Despite Complications, Happier Possibilities Loom for Two Couples in What Happened to Frederick?

What Happened to Frederick? was an interesting episode, partly because the title referenced a character we had not yet met, partly because of the glaring absence of Rumplestiltskin (or Mr. Gold). What’s more, the queen was not directly involved in anything that happened in the fairy tale realm. However, she was intimately involved in the events that unfolded in Storybrooke.

I’ve been unsure what to think of Kathryn thus far in the series. She seemed like a nice enough person, but I wondered if she was either in cahoots with Regina or being played by her. It seems it was the latter and that Kathryn really is a perfectly decent person, and for that matter, so is Abigail, her fairy tale counterpart who hadn’t seemed very appealing up till that point. She came across as very haughty and none too pleased with having to marry James, but with our focus on Snow and James, we’re not thinking too much about the fact that this marriage is as unwanted by Abigail as it is by James. We ought to be sympathizing with groom and bride both.

In the fairy tale realm, there were two antagonists to contend with. One was the king who was so insistent upon this match in the first place. Alan Dale is so good at playing aristocratic dads wreaking havoc with their children’s lives. In this case, of course, James is not really his child but merely a last-minute replacement for the adoptive son that he lost. Thus, his only real concern for him is what he can do for him. There really is no affection attached.

The other antagonist was the siren in the water, and that was a creepy but powerful sequence rather reminiscent of the scene in Deathly Hallows in which Ron retrieves and then destroys the locket horcrux. Going into that water is an action sparking grave consequences, and it means putting his love and resolve to the test. I was rather hoping that the defeat of the siren could involve something other than flat-out violence in the end, but at least getting to the point of battle was more about head and heart than physical prowess.

It was nice to see James and Abigail united in mutual respect and sympathy for each other’s circumstances. Abigail wanted to free James from his obligation so that she would not have to marry him but also so that he could have a love that she was denied. James ended up turning the tables and undertaking a quest to restore her lost love. It was actually quite moving.

The dynamics between the two were not nearly so cordial in Storybrooke, where David’s cowardly half-confession led to heartbreak for all concerned. Kathryn really was a pitiable person here, just a decent woman who had married a man she cared about but for whom she felt no deep, visceral passion. I felt for her as she learned in the worst way that she had been lied to, and while I felt sorry for Mary Margaret too, especially during that school confrontation, I can’t really fault Kathryn for doing it. She had plenty of reason to be upset. Now that we know she has a different love interest, we can root for both her and Snow to have happiness, and there doesn’t need to be any conflict. So much neater. Though no doubt, Regina’s shenanigans will end up complicating matters.

It was nice to see that book again, and the way that Henry’s face lit up at the sight of it was so endearing. What is up with the stranger, though? What does he want? He seems shifty but not necessarily bad news. He certainly knows more than he is letting on, though. It will be interesting to see what his further involvement will be now that he has what he wanted.

All told, a good episode, and despite the rather alarming ending, it mostly seemed a hopeful episode as it offered a way out that not only allows happiness for James and Snow but also for Abigail and Frederick.

"Loving Someone You Can’t Be With Is a Terrible, Terrible Burden."

I'd been really looking forward to seeing another LOST alum on Once Upon a Time, and having it happen on my birthday, with the focus being on a fairy tale so near and dear to my heart, was especially cool.  Emilie de Ravin makes a great Belle, bringing the same sort of sweet innocence to the role that Claire had but also the spunk that is one of Belle's most appealing features.  She may not be a warrior princess, but she is far from a damsel in distress. Sometimes love takes real courage.

I never got around to writing about Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, the second of three episodes in a row in which the plot revolved around improbable romance. In the first, it’s two upright people separated from each other by their own honor and circumstances out of their control. The second and third involve people in love with the main villains of the series.

The Sidney episode included several nods to Aladdin, with a genie who yearned for freedom above all else. The introduction to Snow White’s father was great, and at first he seemed an absolute model of kindness and compassion, but I caught myself feeling sorry for the queen as he rhapsodized about his first wife without a word in favor of his second. Granted, we haven’t seen much to recommend her, but he did at least come across as insensitive and, later, a touch vindictive.

The key difference between the magic mirror storyline there and the Belle storyline in Skin Deep is that the first involved someone falling for someone outwardly beautiful and doing something ugly to prove his love, while the second involved someone falling for someone perceived as a monster and doing something beautiful. The genie betrayed the man who had granted his freedom, a cruel and cowardly act. Belle allowed herself to be taken prisoner for the sake of those she loved and then had the kindness and bravery to believe that her captor was capable of love and worthy of receiving it. A crucial difference.

I still think that Rumple is probably the more dangerous of the two villains. However, he also seems more layered than Regina, who, even in her seemingly compassionate moments, always seems to have sinister ulterior motives. She may have loved her father, but not enough for that to stop her from killing him. She claims to love Henry, but given the way he relates to her, it appears to be a toxic relationship. By contrast, both of the Rumple-centric backstories have shown him in a primarily sympathetic light.

Yes, he sent a shiver down my spine at the beginning with his giddy giggling when he offered to save the kingdom in exchange for Belle. But once he had her, aside from tossing her in the dungeon, he didn’t seem like all that unpleasant a person to have around. And it was apparent that both the remnants of his life with his son and of Belle’s brief time with him truly meant something to him. Was his power too important for him to give up? Did he merely not want to risk having his heart broken again? I suspect there is truth in both explanations.

I loved the way the episode incorporated elements of the Disney film. The best was Chip, turning the whimsical teacup into a symbol of the broken love between Rumple and Belle. Having Gaston turned into a rose was an amusing touch, and while I was obliged to feel a bit sorry for the guy, I’m sure whatever part of his arrogant consciousness remained intact relished being on display and admired for his beauty for the rest of his days. I thought it was neat that as a princess, Belle started out in her iconic gold ball gown, then once she started working for Rumple, she switched to the blue and white peasant dress. I also loved how her tumbling while opening the curtains and being caught by Rumple recalled both the Beast rescuing Belle from the wolves and unveiling the library to her. 

