And we’re back! After a 3 week hiatus. Wow, that seemed like a really long time. Now I think I understand why the episodes between the holiday break and this one were less than stellar; it wouldn’t make a ton of sense to get things really going only to get interrupted by this break. Hopefully that was the explanation, and now we’ll start putting the pedal to the metal.

I think this week went well. I certainly liked it much better than the stand-alones they had pre-break. Maybe it was the lack of Cora, almost no Regina, Charmings fighting crime and Jorge Garcia being awesome? All a part of it. Plus we learned Charming’s real name!

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Guys, I apologize for last week. I don’t know what happened. Let’s just say I crossed the town line and forgot my identity and it was just bad news all around. But this is here! For a recap! Before another 3 week hiatus! Yeah!

Ok, I’ll be honest. For some reason last week’s episode and I didn’t get along. We met and I wanted to care and I really made an effort and then I just thought it was boring and started resenting it. You know, as you do with tv shows.

This week was much better though. First off, it was Jane Espenson written, which is always good. I think the dialogue in this episode was wittier than it’s been in a while. There was violence, and Ethan Embry and a Star Wars shout-out. There was a blow to one ship and a spark of another. And part of it was in black and white (ish)! Plus, if you’ve read Frankenstein you’ll feel super smart.

(Fair warning: this edition is more of a gif-cap, so make sure to let it have its time to load).

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We’re back! With a pretty depressing episode. Narrowly avoided executions, total lack of remorse for evilness, the (apparent) death of one of the nicest characters on the show and the total destruction of Regina’s hope. At least we got Emma being magic,  and Archie isn’t actually dead!

The Enchanted Land stuff fills in more of the lines of Charming and Snow taking back the kingdom from George and Regina, right up to the (Pilot) wedding, and the reason why Regina had to result to The Curse to take down Snow. Still waiting to find out what happened in the time between Snow and Charming’s real first wedding in 2×03 and their victory over George.

The Storybrooke storyline was mostly about tying the first half of the season to the second half; this was the bridge between the two. But bridges aren’t exactly the most exciting. Still, Cora and Hook are town, and they are here to fuck some shit up.

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(First of all, I’m sorry this is so late. I was doing battle with some wicked finals. I would rather face Cora and Hook any day of the week.)

But this episode! Winter finale! Queen of Hearts! True Love’s Kiss! Swordfights! Swordfight innuendo! Emma is straight-up MAGIC!

At first watching most of this seemed sort of predictable; the speculation of Cora being the Queen of Hearts was correct, Regina and Rumple were Regina and Rumple, we finally resolved the separate present-day plot-lines (hopefully), there was a nice happy-ish ending and a good cliffhanger.

However, after a few re-watches, I appreciate this one more, because it really took the mother-daughter (and son, in Henry’s case) theme that has been brewing all season thus far and made it front and center. We saw so many different facets of those relationships, how some grow, others decay, continuously shifting and changing and always, always complicated. I’m especially excited to see how they continue to explore these dynamics in the next part of the season.

But first, le recap!

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Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s back to real life we go. I guess it’s funny, because this episode was all about sleep? I hope everyone had a good weekend, whether it was a holiday for you are not, but now we’re back in it for the home stretch (I apoligize for the lateness of this; it’s hell week for me). Next week is the winter finale, and this penultimate episode was mostly about getting things in line to have a really epic finale next week.

One interesting thing about this episode: it’s the first time we haven’t had any flashbacks (I think). We just went back and forth between worlds in the present time period. Really it does show that now we’ve hit on a little bit of backstory for everyone, it’s not really a priority to go back and fill in the blanks in between points right now. I do hope (and suspect) that there won’t be too many times we eschew the flashbacks; I like learning more about the past (and there’s definitely a lot more to learn).

We still got some nice things here though: some more Hook, a great Team Princess fight scene, Fake!Aurora actually being awesome for once, a bittersweet Charming/Snow reunion and magic squid ink.

Also, zombies!

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“I choose me.”

Okay, I’m of two minds about “Child of the Moon”. I don’t think it was great (the best of this season so far, IMO, have been the the season premiere, 2×03 and last week’s “Tallahassee”) mostly because both the storylines were incredibly, mind-numbingly predictable. On the other hand, it did win back some points with its showcasing the importance of lady friendships in both realms, which I am always happy about, because there are never enough good lady BFFs on tv (and when there are, they don’t bother to spend any time developing them).

