Once Upon A Time

Yeah, I was assuming it was one, until I realized the newspaper article plus the fact that the numbers went from 2 -> 1 would have had no point Conservation of Detail wise, unless for cheap drama (and a fake out as to whether Snow White had memories or not).

I'm still chuckling over Pinocchio being Emma's guardian. Man, did she ever get screwed.

I loved the scene between Mary Margaret and Regina. Wonderful combination of pure niceness with awesome. Regina seems to be losing her grip on things - the subplot of this episode was basically everyone defying her.

(Not getting what's up with David, though. Doesn't he know Regina framed Mary Margaret? What's he doing being friends with her?)

How would David know Regina framed Mary Margaret? Neither Mary nor Emma ever told him about the skeleton key stuff... So why shouldn't he be friendly to Regina?

Loved this episode, except that I *REALLY* want Emma to believe now, though the cliffhanger made it worth the wait

Yeah, Emma needs to believe soon. I can see why she hasn't yet, but even she has to admit that the evidence is stacking up.

She got at least wonder why both August and Henry believe, and more importantly, how... fitting is that Regina went after Mary.

I didn't quite understood the scene where Regina tried to seduce James and then broke the mirror... was she genuinely trying to seduce him?

I'm pretty sure that she was trying to seduce him, I assume to hurt Mary.

Don't forget about Graham. He ended up believing as well. It's a pretty big coincidence that a few hours after he broke up with Regina and claimed that she had ripped his heart out of his chest, that he died from a heart attack.

At this point, it's at least partially that she doesn't want it to be true, and therefore will not be willing to believe anything short of absolute proof. And considering that she managed to convinced herself that August's leg wasn't wooden, that's not going to be simple task.

edited 2nd May '12 6:34:45 PM by Gilphon

I though that was a case of the curse making int stuff Invisible to Normals.

Honestly, I don't really get why Emma would believe. I mean, Henry tells her that all these people are fairytale characters, and while there might be some resemblance, there's no outright proof. Regina's pretty evil, but that doesn't necessarily translate into being the Evil Queen. And apparently, any proof there might be hides itself from anyone who doesn't believe, as in Pinocchio's leg. The first time she saw any evidence of magic was with the Mad Hatter, and that was ambiguous. For all they know, he could've just run off into the woods.

It's like the chicken or the egg. Magic isn't going to happen unless Emma believes in it; but Emma doesn't believe in it, so magic isn't going to happen.

I'd add more about how faith and reason don't have to be opposing forces, but that would be another conversation.

Yeah, August did a shitty job. What they should be doing is going con style. Start labelling every fairy tale character that they can, and try to show the parallels. Go all Ancient Aliens Conspiracy on this shit.

That was an AWESOME episode. I anticipated most of what happened in it, and some of the characters were morons, but it was still really good. I knew as soon as Regina started chopping up the apples that Henry would eat the apple. I was actually saying "Henry's gonna eat it. Henry's gonna eat it." during that part.

Snow was a bit of a moron. She really just trusted the Queen to let Charming free on Regina's word? That's just idiotic. She knows what the Queen is capable of.

Same thing goes for the Mad Hatter, only more so. He was majorly screwed over by Regina last time, what makes him think that this time will be any different? Plus, the deal he wants is innately dangerous. If he forgets about the Fairy Tale world and about the deal he made, then he won't know whether Regina will fulfill it or not. Snow and the Mad Hatter really got handed the Idiot Ball this episode.

Kudos to Henry for finally figuring out a way to, at the very least, persuade Emma that Regina is evil. I knew that he would do something drastic, since all the adults seem to be giving up. Making Emma go Mama Bear on Regina should be pretty epic.

I'm still wondering what happened to Regina's mom. I'd think that Regina would kill her, but I don't know that for sure.

edited 6th May '12 8:00:40 PM by Keyseeker

Fight scene was badly done (pommel knocks out dude with helmet, OK), but other than that, solid.

Yeah, even though there were parts of this episode that weren't up to scratch, the awesome parts made up for it.

I'm really curious about Regina's mom. They better tell what happens to her.

Hello, been a fan of the show more or less since the beginning, and it only just occurred to me to check for a TV Tropes thread.

Am I the only one stupid enough to think Emma would actually be the one to eat the apple, so August/Henry/maybe Gold? would have to figure out how to fix her?

I dunno if you were the only one who thought that, but as I said, I was pretty sure that Henry would eat the apple from the beginning.

I think that Emma will probably stop fighting belief in the curse at this point. While it's true that nothing has proven to her that the curse exists (As far as Emma's concerned, Regina just slipped some poison into the turnover, there's no reason for her to think that it's been magically poisoned) but there just isn't much reason not to go with the flow. I think that a large part of the reason that she's been fighting so hard against believing is that she wants to be a good parent to Henry, and believing in a fantasy realm would put her sanity into doubt. I don't think that believing (or at least, not NOT believing) would have many negative effects at this point, so I think that she'll believe.

An excellent point.

Also, that nightmare scene was creepy.

The other reason she's been denying it is because she doesn't want to have the weight of the world on her shoulders. This won't help with that problem.

True. Emma seems to have a problem with responsibility. I don't think that she can stand to run away from this, though, since Regina poisoned her son. Emma may be willing to run away from some responsibility, but I don't think that she's willing to leave Henry with someone who just tried to poison her.

She'll definitely have a bone to pick with Regina, but Regina's just one person; she still doesn't have that motivation to go after the entire curse.

True, but hopefully once she starts actually looking for the curse she'll see evidence of its existence and she'll go after it in order to spite Regina and help August.

If anything, I'd think this would lead her away from believing. After all, Archie says indulging in Henry's "delusions" just made him retreat into them further, and it was his "delusions" that made him eat the turnover.

So now that "Operation: Cobra" has actually gotten Henry hurt, I would think Emma would do her darnedest to persuade Henry to give it up, unless something happens before he wakes up to persuade her otherwise.

After all, she has no reason to suspect a magic sleeping curse over a normal poison.

Believing in Operation: Cobra didn't get Henry hurt, trusting Regina did. Henry knew exactly what would happen when he ate the turnover, and he was right. If he hadn't eaten the turnover, then Emma or Mary probably would have. If Emma had believed Henry, then Henry wouldn't have eaten the turnover.

Maybe Regina will help Emma break the curse to save Henry.