The only bit I wasn’t keen on was the story that Belle returned to her father and he banished her. Maurice is such a sweet guy, and I’ve never encountered a version of Beauty and the Beast in which the father is a jerk. But he didn’t seem like a jerk in the beginning, so I’m guessing the queen just made that part up and actually intercepted Belle and locked her away before she could get home.  Incidentally, I love that in Storybrooke the name of his business was Game of Thorns.  I don't watch Game of Thrones, but I loved the play on words.

It was an interesting choice to have Rumple be the beast this time out. On the one hand, we’ve been programmed to distrust him; on the other, we’ve already seen his humanity, and he certainly seems more redeemable than Regina, though truly turning him around seems like it would be a daunting task.

I’ve often heard Beauty and the Beast criticized for laying the groundwork for women remaining with and even seeking out abusive men.  That’s a challenging criticism, and I’m not sure how to respond to it because I believe that everyone does have good inside them and that there is great value in trying to draw that good out, even if it seems to everyone else and to that individual that there is no hope for renewal. On the other hand, a person should not put up with abuse. There has to be a middle ground of persisting with love in the face of resistance without being ruled by the cruelty of another.

I think Belle has always done a good job of walking that line, especially when you consider that she went initially as an act of love to save people she cared about. She didn’t just take the beast on as a project on a whim. She agreed to his terms out of love for her father and, in this case, the people of his kingdom, so it only made sense to try to find the good in her captor instead of living with him as an enemy.

It was interesting to me that we didn’t see Belle in Storybrooke until the very end. I suppose that was partly so that when the queen gave her spiel to Rumple about Belle jumping off the tower, we might believe her. The result, though, was that aside from Rumple’s palpable anguish and ferocious temper, the current storyline didn’t parallel the fairy tale one as neatly as many do. Instead, it focused more on other couples facing major challenges.

Cinderella’s prince found a way to show his overworked girlfriend how much he cared, while David dropped the ball. I just love Snow White in this show, especially when she’s Mary Margaret. Her pain over the unfair situation in which she and David have found themselves really cuts deep, especially since she is someone who so desperately wants to do the right thing. It’s hard to be in love on Valentine’s Day when that love cannot be returned, at least not wholeheartedly, and Mary Margaret’s sardonic observations had a deep resonance. Oh, and that David-giving-her-the-wrong-card thing? Totally called that.

It was really rather a bummer of an episode, but it was so compelling and still leaves the door open for restoration later on. As for the occasion, it was probably the most affecting Valentine’s Day episode I’ve seen since Flashes Before Your Eyes back in 2007. And, well, if you’re reading this blog, you probably know how that turned out. So it may look rather grim now, but I’m sure better things are on the horizon for Belle and Snow alike. And maybe there’s even hope for this show’s tortured Scotsman.

Catching Up With Once Upon a Time

I had such good intentions about blogging about Once Upon a Time, which, of all the new shows this season, is definitely the pick of the litter for me, though there are several others I enjoy.  It’s hard to stay motivated, though, especially when I’m not sure anybody’s really interested in what I have to say.  But I’m going to play catch-up here with some quick capsule reviews and then maybe try to get back on track. 

The Shepherd gives us Prince Charming’s backstory, and it’s quite the tragic tale.  A gentle shepherd with no greater wish than to find true love finds a destiny forced upon him thanks to the machinations of the ever-present Rumplestiltskin and a king played by our dear friend Alan Dale.   Dale, who always seems to play these overbearing fatherly types, is no more likable here than he was as Charles Widmore.  He’s used to being in control, and he has no qualms about yanking people around in order to achieve his goals.  Granted, a kingdom hangs in the balance, so stakes are high.  The moment in the episode that made me grin the most was Emma and Mary Margaret sharing some MacCutcheon whiskey back in Storybrooke.  Very nice tip of the hat to the guest star.

While Emma seems to be the primary protagonist, at least in Storybrooke, it seems so far that the love story at the heart of the series is Snow White and Prince Charming, her parents.  I just love Ginnifer Goodwin’s portrayal of Snow White / Mary Margaret.  Such sweetness, with a bit of feistiness as well.  Mary Margaret is so easy to sympathize with here, since, despite her most valiant efforts to resist, she has fallen in love with David, who is married to a woman he can’t remember.  He seems to return her affections, but it’s a frustrating balancing act as he keeps pulling back just as she begins to reconsider whether they could actually be meant for each other.  They are this show’s Penny and Desmond, and more heartbreak is to come. 

Loved the music in this one, the scenes between the James and his mother and the utter skeeziness of Rumplestiltskin.  Robert Carlyle is such a charismatic actor.  Dad finds him the most fascinating character in the bunch, and he really does have a mesmerizing quality about him.  You want to look away, but you just can’t…  Anyway, a solid episode to build on later.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter was interesting but would have been better without the excessively spoilery previews.  We knew somebody was going to die, and it wasn’t much of a stretch to figure out that it would probably be the episode’s centric character, especially since he’s not exactly a major player in fairy tale lore.  The huntsman was sadly dispensable.  He was a likable enough fellow, and as is almost always the case with flashback episodes (Nikki and Paolo remain an especially glaring exception), his backstory made me like him more.  I liked his respect for the animals in the forest, his detached perspective on the world after having been raised in the wild. 

Snow White was wonderful too in the brief time we saw her.  Whether her note was a calculated ploy for the huntsman’s sympathy or a genuine attempt to allow her death to fulfill the queen’s lust for revenge is unclear but doesn’t really matter, I don’t think.  She’s savvier than most Snow Whites we’ve seen, but she retains a pure heart and genuine goodwill for those around her. 

