her BFF...oh wait...she doesn't have any friends so she goes to see Regina who promptly lies to her and says Sydney took pictures of MM and David and she is "Oh so sorry" Kathryn loses it and goes to the school where she promptly embarrasses MM. Soon the entire town is calling her a tramp even though most of them are not sleeping with their husbands either. The worst part, she knows that David did not tell Kathryn and is lying to them both. Charming...isn't it?
Regina tries to replace Henry's book with a video game, but Emma surprises him with the return of the book he longed to see.
After ruining MM's professional life, Kathryn has a change of heart. She writes David a letter blessing his relationship with MM. Of course, before leaving she must reveal her plan to Regina...her BFF. Regina gives her blessing then promptly steals and burns the letter.
Kathryn never makes it out of Storybrook. Where she is...one can only guess. Her car was off the side of the road, airbag deployed, empty. It looked like Frederick was first on the scene.
In Fairytale land,
James flees from King George's kingdom. He is a little angry. He sends his men. James is captured but not by George...by Abigail.
He is determined not to marry someone he doesn't love. Her response..."How charming."
She doesn't love him either. Her true love was turned to gold when he saved her father Midas from an attack. The only way to break his curse is to gather water from Lake Nostos. Of course, the lake is guarded by an evil beast.
James agrees to get the water for her...so she can save her true love.
"If I return to you then you will be happy and free of pain and if the beast drowns me then I will be free of pain."
James finds the lake and is greeted by a mermaid of sorts that can change into whomever she desires. She takes the appearance of Snow and nearly succeeds in drowning James but he tells her that he knows what true love feels like and it is not this. In the end he manages to stab her and retrieve the water for Kathryn.
She pours the water over her golden lover and her returns to her. He give James a horse and some supplies so he too may find Snow.
James doesn't find Snow but he does find Red. She tells him that Snow went to the castle to break up his wedding that she does indeed love him.
They are found by King George and he swoops Red onto his horse and they flee into the woods.
What did you think of this weeks episode?
Once Upon A Time: 7:15 a.m.
This episode was significantly better than last weeks episode. It featured hotty pants Charming/James/David.
In Storybrooke,
More mystery swirls around the stranger. I was surprised that EQ/Regina didn't know who he was. Regina convinces Emma to investigate him for just being him. I actually loved the scene between her and the stranger at the dinner.
There was some chemistry between them and when he whipped out that typewritter and announced that he finds Storybrooke inspirational my heart leap a little perhaps he is one of the Grimm brothers.
MM spends her day stalking David. She starts at 7:15 at grannie's dinner just she can watch him by his wife coffee. OUCH. Thought it interesting that she was reading a Jules Verne book. Anyone see the title?
The theme of both episode Love Bites.
MM saves a bird that needs reunited with it's flock. On her way to make sure the bird is not alone forever, she slips down a cliff and gets trapped in a storm in a romantic cabin with David...um yikes.
Snow is not interested in sleeping with him...afterall she thinks his wife might be pregnant and apparently that is where she draws the line. The bird is reunited with its flock and both David and MM decide that they have got to stay away from each other.
In an effort to avoid each other they do not go to to the dinner at 7:15 but still end up there together 45 minutes later. LOVED the kiss. Sad that EQ was watching.
In fairytale land....
Snow is alone like the bird, seperated from her love. It was nice to see Red bringing her food. Charming/James is about to wed midas daughter Abigail/Katherine. Love seeing widmore in all his evil as the king.
There is lots of talk about the evils of love.
At one point Snow visits rumple who gives her a potion guaranteed to erase her memory...to make her forget about her love, about the pain of rejection, about it all. Of course, it's made with her hair and that grosses me out a little.
Rumple as always is creepy and wonderful. He keeps a little bit of her hair as payment which is slightly bothersome.
Snow gets a letter from James saying he needs her, he wants he but he doesnt really love her...no wait that's a Meatloaf song. He begs her to risk her life to come to the castle and see him.
Surprisingly, ok not really, she is captured and locked in the dungeon with Grumpy. I love Grumpy. He's the only one talking any sense this episode. He encourages Snow to embrace her pain because it makes her who she is.
Stealthy dwarf comes to rescue them and he isn't very stealthy. Grumpy helps Snow and then Stealthy gets killed and Grumpy gets captured. snow returns the favor and saves him.
The king lets Grumpy go and orders Snow to break James' heart. If not, he will kill him.
"you would kill your own son?" asks Snow.
"He is not my son," replies the king.
Ouch..always the twin that daddy didn't want.
