Tuesday, May 1, 2012

NEW!: Once Upon a Time 1:20 - The Stranger

Overall: 8.0

Well -- that answers that question.


Plot Synopsis:

For some reason, the official site does not have a recap this week, so I shall send you to the all-knowing Wikipedia instead.

The Skinny:

So August is Pinocchio -- and beyond that, he failed in his task to protect Emma and prepare her for her destiny, following the dictates of his childhood selfishness instead. On the whole, I'd say I'm satisfied with that explanation for why August is in Storybrooke in the first place -- and why he's so invested in Emma now.

And by the way, speaking of Emma, I hear that some fans are getting frustrated with Emma's persistent lack of belief. Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to be the contrarian on this because I think that unshakeable skepticism makes perfect sense. Number one, we have to be careful to look at things from Watson's perspective and not Doyle's perspective. By that, I mean that we should leave aside what we've seen and focus solely on what Emma has seen. We've seen Regina's magical vault of human hearts, but Emma hasn't. Emma has been witness to a number of odd events, true, but from her (entirely reasonable) point of view, said incidents have perfectly mundane explanations. Number two - and this point is probably even more important - we have to take Emma's psychology into account. Henry and August are not simply asking Emma to accept that the residents of Storybrooke are the cursed denizens of the Enchanted Forest. No -- they are also asking her to accept that she is the key to erasing that curse. Now, Emma has evidently lived a rough life so far, and consequently, her sense of self-worth is practically non-existent. Do you really think she's going to happily embrace the idea that she's something more than an embittered bail-bonds woman -- that she is, in fact, the hero of an epic fairy tale? Please! For Emma, the safer course is denial. That being said, I suspect this season might end with a dramatic event that will turn the tide for Emma and force her to accept who she is. To me, that seems like a logical finale.

In other news: David/Regina? Eww -- but also not illogical. Given that Rumpelstiltskin foiled Regina's most recent attempt to destroy Snow White's happiness, it's only natural that Regina would take a different tack. Which is not to say that I'm unhappy Regina's attempt at seduction failed because again: Eww. It's also interesting to see that Regina's chief opponents are becoming more brazen in their defiance. Clearly, they're ramping things up in preparation for the aforementioned finale.              

Writing: 8.5

As I said, I follow Emma's motivations here just fine -- and it's good to finally learn more about August and his backstory.

Acting: 8.5

Overall, the performances were also strong.

Message: 7.0

I like the reluctant hero theme, but I think we'll have to wait a little longer for it to really come into fruition.

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