I loved the interaction between Graham and Henry in this episode.  It was so much like Desmond, with his brain wonking out and informing him that something was just a little off, and the panic in his demeanor was just as pronounced.  But in that scene with Henry, the kid finally got to have someone taking him completely seriously, without a hint of judgment.  Somebody who truly believed that there might be something to his theory.  It was a beautiful moment.  Alas, it was one of Graham’s last, and we were left with several weeks to contemplate Emma’s anguish and Regina’s wrath as it became clear just how much the evil queen remembered.  Not really one of my favorite episodes, partly because I kinda predicted what would happen from the beginning, but still a potent cliffhanger.

Desperate Souls was fascinating because we finally got to see Rumplestiltskin’s backstory, and it really was not what I would have expected.  He seemed like a perfectly decent, albeit wimpy, guy – and who can blame him for the latter?  His Scottish brogue was even more pronounced as a commoner dreading his son’s impending inscription into the army. 

The backstory all felt very Lord of the Rings-ish to me, with a strong hint of Across the Sea, a much-maligned LOST episode I still view as exceptional.  Like Jacob, Rumple basically had a changing of the guard forced upon him, with the old keeper of the power tricking him into killing him.  However, it was his own decision to take the steps leading him to that point, and here he reminded me of Boromir, who so desperately yearned for the power of the Ring and was so convinced he would put it to good use.  What happened to Rumple once he gained that power seems a fair illustration of what might have happened to Boromir had he taken possession of the Ring.  It was sad and touching and frustrating to think that he was such a decent guy at one time.  Decenter than we have seen Regina thus far, though he still feels like the greater threat.

I wasn’t as engaged with the Storybrooke storyline, but it was still interesting to see the tactics that were used and what each candidate was willing to stoop to.  Emma came off very well here, rescuing her enemy, even if there did seem to be a moment of hesitation, and then bowing out when she realized the underhanded scheme Mr. Gold had used.  Of course, that was all part of his plan; like Smokey, he’s really adept at manipulating people.  You don’t want to wind up in his debt.  And yet everyone does.  The theme of choice this week felt very Jacobean to me.  It’s great to say you have free will, but some choices barely feel like a choice.  Still, you have to be responsible for your own decisions.

Responsibility was a big theme in True North as well.  This episode was a bit of an oddity because we had never encountered Hansel and Gretel before, so their story really only had loose ties to the rest of the tale.  Regina was the only overlapping character in the fairy tale world, and in Storybrooke, it was mostly there as another way of exploring the relationship between Emma and Henry, as well as letting her take on her first big case as official sheriff.  She really was on top of things with smelling a rat when she dropped those kids off, and her anguish at the thought of releasing them into a system that failed her rang true.

Of course, my LOST senses were tingling like crazy with that compass.  John Locke certainly would have sympathized with their plight as well.  It’s no fun to be shuffled around from foster home to foster home.  Neat, too, that it was a compass that allowed Emma to find their father.  And interesting that Mr. Gold helped her so willingly.  Maybe he still has a heart when it comes to children being with their parents?  One wonders what exactly happened to his son.  Did he run off?  Join the army out of spite?  Did they argue, and in the heart of anger and his uncontrollable new powers, might he have killed his own son by accident?  I suspect we’ll get back to that.

The cottage was very alluring, and the witch was horribly creepy.  It reminded me very much of the scene in Pan’s Labyrinth that so angered me.  Come on, you’ve been given very explicit instructions.  How hard is it to control yourself for a few minutes?  I don’t care how hungry you are.  Get a grip, kid!  The boy is a bit of a twerp.  But the girl is spirited and has a good head on her shoulders, and she’s the one holding them together.  I hate the thought of siblings being separated under any circumstance, so it was very nice to see their father step up.

While I’ve declared Archie Hopper my favorite character on the show, he’s being pretty underused.  My favorite of the regular players is Snow White, and really I like her just as much as Archie but it’s just more my style to latch onto someone who’s more in the background.  But in 7:15 A.M., she really broke my heart.  So incredibly painful to be that in love with someone and not be able to see any way that you can be with each other.  Prince Charming is honorable and trying to put the good of the kingdom above his own desires in the fairy tale realm and stand by his wife in Storybrooke, even though he feels no emotional connection to their previous life together.  He’s trying to do the right thing, and so is she, but it’s so hard, and I don’t blame her for wishing she could just forget the whole thing and move on.

But those two clearly have something special, and how often does true love come along?  Her decision in the fairy tale world to take the potion Rumple gave her was gut-wrenching, especially considering that he was on his way to find her.  How many obstacles will they have to overcome to be together?  We know it will happen, at least there, but it’s going to be very complicated.  I loved Snow White’s introduction to the dwarves and that it was Grumpy with whom she made her initial bond, since my favorite aspect of the Disney movie, along with Dopey’s endearing antics, is the way that Snow White’s sweetness slowly melts Grumpy’s cynical exterior.  It’s such a moving friendship.

Anyway, that episode just gutted me, in rather the same way Flashes Before Your Eyes did, even though David and Mary Margaret did get to steal a kiss in Storybrooke before the end, which I can’t feel 100 percent good about since he is still married.  It’s a messy business.  But I hope that means we have something like The Constant coming.  I suspect we do.

"I Was Lost, And You Found Me."

That Still Small Voice is my favorite episode of Once Upon a Time yet, and Archie Hopper, otherwise known as Jiminy Cricket, is shaping up to be my favorite character. He’s certainly the geekiest-seeming character so far, aside from maybe Henry, and his gentleness and desire to do what is right in the face of grave opposition makes him very appealing. He’s certainly the only character on the show thus far who could find himself on my list of fictional crushes. Of course, while I’ve loved Jiminy Cricket all my life, that’s not something I would have expected to say about him. But as is the case with all the characters on the show, this is not quite the Jiminy Cricket we’ve come to know.

