To say that this season has been uneven would be an understatement.  I haven’t been quite as invested as I was last season because I felt that this season was all over the map.  The Gold/Belle storyline, while once charming and interesting, turned out to be tiring.  Emma has seemed to lose her once independent, head strong quality and everything seems to hinge on Henry.  Regina was trying to be good, then went bad again, then turned self-sacrificing in the name of good, while Mary Margaret had a “dark heart” storyline that was filled with plot holes.

I was wondering if and when the announcement would come regarding a third season and word finally came this past weekend.  There will definitely be a season three.  I’ll stick around and see what happens, especially knowing how this season ended.  This episode was better than previous episodes so at least the season bowed on a higher than normal note.  However, I am a bit disappointed that Neal is not, in fact, Peter Pan.

Continue reading “Once Upon a Time Recap: Episode 2.22 – And Straight on Till Morning” »

Based on the title, it was my thought that they were going to somehow spin a yarn that made Neal the Peter Pan of the Once Upon a Time storyline.  Turns out now that they isn’t so much the case, which was a bit of a surprise.  We do however, get Neal’s story of what happened to him after he went through the portal in Fairytale Land when his father was still a coward and ended up breaking his promise to young Bae.

I do respect this show’s ability to freely adapt established fairy tales and connect story-lines that should have not relation at all.  Peter Pan has never been one of my favorite fairy tales, but I have to say that I was a little bit excited at the prospect of tying in the boy who wouldn’t grow up.  I mean, we already have Captain Hook, so bringing in Peter Pan was the next natural step.  However, I didn’t expect them to take the road they took, and for that, I’ll give kudos.

Continue reading “Once Upon a Time Recap: Episode 2.21 – Second Star to the Right” »

With Cora gone, it’s up to Regina to return to her status as the Big Bad of the show.  This week focuses on Regina’s past once again and the Evil Queen’s quest to find and kill Snow White.  Yes we know.  The Evil Queen hates Snow White.  Tell us something we don’t already know.  This time around however, the show looks a little bit deeper into Regina’s quest for acceptance and love; a theme that plays out in both Fairytale Land and Storybrooke.

On the plus side however, Hook is back.  Thank goodness.  Oh how I’ve missed his sarcasm and generally snarky disposition.  On the negative side, we also got some wretched CGI….again.  They really need to do something about that.  But, enough of all that, let’s talk about Greg and Tamara.  We know he’s looking for his father, but her reasoning hasn’t been revealed yet.  What is her story and how does it relate to what’s going on?  This damned show…even though I’m mad at it right now, it still manages to make me ask questions.  I guess that says something doesn’t it.

Continue reading “Once Upon a Time Recap: Episode 2.20 – The Evil Queen” »

It’s been several weeks since we saw Once Upon a Time and now they’re back for the final four episodes of the season.  The “previously on” section took us through the bit with Neal introducing Emma to his fiance, the connection between Tamara and Greg, what happened to August, which I’m still sore about by the way, the drama with Belle losing her memory and the prophecy that Henry will be Gold’s demise.

I have to say that I’m not super impressed with this season.  I’ve gotten to the point where I just sort of throw my hands in the air and just say ok, whatever.  I think that August was the last straw for me if I’m being completely honest.  Hopefully these final episodes will being it all together.  And hopefully Hook will make an appearance again.  Last we heard of him he wasn’t in the closet that Neal stashed him in, but he hasn’t been seen since.

Continue reading “Once Upon a Time Recap: Episode 2.19 – Lacey” »

Since the curse was broken, and August just up and disappeared, I’ve been spinning my wheels wondering what happened to him.  Aside from Emma’s flashback episode, we haven’t seen hide nor hair, nor splinter for that matter of August / Pinocchio and I’ve been a tad irritated that they’ve waited this long to get back to him.  Given, his story plays a part of the overall arch that’s running this season, but still.  The fans have been waiting and finally, with this week’s episode, we find out what happened to August, and get a bit of a backstop on the why of his….well, we’ll call it his condition.

We also get a peek into Neal’s fiance, Tamara, and we learn a little bit more about Owen/Greg.  Where all of this is going, I’m not quite sure.  This season took a bit of a left turn from what I was expecting at the beginning of the season, and with four episodes left, I can only hope that they’ll start to bring it all together.  It looks like from this latest episode they’re doing just that.  At least…I hope.