And even though it wasn’t the most original backstory for her to have, I’m always down for more Red because they made the (right) choice in making her the wolf. It’s the Red Riding Hood twist I have always wanted to see and Once did it, which means I will always have a soft spot for her. Plus, look at Megan Ory’s face! It’s great.

So, good and bad, and we’ll get to talk about a little social psychology stuff as well, since the theme of the episode had all sorts to do with social perception and internalized stigma and all sorts of things like that. But there’s gifs to distract you from thinking, so don’t even worry!

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I don’t know if it was the fact that the last few episode have been more on the mediocre side, or if I was so devastated by another Sunday night show that this was a relief in comparison, or if it was the Lost guest star, but I loved “Tallahassee”. We finally got Emma’s backstory, and we got some nice character development (plus more world-building), and then a total whammo of an ending.

Okay, I’ll admit it: I was sucked in by Hook. I’m just going to ignore how much I really disliked his introduction episode and focus on present-day Hook, who is sassy and snarky and flirty and great. He really is a perfect mix of a dash Jack Sparrow and a pinch of Spike from Buffy, all played beautifully by the beautiful Colin O’Donoghue. Plus, his chemistry with Emma! I can’t wait until he catches up with them all again.

I also appreciate the fact that they have decided to not return to the triple plot/timeline format of episode 2×03, which is just complicated to watch and to recap. So let’s get on with it. Oh, and lots of Hook in this episode = lots of gifs, so give this one a minute or two to load so you can really enjoy all the lovelies.

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“As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.”
“But I still want one.”

Y’all, I don’t know exactly what to do with this episode. I’ve thought about it a lot, enough to make my brain hurt. Weirdly though, it wasn’t a favorite of mine; it’s probably my least favorite so far of this season (which actually fits with last season, since 1×05 ”That Still Small Voice” – Jiminy’s episode – was equally as ‘meh’ for me).

The significant aspect of the episode was that they finally revealed the Enchanted Land (or non-Storybrooke) identity of the doctor we’ve known as Whale. If I’m not mistaken, he’s the last major Storybrooke character to be revealed, which to me is both good and bad. On one hand, his reveal has been dragged out much further than was probably necessary, so I’m glad they finally got to it. However, unless we introduce more Storybrooke townspeople, we don’t have any more mystery or intrigue on that front. (I’ll expand more on this after the recap portion.)

On the surface it’s actually fairly straight-forward, plot-wise in Storybrooke. However, there was a lot of subtle things that made the waters murky on the Enchanted Land side. Still, fun episode for Halloween weekend, plus the teeing up of what looks to be a knockout episode next week.

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(It was incredibly difficult to choose which gif to lead with, because there was an amazing Charming one. He won out because he’s new, but trust, the good Charming one is after the jump).

This makes four for four, in terms of Season 2 mirroring Season 1. In 1×04, we got introduced to a new character, one from a classic Disney film, whose mythology is radically changed/influenced by Rumple in this canon. Is that too general? I am making too much of a leap with these? I don’t know, to me it does feel similar. (Maybe that means we might finally get a Pin appearance next week, since 1×05 was Jiminy’s backstory?)

“The Crocodile” wasn’t particularly earth-shattering; in fact, it was pretty damn predictable (did anyone not already know that Killian was/would be Hook?). In review, I would say the more interesting parts had to do with Belle’s plot in Storybrooke.

Thankfully, we kept to just two time periods/locations for the majority of the episode, which makes things way less complicated, so no color-coding needed (I didn’t get any feedback on that in the last post, but please still let me know if it’s helpful or unnecessary, since I predict we’ll be going back to the triple-plot episodes in the future). But for now, to set sail for the recap! Avast, ahoy, and all that jazz!

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Oh, man. I’m having so many complicated Disney feels today. I’m really glad I get to re-watch this episode and recap it and dwell in all the happy, lovely moments between Snow and Charming. I mean, really, just that gif. It’s like puppies and kittens and sunshine and happiness.

As if you couldn’t tell, this third episode centered on more Snow/Charming backstory, which continues the theme of this season mirroring the first. In 1×03, “Snow Falls”, we saw Snow and Charming’s first meeting, and here in “Lady of the Lake” we see them working as a couple, a team (and also being really frakking cute). Of course there was some sad as well, and a killer ending, but I’m going to focus on the happy. Mondays can always use a little extra happy.

Also, I’m going to try something out on this one, and you tell me how you like it. This episode in particular jumps around between three different space/time plot-lines, and with two in the Enchanted Land I feel like it’s confusing, so I thought maybe some color coding might help? The key is after the jump. Or maybe you all are way smart and it’s not necessary. We’ll see.

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