Once Upon a Time - Season 7 Prospects

[LindaM]

I'll respond to all this later but what got me was that Rumple refused to make Alice the vessel. What I understood about the guardian, the G is neither good or evil but protects.  So it is eternal but not evil or good?  Remember the Key of Time storyline that seemed to drag but was relatively good on Doctor Who?  He met the good and he met the evil and he had to see through the confusion to determine who was who.  Granted the Doctor is smart and saw evil playing good.  Anyway, the line that good me there was that there had to be evil for good to exist.  Somehow the lines have blurred haven't they???

[Outlast]

Yeah it's like the darkness can be transferred but never destroyed. Remember back in season four or five (all the suck runs together at times but I think it was the end of four) when Rumple was dying of a dark heart (cause yeah that's a thing that happened) the darkness left him and swirled around looking for someone else to 'er... inhabit. And it chose Regina (presumably the darkest soul in the area) but Emma took her place by 'um 'stabbing' the darkness with the dagger. Yeah that happened too.

[LindaM]

Yep -- I believe it was end of season 4 that set up the Camelot/Dante's no-ferno story.

[LindaM]

Just heard a suspicious rumor that Adam and Eddie was seen around a "Frozen" background.  I thought they were going to take at least a year off to regroup.  Could they be planning a "Frozen" Once Upon a Time??

[Outlast]

Well lets see... Goethel's backstory was stupid. Why would a bunch of prissy girls in ball gowns destroy all magic (or I guess have their people do it for them)?  The idea of nymphs and nature magic works ok as a background for her though. It explains why she hates humans (because she isn't one and a because some rando blond in a ball gown killed her family. ok fine.). But I guess we're compatible enough since she and Nook had a baby without a problem (other than the uber speed and uber ickyness of the whole affair). The twist at the end was surprising (doh we're all living in Goethel's home realm which is now known as the 'Land Without Magic'!) but making Goethel thousands of years old feels silly somehow. I mean it should be cool, but it just feels silly. I would rather have them not try and make Goethel sympathetic (they failed anyway), but instead to just make her different. If she's not human it makes sense that she could see us as less then her, or maybe as pets or something and that's why she's such a 'w'itch because she's not like us and doesn't have our same feelings. That sounds more interesting than 'humans killed my family now I kill humans'. She could be like The Master in Doctor Who or something.

And since when has Goethel had the power to Jedi mind trick humans into doing her bidding like that? Maybe I'm just willfully forgetting scenes from earlier in the season, but I don't remember her doing this before, so it feels ridicules that she suddenly can do this. She could've easily enacted her plan at any time then.

Also why is Facilier good now? Last week he's evil incarnate, now he's a sweetheart who helps Lucy save henry's life. WHY DON'T THE WRITERS READ EACH OTHERS EPISODES AND I DON'T KNOW MAKE CONSISTENT TV?!

The one scene I really liked was when Henry let Nook and Alice into his crazy note/picture covered room (does anyone actually do this in real life or this just a TV trope?) My one complaint is that they didn't show enough of the notes. I wanted to read them dang it!

[Outlast]

Just heard a suspicious rumor that Adam and Eddie was seen around a "Frozen" background.  I thought they were going to take at least a year off to regroup.  Could they be planning a "Frozen" Once Upon a Time??

At this point would anyone even watch it if they did? I for one don't trust them to tell a coherent story. Season One must've been a total fluke.

[LindaM]

Okay -- my take.  This whole story line needed more research.  I saw it as Mother Nature which should be Gaia.  As for the "world without magic" is Goethel's world and we are all living in it, I don't buy that either because, as Gold used to say, there is magic everywhere.  I think some of that world came through with the curse.  We won't know for sure until the final battle.

What really gets me is the preview for next week.  Are we timey-whimey enough to believe that young Henry and new Henry coexist on the same time period.  If so, the rules of the universe have been reversed and we'll self implode. 

I need to really watch this again.  And I wasn't too hipped on the backstory.  Wonder if Alice/Tilly can counteract the magic?

[Outlast]

I know this is a text format and you can't see me (thank God) but if you could you'd see a big fat grin. We suffered through serum split Regina. We suffered through Nook. And now finally we get the goodie... WISH RUMPLE!!!!!!! 

As for the rest of it...it was surprisingly good. It wrapped everything up nicely, the curse is broken, the two villains are dead and everybody is 15-20 years in their own past (ok that part was weird and frankly DOES NOT FIX THE TIMELINE but at least it patches over a few of the cracks in nice shiny spackle), but the ending...that was awesome. Well first it was sad because there were all these happy reunions and poor Rumple looked sad and alone and so he left to look at Belle's book again. Sweet, but oh so sad and then it all got AWESOME!!!!!!!

Who knew after all the crap they've done, Once can still make me happy. Once and a while anyway. 

[Outlast]

An obvious question just occurred to me. If there are now two Rumples does that mean there are two daggers as well?  And are there now two separate Dark Ones existing in the two separate Rumples?
 
Wish Realm was such a stupid idea. But at least we get two Rumples out of it. 

[LindaM]

 Wish Rumple needed our Rumple's dagger.  No explanation but he was going to use it like it should be used. 

Excellent episode that I really loved.  I would have posted sooner but Teressa (my sister) is at Duke in the neuro center due to blood on the brain from an anuerysm.  I'm going to do a timeline when things settle down.  Tonight was the first chance I had to get on. 

(By the way, I caught her Friday night watching Once.)