Continue reading “Once Upon a Time Recap: Episode 2.18 – Selfless, Brave and True” »

Well this was a first.  Part of this week’s episode was devoted to flashbacks, but this time they didn’t take place in Fairytale Land, or in the normal part of the world, like Emma’s flashback episode.  This time we get to see the beginnings of Storybrooke right after the curse swept them all away from their enchanted land.  This episode had me pretty jazzed for a few reasons.  First and foremost, John Pyper-Ferguson made a guest appearance.  I really dig him and if your familiar with the BSG universe, you know who he is.  Second was the myriad of emotions that Lana Parilla conveyed as Regina.  Say what you will about the Evil Queen, but it can’t be disputed that the actor behind the character crushes it every week and brings so much to the role.  This week she deserves nothing short of an extended slow clap for her efforts.  The third reason was that our beloved Jamie Dornan reappeared at Sheriff Graham.  His appearance made me realize just how much I miss his character and makes me wonder where the story would have gone if he had stuck around a bit longer.  I would have liked to have seen that.  I’m not picky, so I’ll take what I can get of him because only a select few can pull off the leather and vest look and make it look sexy.  Aside from Sheriff Graham, I’m talking about Dyson from Lost Girl.  But that’s a topic that deserves its own very detailed post complete with pictures…but I digress.

The second half of the season has been much better than the first.  Even though both characters irritated me, I’m still wondering if they’ll ever get back to the grand adventures of Mulan and Aurora.  It’s more of a passing interest really, and nothing I’m too concerned about.  I’m sure they’ll get back to that thread in due time.  I’d much rather concentrate on what’s happening in Storybrooke especially now that Cora’s dead and Regina is all evil and cross again.  But enough of all that, let’s get to the latest episode.

Continue reading “Once Upon a Time Recap: Episode 2.17 – Welcome to Storybrooke” »

I was expecting something to happen this week, but to be honest, I wasn’t expecting what actually happened to happen….at least not yet.  This week we get to learn more about Cora, which loosely follows the actual Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale.  Sort of.  Anyway, I’ve kind of been wondering about Cora’s past and what exactly made her so…bitchy and power-hungry.  Rose McGowan guest stars this week and the young Cora and I actually had to do a double take. She looked like Rose McGowan…but didn’t.  Anyway, we’ve known that Rumps and Cora had a past, but this shows just how sordid it actually was.  I have to say, I actually felt a little sorry for Rumple at one point.

I’ll be honest here and say that OUaT was on hit this week.  This was probably one of the strongest episodes of the season so far and I attribute that to the fact that it was written by the great Jane Espenson.  The thing about Espenson penned episodes is that they focus on character.  That’s exactly what The Miller’s Daughter was all about.  Also, as usual, there were some lessons to be learned as well.  Through the course of the series, the viewer has been told time and again, and the characters have learned time again that all magic comes with a price.  The same can be said for power and ambition as well.

Continue reading “Once Upon a Time Recap: Episode 2.16 – The Miller’s Daughter” »

Continue reading “Once Upon a Time Recap: Episode 2.15 – The Queen is Dead” »

After a couple of mediocre weeks, we’re finally getting to the good stuff.  I’ve had my suspicions about Gold’s son and have even voiced those suspicions a couple of times in previous recaps.  If you haven’t seen the episode yet and don’t want to be spoiled, then trust me, you don’t want to read any further until you watch it in full.  We get some answers this week, and this recap will contain spoilers.

Now that that’s out of the way, I feel like it’s taken quite a bit of time for this season to really get started.  There are still some things left hanging in the wind and I’m wondering if we’ll ever get back to them.  Like Mulan and Aurora for instance.  They’re still stuck in present day FTL looking for Phillip.  To be honest I won’t be heartbroken if we don’t make it back there anytime soon but still.  The other loose thread, and I’ve mentioned this before too, is August.  I’m extremely curious to know where he hobbled off to.  I know that we’ll see him again in a few weeks, but how will they explain that one? Is he August again, or is he stuck as Pinocchio?

I do like that we’re getting more evil Regina.  She’s at her best when she’s wreaking havoc but I don’t think things with her mom are going to go smoothly.  Just keep giving us a decent amount of Hook and his smarmy comments and I’ll be happy because he’s been a nice distraction this season.  Back to the episode at hand, last week we left off with Gold being affected by having to remove the shawl when going through airport security and I figured they’d expand on that, but not this week.  Also, Henry and Emma are along for the ride while Storybrooke welcomed its newest resident with the addition of Anton aka “Tiny”.

Continue reading “Once Upon a Time Recap: Episode 2.14 – Manhattan” »

After a two-week break Once Upon a Time is back with a story that focuses on betrayal, misconceptions and Jorge Garcia’s giant.  We first saw the giant who dwells at the top of the beanstalk earlier this season when Emma and Mary Margaret were searching for the compass.  He was a bit cranky and doesn’t like humans very much, and this week’s episode showed us why he’s got such a bone to pick with them.  I will say, his reasons are valid.

Once again the CGI ends up being this show’s Achilles heel and if you remember the last episode with the giant, then you’ll remember how atrocious the CGI was.  It doesn’t get much better here unfortunately, but if you can manage to look past it, this ended up being a decent episode.  I am happy that they went back and gave us the full story.

Continue reading “Once Upon a Time Recap: Episode 2.13 – Tiny” »