This episode reminded me more of LOST than any other. The random Apollo bar sightings made me squeal, and the wonderful title quote warmed me, but mostly, this episode reminded me of The Moth, the episode early in season one that introduced us to conflicted druggie Charlie. Like Charlie, Archie struggles valiantly in his flashbacks to live a good, moral life, but a close family member undermines his determination. In the present day, he becomes trapped in a cave-in with arguably the show’s most important male character, and they hash out their differences. In both episodes, an insect becomes a metaphor for breaking free of the bonds keeping one tethered to an unwanted lifestyle.

Archie is a sweet man. I’ve liked him from the beginning, even if I haven’t been quite sure what to make of him. While this episode’s structure brings Charlie to mind right away, Raphael Sbarge’s whispery delivery and jittery mannerisms remind me of Daniel Faraday, who, much to my surprise, I came to love even more than Charlie because he lacked Charlie’s mean streak. Despite the detrimental effects his experiments had on his girlfriend and his subsequent cowardly abandonment of her, it seemed Daniel never did anything with malice. He was an innocent soul being yanked around by overbearing parents, particularly his mother, much as Archie is cowed and manipulated by his parents in the flashbacks and Regina in the present.

Sbarge really is wonderful in this episode, with the anguish of this man’s regrets and inner conflicts playing out in his anxious face. I found the twists on the old story to be interesting. I’m not hugely familiar with the original tale, but certainly, in the Disney version, which the episode title quotes, Jiminy Cricket has no special relationship with Geppetto. Indeed, the old man appears to be utterly oblivious to his existence. It’s strange, then, to think of the two sharing this profound friendship dating back so many years, with Geppetto aging normally and his friend remaining the same age, in the same form, until his work is complete. I didn’t expect that, or that his umbrella would have been a gift from an empathetic Geppetto, but I love it.

Rumplestiltskin is a truly menacing character, and the dolls into which Geppetto’s kindly parents are transformed are truly freakish. Rumplestiltskin is very much like Flagg in Stephen King’s world, making impossible bargains that seem so ideal at the time and wreaking havoc wherever he goes. What sends Jiminy over the edge is the way his parents exploit the sympathies of the open-hearted couple he does not yet realize are Geppetto’s parents. What happens instead of his intended curse on his parents leaves him in an agony of guilt for the rest of his life. I hope that when all this is over, those dolls can be transformed back into people. Kinda explains Geppetto’s obsession with wanting to turn his woodcarvings into living, breathing entities.

I really loved this episode, and I am very interested in how this character will develop in the future as he strives to obey his conscience instead of those who would bully him.

Cinderella Makes a Deal With the Devil

This week, we branched out from the established characters to focus on Cinderella, a poor girl who, in this version, is thwarted out of her dream when Rumplestiltskin kills her fairy godmother and forces her into a dirty deal with him. Basically, then, we’re getting a hybrid of the traditional Rumplestiltskin and Cinderella stories. She is an innocent girl desperate to break out of her bedraggled state, and she foolishly signs a contract without understanding what she would be giving up in order to go to the ball in finery and attract the attention of her prince. In Storybrooke, she is an unwed mother fleeing Mr. Gold, to whom she has been forced to sell her baby.

Jessy Schram inhabits the role well, with naivety being Cinderella’s chief trait, although I couldn’t help finding it funny that just after learning that Emilie de Ravin would join the cast as Belle, we met Cinderella, whose storyline echoes Claire’s so closely. It amused me, too, that back in the fairy tale realm, her husband’s name was Thomas, also the name of Claire’s ex-boyfriend. Both girls are young and overwhelmed and pressured into giving up the babies they’re not sure they’re ready to raise. Also found it interesting that the name Cinderella chooses for her child is Alexandra, the infant whisked away from Danielle by Ben Linus, and that, while she never says those exact words, Emma basically spends the whole episode encouraging the 19-year-old to say to the world, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”

It felt odd for Snow White to be so uninvolved in this episode. She really didn’t come into the current story at all and only had a cameo in the flashbacks as a princess warmly welcoming Cinderella to the fold. How much earlier did this take place? It would seem that it must have been before her sojourn with the dwarfs, though not necessarily. I’m assuming a very short engagement, but maybe quite a bit of time passed between her awakening and her wedding. In any case, it must have been before because Rumplestiltskin doesn’t become imprisoned until the end of the episode. I wonder just how the two families are connected. Is Thomas related to either Snow White or James?

It is very agitating to me that the most potent villain in this series has a Scottish accent. Rumplestiltskin is completely creepy, yet he’s got charisma, more so than the icy evil queen. As unpleasant as he is to look at, particularly in the flashbacks, there’s a seductive charm about him, and every once in a while a facial expression or vocal inflection reminds me hugely of Desmond. Blech. So not Desmond. But so far, aside from Henry, he is most certainly the most engrossing male character in the show. It would seem that he’s our Smokey.

I do have hopes for Jiminy Cricket, however. It’s not completely clear where his allegiances lie, but he seems to have mostly retained his decency, and his geeky demeanor is endearing. Looking forward to focusing more on him next week.

Obviously, Emma’s own bargain with Rumplestiltskin is going to come back to bite her, no doubt at the worst possible time. Emma was rather foolhardy too, but she took what seemed like the only solution and figured she’d worry about the price later. This episode was all about forethought and not entering into agreements lightly, and that’s certainly a lesson that carries over into the real world.

Snow White and Prince Charming Meet

After the first episode of Once Upon a Time ended, Dad remarked that we would probably wind up hating Snow White before it was all over. I disagreed, and I still do, but it’s obvious that there are more layers to her character here than we are used to seeing. The version of Snow White that we got in the flashbacks of Snow Falls was more like Robin Hood than the innocent damsel in distress we’re used to seeing. This Snow White is fighting for her life and trying to bring down the queen herself. We still didn’t get the story here; Snow confirmed that she’d ruined the queen’s life but didn’t explain how. I’m anxious find out. In any case, though, Snow in this episode largely reminded me of Danielle in Ever After, a strong, confident tomboy who forges a connection with a prince despite the fact that they initially seem to hate each other. I liked her.

