In Storybrooke, Regina & Emma manage to come up with a plan to stall the Queens & Rumple by planting a fake page in the book along with taking a photo of the real one, with Maleficent casting everyone in a sleeping curse in the process so nobody can get to the page & stop them. However, since Mary Margaret, David & Henry were immune as they were already under the curse, Henry ends up giving Regina the fake page after he discovers the key to the door & the former plan to burn the real one to avoid Emma going dark. But since they are heroes & don't want to make the same mistake by causing someone to lose their happiness (in this case Regina), they decide not to & tell Emma the truth about everything. But then it turns out Rumple knows the fake page is fake & now her cover is blown, also revealing he may have something that will make her work with them. And Rumple reveals what happened to Maleficent's child, turning out that she's Lily, the runaway girl Emma met as a teenager. Mary Margaret & David finally decide to tell Emma the truth about her potential for darkness & what they did to Maleficent's child in order to stop it. Obviously she's not happy about it, but, but not before August reveals that the author is actually a job passed down for eons & that the most recent one was trapped for breaking the rules & meddled with the characters' stories just for his own selfish fun. And it turns out the most recent author was really the Peddler who manipulated Snow & Charming to go & see the Apprentice, and ends up fleeing with Emma in hot pursuit.
This episode definitely was an interesting one to watch & for very good reasons. It was easy to follow from Unforgiven in terms with flashbacks along with the continuity of certain questions which were finally answered & I loved how much the plots tied up together without making them feel too contrived. It was also interesting to see Snow & Charming play the villains in Maleficent's story this time round with kidnapping her child for their own selfish reasons even if they evidently regret it afterwards & had planned on returning it to her. The character development was also well done with Mary Margaret & David as they finally decide to make the right decisions like telling Emma the whole truth about what happened to try & make up for their past mistakes, giving them more dimensionality than we have seen in quite a while. August again was put to great use even if most of the time, it's for exposition & plot progression & I loved seeing Henry taking on a more active role with finding the author & tricking the Queens & Rumple, especially with the use of the fake page (an already smart plan to begin with) & finding the key to release the author. It was also rather nice to see some of the reveals & twists, even if I was rather surprised that they came pretty early since we're nearly halfway through this arc, especially with the reveal of who Maleficent's child was (I honestly thought it was going to be revealed in the upcoming Lily centric episode), but given everyone had predicted this beforehand, it felt kinda nice for that to be shown sooner rather than getting impatient over it. The mythology of the book & the author was also very interesting to see as the job isn't for one person, but for many as it's a title passed on & the fact the most recent one only wrote & tampered with the stories for his own selfish reasons shows so much potential for how they really could have gone.
One thing I also very much enjoyed was seeing a bit of Rumple's goodness finally starting to come out this season not only during his very touching & rather cryptic scene with Belle, but also revealing what happened to Maleficent's child for her despite their deal not going as planned. Given that he also lost his child & knows very well what kind of pain it can cause, it was nice to see him not want Maleficent to go through that same pain any longer. Speaking of, the emotional stakes were also very high, especially with Maleficent's subplot involving finding her daughter now that she knows she's alive, Rumple now that it seems that something's wrong with his heart & has to find a way quickly to get his happiness & from Mary Margaret & David through the decisions they make with Emma.
The only issue I'd really have is that it was a tad on the predictable side during the final act with the identity of the author along with Lily being Maleficent's child, but the additional information about the job of the author made it more interesting & the execution with the reveal about Lily was really well done.
Given that I have to come up with 10 episodes for the best list, it's going to be much much harder now because this was a great one to watch & I can't wait to see what happens next now that the author is loose in Storybrooke & Regina will have to pick a side without double crossing & how Maleficent will go on her quest to find her daughter. With excellent character development, smart writing & emotional stakes, this is definitely an episode worth checking out & there's no doubt it'll go on my best list!
About time they give Ginny a flattering outfit! And interesting unicorns have the power to look into the future...
Aww!
Nice to see you again Young Emma!
What on earth-?!
Poor August! Seems the many magical spells he's been put under are finally taking it's toll, bless him!
Good plan using a fake!
Hmm, not so sure a photo's gonna make them fall for it...
Well, at least they've told her part of the truth about Gold's plan...
Huh?!
Seems Hook is still the jealous type...
Interesting Sleeping Beauty reference!
Hi Phil from Lost!
Nice to see you again Sorcerer's Apprentice!
OK, given that he needed help finding his son despite his magic, I'm not so sure he can help look for Maleficent's child!
Wait, why aren't they asleep...?
Haha! 'Id be lying if I didn't say I'm tempted to wring her scrawny neck right now!'
Phew! Thank God he's taking advantage of the fact he's awake & has the page!
Love Regina going full on Mama Bear mode with Henry!
Wait, where the hell's he off to?!
Given that magic ALWAYS comes with a price, I'm not so sure making a deal to get rid of their child's darkness is a good idea...
Rather cool effect!
Come on, I wanna know who the author is!
'Henry Daniel Mills!' Wait, she also named him after her true love her mother killed?! AWW!
Well, it's nice to see that it's not the end for Ursula in terms of flashbacks!
HAHA! Nice callback with the poppy pollen to make people fall asleep!
Rather nice design for the egg! Well, given that in most folklore dragons lay eggs, it's not really a surprise that Maleficent's child is in one!
Did they really think it'd be that easy?!
'Please! Mother to mother! Have mercy! I can't lose my child!' Poor Maleficent! Even if she may be evil, she's still a vulnerable mother at heart!
Good plan giving Regina the fake page!
COME ON!
AWWW! And people say chivalry's dead!
AWWWWWW!!!!!!
How the hell did he know the page was a fake?!
You know, maybe you should've told them you'd send it to another realm before they decided to take the egg!
ARGH! 'CHARMING, IT'S A BABY!' Yeah, regardless of whether it was a dragon or human infant, it's still an innocent child, Snow!
Nice way of explaining how Cruella & Ursula ended up outside of Storybrooke!
Hmm, seems I was right that she had darkness in her heart before she killed Cora!
About time that they told her everything!
Poor Emma!
Hmm, I wonder what he has that'll give Regina no choice but to work with them...maybe Robin?
Interesting Cinderella gave them the unicorn mobile...the symbolism makes me see it differently now!
Given everything she's been through, at least give her something in return & let her know what happened to her child! You should know more than anyone what kind of pain of losing your child can cause!
I KNEW LILY WAS HER DAUGHTER!!!
Aww! At least she knows she's alive now!
There have been many authors?! Very interesting that it's a job passed down instead of one person doing it all! What if the one named Walt had the last name Disney...?
Hmm, definitely thinking the Peddler is the most recent author!
Thought so!
Uh...where's he gone?!
No comments:
Post a Comment