[LindaM]

Okay -- last night's episode had some real tender moments:

a.  Alice talking to Nook from across the street because that was as near as she could get.
b.  The birthday party that went awry.
c.  The Rumple's confrontation.
d.  The joy that Roni showed in her face.

Where they goofed. 
a.  Wish Henry and his stupid plan to get his happy ending.
b.  Wish Rumple finding Wish Henry as an ally.
c.  The whole stupid Wish Realm stuff.
d.  No original cast that had left except Arielle who was really wish Arielle.

[Outlast]

This episode was all over the place, but it did hold my interest throughout with all the callbacks and of course the double Rumple/Wumple scenes.

 
QUIPS ARE BACK!
“I know it’s a bit cluttered; but it’s beach front property.”
“All I see is a cave where booze goes to perish.”
 

I despise the wish realm nonsense, but I was glad when Wish Henry brought up the cold blooded murder of his grandparents. Not to mention the assumed kidnapping of his mother. At least the writers remembered that much! Again Wish Realm was a terrible idea on multiple levels! Terrible!

It was funny when Mickey (The Apprentice) poked fun at the wonky timeline.

I guess it was fun seeing Pan, Ariel and Cruella again, but they were really useless for the most part. Ariel’s was the best even if it was the shortest, at least she had SQUID INK to share.

Did you see how hard Henry swung when he smashed Nook’s head in with the base of a candlestick – he should be dead or dying after a blow like that! When will Tv writers learn about how head trauma actually works?

The continually confusing family relationships...they suck. The writers have always had a problem with Henry being Rumple’s grandson and having two sets of them just ups the awkwardness. I really wish (my wish realm would be so much better then theirs) that they had invested more in the family aspect of the show and less in the ‘ships’.

Do the writers even realize how sad Rumple’s story has been? People say Regina has lost everything, but she’s had Henry and far more friends than she probably deserved even before she actually started to change her ways. Rumple has literally lost everyone who ever cared about him (certainly Henry, Emma and The Charmings have never cared about him) and his only hope now is to DIE and maybe be reunited with Baelfire and Belle in the Once afterlife. It’s so sad! 

Where is Gideon anyway? I didn’t like his storyline at all, but you’d think he deserves at the very least a mention. Maybe he’s died offscreen and will show up in the big Stiltskin afterlife reunion scene? 

Having double the Rumple fun with Rumple and Wumple running around was a treat for me. I loved those scenes! 

[Outlast]

Well that was underwhelming.

Why must there be sooo much Regina all the time.

Rumple was the most important character in the whole show (at least he was until things changed at the end of season three and he turned into a ping-pong plot device character) and his death fell flat. He died to save Nook who was desperately trying to save his kid from being pulled through a portal... sound familiar? This scene would have been much more effective if they'd taken the time to intercut in parts of the scene where Rumple loses Bae through the portal with scenes of Nook trying to save Alice and with lots of closeups of Rumple's face in slowmo as he realizes what he needs to do. Also it obviously should've been Bae/Henry and not Nook/Alice.

The afterlife was a bit barren and might actually have benefited by being shortened to Rumple hearing Belle call him - he opens his eyes - there she is smiling at him and telling him to come with her and that's Bae is waiting (offscreen) for them.

No Bae in the ‘afterlife’! All we got was a quick flash of him dead to rub it in once last time.

Also notice that there was absolutely no mention of Gideon. Yup that plot died too.

No Henry and Rumple family scene. There were two Rumples and at least two Henrys running around and not once did we hear him call Rumple Grandpa that I heard. I think he looked sort of sad when he died. I guess that’s something.

It was actually kind of sweet when Rumple called Nook his best friend (after Nook asked why he’d never killed him… um cause you ain’t his real nemesis Mr. Nooky not Hooky). Yet more sadness for Rumple that his ‘best friend’ is a guy created by a wish who mainly spent time with him while he was cursed.

Wumple was underused and far too easily defeated. I guess when Rumple prime dies then his Wish counterpart dies too? This was not explained. Also not really explained how Wumple just removed Rumple's magic and immortality from him with what a wave of the hand? Or was this The Author's almighty pen again?


In non Rumple matters (i.e. the shorter section)...
It was cute that Hook was baby-proofed with that pink hook stopper thing. But there was far too little Emma and what was there served only to remind me of how far her character had fallen from her fantastic start.

The opening where Alice and Robin were chased out by some of our beloved background characters (background after season one/two anyway).

The Lily’s father question is finally answered in the most random way possible! ZORRO! How stupid/hilarious was that?

I enjoyed watching shady Blue Fairy (Wish Blue?) get sucked into a black hole.

Cinderella and Lucy had practically no lines! Good.

[LindaM]

Agreed about Ella but not Lucy.  She's very smart

I actually thought the Rumple stuff was sweet.  He was coming over to Belle and they just ran out of time.  Why?  All the stupid Wumple stuff.  And you see, I knew Rumple would have to die somehow to kill Wumple.  I didn't suspect it would be giving his heart to Nook.  Sweet touch but sad.

All the originals -- Emma, Snow/Mary Margaret, and David were wasted. 

And how big is that little corner of Maine that it is now a fairy tale theme park.  Maybe Disney should do one in this mode.  I'd go.

[Outlast]

And how big is that little corner of Maine that it is now a fairy tale theme park.  Maybe Disney should do one in this mode.  I'd go.

Yeah I didn't catch that at the time, but they basically created Disneyland, Maine at the end. 

I guess Maine is like the TARDIS..bigger on the inside.