And, of course, I still like her in the current storyline too. There, she spends her time tromping through the forest with Emma trying to find the man she knows as John Doe, the one with whom she felt a strong connection after he grabbed her hand while she was reading to him. It all felt very season six of LOST to me, with Henry realizing that they are in this strange sort of limbo and trying to shake people out of their stupor by bringing them together with people they love but don’t yet remember. He’s trying to trigger a domino effect; the more people realize what situation they are in, the better. Except he doesn’t want the queen to know, but if love is the key, is there any real danger of her coming to her senses?

I never really thought about how fairy tale-ish it was for so many of LOST’s sideways “awakenings” to revolve around kisses. In this, we’d already seen Prince “Charming” – we now know his name is James – awakening Snow with a kiss, and in this episode, she does the same for him, in a sense. It’s CPR, but the effect is that it looks as though she kissed him back into life, making a nice bookend to the story in the fairy tale realm. Do we believe that the woman in the room with him is actually his wife, or did the queen just pay her off to pretend to be? I’m not sure. Could go either way. But obviously things are not over between these two.

I really enjoy Snow / Mary and Emma together. They seem like such natural friends. I also love their rapport with Henry, though you would think it would be getting pretty hard for them to keep spending time with him. I would think the queen would just want to pull him out of school next, though I would guess that there is only one school in Storybrooke. Maybe she could get a private tutor. I love that in this episode, Henry yelled, “We have to go back!” That was the big LOST moment for me, though the cutting of the net looked very much like a LOST shot.

Mary and Emma will make good roomies. I like that combo. This episode didn’t feel as sprawling as others; there weren’t as many characters to keep track of. It was very focused. I’m intrigued to see how they begin to pull in other princesses; Cinderella is next week, and I’m anxious to see Emilie de Ravin as Belle. I don’t picture her as a Belle, and I wonder if she will be a brunette for this. I also wonder if she will have her natural accent. An Australian Belle would be very weird to me. But I’m excited, and I hope that more LOST actors trickle in as they have been doing on Person of Interest, which I really should be recapping too. I love the interplay between Finch and Reese and it is glorious to see Michael Emerson again for an hour a week, but the plot hasn’t grabbed me that much. I’m giving it time. But Once Upon a Time has me hooked, and I can’t wait for the next episode.

Daddy Issues Rise to the Top With The Thing You Love Most

All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues, and perhaps so do all the worst villains. The primary LOST connection for me in The Thing You Love Most, the second episode of Once Upon a Time, was patricide. Sadly, that was a fairly common occurrence on LOST, especially if you expand it to encompass immediate family members in general. Thinking back, I believe the first occurrence of a character killing his or her father was early in the second season, with Kate, but it certainly wasn’t the last.

On LOST, the dads who bit the dust at the hands of a son or daughter were varying degrees of jerks, from Roger Linus, who found it so difficult to nurture the son whose birth killed the woman he loved, to Anthony Cooper, who, to my mind, competes only with Keamy for the title of most evil character on the show. (Well, Smokey's pretty rotten too, but he had a long time and a lot of supernatural power to give him a leg up there.)  Here, however, the victim was someone who appears, by all accounts, to have been a very good man indeed. His daughter killed him not because she despised him but because she loved him. Both shows incorporate patricide as a sort of twisted rite of passage, something a character does under some duress to achieve a sought-after goal. But it felt particularly painful in this case.

Like The Man Behind the Curtain, this is an episode that made you feel sorrier for the villain at times and more disdainful at others. Generally, however, revulsion overpowered pity for me here. The queen’s only true aim is revenge, which is never a worthwhile goal and certainly not a valid reason to murder the one person who has always cared for you. We still don’t know precisely how Snow White ruined her rival’s life, but it’s wrapped up somehow in Snow White’s father, whom the queen loved. Is it her very existence that she resents? It seems to be something more specific than that, one particular instance that ruined everything for her. Perhaps as a child, Snow White got herself into a perilous situation and her father died saving her. I imagine it’s something comparably dramatic.

We met Maleficent in this episode, and considering that she may just be Disney’s most intimidating villain ever, she didn’t make much of a splash here. She really didn’t seem frightening at all, and certainly not as evil as the queen. I liked their duel, like a shortened version of the Gandalf-Saruman showdown, but she just wasn't very intimidating.  The only other major character to emerge for the first time was the queen’s father, whose name, it was revealed, was Henry. So even though she doesn’t seem to remember her past in Storybrooke, at least not fully, the love of her father is ingrained enough in her for her to have named her adopted son after him. But her murder the most important person in her life poisoned that relationship from the outset. I wonder if Henry’s storybook mentions what happened to the queen’s father. Perhaps someday he will come to feel some empathy for her, but her wicked choices have undoubtedly set her on a lonely path.

I love the gently developing relationship between Emma and Henry, as well as Emma’s friendship with Snow White, who looks more like her sister than her mother. Henry’s psychiatrist, Jiminy Cricket in his own world, seems like a good guy too, albeit too much under the queen’s thumb. Rumpelstiltskin is creepy in an Eloise Hawking sort of way, and I get the sense that he knows more than the queen does about what is going on. It seems that aside from Henry, he is the only one who fully understands that they are not where they should be.

While elements of this episode reminded me of LOST, I didn’t catch any Easter eggs, though I am under the impression that there were some. I’ll have to look again more closely. But Easter eggs or not, this was another compelling episode with even more emotional resonance than the first.

Once Upon a Time, Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz Dreamed of a Happily Ever After

“If LOST was about redemption, Once Upon a Time is about hope.” So say Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, the LOST writers who have teamed up to create Once Upon a Time. As LOST was, indeed, largely about redemption for me – and as Kitsis and Horowitz wrote my favorite episode, Dr. Linus, which embodies the theme of redemption better than any other – I am inclined to take this as a very good sign. These are master storytellers out to spin a tale that taps into our deep-seated longing for a happy ending, something that seems to be passing out of favor in film and television too often. So much bleakness… I need a show that can help me to feel better about the world, not worse. I need a show that acknowledges a sense of possibility. I’ve been waiting for Once Upon a Time, and I think it can deliver.