Snow breaks James' heart and heads to the forest where she is greated by the tallest 7 dwarves EVAH. They become her new flock...she is no longer alone.
James can not forget her. He calls off the wedding. He looks for her where he thinks she maybe and Red says she never returned. He declares that he will find her. Grumpy excitedly announces to Snow that James called off the wedding.
Her response. "who?"
She has taken the potion given to her by Rumple.
Next week: Mirror Mirror who are you loyal to?
Once Upon A Time: The Shepherd
Seriously?
In Fairytale Land
It appears that our dashing prince is unstopable. He galantly defeats an evil ugly brute and is rewarded by King Midas. His father (Charles Widmore from LOST) is beaming with pride when Midas turns Charming's sword to gold and promises even more once he defeats the dragon.
Thankfully Midas back at the castle by the time the evil-ugly brute, whose death has been greatly exaggerated, RUNS CHARMING THROUGH WITH AN EVIL-UGLY SPEAR.
I did not see that coming.
Enter Rumple.
Dude...this guy is everywhere and Robert Carlyle continues to impress me with his acting skills.
He tells King "Widmore" that dead is dead ( a great LOST reference). Then he reveals that James has a twin brother. Turns out Rumple's fetish for fetching babies isn't just reserved for maid servants named Cinderella. He works for royalty, too.
This is when we flash to our sweet Shepard boy (his name is not revealed, but one can hope that it is David)
Turns out ma and paw were trying to save the farm. Ever notice how expensive it is to run a farm? Apparently, it is sooo expensive that Ma is willing to give up one of her baby boys to keep the farm a float for a short while. Um...seems a little far fetched. I mean, if you're gonna give up one of the twins at least get enough money to be set for life.
But alas, Ma didn't think that far ahead and now Paw is dead and she is trying to marry Charming off to some chick with a big set of .... dowries.
Until Rumple entices him with a proposition. You slay the dragon. Your family lives comfortably. Personally, I'd get that in writing. It didn't work out very well last time.
Charming agrees. First mistake. Then the cute farm boy actually succeeds in slaying the worst CG dragon I have ever seen. Made me miss the black smoke from LOST.
Midas is overjoyed with his new mantle piece and King "Widmore" is anxious to be reward. Of course there is always a catch.
This one has a name. Abigail.
Abigal announces that "He'll do" and I begin to wonder why she is so dislikable in fairytale land while I don't mind her much in Storybrook.
Charming shares a Lifetime moment with his ma (who he is apparently harboring no resentment at all towards...curious) and then heads off into the sunset with his new bitch bride. Off to meet Snow.
I thought it was a nice touch that in this episode, Charming had no scar on his chin.
Mary Margaret is mopping about Charming. Turns out David is home and Kathryn is tired of him giving her googly eyes.
David leaves his own welcome home party to chase after Mary and remind her that he feels so much more for her than he does Kathryn.
He pulls out the all time worst married guy line of all time saying that she doesn't mean anything to him and that he is drawn to her. "She needs someone to feel about her the way I feel about you." Seriously?
As much as I want him to choose already I'm having a little trouble feeling bad for him. He has all the cards.
Mary wrestles with her feelings and talks to Emma about it who pours her a drink and says, "If you think something you want to do is wrong, it usually is."
Seems like there is a lot of random drinking and newspaper reading in this episode. Go ahead...watch it again. You know you wanna.
David decides to leave Kathryn and we all cheer. He asks Snow to meet him at the Toll Bridge. To which, Emma encourages her to go. She throws caution to the wind and goes.
Like the village idiot, David asks for directions from Regina. Okay...this is too much. Does he really think that she is going to tell him how to get to the bridge.
Regina leads him to Rumple. Why? No one knows.
David walks into Gold's shop and fiddles with the glass mobile that used to grace Emma's crib. He hollers out to see if anyone is there. He walks past those creepy dolls from last weeks episode. "Charming," Gold says. Clever.
David does not get the reference. Gold give him directions to the bridge but as David turns to leave he is entranced by a windmill. We think he remembers his life with Snow. His farm. His Ma. But no. He has remembered his fake life with Kathryn.
He goes to the bridge but not to confess his dying love, but to tell Mary that he is returning to Kathryn. Wrong choice.
Mary is upset and alone. A bad combination.
About Me
- kisatrtle
- I'm a 41 year old (gasp) freelance writer, school cafeteria manager, wife and mother. I have three children and one anxious and overweight beagle. I use my blog to make others laugh, to share some cool crafts, to document my lunchlady adventures and to lament about the challenges faced by us all on the journey called life. Thanks for visiting. Please leave some crack...um...I meant some comments.
