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"Poor Unfortunate Souls"
Episode Review
Guys, I am loving this season half. Words cannot express the improvement that's been made since the last two. OUAT is hitting its stride once again, explaining characters we know from a whole other angle. Keep it coming, writers! Because I'm loving it.
This week treated us to a Hook backstory, something we've only seen a couple of. And at last we were given a glimpse into what ticked Ursula off, something else I'd been waiting for. I liked the reasoning behind why mermaids are generally so nasty (we saw them all in Neverland trying to capsize the boat,) and it's all because Poseidon is bitter over humans destroying his wife. I thought the Poseidon/Ursula twist was a clever one, as well as using a mermaid's voice to be hypnotizing and deadly. What a cool, creepy twist on the Little Mermaid story! It reminded me of the amazingly freakish Peter Pan. (Speaking of Pan, did anybody else love hearing him referenced again?)
I also liked seeing Regina go undercover, although as I predicted, Gold doesn't completely trust her yet. He hasn't told her the whole plan, and from what he said I'm guessing that she's going to be faced with something much bigger than torching cop cars. She'll no doubt have to choose between doing something truly awful and blowing her cover. Rumple is smart, and no doubt will have just the thing to make her choose. Look out, Regina! But as tempting as it may be, I doubt that she'll ever truly cross over to being pure evil ever again. She's come too far, thankfully. Her speaking through Snow was cool, and Ginnifer Goodwin did an amazing job lip-syncing that one! I'm really enjoying seeing Snow and Charming a lot more, but I wish they'd tell the truth. From the promo for next week, it looks like the truth is going to leak out. And Emma doesn't look too pleased. I'm in total suspense- what could possibly have been so bad that the two most truthful people are so desperate to hide it? And it must be something that they did to keep Emma from going dark, so apparently it was something that seemed justifiable. Maybe it's kind of something like Cora. Good that Snow protected her family but bad that she lied to Regina? I'm guessing, because it can't be anything that they can't be forgiven for. Intriguing. But I'm enjoying seeing the two biggest heroes having darkness just like everybody else.
And by far the best part was seeing August back. I liked the nose twist thing, and thank goodness he's not wood anymore!! And I'm glad that he was already rescued. (By the way, how awesome was Snow hitting Cruella over the head with a frying pan? I'm really loving Bandit Snow back!!) And there were totally some sparks between him and Emma - pleeeeease can these two end up together? I like Hook and all, but he's better as a pirate. On the right side of course, but always a pirate. Having August in the episode made it a good one, even if the backstory had been a flop. And the author imprisoned in the book? Awesome. Totally didn't see that coming! And I'm really happy we made reference back to the Dragon in season 2, a loose end I had always wondered about.
My only beef with the episode is that Ursula seemed resolved really quickly. She had a problem and a solution all in one episode. Hopefully that doesn't mean that she'll be gone already. Her name is in the credits for the next few episodes, so I hope that means she'll be around for a while. I'd like to dig deeper in such a major villain. But at least the writers have been doing an excellent job of keeping the main characters as the primary focus and the newcomers as side-characters. It's all in how they relate to the core group, which is always the strongest storytelling. Nice job! And how nice was it to see Ariel back?
I am still disturbed by Gold, however. I would say that this season is back to its usual standards if I could just understand what his motivation is. He seems more driven than anyone to get that author. And as Hook keeps saying, he's here for more than his happy ending. So what else is there? He still seems to be full-blown evil, and I'd like to know why. At this point I'm not seeing any remorse for his actions. However, in two weeks the episode "Heart of Gold" will air, no doubt a Rumple backstory, and from the title it sounds like we may be trying to figure out what's been going on in the Dark One's mind. It also gives me hope that Zelena is going to be in the flashback, hopefully explaining what went on between the two and inside the vault of the Dark One. PLEASE give us an explanation!! More and more I'm seeing that his winning Belle back is going to be quite a feat, especially as he lied to her again.
I'm starting to have a theory about the Author. While I believe that he exists, I'm not at all certain that he controls happy endings. I agree with Ariel when she brought up the very good point of choices: villains don't have their happy endings only because they try to get them the wrong way. That's what makes them villains, right? Heroes only have them because they choose goodness and do the right thing. I believe that the Author is merely a scribe of what happened in the characters' lives. Regina could have had the page with Robin, but she chose to embrace her darkness, so the story was changed accordingly. We already saw that Ursula was able to get her happy ending without finding the author, and we know that Hook has his happy ending in Emma, also without the Author's help. And if we take a look at Rumple, our most tortured soul since day one, we see that he had his happy ending more than once, and chose to give it away for power. So our unhappiness really is the result of our missteps, and we can definitely blame "bad judgment and gin." I think all our characters are going to have to come to the end of themselves to realize that just like evil, happy endings aren't born; they're made. It's all how we handle the choices we're given and the paths we take. And if these characters want to be truly happy, then only doing the right thing is going to redeem them. So there is hope for everyone, including Rumple, but he's going to have to realize that power not his happy ending, but rather the thing keeping him from it.
A very good episode! I give it an 9/10, as it wasn't a big plot mover but it set up some very interesting storylines, from bringing August back, giving us Ursula's story, and a big answer about the author. The CGI was well done, and I always love a good swashbuckling episode. Stay tuned for next week to catch more on Maleficent's backstory with the Charmings!