Once Upon a Time is a curious animal because we are working largely with established characters who most viewers will have known since childhood. We all have preconceived notions about them. My hunch is that some of our expectations will be met and some will be turned on their heads. This show, as I understand it, will be every bit as character-centric as LOST, delving into the back stories of classic figures like Snow White, the Wicked Queen, Geppetto, Rumplestiltskin and Little Red Riding Hood. In this case, the pristine wonderland will be in the flashbacks, not the present day, so to some extent I wonder whether I will feel more connected to those, in part simply because I want to step into that world. In its own way, that fairy tale world is quite as gorgeous as the Island.

Our current-day tale unfolds in Boston, where a tough gal with abandonment issues is spending a pretty miserable 28th birthday until she makes a wish on a star – the star-shaped candle on her birthday cupcake – and her dream of companionship comes true. In walks a little boy who claims to be her son. She is Emma, he is Henri, and it seems that theirs may be the central relationship of the show. Emma is played by Jennifer Morrison, who I know as Cameron, the doctor on House who I liked a lot better in earlier seasons. Speaking of doctors, she seems to be this show’s Jack. Destiny hangs heavy upon her; it has been said that she will be the one to restore the lost kingdom to its former glory. However, that’s just crazy talk as far as she is concerned, and she wants nothing to do with it. Yet by the end of the episode, she has already taken a step toward fulfilling that calling.

Jared Gilmore, new to me but with three years of TV credits to his name, is Henri, the adopted son of the Wicked Queen, who in this world is the mayor of Storybrooke, Maine. Like Walt, Henri is cute but rather creepy. He’s “special.” On Once Upon a Time, these characters are, in a sense, frozen in a sort of suburban purgatory, never to age while the clock stands still. Snow White, who now goes by Mary, certainly doesn’t look a day older than she did in her fairy tale realm. However, Henri is not native to that land, so perhaps he does age at a normal rate. Nonetheless, if the show proceeds as slowly as LOST did, with only a day or two per episode, he could fall into the Walt trap of aging far too quickly. But that’s a bridge they can cross if they come to it.

I am fairly familiar with Ginnifer Goodwin, and like Amy Adams, she just seems to have a Disney Princess air about her. Her Snow White – the one who remembers who she is and the one who doesn’t – is sweet and optimistic but with a light shroud of melancholy hanging over her. Snow White is Emma’s mother, and it will be interesting to see how that dynamic plays out with the two women about the same age. She and Henri already share a powerful bond, and I imagine the three will form a potent team before long, even though the mayor’s disapproval will make meetings between Emma and Henri difficult. I love the moment when she returns that brilliant blue bird to its birdhouse. It’s such a wonderful way to show how her true identity seeps into her role in this land the Queen claims is devoid of all happiness.

Even though the characters are live action in both worlds, the show often reminded me of Enchanted, and I’m sure they were just as intentional about that as they were about the fact that the address of the mayor’s house is 108. Lana Parrilla plays the Queen, and while she was pretty personable in her two-episode stint as “good cop” Other Greta down in the hatch with Charlie in Through the Looking Glass, she is icily creepy here. One wonders why this monarch is in this waiting place that she inflicted on the rest of them. I’m also curious about the relationship between the Queen and Snow White. She was an adoptive mother to her; did she earnestly want to raise her, but something got in the way of that happening so now she’s fulfilling that lost dream with Henri? Emma asked if she loved Henri, but it wasn’t clear to me from Emma’s expression whether she was telling the truth in her response. I love the truth detection; that’s a nifty skill to cultivate. It’s like she has her own inner alethiometer.

Dad says that before this is all over, the Queen will probably be the “good guy.” I wouldn’t go that far. She seems pretty darn evil to me. But I do expect that we will have at least some reason to feel sorry for her. Like Smokey, she is capable both of vanishing in a puff of smoke and of causing extreme destruction. She desperately wants something that she can’t have, and she will go to any lengths necessary to get it. But what exactly would constitute her happy ending? The Queen also reminded me of Narnia’s White Witch, particularly since it is through Geppetto’s finely crafted wardrobe that baby Emma escapes her doomed country to resurface in the middle of nowhere in modern America.

It’s plain that playing Spot the Literary References will be just as much fun here as in LOST. You never know when a new one might turn up. Since the primary source material is fairy tales (and ABC is owned by Disney, which serves as many youngsters’ introduction to the genre), kids could play at this game almost as well as adults, though I’m not yet certain how appropriate this show is for children younger than high school. So far, the only big issue is violence, and while it’s not pervasive, there are a couple of scenes that get fairly graphic. Additionally, both the Queen and the raggedy Rumplestiltskin, played by a very unsettling Robert Carlyle, are downright scary. Then again, as it seems that 10-year-old Henri is the only character fighting on the side of the good who knows exactly what is going on, children really have an important character to latch onto.

Once Upon a Time is beautifully filmed and written, and I am already growing attached to some of the characters. So far, it seems poised to be all that I hoped it would, and I look forward to seeing how they explore, honor and twist these beloved characters in the weeks to come, ideally retaining an audience large enough to allow it to build toward the Happily Ever After that will serve as a natural complement to the title. No doubt there will be many nasty turns along the way, but I am eager to take them.

Jack Shephard Bobblehead

Buy the Jack Shephard bobblehead and get yellow lab Vincent too!

LOST: The Last Episodes Soundtrack

Relive the majesty of the music in LOST's final four episodes with Michael Giacchino's LOST: The Last Episodes.

Sterling Beaumon On Criminal Minds

Sterling Beaumon is an amazing young actor, and his turn as a serial killer in the episode Safe Haven is well worth watching.  Just be warned, it may give you nightmares...

The Final Season Soundtrack Review

In honor of LOST's sixth anniversary, I posted a review of the sixth season's soundtrack. Phenomenal album!

My Five Favorite Minor Flashback Characters on LOST

I know I've mentioned before how much I love Tom Brennan, Sam Austen, Essam and especially Mr. Kwon and Annie.  Here's a more detailed exploration of my five favorite minor flashback characters.

Hurley (Hugo Reyes) Bobblehead Review

Hurley, or rather Hugo, loves chicken so much that he bought the Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack franchise. Way to spread the luck around!

Weezer's Hurley: A LOST Fan's Analysis

Check out my review of the new Weezer album, Hurley!

The New Man in Charge

I was very excited when I learned about The New Man in Charge, the 12-minute-long mini-episode that was included in the season six DVD set (along with the Blu-Ray and complete sets). Any more LOST was a delicious prospect, especially when the short would focus on two of my very favorite characters.

I was disappointed when I stopped hearing that it would be 20 minutes long and started hearing 12, and when I watched it, I was disappointed that there was so little interaction between Ben and Hurley. I would have loved to see the two of them on the Island together, bumbling through the first few days of their reign and perhaps interacting with Rose and Bernard and other Island residents. A teensy part of me hoped for some kind of resolution on the Annie front as well as some indication of just what happened to Jacob when he vanished after What They Died For, but I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t expecting any kind of major revelations, really, so whatever we got was a nice bonus. But I wish the epilogue had been about three times as long as it was...

I liked the two Dharma goons who had been holed up doing supply drops for 20 years. Pallet drop solved. And even though they worked for Dharma, they were completely clueless, and their demand for answers was like our own. Ben agreed to answer a few of their questions, but he wasn’t giving much away. He was as tight-lipped as Damon and Carlton, and just whetting our appetites for solutions to long-standing mysteries.

Nonetheless, we did find out a few things in the Hydra Station filmstrip. We learned a bit more about the Dharma experiments with polar bears. I feel like the “why” of the polar bears was pretty adequately explained in season three, let alone seasons four and five, but the filmstrip made it explicit. It also showed us that Dharma created the Hurleybird and that the Orchid was apparently responsible for the Island’s fertility problems. I still wonder why Ben was so stubborn about not letting people leave the Island to give birth. He must have known that this was Dharma’s solution to the baby problems. Was he afraid they would never come back?

Additionally, we learned that Dharma was into kidnapping Hostiles and sticking them in Room 23 in hopes of understanding them better. I wonder who was subjected to this treatment and whether finding out about this room may have been a contributing factor to enacting the Purge when they did.

The filmstrip went on a little long for me, since I knew that every minute with the movie was one less minute with Michael Emerson and eventually Jorge Garcia. It took up about half the short, and while it was somewhat illuminating, it was also rather dry. Still, I enjoyed it, especially in conjunction with the Dharma dudes’ confused responses.

The best part of the short for me was the visit to Santa Rosa, though it made me wonder about a good many things. When exactly is this taking place? Can we assume a couple of years? Because Walt seemed to be in perfectly good shape when he saw John and, later, Hurley. So how did he end up in a mental institution - especially one in L. A., when he was living in New York? Then again, he was going by the name Keith Johnson, like Michael’s Kevin Johnson, which suggests that Ben had a hand in setting the whole thing up, somehow arranging for his pseudonym and stay from a distance.

I also find it a little curious that Walt seemingly does wind up spending the rest of his life on the Island, yet he still isn’t in the church at the end. You’d think that he would’ve wound up especially close to Hurley, Rose and Bernard, and probably Ben as well. But I’m glad the epilogue suggested that Walt could help Michael to move on. I don’t know how that would happen, but it certainly seemed that Michael got a raw deal. He died the same way as Sayid, and just as self-sacrificially, and he killed far fewer people. And Ben probably did more nefarious things than the two of them put together. At least Michael had a noble reason for the terrible things he did.

My favorite line of the epilogue was Ben saying, “Everyone has friends, Walt. Even me.” Ah, Ben. How far you’ve come! I liked the granola bar gesture but would have found it more meaningful if it had been an Apollo bar, and thus a stronger callback to Ben’s Apollo bar moments with Annie and Hurley. At last he’s extending genuine friendship to someone. And I liked how Hurley’s words to Walt reflected Jacob’s to Hurley in The Incident.

I did find it a little curious that both of them were off the Island at the same time, but I suppose they could’ve had Rose and Bernard hold down the fort, and maybe that’s why they were in such a hurry. I’m also unclear on how the Dharma van got to L. A., but I’m not too bothered by that. Also, since he was right there, I kinda like the thought that Hurley went to visit his parents, though I’m not sure how he could pull that off without raising all sorts of strange questions. If he could swear them to silence, he could presumably make a habit of visiting them periodically - maybe for Christmas, for example, though I’d love to see an Island Christmas party thrown by Hurley. Maybe at some point he could even bring them to the Island for a visit.

It’s fun to imagine what Hurley and Ben’s tenure on the Island would look like. I’m curious about how Walt fits in. Are he and Ben going to share the duties of Number Two? Maybe Hurley will put Walt in charge of the Temple. Without a Smoke Monster, I guess there’s not much need for it, but it’s still a nice structure and a pleasant haven for whoever might come to the Island, at least once the carnage from Sundown is cleared away.

Anyway, it was nice to get a little bit of resolution on the Walt front, and more Ben and Hurley is always a good thing. Most of the deleted scenes from season six were rather uninspiring, but I liked the confrontation between Claire and Smokey as well as the conversation between Hurley and Sawyer on the beach in the immediate aftermath of the submarine explosion. I especially liked that Hurley mentioned Frank not making it; it always bugged me that everybody seemed to just forget about him.

Darlton have promised that LOST is definitely over now, though if they wanted to extend the series in a new format such as comic books, I would be the last to complain. Still, even if that were to eventually happen, I think it’s quite a ways down the road. This is the last new LOST material we’re going to get for a while, barring any tidbits that might appear in the encyclopedia, so I’ll accept it with gratitude.

Season Six Review

LOST's sixth season inspired a lot of passionate feelings.  After such an intensive investment in a television show, was all the anticipation worth it?  For me, the answer is a resounding yes.

I'll Never Be LOST Again Review

Have I mentioned how much I love I'll Never Be Lost Again?  Allow me to elaborate...

John Locke Bobblehead Review

When did I first discover how magnificent John Locke was? This fruit smile from the first episode might have been the tip-off...

Claire Littleton Bobblehead Review

Season six Claire is nutty as a squirrel, and she has the squirrel baby to prove it.

Annie and the Apollo Bars

It occurred to me that if I ever were to try my hand at LOST rockdom from anything beyond a posting-lyrics-online angle, I need a catchy band name.  So this is what I'm going to call myself if I ever get around to making some really decent recordings.  Long live Annie!

Please Come Home With Me (Feels Like Home, Randy Newman)

Claire: Look at me! This Island's made me crazy, I - I don't want Aaron to see me like this. I don't even know how to be a mother anymore.
Kate: Listen to me, none of us do. Not at first. But you're not alone. Let me help you. Come on, let's go.
- The End

Kate is more sympathetic to Claire than Sawyer is in season six.  Here's Kate in the finale to the tune of Feels Like Home, one of my dad's favorite songs at the moment.

Please Come Home With Me

Someone you despise tried to make you lose yourself,
Tried to make you lose yourself, but he’s gone.
Yes, Claire, you have a choice.  Just forget the past.
You can leave at last and reclaim your life.

I can tell how lonely your life has been.
To feel strong, you cling to that gun,
But it won’t bring what you’ve wanted since he first led you wrong.
I’m here so you can raise your son.

So please come home with me.  Oh, please come home with me.
You feel like you’re much too messed up to be a mom,
But please come home with me.  Oh, please come home with me.
I promised to help you get back where you belong.

We’ve made mistakes.  Hey, you think I'm clean?
But we try, then fail, then do right.
You look a fright; you could use some Maybelline.
Still, I believe you’ve seen through the dark to the light.

Well, do you know how much this moment means to me?
You don’t need that cradle or that hutch.
Though I have been the mother you were meant to be,
Your little boy deserves your love for him so much.

So please come home with me.  Oh, please come home with me.
You feel like you’re much too messed up to be a mom,
But please come home with me.  Oh, please come home with me.
I promised to help you get back where you belong.
I promised to help you get back where you belong.

Mr. Cluck's Keychain Review

You have to click through to Epinions to get a picture of this monstrosity.  Definitely not an authentic Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack keychain.

Claire's Insane (You're So Vain, Carly Simon)

"Sayid's a zombie and Claire's nuts. She gave up her ticket when she tried to kill Kate. And I ain't gonna let that happen again."
- Sawyer, The Last Recruit

The Claire of season six is quite a bit different from the Claire the castaways came to know and love.  Here, Sawyer tries to convince Hurley that she's not worth bringing along in their great escape, to the tune of Carly Simon's You're So Vain.  (The above quote is from a conversation with Jack, but I figure his conversation with Hurley would have been similar...)

Claire’s Insane

She showed up with her rifle
And stitched up Jin in her creepy hut.
But then he flinched as she axed that Other guy. 
She got ‘im right in the gut.
Well, it’s only smart to fear her now
‘Cause she’s a gnarly nut.
Lounged here with Locke for too long, and she lost it.
Clearly, she lost it.

Yeah,
Claire’s insane
And horribly in need of a hairbrush.
She’s insane, (She’s insane),
And bringin’ her along would just scare us,
Scare us, scare us...

Well, we knew her several years ago.
Back then, she was so naive.
Oh, but now we are stuck with a crazy Claire
With homicide up her sleeve.
Now, I know you’re really big on love.
You’re eager to believe
People can change, but I’m not gonna chance it.
Not gonna chance it.

No,
Claire’s insane.
She hangs around with skeletal babies.
She’s insane.  (She’s insane!)
I wonder if that thing gave her rabies,
Rabies, rabies, rabies!

Think she can change?  Well, I’m not gonna chance it.
Not gonna chance it.

No,
Claire’s insane.
Apparently she’s also Jack’s sister.
She’s insane. (She’s insane!)
I guess it’s lucky he never kissed her,
Kissed her, kissed her!

Did you hear she went after Kate with a knife?
Sayid, he didn’t step in.
He could not be bothered with a threatened friend’s life.
I’d say the Dark Side is fixin’ to win.
Well, I know we’re runnin’ out of time,
And Hugo, we don’t need
A chick who’s unhinged or a kid-killin’ zombie,
Kid-killin’ zombie.

No,
Claire’s insane.
Yeah, those two gave their tickets up early.
She’s insane.  (Insane!)
We can’t succeed with someone so squirrelly,
Squirrelly, squirrelly, squirrelly!

Claire’s insane
And horribly in need of a hairbrush.
Claire’s insane
And horribly in need of a hairbrush.
Claire’s insane...

You're So Vain

We Wonder Who His Ex Is (Deep in the Heart of Texas, June Hershey / Don Swander)

After Lighthouse revealed that Jack had a son, there was a lot of speculation as to who David's mother might be.  Here's a little ditty about that to the tune of the cowboy song Deep in the Heart of Texas.

We Wonder Who His Ex Is

Although we’re glad that Jack’s a dad,
We wonder who his ex is.
She left the kid with Jack and hid.
We wonder who his ex is.

So let’s debate.  Could it be Kate?
We wonder who his ex is.
Or Ana Lu’s an option too.
We wonder who his ex is.

Will Sarah be the mom we see?
We wonder who his ex is.
Or better yet is Juliet.
We wonder who his ex is.

We have the names of lots of dames.
We wonder who his ex is.
Why won’t the show just let us know?
We wonder who his ex is.

Who-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo?


Deep in the Heart of Texas